New York Times, Thursday, March 12, 2020

I don't know when I first became aware of Hemingway's 6-word story, but I was in awe that such heartbreak could be expressed in so few words, and the story stayed with me. Sometime years later, I thought to count the letters of this famous ultra-short story, and I was delighted to discover that it broke tidily into segments that fit a puzzle's symmetry, and that ERNEST HEMINGWAY just happened to be 15 letters long!

When I got the acceptance note for this puzzle, Will, Joel, and Sam told me that they were planning to run it on a Thursday as a "straightforward" change-up to the usual Thursday offerings. I was pretty surprised since I had thought of it as Tuesday fare. I had figured it was indeed straightforward and that for solvers who were already familiar with the famous short story, it would be an overly easy puzzle. (I had thought I was getting pretty good at correlating my themes with the day of the week, but I clearly still have much to learn!)

I had, therefore, submitted the puzzle with easy clues, few of which would have been appropriate for a Thursday puzzle. Will and his team would have had to rewrite practically all of them to make the puzzle Thursday-worthy. Mentioning this to Will, he kindly offered me the opportunity to rewrite the clues myself so that the published puzzle would feel more like my work than his. (Of course, he and his team always add their editorial polish to make my work shine more brightly!) I'll be interested in seeing how solvers with Thursday expectations respond to this puzzle.

My clue for 58-Across had referred to SIX-WORD as what is now an actual genre, probably inspired by Hemingway's brief opus. As a genre, it seems to combine drama with poetry. People have been quite creative, dealing in six words with all sorts of issues: from romance and gender transitioning, to violence and war injuries. They aren't my stories to reprint here (though I'm tempted, since they're so short!) but googling "six word story" will lead you to some good examples.

Both Jim Horne and I had an easy time with this one, both of us familiar with the anecdote. No surprise with Jim, who's incredibly well-read.

You might wonder, though, how on earth could the lower-brow, "Gilligan's Island"-loving, XWI partner possibly know it? Well, I'm always on the lookout for themes, and I had a puzzle with this exact theme in the queue at the Chronicle of Higher Education. Alas, the CHE puzzle sadly folded earlier this month.

Back in 2017, I did pause before sending the idea to Brad Wilber, who edited the CHE puzzle. Would it be too somber, even macabre, for solvers? I ended up deciding that the CHE's solving population would enjoy it, and thankfully Brad did too.

Brad and I went back and forth on how to clue ERNEST HEMINGWAY, since it's unclear if he wrote this story or it's an urban legend. We ended up using excessively ambiguous language. Before you send angry emails to Will Shortz saying that the clue is wrong, Will mentioned that he thinks he covered the issue with the FOR SALE clue, the word "attributed" showing the ambiguity. It's not the decision I'd make, but it does (somewhat) cover him on a technicality.

I do wonder how the NYT's audience will react. It is amazing how much emotion can be packed into SIX WORDs. No doubt that this puzzle could be a huge downer for some, though, especially those who have suffered through miscarriages or worse.

Probably doesn't help to put ABORTED in the top left corner. Or to end with ITS DONE.

Thankfully, Ruth worked in enough long fill to keep haters entertained. There's not a lot of theme to work with, so plenty of room for the lovely entries NORSEMAN, IRIS SCAN, SCARLETT, WENT SOLO. Even GARDENERS becomes a standout when you give it a clever clue: [People found in rows]. Not soldiers in rigid formations, but garden rows!

Bold choice for Will Shortz to run this one for his broad audience. I'm not sure I'd have the fortitude to do so.