Factor of Six Crossword BETA
"Midrash" by George Barany (October 2013 and May 2014)
Brent Hartzell and I self-published this ambitious puzzle because, frankly, we were unable to convince several MSM editors to go for it. That said, it has been a highly stimulating journey from which we both learned a great deal. First things first, click here to learn more about the background, both general and puzzlewise, about my amazing co-constructor. While we often come to opposite conclusions on political matters, it is always with a great deal of respect of the decency and competence that informs the others' views. To find common ground, though, we turn to sports: both of us are avid fans, with a special fondness for Gophers and other Minnesota-based teams, and our initial constructive forays all had sports themes [search for Brent's name in this sub-index]. About half a year ago, I suggested we broaden our sights, and I was thrilled when Brent pitched a vowel progression theme based on RH? (? = A, E, I, O, U, and Y, in order). While you see vowel progressions with the main five (A, E, I, O, U) all the time, invariably on Mondays, the number of cases where all six are used are far and few between [I have not searched comprehensively, but a nice example by Alex Boisvert ran in the New York Times on January 24, 2012, and was covered by the usual blogs—click here, here, or here for more discussion and context.] For our purposes, the challenge was to come up with a suitable set of six theme entries that would also satisfy the symmetry constraints and fit into a 15x15 grid. I will spare you the details, some of which are quite technical, and fast forward to the final list that emerged from our joint brainstorming: RHAPSODY_IN_WHITE (15), RHETT_BUTLER (11), RHINO_RECORDS (12), RHODODENDRON (12), RHUBARD_PIES (11), and RHYTHMIC_GYMNAST (15). Be sure to click on the aforementioned links for some reading/listening surprises. Visual hints to all six follow below, and then our dissertation will resume.
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Text text text IUD vs IED, RHAPSODY IN BLUE, SHAMU Sea World story PATBRADY other puzzle DS told us about GB NEEDS TO FINISH WRITING!
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