New York Times, Friday, November 23, 2018

When I was a kid, I remember seeing my grandmother solve entire books of crossword puzzles in ink. Nowadays, I have a friend who is always flying across the country to crossword competitions. Somehow, these two people in my life sparked an interest not so much in solving puzzles, but in constructing them.

In the wee hours of a West Hollywood, Calif. winter night (yes, there is a winter season in these parts), I downloaded CrossFire and started tinkering. Before long, I had built three puzzles and, aiming for the stars, sent them to Will.

He burst my bubble promptly — "bland" was a descriptor — but regardless, I felt this one had promise. I revisited, revised, resubmitted, and this time, received a more encouraging response.

Compound answers like BBC AMERICA, SALARY HIKE, POCKET COMB, and TIME TRAVEL sang to me. SQUILLIONS was a lot of fun, too, all the more so because it is a debut (along with BLOWS APART). I had to put in a lot of work to get the crosses up on their feet.

As I prepare these notes, I see that my grid is identical to one by David Steinberg, and I am pretty sure this happened because I had seen his name as a prolific constructor, and thought, well, heck, I can tackle four long triple stacks, too. My puzzle is now running the day before a new one of his tomorrow, so thanks for the inspiration, David. You have a new neighbor!

By the way, I'm really excited because this is not just my first puzzle to appear in The Times, it's my first anywhere. Talk about a feather in my cap! I hope everyone enjoys it.

Debut! I'm impressed to see a new constructor using mid-length slots so wisely. It's often tough to wring juice out of them, as so many entries in the 6-7 length are ordinary, overlookable words. Not so with VIP PASS / MILK BAR (a high-end place that's too fancy for the likes of me) / PT BOAT. Not SUBPAR at all!

Heck, even APBIO and CBSTV / CSPAN elevated the joint. Well done.

I was doubly impressed to see how little crossword glue Temple used. Such a smooth solving experience; virtually nothing that gave me a hitch as I went along. I've heard complaints from solvers about the Thai BAHT and other currencies, but as a finance junkie, they seem like terms that ought to at least be in an educated solver's cloud of knowledge. (Floating in the periphery, at least.)

Seriously, the Thai BAHT played a central role in the worldwide financial crisis of … okay, you've stopped listening. I don't blame you.

With a traditional 72-word layout — four sets of triple-stacked 10s in the corners — it's critical to make every precious long slot count since there are so few of them. I'm a huge sci-fi fan, so TIME TRAVEL was a standout for me. And that clue! [Not live in the present?] is a brilliant repurposing of "live in the present."

I use the terms billions, jillions, kajillions, bazillions. Not SQUILLIONS, though. A little research leads me to believe it's one of those words I'm not cool enough to be permitted entrance to (see: MILK BAR). And when I start using it, everyone else will stop.

Humph.

It's tough for a debut to push into POW! territory for me, but this one made a good run. Having never seen ANIMANIACS, feeling like BLOWS APART was more neutral than an asset, and being undecided on ABOMINATES ("abomination" seems great to me, "abominates" less so), it didn't quite get there.

But quite a strong debut; smart decision to go for a low level of difficulty and execute on it well.