NYT Theme Entry

[Raymond Hansen]

Hello all,

I'm working out a theme, for a NYT submission, and one of the entries would involve White House advisor Hope Hicks. I feel like she is in the news enough to count as a viable entry, but she is also closely associated with Trump and she is demonized by the left. I also know the NYT reader, and crossword solver, tend to be more left-leaning, and I have read blogs in which the inclusion of a Trump associate in the NYT crossword is frowned upon (i.e., is too controversial, or too unpleasant, for the "fun" aspect of crosswords). Any thoughts on if "Hope Hicks" would be a viable theme entry for the NYT?

[mmcbs]

The traditional advice on questions of this nature is, if you have to ask, the answer is probably no. My general rule on using names of political figures is to clue them in a way that does not invite anger from solvers who do not have a high opinion of them. One thing you might do to gauge the viability of such an entry would be to search on xwordinfo.com for entries that are the names of other Trump associates to see if they have been used and how they were clued.

[Raymond Hansen]

Thanks for the insight!

[Wheels12]

I would steer clear of using Hope Hicks for a different reason. Best case scenario, you're at least a year away from getting the puzzle published in the NYT, simply due to their backlog. Will Hope Hicks be remembered in a year? I really don't think so. There's so much turnover in the Trump administration that a lot of names that were so well known a year or two ago are now in the dustbin of history: Tillerson, Scaramucci, Sarah Sanders, Spicer, etc. What feels fresh when you're constructing could feel very stale in a year.

[Raymond Hansen]

Good point, thanks!

[stephenbishop]

I doubt many people watch the "news" briefs, so she may be less know then you think. I didn't know her name but only understood who you were talking about from context.