Bonus: The Modern Crossword - April 29, 2023

Bonus Blog Post! Sally's Take on the Modern

Here's a little something different. Today I've blogged not only about the USA Today puzzle, but have also written about The Modern Crossword. As you may be aware, The Modern Crossword is a fairly recent offering from the folks at The Puzzle Society. The Modern starts out as a mini on Monday, and increases in size throughout the week. Since it's Saturday, today's puzzle is a full-size grid. Actually, at 16x15, it's a tad bit bigger than a standard grid. Note: This write-up is designed to be read after solving, so if you haven't solved The Modern Crossword today, go do that before reading on.

A couple of fun features about The Modern Crossword are alternate clues and in-grid constructor notes. While solving, clues that have alternate clues available are indicated by a lightbulb icon next to the clue number. Clicking on the lightbulb will give you the alternate clue. After solving, some answers in the grid may have a triangle mark in the corner. When these answers are clicked on, constructor comments about that particular clue or answer pops onto the screen.

Title: MOVING RIGHT ALONG...

Constructor: Brooke Husic

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Theme Answers: 

RASPBERRY SCUFFLE (18A: Fisticuffs at the fruit stand?)

LAST IN FIRST CUT (28A: Barbershop policy that's frustrating for early birds?)

CINCINNATI CHIC (47A: Aesthetic featuring Bengals jerseys and Reds caps?)

Revealer: NOTHING TO SEE HERE (63A: Phrase said while hiding something suspicious... and a phonetic hint to three answers in this puzzle)

Theme synopsis: Each of the theme answers takes a phrase and changes the Os in the phrase to Cs, to comedic effect.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• RASPBERRY SCUFFLE (18A: Fisticuffs at the fruit stand?) In this theme answer, changing the O in "raspberry soufflé" to a C results in a RASPBERRY SCUFFLE.
• STAR (24A: ___ Baker ("The Great British Bake Off" honor)) Alt clue (Lead in a film) As a fan of The Great British Bake Off, I enjoyed this clue, and didn't need the alternate clue. For those that haven't seen the show, it's nice to have another way to finding the answer.
• LAST IN FIRST CUT (28A: Barbershop policy that's frustrating for early birds?) Here, changing the O to a C in the phrase "last in first out" results in LAST IN FIRST CUT.
• AMES (34A: College town on I-35) As an Iowan, I know that I-35 is a north and south route that runs through Iowa on its route from Texas to Minnesota. Since my son attended Iowa State University in AMES, Iowa, I am familiar with the section of I-35 that leads to this particular college town. 
• ENRICO (43A: Ballet great Cecchetti) Alt clue (Name that anagrams to "Corine") ENRICO Cecchetti (1850-1928) was an Italian dancer who founded the style of ballet training known as the Cecchetti method. I was not familiar with ENRICO Cecchetti, but I was able to use the alternate clue to figure out this answer.
• CINCINNATI CHIC (47A: Aesthetic featuring Bengals jerseys and Reds caps?) In this theme answer, changing the two Os to Cs transforms the town of "Cincinnati, Ohio" to CINCINNATI CHIC. The CINCINNATI Bengals are an NFL team, and the CINCINNATI Reds are an MLB team.
• Brooke's note: This is my favorite theme answer.
• NOTHING TO SEE HERE (63A: Phrase said while hiding something suspicious... and a phonetic hint to three answers in this puzzle) This answer is the revealer; it explains what is happening with this puzzle's theme. The NOTHING points to the letter O, which resembles a zero. SEE is a homophone of the letter C. Therefore, in the theme answers, we see the letter O changing to the letter C. Not all crosswords feature a title, and opinions are varied on whether crossword titles are helpful or necessary. Personally, I like titles. Sometimes, as is the case in the majority of USA Today puzzles (my regular blogging gig), the title serves as the revealer. When the puzzle features a revealer, as this puzzle does, the title may be another example of the theme, a description of the puzzle's vibe, or, a nod to the revealer. In this case, MOVING RIGHT ALONG... is a nod to NOTHING TO SEE HERE.
• TRIX (70A: -ess relative) Alt clue (Cereal brand with a rabbit mascot) Both -ess and -TRIX are suffixes used to indicate something that is female. Nothing immediately came to mind when I first read the clue, so I found the alternate clue helpful here.
• HARI (1D: "The Problem with Apu" documentarian Kondabolu) The Problem with Apu is HARI Kondabolu's 2017 documentary focusing on the The Simpsons' character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. The film explores negative stereotypes of people of Indian and South Asian heritage. 
• POST (3D: Low ___ (zone close to the basketball hoop)) Alt clue (Put on Instagram) Those of you familiar with my blog are aware that "(Almost) everything I know about sports I learned from crossword puzzles." Therefore, you will not be surprised that I needed the help of the alternate clue to figure out this answer.
• HSU ("Everything Everywhere All at Once" star Stephanie) Everything Everywhere All At Once is a 2022 movie in which the main character - Evelyn (played by Michelle Yeoh) - experiences versions of herself in multiple universes. Stephanie HSU portrays Joy, Evelyn's daughter.
• Brooke's note: I adore this movie.
• LOFT (12D: Living up?) Alt clue (Apartment that might have high ceilings) When you see a question mark in a clue, it alerts you there is some sort of tricky wordplay happening. This is a fun question mark clue, but it wasn't quite clicking with me when I first read it. The alternate clue helped immensely.
• LOLA (13D: "Run ___ Run" (1998 cult film)) Run LOLA Run is a German film about a woman who needs to obtain 100,000 Deutschmarks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life. The film features several time loops, with the characters experiencing the same events multiple times with different outcomes.
• Brooke's note: Also a great movie.
• ETAT (19D: Virginie de l'ouest, par example) ETAT is the French word for state. "Virginie de l'ouest" is French for West Virginia.
• LEARN (28D: Get down) Alt clue (Pick up) Confession: When I solve the Modern Crossword, I always look at the alternate clues, even if I don't need the help figuring out the answer. I like clues and I don't want to feel as if I'm missing out on anything! In this case, I like the down/up contrast in the two clues.
• CUBIC (31D: Like a function whose derivative is quadratic) Alt clue (___ feet (unit in volume)) Nice to have an alternate clue here for solver whose eyes glaze over when math is mentioned! I happen to like math, but it's also been quite some time since I've studied calculus.
• WIKIHOW (46D: Its article on finishing crossword puzzles says "Fill-in-the-blank clues are generally the easiest") This is a great clue! The WIKIHOW article on finishing crossword puzzles also advises "Review the puzzle when you're done to make sure you haven't made any mistakes." I found this particular WIKIHOW article amusing to read. It encourages, "Spend a long time thinking about the 'theme' clues," adding "if the theme clues are based on famous crossword puzzlers and you do not know much about it, look up 'crosswords' on Wikipedia."
• CREE (49D: One of three languages on some Quebec stop signs) In Quebec, stop signs may read "STOP" (English) or "ARRÊT" (French) or "ᒕᐽ။ᒗ," (CREE) or some combination of those three words. 
• HELENA (50D: Northernmost state capital along the Missouri River) Alt clue (Capital of Montana) Geography is not my strong suit, so I welcome the help of additional clues to figure out such answers. I happen to remember the capital of Montana, because last fall on a trip out west, my husband and I had to take a detour to HELENA to get a chip in our windshield repaired. 

It's extremely clever to take the phrase NOTHING TO SEE HERE and transform it into an O to C theme, and I really like this theme. I enjoyed the wackiness of the theme answers. I definitely learned a few things from solving this puzzle, such as the fact that Mt. ETNA is multiple nesting volcanoes. Great clueing throughout the puzzle, no surprise from a crossword with a Brooke Husic byline, edited by Amanda Rafkin. Thank you, Brooke, for this delightful puzzle.

I have been solving the Modern Crossword most days since it started. I'm a fan of the alternate clues, and the constructor's notes at the end. I also find the increase in the size of the puzzle as the week progresses interesting. (As a Lil AVC X editor, I appreciate a good midi puzzle!) I hope you've enjoyed "Sally's Take on the Modern." I don't plan on blogging about the Modern Crossword on a daily basis - there's only so much time in the day! - but it was a treat to take an in depth look at this puzzle. And who knows, if readers are interested, I might do it again! As a reminder, you can find The Modern Crosswords on The Puzzle Society website. You'll also find other puzzles there, not only crosswords. I recommend checking out Squared Away, a new puzzle I've found delightful. Until next time, you can always find me blogging about the USA Today crossword. 

But wait, there's more! When I mentioned to Brooke that I was going to blog about today's Modern Crossword, she was kind enough to send me some additional constructor notes. I always enjoy reading what went into the making of a puzzle. Enjoy this "peek behind the curtain!"

Brooke says: i was recently having a conversation with newer solvers who were interested in the behind-the-scenes of how a puzzle comes to be, so with that in mind here are some notes about how i made this puzzle.
first, i thought of the revealer. usually, i prefer to "retro-build" themes, especially for the USA today. i think of a phrase i want in a grid, such as BERLIN MARATHON, and try to come up with a title or revealer that justifies that answer's inclusion in a theme. in this case i believe i heard the phrase "nothing to see here" in passing or in a conversation and i had one of those (rare, for me!) moments where i realized the phrase might lend itself to wordplay -- that something representing "nothing," such as the letter O, might lend itself to being swapped out for something representing "see," such as the letter C, thereby transforming existing phrases into to fun/weird/imagined phrases.
next i used a combination of python code and adam aaronson's awesome wordlisted tool to search for words that become other words when all their O's are replaced with C's. this is a pretty small set, because O is a vowel and C is a consonant. my favorite transformation that i found was OHIO to CHIC, because (1) it transforms two O's, (2) the transforming word is a proper noun, and (3) i thought the possibilities for theme answers would be really fun.
while the previous component of theme creation was automated, the next part was manual and involved more discretion. i thought of/looked for a symmetric set of phrases each containing one of my C --> O transform words that were plausible enough that i could write a fun clue for them. i limited myself to having no C's in the non-transforming part of the phrase, which was really restrictive! for example, RASPBERRY SOUFFLE was eligible for transformation to RASPBERRY SCUFFLE, but CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE wasn't, because CHCCCLATE SCUFFLE doesn't mean anything and CHOCOLATE SCUFFLE has some O's that don't become C's. a phrase that i found but didn't use that i thought was fun was MAGNUM CPUS, and i had hoped to do something with BOO --> BCC but didn't find any theme phrase that seemed plausible.
after deciding on my theme set, i had to make the grid at least 16 wide because the revealer has 16 characters. i'm not as used to making 16x15 grids as i am to making 15x15 grids so i'm not as familiar with the possible layouts for given theme answer lengths. this one was tricky, but i'm happy with how it turned out, although i didn't get to incorporate too many "bonus" long down answers. i also made the decision not to restrict O's from the non-theme answers in the grid -- this would've been tricky, and i don't think the payoff for the solver (if they even noticed!) would've been high.
i always love writing clues, and amanda let me know that she thought this would run at the end of the month and therefore should have tricky clues, so i had fun thinking of clues for answers such as DONOR, HIRE, INFANTS, LOFT, and SEX. i also appreciated putting my voice and interests into a bunch of clues such as ELSA, HILLS, STAR, POST, LOLA, and LONDON. i did a mt. ETNA hike when i was in sicily last september and enjoyed getting to include a fact i learned from the tour guide in this puzzle!
i hope this is interesting to you, and hope even more so that you enjoyed the puzzle! i'm excited to read sally's write-up and hope to see more modern write-ups. :)