New York Times, Thursday, March 19, 2020

We're thrilled to be making our puzzle debut in the New York Times. We're both attorneys who have worked together in various capacities in the Iowa Attorney General's Office since 2004, and at some point, we discovered that we're both long-time puzzle solvers. After several years of working the NYT crossword together during lunch, we decided to try our hand at constructing. How hard could it be, right?

We soon came to realize that crossword constructing is much more difficult than we ever imagined (and our prior submissions, in hindsight, now seem somewhat embarrassing). Throughout the whole process, we gained a new level of respect and appreciation for the veteran constructors who make it look easy, and also for the NYT puzzle editor and staff who have to put up with us rookies.

Wayne initially got the idea for this theme when he heard about a local rock band called "CTRL C," presumably so named because they're a cover band and they "copy" other peoples' music. We first thought about using "CTRL" as a rebus, but ultimately settled on the current configuration.

CTRL-X, CTRL-C, and CTRL-V seemed like the most well-known keyboard shortcuts and obvious choices to include, but CTRL-F took a little more thought. We realize Mac users use the command key, rather than the CTRL key, to execute these shortcuts and may be angry with us because of that, but the internet tells us that something like 90% of all computer users use Windows. (And hey, we kind of threw Mac users a bone at 1-Down, right?)

Anyway, we want to thank Will and the editing team for their suggestions, patience, and edits, and also Jeff Chen for his work on this site, which is an incredible resource. We hope you enjoy the puzzle.

Clever concept, a common keyboard SHORTCUT inserted in place of its function. No, not its function key — its function! Why are you getting so irked? It's as simple as using the control key for the function! Control yourself, man!

What is this, an Abbott and Costello sketch?

I use CTRL-X (cut), CTRL-C (copy), and CTRL-V (paste) so often, I don't have to look down at the keyboard anymore. CTRL-F, not so much. I can never remember if "find" is ALT + F, or Fn + F, or a keyboard-mashing combination of everything. Hey, if CTRL + ALT + DEL is a thing, maybe CTRL + Fn + F is too!

Well, it should be.

I wondered if CTRL-Z = UNDO would have been better, perhaps in TELEMUNDO. It would have been elegant to have four keyboard keys in a row, Z X C V, and if you're going by how often these SHORTCUT sequences are used, I probably hit UNDO 84 times per minute.

If only there were a undo button in real life.

Ultimately though, I decided that TELEMCTRLZ would be inconsistent with the others, because CUT, COPY, and PASTE are clearly identifiable, making them easier to spot and less confusing for people who don't already know these SHORTCUTs. CTRLXOFFS does look bizarre, but it's easy to see OFFS as a real word, helping solvers to catch onto the concept. Not so much with TELEM.

Can you imagine uncovering something like PUBLICTRLXILITY? As much as I like hard puzzles, that wouldn't be any fun if you didn't already know CTRL-X is CUT. So I think Wayne and Gary made the right choice to go simpler.

Interesting decision to lay out the themers in a pinwheel. For theme phrases containing seemingly random strings of letters, I prefer for all of them to be laid out horizontally, since they're much easier to read that way. There is something cool about SHORTCUT intersecting TOOTHCTRLV, though.

A couple of blips in grid execution — A MOOD isn't necessary, in an area as unconstrained as the north, for example — but overall a playful yet CTRLXTING commentary on our digital lives. A welcome debut effort.