RIGHT ON, RIGHT ON!

SAM: I like collaborating with Jeff because he thinks through every detail of a puzzle throughout the construction. It's as if his mantra is "How can we make this better?"

JEFF: What can I say? I like to make butter.

SAM: I first wrote to him with the idea for this puzzle. In my original pitch I proposed that the theme entries start by running Down and then turn into Across entries on the word(s) that could also go with "right on." I wanted his help in building the grid because of his skills in grid engineering. He wisely proposed that the answers should start as Across entries and then pivot into Down entries on the "right on" words.

JEFF: Speaking of engineering, that stupid engineer inside my head just couldn't let go of the idea that vertical answers going down and turning to the east would be TURNING LEFT, NOT RIGHT. See, you have to look at it from the point of view of the little guy traveling down the answer. Frame of reference, people! He would start by going downward, then making a left-hand turn--

(insert sound of that stupid engineer being throttled)

SAM: After a few emails about how the theme entries should work and what they should be, Jeff did his magic and produced a terrific grid. My entire contribution to the fill consisted of saying, "Yep, that looks good." So I took the lead on the clues. If you ever need to kill six or seven hours, by the way, write clues for a Sunday-sized puzzle.

JEFF: In case anyone is curious, for this magic, I chose a 9 ¾" wand made of yew, with a dragon heartstring core.

Or rather … the wand chose me.

SAM: Will and Joel liked the idea, but they asked for a few tweaks to the grid. Shortly thereafter, Jeff had some alternate versions from which to pick. Et voila.

JEFF: Easy as churning butter!

Sam Donaldson is the man. Excuse me — The Man. (Whichever is the good one.) We finalized the last revisions for this puzzle during the 2015 ACPT, where Sam provided no end of entertainment with his crazy bets. 70-1 odds that he could pick seven names, one of which would win the ACPT? Sure, he'll put $10 on that! (He won.) 300-1 odds that Lynn Lempel didn't write Puzzle #5? Heck yeah, he put $10 on that too! (He won that as well.)

He was able to go back home and tell his wife that he won an easy $20. But man oh man, was he sweating it when 1.) Kiran Kedlaya showed up, finishing fourth and 2.) Puzzles 1-4 were NOT written by Lynn Lempel. I would have paid Will pretty much any sum of money for him to announce that Lynn wrote Puzzle #5.

Writing a puzzle with Sam is almost as fun as watching him squirm. Good times, good times.

P.S. Grid was pretty hard — trying to figure out how to squeeze in all those long, turning answers was a bear. But once I hit on SHOW ME THE MONEY intersecting PAID THROUGH THE NOSE, it was only a matter of (many dozens of) hours after that.

P.P.S. I've fixed up the answers so they appear in the database correctly — SNOOKERC to SNOOKERCUE and CUE to RIGHTONCUE, e.g. Hope everyone figured out that the "RIGHT ON, RIGHT ON!" title was a good hint!