Wednesday

After I finished David Kahn's NYT puzzle and went back to reread the theme clues, I said to myself, "Holy sh...!" Yes, we were all duly impressed when Pat Merrell created one of last week's puzzles using only the 15 letters found on the left side of the keyboard. But here Kahn has made a puzzle using just the 10 letters found in A CHRISTMAS CAROL, he's included four 11-letter theme entries in addition to that central 15, and the theme entries interlock. Wow! David Kahn, I raise my glass to you—a glass containing a nice Moscato, from Asti (even though MOSCATO and ASTI didn't find their way into this grid). My guess for what inspired this puzzle is the constructor noticing that MRS CRATCHIT's letters were contained in the book's title. What do you think?

Sadly for Ben Tausig's indie puzzle, "Star Children," and James Kaplan's NYS puzzle, "Risky Business," I did them right after the NYT puzzle. Of course they're both good puzzles, but...the Kahn puzzle exhausted the evening's supply of enthusiasm.

NYS 4:50
Tausig 4:44
NYT 3:41
LAT 3:21
CS 3:16