New York Times, Tuesday, January 5, 2021

AMY: I'm so tickled to be making my NYT puzzle debut!

I'm a retired Broadway casting director currently living in Brewster, NY. My mom and I always solved the Sunday puzzle together. I started doing the weekly during a two-week jury duty stint (it took me the entirety of the two weeks to finish a Monday puzzle, but since I was a jury duty prisoner, I surely had the time). I only got interested in construction a few years ago through the JASA class. I attribute the origin of my love for words and wordplay to a childhood of watching Rocky and Bullwinkle, Fractured Fairy Tales, and Mr. Peabody and Sherman cartoons.

Thanks, Christina, for your patience with this novice.

CHRISTINA: Amy and I connected through the Facebook collaboration directory. She had commented on the group that she was full of ideas but didn't really enjoy grid work. I love working on grid design and fill, but at the time, a year ago, I was really struggling with fresh ideas (I blame pregnancy brain). I also liked the idea of working with an unpublished constructor and sharing what I'd learned from my mentors when I started the year before. I reached out to see if she'd be up for a collaboration, and she emailed me a whole bunch of fun ideas. We ended up making three puzzles together, including one in The Inkubator earlier this year.

The theme set Amy sent originally included other longer phrases like BOBS FOR APPLES as "Mr. Dylan loves Granny Smiths," which I think is pretty funny, but we decided to make it more consistent with these two-word phrases. It was a fun challenge to make this grid with many short theme entries rather than fewer long entries.

Impressive array of (mostly) "plus preposition" selections. I wouldn't have thought that there could be so many options: DOWN, OVER, ON, UP … seven in total. Curious to figure out if others would fit this pattern — feels like *S OUT and *S UNDER should have some possibilities.

Down the internet rabbit hole …

The themers are all short, but working with seven themers is tough, no matter what their length. Mid-lengthers can even make life harder than longer ones, because they force black squares in unusual locations. Amy and Christina wisely deployed so many black squares in the center, minimizing the number of down answers working through two themers.

Beautiful result in the short fill, not a surprise given that Christina was involved. I've had the pleasure of working with her, and I appreciate how much attention she pays to keeping things smooth. Keeping the grid to a reasonable 76 words is a pro move. It's a sweet spot; much easier to achieve balance than with a 74-word layout like yesterday's.

I enjoyed the bonuses, JET SKIED, TEACH ME solid. I usually appreciate entries like MATCH WITS, GOES DEEP, but they bled together with today's theme a little.

It's hard to get excited about "plus preposition" phrases in normal fill, and even more so when it's featured as a theme. There was more potential than I thought, though; something interesting about the vast array. Perhaps if the clues had been more animated, even using an exclamation point or some more active verbs, I might have been as well.

Still, great to see the JASA class continue to be productive and a neat connection through the Fb group!

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(Finally back from the rabbit hole, phew! Aptly, I found TUCKERS OUT!)