New York Times, Wednesday, November 30, 2022

With my debut puzzles appearing in the New York Times this year, some friends asked me, "How long does it take you to make a crossword?" In my limited experience, it's a normal question with an inexact answer, like how long it takes to write a song or draw a picture. Some I might work on for a long time, some almost write themselves, and the amount of time spent doesn't guarantee how good the eventual result is. My recent Sunday puzzle took a long time in both conception and construction. On the other hand, today's puzzle came together quickly and easily.

One day I thought of the fact that strikeout and potassium are both abbreviated with K, despite neither starting with K. I turned it over in my mind and quickly thought of black in a printer cartridge as another example. The last one to occur to me, thousand (especially in a dollar amount), is probably the most common.

By extending BLACK out to BLACK INK, I had two nine-letter and two eight-letter entries, which is just serendipity. The theme entries aren't particularly long, so there was lots of room for flexibility in the rest of the grid. I had a working crossword in a few hours and later reworked the grid to make it livelier. Have fun, K?

Addison takes Dwight Gooden's Dr. K title today, featuring four usages of the letter K from different fields. I appreciated the range, from baseball to money to printing to the periodic table.

Curious that BLACK INK is marked with a K. I enjoyed learning why that is — I didn't realize how few colors begin with K, and there's a neat bit of trivia in that other colors were historically "keyed" to black.

Will Shortz doesn't often accept themes depending on single-word entries. THOUSAND and POTASSIUM aren't nearly as evocative as STRIKE-OUT, although chemists could make a case for POTASSIUM being more interesting than BLACK INK. Its reaction with water is tough to beat!

What other Ks are there? This mechanical engineer would have loved STRESS INTENSITY FACTOR but would have settled for KELVIN SCALE. I've heard K in drug slang, though a KETAMINE reference is probably too edgy for the NYT.

Solid effort to take advantage of the low thematic density, featuring some great long Downs. BUZZ SAWS contains that double Z, and crossing it with SWIZZLE made it even more a highlight. Work in TWANGY, and I don't mind some minor gluey bits like OTRO, APSO, and STYE.

I would have loved some extra layer, like a 4K revealer, or grid art in the shape of a K, or eleven Ks in the grid. (Obviously because K is the 11^th letter of the alphabet, said the obsessive cryptographer.) Even the fact that K doesn't start any of the themers would have been great to point out explicitly! I completely whiffed on that elegant touch.

I enjoyed the cluing touches, though, especially curiosities like the EDGE of a coin as an unlikely landing place and the punniness of a CRAB getting you into a pinch.