Interview with Pancho Harrison

Pancho Harrison officially ushered us into the Rich Norris era 9 days ago.

His puzzles have appeared in LA Times, NY Times, NY Sun, Wall Street Journal and maybe some other newspapers/magazines that I am not aware of.

Today is only our second Harrison puzzle, but I am confident that we will see more of his creations in the future. Let's get to know him a bit.

Your name intrigued a few solvers on March 23 when your "Numeral Prefixes" puzzle appeared. What is your background and how did you develop an interest in crossword constructing?

I'm a musician, and was in jail for a short time for a traffic offense. I started doing crosswords in the newspapers that were lying around. I discovered that I was good at them, and got to wondering who was writing them. When I got out, I did some research and found a mentor to help me, and an editor who saw that I understood the basics. The rest is history.

How would you describe your puzzle style? What kind of themes/fills fascinate you?

Wordplay is my thing. I sell many different kinds of themes, but my forte is the pun.

Is it tougher to design a grid or cluing entries? And why?

Designing a grid is fun, usually. Cluing is more like data entry.

What puzzles do you solve every day? And which constructor's work gives you the most trouble?

When I have time, I do the NY Times in the local paper. On Fridays, I check out the Wall Street Journal and the Chronicle of Higher Education puzzles. As far as which constructor's work gives me the most trouble, I would have to say that I'm not looking for trouble! I'm looking for a challenging, rewarding crossword experience. The puzzles that bug me are the themeless Friday and Saturday puzzles that are just ego-projects for the constructor/editor. For me, they're just a waste of time. I have never written a themeless puzzle, and I never will.

What would people find one thing that's most surprising about you?

I'm smarter than I look, thank God. . .

Thank you, Mr. Harrison