New York Times, Monday, March 20, 2023

The idea for this puzzle started with BANANA SPLIT, which got me thinking about two-word phrases that combined foods and synonyms for "leave." When brainstorming themes, I normally jot down anything tangentially relevant, knowing that I can try to tighten the theme later.

My first couple finds included CHICKEN RUN and SUGAR RUSH, but it wasn't until coming up with TOFU SCRAMBLE that I realized I should focus specifically on different foods/dishes. I also considered various DIPs (ONION DIP, TACO DIP, etc.), but I felt like these were more arbitrary and depended on slang that might be less immediately evident to solvers.

A thing I love about creating crosswords is how they present an opportunity to reflect and refract my own experiences. TOFU SCRAMBLE was a dish introduced to me by a vegan friend, and CINNAMON ROLL was suggested by my partner when I was talking through potential themesets with her. And the clue about [What the fish said when it swam into a concrete wall] was appropriately inspired by a joke my dad used to make. (My nine-year-old self's answer to this joke, after hearing Dad further talk about visiting "Hoover shh" during a trip to Nevada, was an earnest "shh it.")

This puzzle experienced a quick turnaround — I submitted the final version on November 8, 2023.

A couple of months ago, a friend pinged me with a "hidden synonyms" concept, featuring entries like BOUNCE, ROLL, JET, PEEL, SPLIT.

Umm … is the theme … my six-year-old's electronic toy, because I had to peel back the sticker to access the screws and split the casing open, after he jet-rolled and bounced it into the wall?

There was more than a DASH of laughter from my friend.

Great set of finds, phrases where the first word is a food and the second is a synonym for "dash (away)" that you would definitely know if you were only as hip as me. Amazing that there's a workable set, and it's even more incredible that everything matches symmetrically. I tried to come up with even one more possibility, but all I could unearth was DESSERT DESERT, which has nothing to do with anything. As is my usual wont.

Wild layout! Counterintuitively, stacking themers often makes gridwork easier, but only when you have just a few letters of overlap. It also opens up possibilities for great Across fill like MESS TENT and REPARTEE.

It's a whole 'nother story when you have 8 (!) overlapping letters. Fantastic result, with such a smooth solve throughout the north and south.

Oddly, the middle was where I paused, with ESPO and MONDE. (I'm sure both came quickly to Jim Horne, our resident Canadian hockey fanatic.) Adam could have smoothed things out by putting a black square at the ending S of SITARS, but that would have choked off grid flow, so I like his decision.

I'm curious to see how many people I can roll my eyes at today when I drop the term ROLL, as in PEEL, as in SCRAMBLE.

Fine, I'll cut the crop (gold medal clue for REAP!) and split.