# I made a crossword puzzle! Want to try it? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 11, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226 "2011-01-11T16:18:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226/1 "2011-01-11T16:18:53Z")
I thought it might be fun to see what Dopers thought about the crossword puzzle I made. It conforms to New York Times puzzle rules, and I’m told it’s about a Tuesday or Wednesday difficulty. Nothing’s written in stone yet though, so feel free to give me feedback or comments on it! I should also note that I have registered the grid with the copyright office and all that legal stuff. So don’t steal it. But have fun with it and please let me know what you think! [Crossword puzzle](http://www.angelfire.com/music2/bsturiale/crossword.html) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226/2 "2011-01-11T16:42:47Z")
Angelfire?! I thought that went the way of Geocities. Anyway, “registered the grid with the copyright office” - that mean you’re going to sell the Xword? ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226/3 "2011-01-11T17:22:14Z")
I just kept my Angelfire space from a long time ago for reasons such as this… it’s nice to be able to publish things to the web with no hassle, like large video or sound files. I’m planning on submitting the crossword to newspapers, yes. I don’t know if it’s good enough to be published, but it certainly won’t hurt to try. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226/4 "2011-01-11T18:03:07Z")
Not bad, not bad at all. I enjoyed it. I did have one question, though, which I will put in a spoiler box for the sake of anyone who hasn’t done the puzzle yet.What’s the point of the “OLD” in “OLD MELONS”? Is there a meaning to it, or is it just there to make the phrase fit the puzzle? If the former, I didn’t see the logic, and it was enough to keep me from getting 5-Down without Googling. If the latter, it may be enough of a kludge to make the puzzle flawed enough to keep it from being published.Also, my impression is that it’s out of fashion for a crossword to have so many “fill in the blank” type clues, but I could be wrong. Maybe **twickster** will give her professional opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226/5 "2011-01-11T18:28:08Z")
I liked it! Challenging, but not frustrating. Thanks for sharing! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226/6 "2011-01-11T18:55:37Z")
Thanks **Thudlow** and **Chanteuse** , I’m glad you enjoyed it! I see your point about the partials, but to my knowledge it’s okay as long as the answers are 5 letters or less. But I may be able to go back and get rid of some of them, so thanks for the suggestion! Also, I think the “old” works because old people are less likely to elope than young people, that’s all. Maybe I’m stretching it, but it makes sense to me… ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226/7 "2011-01-12T00:06:36Z")
Fill-in-the-blanks are cheesy; avoid if you can. I’ll be honest with you, though, I’m not gonna solve it, so I’m not sure what’s being discussed in the spoiler box. If you’d like my take on it, put both the clue and the answer in a spoiler box. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226/8 "2011-01-14T20:56:34Z")
Fun, thanks for sharing! I’ll admit I double-checked a couple answers with Google and cheated to fill in one or two gaps. 😃 I’ll concur that the answer on 20-across is a bit iffy. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226/9 "2011-01-14T23:23:46Z")
I and my wife did your puzzle. My wife does the NYtimes puzzle and is fairly good at it. First, for the theme answer (I’ll spoiler the question and answer for **twickster** ): Start of a first grade riddle: why do old melons End of the riddle: have big weddings Answer to the riddle: They cantaloupe I agree the _old_ makes no sense. Young melons cantaloupe also. Actually, I missed this answer because I had “why do _all_ melons”, which makes more sense. I’d recommend reworking to use “all” In general, my wife didn’t like it, because many of the clues and answers didn’t really fit together. “Iffy” was the word she used. She felt one or two iffy ones was OK, but not this many. For me, I found a few clues were overly wordy. I’ll spoiler the Qs and As of the iffy and wordy ones: Consume: useup (consume means use, not use up) Go along with: second (second means supporting, not just going along with) character development: arc (you could have a character arc, but arc alone refers more to the plot) enchanted story: tale (tale just means story) patch up: sew (not the same thing) Job seekers aids: degrees (calling degrees “job seeking aids” doesn’t really make sense) Lead in the direction of: guide to (“guide to” implies completion, but “in the direction of” implies not) Last minute shuttle launch decision-makers: aborters (never heard them called this. Wordy clue) Recommending with “for”: vouching (not really the same) Scrawny: lean (not really the same) Some wordy clues. When it was easy to see what to cut, I put the extra part in italics: Herman who had a big adventure _on the big screen_ Colossal chicken processor _and marketer_ Nature Conservancy, Arts in Public Schools, etc. There were some other iffy ones, but dinner’s on the table. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-crossword-puzzle-want-to-try-it/567226/10 "2011-01-15T00:47:17Z")
First spoiler box: yes, make that change. Second spoiler box: your wife’s critiques are good. Do a sentence substitution to see whether your clue is the equivalent of your answer or not – parts of speech, verb tenses, need for prepositions, nuances of meaning, etc.