I’m proud to share two special announcements on my blog. The first is a puzzle milestone: Today’s crossword is the 400th puzzle published in The Washington Post since I began writing for it in December 2015. I can scarcely imagine how many clues that is, and it’s an even larger number if you include the number of clues I wrote but later edited out, but either way it’s a lot. Before my first Sunday puzzle appeared in The Post, I think I had written maybe 12 Sunday-size crosswords in my life, only one of which was ever published in a mainstream newspaper. So it makes me happy to remember just how long I’ve been at this, and I hope to keep at it for a very long time.
The other announcement is much larger and more personal to me:
My wife, Vicki, and I are expecting our first child in early November. We’re both excited and nervous as I imagine is completely normal for expecting parents.
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What does it mean for my crosswords? What I can share right now is that beginning in November, I will be taking a break from writing puzzles for The Post for about two months. In that time, however, The Post will be publishing a slate of crosswords from a set of guest constructors to be revealed later. I’ve already begun editing them, and I’m excited by how they’re turning out. I don’t imagine I will be getting a ton of sleep by January, but hopefully by then we’ll have settled into more of a routine such that I’ll be able to get back into writing puzzles on a normal schedule. There’s no amount of planning that can prepare me for the experience of being a parent, though, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I expect the experience of raising a child might inspire many ideas for puzzles that I hadn’t considered previously.
Share this articleShareSo with that, let’s get into today’s puzzle, No. 400 of my tenure.
Four pairs of Down theme answers feature a circled word meaning “friend” next to another circled word meaning “road.”
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- 3D: [Question asked by someone in a dilemma] is “WHAT AM I GONNA DO?” with a circled AMIGO, next to 23D: [Grew quickly], which is SPROUTED UP with a circled ROUTE.
- 32D: [It’s a shore thing] is BEACH UMBRELLA with a circled CHUM, next to 39D: [Northern Italian dialect], which is MILANESE with a circled LANE.
- 40D: ["Honest!"] is “NO, REALLY!” with a circled ALLY, next to 34D: [Where you’ll find an anchor], which is NEWS BROADCAST with a circled ROAD.
- 26D: [In a spirited manner] is ANIMATEDLY with a circled MATE, next to 13D: [Study of conditions affecting the brain], which is NEUROPATHOLOGY with a circled PATH.
All of these friend/road pairs are explained by the revealer THE FRIENDS WE MADE ALONG / THE / WAY, which is split into three pieces at 122A/126A/127A: [With 126/127 Across, companions on our life’s journey who were more valuable to us than our destination … and an alternate title for this puzzle].
You may have seen that phrase come up in various humorous social media posts over the years, perhaps most commonly stated as “Maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way,” although you can replace “treasure” in that sentence with anything of interest to you. You could say the phrase sarcastically depending on whatever that interest is, but in a more positive light, the spirit behind the phrase is that the journey is more important than the destination — that the experience of pursuing a goal and the people you meet while doing it are more valuable to you than whatever the ultimate goal was. I think that’s a nice sentiment to carry with me as I write another 400, 800, or however many crosswords while I embark on living life as a father.
As always, thanks for solving my puzzles and let’s keep on enjoying the journey together.
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