| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Scrab | Debut | Flow | Fresh |
| 1.60 | 10 | 18.9 | 30% |
Wed 11/27/2024
| A | C | H | E | | A | N | N | E | | C | L | A | P | S |
| C | O | M | I | C | B | O | O | K | | H | A | S | I | T |
| C | H | A | R | L | O | T | T | E | | E | M | I | L | Y |
| R | E | R | E | A | D | | E | S | C | | P | A | L | E |
| A | N | T | | R | E | G | | | A | T | S | | | |
| | | P | A | S | A | D | E | N | A | | I | C | U |
| H | O | P | E | | | T | O | R | T | O | I | S | E | S |
| T | H | E | T | H | R | E | E | S | I | S | T | E | R | S |
| T | H | E | S | A | H | A | R | A | | | S | E | A | R |
| P | I | N | | K | O | U | R | T | N | E | Y | | | |
| | | S | A | N | | | Z | E | N | | K | I | M |
| S | O | F | T | | E | O | N | | S | E | L | E | N | A |
| K | H | L | O | E | | R | O | O | T | W | O | R | D | S |
| I | M | I | N | G | | B | E | L | E | S | P | R | I | T |
| T | Y | P | E | O | | S | L | E | D | | E | Y | E | S |
Mon 11/7/2022
| S | U | P | E | R | B | | S | E | A | M | | S | A | W |
| O | H | I | S | E | E | | A | L | T | A | | T | W | O |
| B | U | T | T | E | R | F | L | I | E | S | | E | A | R |
| A | H | A | | K | N | E | E | | | T | U | R | K | S |
| | B | E | E | I | N | M | Y | B | O | N | N | E | T |
| P | A | R | A | D | E | D | | A | U | D | I | | | |
| A | C | E | S | | | | E | N | T | O | | B | R | B |
| W | H | A | T | S | B | U | G | G | I | N | G | Y | O | U |
| N | E | D | | I | O | N | O | | | | E | M | U | S |
| | | E | C | R | U | | A | B | I | L | I | T | Y |
| A | N | T | S | I | N | M | Y | P | A | N | T | S | | |
| T | O | W | E | L | | | A | P | R | S | | T | I | P |
| L | I | E | | I | N | M | Y | S | T | O | M | A | C | H |
| A | R | E | | A | S | I | A | | A | L | T | K | E | Y |
| S | E | T | | N | A | T | S | | B | E | S | E | T | S |
This theme came to me on a hike in Bryce Canyon, Utah. It's not that there are a lot of bugs there, but on a long hike, my mind wanders and empties, which seems to create fertile ground for theme ideas. Once I started along the bug path, I was delighted to realize how many good expressions there were, ones that I had often used myself. Ants in my pants when I sit at a desk working on theme ideas too long, check. A bee in my bonnet when I am trying to find a grid that works, check. Butterflies in my stomach as I open an email from the NY Times Crossword editors to see if this might finally be an acceptance, check, check, check.
As a fairly new constructor when I made this puzzle, I thought that there were fixed tradeoffs in good fill — that once a grid and themes were in place, you could make a word or a section better, but another section would suffer. So I submitted the puzzle with quite a few problem areas, thinking it was the best it could be. Thanks to the many iterations with Wyna Liu, I was delighted to learn that this wasn't the case — a grid can almost always be improved!
