How Simone Biles Gave One Crossword a Perfect Title

Have you done this week's crosswords?

Manage newsletters The Daily Beast Crossword is where power, pop culture, and politics intersect—quite literally.   Designed to be more challenging throughout the week, you can test your knowledge with five puzzles each week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. Play This Week's Puzzles Get in the Game With Matt Gaffney A good crossword puzzle title is like a good dessert; when the solver finally sees the clever connection between a puzzle's title and theme, it finishes their experience on a positive note. So it won't surprise you to learn that crossword writers expend considerable energy on titles.    Last Wednesday, I lucked out: I didn't have a title idea going in, but once I was finished, a perfect one presented itself. Love it when that happens!   Simone Biles had just won her seventh U.S. gymnastics all-around championship, so I figured that'd be a nice theme idea. One problem: our Daily Beast puzzle grids are 10x10, and SIMONE BILES is 11 letters. Could've chopped her name up into 5- and 6-letter entries, but that's not as aesthetically pleasing, so I looked for another way.    GYMNASTICS was 10 letters, I saw, ideal for our grid, so now I needed another 10-letter entry to offset it symmetrically. Reading reports of her victory, I came across a quote she'd given to the press after her win: "It's so crazy because in training I never go out of bounds and I never have this much power. But with the adrenaline, that's where it comes."    ADRENALINE is the key word in that intriguing quote, and hey -- it's 10 letters, too. I liked the offbeat aspect of using a word pulled from a quote like that, so GYMNASTICS and ADRENALINE went into the grid. I filled the puzzle in with shorter entries, typed the clues up, and was happy with the result. But then -- oops! No title. Forgot about that...   Began to search around, and the Crossword Gods happened to be in a good mood that day. In their infinite mercy and grace, they delivered unto me the perfect title for a puzzle built around a Simone Biles quote:   "Simone Says"   If crossword titles were gymnastics, the judges would've given that one a 10 and I'd be on a Wheaties box soon thereafter.   Any crossword titles make you smile or frown? Let me know by tweeting at #beastxword and I'll forward your note to the Crossword Gods. Play This Week's Puzzles © Copyright 2021 The Daily Beast Company LLC  555 W. 18th Street, New York NY 10011  Privacy Policy If you are on a mobile device or cannot view the images in this message, click here to view this email in your browser. To ensure delivery of these emails, please add emails@thedailybeast.com to your address book. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, or think you have received this message in error, you can safely unsubscribe.