New York Times, Saturday, August 12, 2023

RACHEL: I'm glad to be back in The Times with Christina, a fantastic constructor (and editor!). This puzzle collaboration began after I used the word CROMULENT to describe a word that Christina and her co-constructor Caitlin Reid used in their banger June 30, 2022 puzzle (our working title was"A Perfectly Cromulent Themeless"). Christina had the brilliant idea to use a diagonal grid, and we split the construction and cluing 50/50. I hope you enjoy the solve!

CHRISTINA: As Rachel mentions, she used the word CROMULENT in her Wordplay write-up of one of my puzzles last summer. I had been in the middle of making a themeless puzzle featuring the entry, but it just wasn't coming together. I reached out to say how happy it made me to see her use the word CROMULENT, and that I wanted to put it in a puzzle some day in an effort to embiggen people's vocabulary.

She wrote back that it sounded like a seed for a collaboration. Two heads were definitely better than one, and it was fun pulling this one together!

Sometimes, a themeless feels like it was created specifically for you. The legends around OUROBOROS have fascinated me for decades, so I created a crossword around it. As a decades-long fan of "The Simpsons," I admire how their neologisms like CROMULENT and "embiggen" have entered English vernacular. Maybe words like "craptacular" have a dumbening effect on our youth, but sometimes numbskullery is so superliminal.

A year ago, I was baffled by the word COPYPASTA. That quickly turned into side-splitting cackling as I perused well-known examples. "How do I get my husband to stop going 'Goblin Mode' during sex?" isn't for the faint of heart. Or for those afraid of busting a gut laughing.

I was put off by COPYPASTA / PASTES IN, since COPYPASTA derives from "copy paste," but that's the goblin in me talking.

In the past two years, I've become obsessed with Mediterranean food because of the health benefits but, more importantly, the deliciousness. I haven't made LABNEH yet, but I frequently order it. To hell with my lactose intolerance!

ATTENTION SPAN is a top-notch themeless entry. I was fascinated by optics in college, and though I didn't focus enough to do well, repurposing [Focal length?] made me reflect on those fun times.

Speaking of optics, a lot of the entries I've praised might cause diffraction among the larger solving population, and I sympathize with those who find my happy musings opaque. As some of the wisest constructors have said about this type of potentially divisive puzzle, though, the great thing about crosswords is that if you don't like today's, there's a reasonable chance that you'll like tomorrow's.