New York Times, Saturday, December 19, 2020

ANDREW: I first worked with Caitlin when I commissioned a puzzle from her for Aries Freestyle, which is a themeless puzzle-by-email subscription service that I run. I quickly found that we share much of the same constructing philosophy when it comes to themelesses - prioritizing clean grids with difficulty emerging primarily from tricky, misdirecting clues. So I couldn't wait to co-construct with Caitlin, and this puzzle is the first of our collaborative themeless efforts.

Most of this grid is Caitlin's, whose stellar ABOUT THE AUTHOR clue/entry pairing was the killer seed. I was able to open up the center with an ELIZABETH entry in the central down slot — I originally had TAYLOR and Caitlin found a good fill with the more-current WARREN. It was a great pleasure working with Caitlin and hope that solvers will see more from this byline in the future!

CAITLIN: An admirer of Andrew's puzzles (especially his themelesses), I jumped at the chance to make one with him! Collaborating with him is easy as we do indeed share a similar style. We went back and forth on this one with gridding and then split the clues for the most part. I particularly liked his clever ones for 13- and 28-Down. Always glad to collaborate with Andrew, and I'm excited to finally get a Saturday under my belt!

Two of my favorite themeless constructors teaming up; how could I resist giving this a POW!? Cool middle, with TREASURE TROVES / MAIN THEME / ABOUT THE AUTHOR stacked, and ELIZABETH WARREN persisting through them all.

Not only are the Across marquee entries fantastic, but they can all take clever or interesting clues. I was so befuddled by ABOUT THE AUTHOR, thinking at first about a denim jacket (I swear, they'll come back in style one day), then a record jacket, and finally a book jacket.

Sad performance from an *ahem* author.

I wonder if ELIZABETH WARREN will prove divisive as a crossword entry. There's no doubt she's famous enough, having made a serious Presidential run earlier this year, but Will usually tries to stay away from politics, as one might at a dinner party. I imagine she'll evoke both cheers and jeers, depending on the political stance of the solver.

While it may be true that the NYT solvership skews left, it is a widely diverse audience. I bet there's a reasonable number of solvers who would prefer seeing IVANKA TRUMP in their grid, for instance, and I would at least have to listen to their grievances.

Caitlin and Andrew did especially well with their mid-length material, so often blah. Most editors prize two-word phrases for their potential to sing, and TO ORDER, ILL BITE, AL DENTE, HOT TAKE all strengthen that perspective. Wonderful work, making such good use of those corners.

I did get stuck in the lower right, worried that I wouldn't be able to finish. Thankfully, I remembered Constructor's Rule #7: if you're filling a big region, you'll usually have to lean on common letters (RSTLN E) — as a solver, if you're stuck in such a wide-open area, try penciling in a random E or T or S and see if that triggers anything. I still couldn't tell you anything about ORESTES, but the name looked familiar enough when I eventually stumbled upon ?RE?TES.

Meticulous craftsmanship, great sizzle in the long entries, and some wickedly sharp clues. I'd love to see more synergistic constructor pairings like this.