New York Times, Tuesday, January 22, 2019

JEB: I tend to like crossword puzzles that use the diagonal adjacencies in the grid as part of the theme and solving process. This puzzle is no exception. Snakes have always been fascinating to me, but I must admit to being maybe a little overly cautious when hiking in poisonous snake country!

This puzzle seemed like it would be relatively easy to design/construct since the snake shapes could be arranged easily in many different configurations. I put the constraint of total symmetry into the initial mix, which made for a lot of time-consuming frustration! I was finally able to get four poisonous snakes, of reasonable length, to work out in the grid symmetrically using SIDEWINDER, COPPERHEAD, BUSHMASTER, and FER-DE-LANCE along with the central revealer WATCH YOUR STEP!

Although my first submittal to Will received positive attention for overall theme and design configuration, it was turned down because the supporting fill was too weak and the "bushmaster" and "fer-de-lance" entries were not well enough known to solvers. I eventually got a resubmittal version to work replacing those 2 snakes with KING COBRA and PUFF ADDER. (I was pretty much down to the end of poisonous snake possibilities without having the word "snake" appear in the themer!) When this resubmittal was rejected due to (again) relatively poor supporting fill quality, I knew I was going to need help in getting an acceptance. That's when I contacted my cross-town puzzle guru, Jeff Chen.

Jeff accepted the challenge right away and was instrumental in getting this puzzle in the acceptance column! His adjustments to the grid made a huge difference in opening up improved fill possibilities. Jeff also strategically asked Will whether having the snake shapes be symmetrical in the grid was necessary, and Will said "no". He and Joel hadn't even noticed that they were totally symmetrical! This got me off on a different tack which ultimately allowed the puzzle to be configured with all snakes either beginning or ending in the WATCH YOUR STEP! reveal. It also made the snakes look more snaky in their asymmetry, and less like a design pattern. Jeff's input and collaboration helped bail me out once again! ;-)

Jeb asked me to come on board after Will gave him "I like the concept but not the grid" feedback. My first impression: I thought it was fun to have the snakes snaking around the puzzle, but I wasn't so sure about WATCH YOUR STEP. I so badly wanted something more … snaky.

Then it hit me! Indiana Jones's IT HAD TO BE SNAKES! Counting … 15 letters = perfect!

Only, not perfect, since that's not the exact quote. Shows what I know.

The first set of revisions were painful. Eventually, I came up with a grid skeleton that seemed to work well enough. Some testing showed it was likely doable. Fast forward eleventy-thousand hours, and we got something that at least was clean. Good enough!

Except, not good enough for Will. He pointed out that it was smooth, but there was little to no juice in the bonuses. We had to use a bunch of dry stuff for the long slots, and where was the fun in that? Excellent points.

Back to the drawing board.

I noodled around with some different snake shapes, including one where a single snake started from the middle, but that led nowhere, quick.

Thankfully, Jeb came up with the idea of intersecting ALL of the snakes to the middle! That curiously made things easier, as all the theme material took up less net real estate in the grid. I worked up some possible skeletons, focusing on squeezing as much pizzazz out of the long slots as possible, and voila! It still took time, but only maybe eleventy-hundred hours this time.

(But this huge Indy fan still wants the revealer to be IT HAD TO BE SNAKES. Accuracy, schmaccuracy.)