Typical Day
She didn't quite feel like a super-villain...just as clever as one.
Enigma Gridwell steps out of the shower onto her black and white checkered linoleum, and slips on her favorite sweatshirt, the one with the Riddler on it. She pins her hair up with two sharpened No. 2 pencils and heads for the kitchen. Enigma likes to wake up early, so she has time to plot some puzzles before work.
While she's waiting for her bread to toast, she fiddles with the Scrabble magnets on her fridge. Prognosticate...that's a good one. It takes her a minute of searching for a second "l" to complete "magic eight ball," and by then it's time for breakfast.
As she munches, she browses her inbox, and sees a new email from Ed Ditter, who manages the crossword for News Now Gazetteews.
"Hi, Enigma. Another good one, I can definitely use it after you make the attached alterations. Please change 13 across, though. 'Scarlett O'Hara' is too commonly used."
After a happy dance, Enigma opens the puzzle in her crossword editing program and starts tweaking her puzzle. This isn't copy and paste work...the whole framework must be adjusted to include another answer. Making it the same length as the old answer will help, but then she must make sure other answers stay intact. She may have to throw out fill words or completely change part of the puzzle.
Enigma is really proud of this crossword's theme, which is centered around names containing colors. She came up with the idea after reading The Fault in Our Stars, which left her blowing her nose and racking her brains for a way to include John Green's name in a crossword. Then it was a matter of digging up other colorful theme entries. Brian Austin Green was out, since she had already used that word, but there was Eddie Redmayne, Amber Heard, and of course, Pink. Enigma made the decision to include fictional names, too, since that opened up a whole new spectrum. Sirius Black was a fun one—Enigma has read all the Harry Potter books three times. She hadn't been sure whether Ed would like Rainbow Brite but he accepted it.
Now...what to do for Scarlett O'Hara? A few Google searches for "characters with colors in their names" don't bring anything up. That would be too easy, she supposes. Enigma tries another strategy: searching for "characters with the name..." and filling in colors she hasn't used.
And she apparently also takes up too much room on floating plank to save the love of her life.
Rose from the movie Titanic has a color name, but does anybody really know that the rest of her name is DeWitt Bukater? That name takes up too many characters, anyway. Enigma removes one of her hair pencils and starts idly scratching a list of colors: lilac, orange, emerald, chartreuse, lime...none of these even sound like names. Enigma wonders if there are any other characters out there named Scarlett. There is Miss Scarlet, from the Clue board game. Too short. But hang on, aren't the other characters in Clue named after colors as well? Enigma quickly pulls up a list of the game characters. Colonel Mustard is a bit too long. But Professor Plum? S-c-a-r-l-e-t-t-o-h-a-r-a, and p-r-o-f-e-s-s-o-r-p-l-u-m are both thirteen letters...perfect.
Enigma writes down the new answer and circles it, and then hurries off to get ready for her job. It would be so cool if she could write crosswords all day. Then again, she'd probably become a total hermit if she did that. At least work forces her to leave the house and interact with other human beings.
When she gets back from work, Enigma throws a frozen lasagna in the oven and sits back down with the Gazette puzzle. "Professor Plum" is a great entry, lots of vowels and common letters. She opens her program and deletes the spaces for Scarlett O'Hara. Next, she deletes any fill words which were affected by the change, and types "Professor Plum" into the old spot. She runs a software check to populate the fill words. Sponge, popcorn, ooh, rappel. That wouldn't have worked with Scarlett. She manages to find suitable fillers so she doesn't have to reorganize her black spaces—phew.
Enigma raises her head and sniffs—uh-oh, the lasagna is burning. Looks like she fell into what her friends call her "Crossword Cave," and didn't hear the timer. Fortunately, her dinner is only a little singed. She leaves the pan out to cool, and goes back to make sure she saved her progress on the laptop. Everything looks good, and she settles down to eat before doing her final fact check. She'll never forget the response an editor sent for her clue about the capital of Alaska: "I was unaware that Roman Goddesses populated such chilly climates." A quick search confirmed that it was, of course, "Juneau," and not "Juno." How embarrassing. Now Enigma makes sure all of her answers are confirmed by reputable web sites or her dictionary before submitting them.
After dinner, Enigma sends Ed her completed masterpiece. She notices a new email from Chris Quill, the creator of quillcrosswords.com. Chris was Enigma's mentor for a while, and he sometimes asks her to write theme puzzles for his customers.
"Greetings, Enigma! Tupperware World just requested a custom crossword for their annual conference. Can you make it happen? They would like you to include these words: Airtight, Microwavable, Burping, BPA-free, Earl Silas Tupper, Stackable, and a list of employee names (see the attachment). Do you choose to accept the mission? You can email the training coordinator to get background information for the clues. Pay is $300, as usual. –C.Q."
Enigma writes back, "I'm in. Let's 'seal' the deal. I'll send it over around the end of next week." She starts a new grid, and adds all of the Tupperware words. She shoots off an email to Tupperware World, asking for some employee trivia she can use for clues. Then, she turns off her laptop and stretches out on the couch with a book. Even a hard-working gal like Enigma needs a little time to relax.