SITTIN' SOLVE

This is my first Times puzzle in a while. Since my stuff tends to skew more edgy I send a lot of my 15xs to the American Values Club Crossword. But whenever I think of a savory theme, especially a Sunday, I get so excited to develop it for the Gray Lady.

No matter the publication, I love squeezing some of my world into the puzzle, and I know Will appreciates it too. His clue for 61-Across — one of the answers I was excited to work in — is phenomenal: [50 Cent piece] for RAP VIDEO. Completely justifies changing my original clue, "Spitting images?", which I was proud of but is probably to esoteric for the Times readership. MAN PURSE and SNAPCHAT were two others I was excited to slip in the Times. The theme has been a long time coming. I developed it with my two best friends on our Eurotrip the summer between High School and College, and it was sparked by my still-passionate obsession with the greatest duo in history phonetically hinted by 75-Across. If you disagree, I dare you to listen to the entirety of "Abandoned Luncheonette" without feeling some real feels.

The NYT crossword has been a benchmark throughout my evolution. I interned with Will and published my first puzzle during the summer of 2008. This summer, I'm headed into my senior year of college. I spent the summer in Forks, Washington on a fellowship. I lived in an RV with the head of Team Forks, the last surviving "Twilight" tour company, taking pictures and interviewing people in the town. Here are the pictures. I know wherever I am in 7 more years, I'll still be solving and constructing.

At one time Caleb was the youngest crossword constructor I had published in the Times — just 15 years 3 months old when he made his debut in 2008. When 14-year-old Ben Pall came along and debuted in 2009, beating Caleb's record, Caleb shook his fist in indignation and screamed "No-o-o-o!!" Or so he told me. Anyway, I replied that Caleb will now have to live to be the oldest New York Times crossword constructor in order to hold an age record again. This past Monday, Bernice Gordon set a new "oldest" record of 100 years 7 months, so Caleb (or anyone else) has a real challenge.

As for the puzzle, Caleb, in his typical way, packed the grid with lots of modern culture like CIARA, KESHA, SASHA (Fierce), EMOJI, VINES, ZUNE, a character from "Inglorious Basterds," a quote from "Anchorman" (the last two of which I removed), and one or two "young" references I didn't even understand myself.

I do think there's a place in the Times for a puzzle like this that skews young — just as there's a place for puzzles that skew old. Over time I hope things balance out.

Fun concept, X AND Y phrases given a phonetic twist to form kooky X'IN Y results. Some great themers in this one, WRITIN' WRONG easily my favorite (as it explains all my typoes).

Amazing amount of interlock today. I highlighted the theme answers to demonstrate. Yes, most of them are pretty easy to cross since every theme answer includes "IN," but check out how he's crossed THREE theme entries apiece in the NW and SE. Not only is it hard to figure out how to cross all those answers, but it makes filling much more challenging due to the high number of fixed constraints.

Caleb does well to add a big block of cheater squares in the NW and SE to help compensate for the filling difficulties. The SE comes out amazingly clean for a section that by all rights should require more glue. The NW is pretty good too, although seeing PHILO / WOOER / ROTI all in one region is not optimal. It's beautiful work overall.

Will brings up an interesting point. I had a tough time with this puzzle due to the heavy focus on up-to-date references for which I'm far outside the target audience. I did know MAN PURSE and SNAPCHAT, two great answers. And while I love learning one or two new nuggets (VINES, who knew?) and am good with three or four, more than that feels like drinking from a fire hose. I'd personally prefer these freshies to be spread out over multiple puzzles so that each one has more of a mass audience appeal. I can appreciate Will's general philosophy of wanting the puzzle constructor's personality to come through, though.

My out-of-touch-with-recent-pop-culture tendencies aside, it's a great piece of work. Ultra-high theme density (12!) achieved by high interlock, with both snazzy and clean fill.

P.S. It's not a purse! It's EUROPEAN!