Having committed to doing themes for the Abecedaria sections, I thought about what would be the most appropriate theme for “B.” Should I include a bunch of big words that didn’t fit into traditional grid designs?
Or how about some Bible-related words or phrases? Those could fill a lot of space.
I could probably do something with things that are usually black-and-white, featuring everything from A Night at the Opera to zebras, and including crosswords, chessboards, and maybe some gentle nod to the history of race relations.
Or I could have a little fun with “bad” words, meaning not words that sometimes get censored, but words or phrases that mean “bad.” I can find over 200 of those without even trying hard. (Though I guess shit and crap do fall into both categories.)
Nice options all, but…I wanted to have fun with big words all the way through the puzzle series. My relationship with mainstream Christianity is a little complicated and might color the experience of a “Bible puzzle.” The Ubercross was about transcending the limits of puzzles, so it felt weird to label crosswords as “black and white” when they don’t have to be (and sometimes aren’t). And I didn’t want to set a precedent for duplicate clues (using “Bad” for dozens of answers) when I was trying to make sure nothing got clued quite the same way twice.
In the end, I was drawn to bar jokes for two reasons. One was crosswords’ tradition of corny humor. Bar jokes are sometimes a bit racier or more violent than what you’ll find in the paper, but that’s what made them feel like fertile soil worth expanding into. The other was a pun based on the structure of crosswords itself. More about that little wrinkle tomorrow. (Image by Ken Gargett.)