A Puzzle Title Can Be Just as Hard to Nail as a Clue
The nuances of choosing a puzzle title are all about being creative.
Rebecca Tulis
I really didn't want to title last Wednesday's puzzle "Lost in Translation." That was the one about the hit South Korean show "Squid Game," whose English subtitles have been criticized by some Korean speakers as being not great.
Sure, "Lost in Translation" would've been perfectly cromulent for this, but it's become overused as a puzzle title in recent years for any crossword whose theme has anything to do with translating. So I thought I'd try to come up with something different.
First step: I began to free-associate with the word squid: tentacles, calamari, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (spoiler alert there, sorry), ink...
Aha! Ink could be something. A squid releases ink to confuse and distract predators, and hey -- bad subtitles, if you speak both relevant languages well, are a confusing distraction as well. So I decided to go with "Ink Cloud" instead of "Lost in Translation" there.
Did I choose the right title? Tell me why, in either English or Korean, by tweeting to #beastxword. If you come up with a better title I'll post a "Squid Game" GIF in your honor.
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