New York Times, Saturday, December 8, 2018

TRENTON: To be honest, I was surprised at how long it took David to get in touch with me after my debut puzzle came out online (about fifteen minutes). So, naturally, when David mentioned the idea of collaborating on a themeless, I was quick to jump on board. I started with everyone's favorite font, COMIC SANS, and once I had the stack of 9s built, I noticed the enticing possibility of fitting OONA CHAPLIN and PG THIRTEEN underneath! I made a potential grid skeleton and sent off what I had to David, and unsurprisingly, what he sent back was full of fun stuff — I especially like the lower-right, with lively fill like THANKS OBAMA and DETOX DIET.

After a little more back-and-forth and some polishing, our grid was complete. Next came the clues — which were an absolute blast to write together! (In all seriousness, we might have had a bit too much fun.) It was a nice bonus that most of them ended up making the cut. Some of my favorites of our clues are those for 14-Across, 60-Across, 61-Across, 3-Down, 33-Down, and 49-Down.

I was initially a bit nervous to co-construct with a seasoned pro, but I needn't have worried. Collaborating with David was a fantastic experience — I'd say it was all CHILL and no PILL. On that groan-worthy note, over to you, David!

DAVID: Always a pleasure to work with Trenton! When he sent me an upper left/center packed with five long seed entries plus ultra-smooth short fill, I knew finding a similarly smooth and lively lower right would be a challenge. Once I had THANKS OBAMA and DETOX DIET in place, though, I knew I was in business. As Trenton mentioned, the highlight of the process was the cluing. There was definitely as much laughter as there was clue-writing!

Something so pleasing about this grid design. I couldn't put my finger on it during my solve, but I think it's a simple factor: most of the long slots are oriented horizontally. There's a reason why most crosswords feature their longest answers in the across direction — it's so much easier to read left to right, compared to up to down.

Easier said than done! Themelesses usually have an equal(ish) number of long entries across vs. down, because the "four corners" approach makes construction so much easier. I like what Trenton and David have done, stacking a long answer in each of rows 1-5. Makes for such a pleasing presentation.

I wondered though if that meant they'd had to make some compromises in their long slot selection. OONA CHAPLIN isn't a star in real life as much as she is in crosswords, and THANKS OBAMA is … what? Ah, a sarcastic meme blaming Obama for all ills. Feels a bit dated now that we have others to blame. Ahem.

PG THIRTEEN is another potentially polarizing one. I did enjoy the game of first putting in PGT and then erasing it, thinking that it was impossible for anything to start with that sequence. I've come to like these only-in-crosswords entries less and less, but I can see the appeal.

Favorite clue: [Really clicks with a partner, say?]. TAP DANCES are full of clicking, ha!

Least favorite: [Honey] for DOLL. Do people call their partner DOLL these days? If I called my wife "Doll," there would be ... repercussions.

A lot of strong feature entries, CHILL PILL, DETOX DIET, PEACE SIGN, HUSH PUPPY, TAP DANCES my favorites. And SKIP ASS! Er, SKI PASS. But given the super-high standard I hold these two to, I didn't feel this one was quite POW! material.