New York Times, Monday, March 27, 2023

TRENT: As the author of several children's novels featuring puzzles and riddles, I might reasonably be assumed to be a long-time fan of crosswords, but my love for them came late — only a few years ago, really, when Simon first began constructing. Our conversations about the process revealed similarities between what he was doing and I was doing — the wordplay, the misdirection, the pleasure in creating something satisfying to solve — and we agreed it would be fun to collaborate on a puzzle one day.

We made no definite plan, but occasionally I'd have an idea about a theme and ask Simon if anyone had done one like it. If the idea was promising, it inevitably had been done. If it weren't promising (or even feasible), Simon would diplomatically explain why. But eventually, I had an idea with potential, Simon said he'd tinker around with it, and the next thing I knew, we were cluing the puzzle. It was great fun to work on, and I'm delighted to see our first collaboration appear in the NYT.

SIMON: Since they didn't make the cut, I recommend solving to the Talking Heads' This Must Be the Place.

Complete sets of three to five things are crossword construction gold. Figure out how to cleverly disguise or misdirect away from those set elements, and voila!

Today Simon and Trenton play twenty questions — er, six questions — to hint at the animal, vegetable, and mineral in three band names: COUNTING CROWS, SMASHING PUMPKINS, ROLLING STONES. It took me forever to figure this out, counting the minutes as I was smashing my head on my desk. I was anything but rolling, but I enjoyed earning my a-ha moment.

In 2007, I was mulling over a career change, and I randomly picked up The Mysterious Benedict Society. Three hours later, I'd decided to work toward becoming a middle grade author. Talk about an influential experience! Those first 50 pages consumed me.

I literally squeed (rhymes with "peed") when I saw Trenton's byline today. My kids are now devouring his books, just the other day telling me how much more talented he is than me.

Kids say the darnedest things.

Great work gridding around the middle section. It's not easy to work around the gap in a divided themer — apt that GAP fills the gap!

Fine, he is more talented than me!

Employing only three themers ups my expectations around fill, and Simon and Trenton delivered. SPACE RACE, MAINSAIL, AMBROSIA, SLIDESHOW are excellent. There is a RACE / RACING duplication, but how many solvers notice that kind of thing?

I would have loved some extra element to explain why we were playing Twenty Questions around band names — feels like MATCHBOX 20 wanted to be involved somehow? Thankfully, the freshness in the clues kept my OCD brain distracted. I've never heard ROLOS defined as "fez-shaped," but that's precisely how I'll describe them from now on.