New York Times, Monday, January 9, 2023

KEVIN: It's always a pleasure to collaborate with Andrea. She's the best Monday constructor out there in my opinion.

AC/DC was a significant part of the soundtrack of my teenage years. This puzzle is dedicated to their original lead singer Bon Scott who died in 1980.

ANDREA: Some collaborations are equal back and forth, ironing out themes, grid layout, fill, and cluing. Others, one might do most of the theme (my preferred role), the other most of the grid. Today's puzzle was 90% Kevin: his idea, his grid. I merely offered advice from the sidelines, smoothed out a section or two, and clued it for Monday difficulty.

My biggest contribution was ignored all around! I wanted circles, not just to ease the solve, but to highlight how brilliantly Kevin found phrases that did not just contain the letters A, C, D, C in that order (no mean feat) but phrases that paired them together!

I was assured by Kevin (and every editor I pleaded with) that solvers would be able to pick up on that construction subtlety by the reveal alone. We shall see!

I look forward to many future collaborations between Kevin and me, or should I say, AC/KC?

Last night, I LACKED CONFIDENCE as I attempted to get my kids to eat something besides MAC AND CHEESE, so I put on some AC/DC. "Back in Black" pumped me up when I was a kid (for mathletic competitions, but whatever), so maybe it'd make for PEACHES AND CREAM all night long?

I should have TRACKED CHANGES in my list before Big Balls started playing.

Neat to include BACKGROUND CHECK; a sly nod to BACK IN BLACK fans. A shame that black-clad Batman hasn't done a BACK IN DC BLACK spoof album yet. He does a lot of dirty deeds. Dirt cheap.

I appreciated that SACRED COW led things off since CRACK / BACK / JACK would have felt too rhyme-y.

I failed at "Name That Theme" today, but in the best way possible. I couldn't see AC and DC while solving, and when I hit ACDC, I was thunderstruck. Great decision not to circle the letters (sorry, ACME!).

Consistency is usually a blessing, but I was distracted by always having AC in the first word, and DC split across the phrase. It turns out that it's impossible to do otherwise — what words are going to start with DC, except DC COMICS, DC UNITED, etc.? I'd almost rather have A C D C spread out, like in ARCHDUCHESS, but that either requires telltale circles or makes this a mid-week solve, since it'd be much harder to find those letters.

Acme and Kevin need to popularize an AC/KC band! Think of all the theme entries containing consecutive *ACKC* …

I'm GELID on having both COOL and COLD (and GELID in a Monday grid), but solid gridwork otherwise. I bet newb solvers won't get shot down in flames today.