Seth Geltman author page
2 puzzles by Seth Geltman
with Constructor comments
| Total | Debut | Latest | Collabs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 12/21/2016 | 5/29/2017 | 2 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Scrab | Debut | Fresh |
|---|---|---|
| 1.68 | 10 | 78% |
See the 10 answer words debuted by Seth Geltman.
| C | B | S | J | O | N | I | E | N | T | I | R | E | |||
| A | L | E | B | A | R | A | K | L | O | O | N | E | Y | ||
| G | O | L | D | E | N | A | G | E | S | C | Y | T | H | E | |
| I | N | F | I | D | E | L | S | K | I | A | H | E | D | ||
| E | D | I | T | H | B | A | N | N | E | R | Y | E | A | R | |
| R | E | E | S | E | S | T | E | A | B | O | W | T | O | ||
| A | U | G | A | V | G | G | A | S | P | ||||||
| R | E | D | L | E | T | T | E | R | D | A | Y | ||||
| M | A | U | I | K | I | R | S | A | O | ||||||
| U | M | B | R | A | S | I | B | D | O | G | M | A | S | ||
| F | I | N | E | S | T | H | O | U | R | D | R | A | K | E | |
| F | R | O | C | I | A | M | A | I | L | I | T | I | N | ||
| L | I | S | P | E | D | P | R | I | M | E | T | I | M | E | |
| E | T | E | R | N | E | C | A | S | A | S | N | B | C | ||
| R | E | S | E | T | S | S | P | E | X | G | O | A |
SETH: Jeff and I have collaborated since 2014, and it's great fun. For this one, we wrote around 150 emails, some of which read like an absurdist script...
Seth: PITINO and RAISA seem fair, but the AKIMBO, SENECA, GRIT, and MATING goodness of Version C gets my vote.... Maybe, for a themer... BEST DAY EVER?
Jeff: Hmm, maybe a reach. I'm not a SpongeBob watcher though.
Our original plan was to make the units of time narrow down to an AHA MOMENT. Couldn't quite make that work.
Hope your solving time isn't a dog's age on this … and thanks, Will and Joel!
JEFF: Ah, Seth, that sneaky devil. He keeps changing the order of our names just before submitting the puzzle to Will! He deserves first authorship on this one.
Seth is a brainstorming monster. I love getting his emails, usually loaded with 10+ ideas to consider. They don't always contain a usable seed idea, but more often than not, something sparks another thought, and it morphs into something fun.
For this one, it took us a while to zero in on the idea of PRIME TIME being "synonym for good" + "time duration," but I thought it would be great … if we could 1.) get all strong phrases, 2.) have crossword symmetry, and 3.) present them in a logical sequence.
Some constructors would still do the puzzle without the third constraint, but I felt like it'd be too inelegant for my taste without that. It meant we had to do a ton of research. Luckily, another of Seth's strengths is his tenacity in research. Soon, he had a gigantic list of possibilities for us to sift through.
RED LETTER DAY made the construction challenging though — not only did it require a 16-wide grid, but it sort of cut the puzzle in half. Took a lot of trial and error, testing and ditching layout after layout. Finally, I felt like the skeleton you see was promising — enough room for some long bonuses, while not looking problematic in any one area — and Seth took over from there.
We always have a lot of fun going back and forth, comparing possibilities for various regions (although I can't remember how SpongeBob was related now). In the SE for example, I badly wanted to work in DOUBLE O (as in double-O 7), but DOODLES made that area much smoother. Ah well, the solver comes first.
| B | A | T | S | D | R | J | S | T | A | T | S | |||
| A | S | H | E | R | E | O | U | S | U | R | P | S | ||
| T | H | E | C | L | I | N | K | M | A | R | I | E | L | |
| H | A | S | A | V | E | E | N | O | I | N | C | A | ||
| O | N | E | N | E | W | Y | O | R | K | C | I | T | Y | |
| I | T | U | N | E | S | M | I | A | T | R | E | |||
| L | I | S | A | A | G | O | N | Y | Y | E | R | |||
| H | A | M | B | U | R | G | E | R | ||||||
| M | A | D | R | O | U | T | E | A | T | M | S | |||
| A | P | E | O | P | T | W | W | E | R | A | W | |||
| G | R | A | N | D | P | O | O | B | A | H | E | L | I | |
| N | O | T | E | E | N | R | A | G | E | M | A | G | ||
| U | P | H | E | L | D | T | H | I | N | K | B | I | G | |
| M | O | L | D | A | U | I | A | N | E | L | S | E | ||
| S | Y | S | O | P | Z | I | G | W | E | E | D |
SETH: Hi there. Hope you enjoyed the solve.
My father introduced me to crosswords. Through puzzles, we found a unique connection — and we both admired Jeff's work. It was great, talking with my dad about gems like Cut Above the Rest from 2013.
When he died in 2014, I wrote Will a thank-you note. I told him that, for my dad and I, "exchanges about puzzles became our own secret language. Even non-puzzle conversations sometimes took on the best qualities of the solving experience — oblique, compelling, full of understated humor and unexpected harmonies."
I was a new reader of XWord Info, and asked Jeff if he'd consider passing the note on to Will. He did — and, with an incredible generosity of spirit, suggested that we collaborate on a puzzle in my father's honor.
Brad Wilber published that one in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Since then, Jeff and I have made about a dozen more. One more's on tap for the Times, two ran in the Wall Street Journal, several in the Orange County Register, one in the American Values Club... and a couple misfires currently kick around the crossword dead-letter office.
Working with Jeff is such a delight. In the Pro-Am circuit of puzzles, he's definitely the Pro, and I'm the Am.
I work as a Computer Teacher for grades 2 - 8. This lets me pass puzzling on to the next generation. For class warmups, kids solve puzzles I make from their vocabulary lists.
Many, many thanks to Will and Joel.