Crunch Time

Michael Schlossberg is an internist in Bend, Ore., who's been making crosswords for The Times since 2020. He says he got the idea for this one while thinking about the books he read to his kids when they were little. He tried to get all the circles in the puzzle to line up, but that proved to be impossible.

Michael says his favorite part of constructing is converting a theme idea into a completed grid — "more fun and challenging than actual solving."

The Very Hungry Caterpillar was one of our family's go-to bedtime stories when our children were little. Because it's such a recognizable book, I thought that a Caterpillar-themed puzzle would appeal to a broad range of solvers.

The biggest challenge I had in constructing this puzzle was to find a theme set that disguised the letters of TIDBITS within the caterpillar foods and their larger phrases while at the same time maintaining grid symmetry. I would have liked to have been able to line up the circles in the grid, as Will mentions in his note, and not all of the hidden foods spanned two or more words in their theme entries.

Also, it would have been nice to have had LEAF appear last, like in the book. I could have done this using CHE[L(S)EA F]C, which would have mirrored IN S[PI(T)E] OF in the front. But I needed LEAF in the middle of the grid for PUL[LE(D) A F]AST ONE, which mirrored [APPL(I)E]D SCIENCE later. Compromises, amirite? But on the plus side, I was able to fit in some nice bonus fill, and in the end I'm just happy that everything came together.

I hope everyone enjoyed today's puzzle!

This puzzle sure brings back memories … of when I could put virtually any food in front of my toddlers, and they'd happily eat more than just TIDBITS.

Right, the book was a staple in our household, too.

Great idea here, the VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR munching through seven themers on its way to spelling out TIDBITS. Solid example of the letter-buried-in-hidden-word genre that's becoming more replicated these days.

Michael's desire to get the holes to line up — mirroring the book's layout! — is admirable. This is an extremely difficult task, though, nearing the impossible. With mirror symmetry, six themers lined up is not that bad. Adding a seventh in the center column makes life miserable. Not only do you have to jam in that extra themer, but a long vertical entry in the center column forces you to build a triple-stack around it.

Why is that? Look where Michael has CUPBEARER. Note that COURT RECESS and ORIGINAL SIN could be shortened to nine letters apiece, but there's no way to get them any shorter (without creating one-letter unchecked squares).

The unfortunate result is that the caterpillar (and solver) has to zig-zag through the seven themers. Might be a good thing for the caterpillar at least, given that he needs the exercise to burn off all that gluttony.

Great seed of an idea, and impressively clean gridwork, but TIDBITS didn't give me a fist-pump. It would have been great fun to brainstorm what other meta answer land more strongly, or to doodle with grid art in an attempt to create a wiggly caterpillar out of black squares.