New York Times, Saturday, April 4, 2020

Some puzzle facts:

• This is both my first solo-constructed crossword and my first themeless puzzle!
• This puzzle originated with this grid layout I found on XWord Info. I proceeded to fill it and refill it a few times for a month or so. In my opinion, this layout has a good balance between feeling open, yet still allowing me to rework a corner without needing to empty the grid.
• My favorite clues to write were 14A and 16A.
• My favorite clues written by Will & co. were 1D and 35D.

Thanks to Jeff Chen and Ryan McCarty for providing early feedback and pushing me always to keep improving my fill! And to Erik Agard for helping to encourage me to start making themelesses!

Every Wednesday, I have the pleasure of exchanging thoughts with Jim Horne about a full week worth of puzzles, and it's rare that we agree on which is the standout (if any). I prefer when we laud different puzzles, because Jim often presents a viewpoint I hadn't considered.

Groan, thanks a lot, Yacob, we both thought your puzzle was stellar. Now what are Jim and I supposed to argue about?

Yacob got in touch with me a few months before he submitted this one, asking for feedback. My first impression was that he showed a tremendous amount of talent and that his draft already had a decent shot at acceptance. It had a different SW, and a slightly different SE, though, and I thought it needed improvement.

Often, constructors don't listen to me and just submit. I'm not offended — I'm often wrong, after all — but why ask me if you're not going to at least consider critique? Yacob did everything right. He absorbed my comments, went away for a few weeks, and vastly improved the SW corner. I rarely tell constructors that they have a high chance of acceptance with Will, but this was one instance I was nearly sure Will would say yes.

Fantastic cluing, too. "Pen pals" for CELLMATES. "Barb" making you think about a verbal jab instead of a literal jab from a BLOWDART. I hope you don't [… incur charges overseas] ON SAFARI!

One oddity: the final grid Yacob sent me had a different — and better — southeast corner. As I solved, I noted the weirdness of BATE and LATEN, and confusion set in. I surely would have noted those and recommended he revise, since that region is somewhat flexible. Looking back upon his submission, I noticed that his corner was superior to what was run. Yacob doesn't exactly remember what happened, but he thinks he made a last-minute change before submitting.

Alas! Nothing's perfect. So close, though.