New York Times, Thursday, February 4, 2021

Every daily crossword this week, Monday to Saturday, is made by an African-American contributor. Derek Allen is an accountant in Mishawaka, Ind. This is his third crossword for The Times.

It was a thrill and an honor to be asked to submit a puzzle this week! It was even more humbling being able to work directly with Will on honing a theme and polishing the rough ends of this puzzle. I am curious to see which entries will be appearing in the NYT crossword for the first time, but I am fairly sure there will be more than one debut! I did try to have the theme entries reflect a wide genre of music forms, and I hope this was accomplished. My hope is that everyone solving this puzzle will come across a song that is new to them, while still delivering a fun solving experience for everyone.

I will admit, I grew up in an area where racism was not a prominent issue. The small town of Cassopolis, MI, is a melting pot of cultures. But, as I have progressed as an adult, I have tried to learn more from people who have experienced certain things more than I have. But no matter what your background, puzzles can have an uplifting affect on a person's spirits. That is because when you solve a puzzle, whether it is a crossword or a sudoku or a jigsaw, you have found a finite solution to a problem. The world isn't always that simple.

Here's hoping that people of any background can at least get an exposure to, and perhaps learn to love, solving puzzles like I do. And I hope this puzzle was fun to solve as well!

Derek! I enjoy working with him and reading his Crossword Fiend reviews. Such a mellow guy, churning through crosswords on his path to speedier solving. I'm impressed at how hard he works at it, grinding away at multiple puzzles a day, always with a positive word to say each and every one.

Of all my pop culture deficiencies, music is one of my worst. The only songs I knew with 100% certainty were BLACK OR WHITE, YELLOW SUBMARINE, and WHITE WEDDING. For Pete's sake, I could barely recognize Car Dib — er, Cardi B — much less the cryptic BODAK YELLOW. It's a shame that Lorde's GREENLIGHT wasn't Yellow Light, which would have been much more appropriate for my oafishness today.

Unusual layout. I don't often pay attention to black square count, but today, I noticed that it felt high. Those four black squares in the upper right and lower left weigh things down, as do the Tetris blocks in the middle.

Still, I don't mind if it's the cost of keeping the grid smooth. I was worried, hitting ELOI (crossed with ELO, tough for music idiots like myself) so quickly, but with only some EIN (employer identification number) and ATOB after that, I appreciated the high smoothness factor.

Dynamite clue for PAWS. [Feet in a pound], oh, that's a gimme! TWELVE, of course.

Yeah, that was honestly what I tried to enter … and into only four squares. Hey, it's a rebus puzzle, right?

Talk about deficiencies.

These days, rebus puzzles have become so commonplace that it's essential to have some explainer to give solvers an a-ha; an "of course that's why we shoved a bunch of letters into a single box." I didn't get that today, nor did I understand why pop songs? Why colors? If only there were some phrase like COLORFUL SQUEEZE MUSIC.

Any circus accordion players in the house?

Still, it was fun to see BLACK OR WHITE so elegantly tucked into the middle of the grid, with PAINT IT BLACK and WHITE WEDDING neatly coming off of that. And always great to see my buddy Derek's byline.