New York Times, Wednesday, April 7, 2021

What a thrill it is to be making my NYT debut today! I'm 21 and a senior International Studies major at Macalester College from Laramie, Wyoming (special shout-out to any constructors from the Cowboy State!). I can't think of a theme concept more perfect for my first NYT acceptance than MARIO BROS. This one is for all the video game nerds like myself whose lives have been blessed by Shigeru Miyamoto's brilliance. If you're someone that is unfamiliar with Mario or doesn't enjoy video games, I'd highly encourage you to learn more about the Mario Bros franchise — if not for the gameplay or storylines, for the artistry behind them like the music and graphic design.

The inspiration for this puzzle came to me while watching a CNN interview with 53-Across. The not-so-subtle "A-HA" moment triggered by Mayor Bowser's last name sent me down a rabbit hole to see if there were enough Mario characters with names that were both recognizable to a wide audience and that could be disguised at the end of crossword answers. Much of the rest was luck: the length of the best theme answers for the only four characters that met both criteria (TOAD, PEACH, BOWSER, DAISY) matched up beautifully (10/12/12/10) and stacked favorably on top of each other. I dropped MARIO BROS in the center of the grid and swore to myself I would not give up until a puzzle came together.

Stacking theme answers opened up the puzzle nicely, giving me 14 slots of 7+ letters to add fun non-thematic fill to the grid. It's near impossible to convert every single one of those extra entries into colorful assets, but I hope there was enough ROOIBOS, PR SAVVY, TEACH ME, JINGOISM, SNL HOST, etc. to make it an enjoyable solve.

Finally, please reach out to me at adrianjohnson435 [at] gmail [dot] com or at my blog — I'd love to hear from you. Whether you're a constructor looking for mentorship, test-solving or collaboration, a solver looking to provide feedback, or someone after a custom puzzle for a friend, all messages are greatly appreciated!

When I hit MARIO BROS, I had such anticipation of the fun I'd have talking with Jim Horne, a non-gamer. I spent well over 100 hours playing Mario in my teens and twenties. So much to educate Jim about!

"Who's Daisy?" he asked.

. . .

Where's a power-up when you need it?

I could go on and on about Princess PEACH, who Mario rescues, and BOWSER, the big boss. TOAD wasn't as familiar, since he's more prominent in the later Mario games. Reading up on DAISY made me feel old, but she'll probably delight some younger gamers the way Luigi once did.

It's a shame LUIGI GALVANI hasn't reached the level of awareness of Tesla or Edison.

Adrian worked in some great entries — I was sure I had something wrong with so many consonants in a row: SNLH- and PRS-. Fantastic entries in SNL HOST and PR SAVVY.

Similar with vowels, in ROOI-. I can never remember how to spell (or pronounce) ROOIBOS, even though my wife keeps it in our pantry.

Even some of the simple vowel-consonant alternation words felt tricky — I never can remember what an ECOTONE is. And if you don't do a lot of crosswords, seeing two Js in the middle of a word (HAJJI) might baffle.

I couldn't exactly recall what a SEA GRAPE was, but it had a perfect clue, explaining everything a solver needs to know to piece it together.

All in all, lot of vocabulary that might trip folks up, but Adrian did a nice job making sure the crossings were fair. Appropriate for a Wednesday, if on the challenging side.

Fantastic clue for TETRIS — the pieces literally "falling into place."

Playful debut that I'm sure will elate today's generation of Mario fanatics. However, if you're not a Mario player, you can still solve it as a tough themeless.

Today's puzzle marks Will Shortz's 10,000^th daily crossword as New York Times Puzzle Editor.

In my blog post, The 10,000 Days of Shortz, I share some of my own stories and observations.

Over at Wordplay (my old job, as Bill Maher likes to say). Deb Amlen has an extensive interview with Will.