INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

Dan Schoenholz, of Walnut Creek, Calif., is the community development director for the city of Fremont. Like many crossword constructors, he got his start after watching the 2006 documentary "Wordplay." The idea for this puzzle occurred to him one day when he was running on a trail that crossed a creek, and he thought of the clue and answer at 23-Across. Back home he searched an online crossword database and found that his theme idea was new.

This is Dan's 26th puzzle for The Times.

Many of my puzzle ideas over the years have come to me while running — brainstorming theme possibilities makes the miles go by faster. This puzzle was no exception. I'd had a vague notion to try to build a theme around terms like "c-sharp" and "g-force," but it hadn't gone anywhere.

Then one day while running in the hills near my house, I crossed a little footbridge over a creek and I remember thinking that a bridge was a span, which led to me to think of C-Span, which then somehow morphed into the realization that a covered bridge was a C-SPAN in a way. I quickly came up with a few other, similar examples, and thought I might be on to something.

When I got home, I did some searching in the XWord Info database to see if the theme had been done before. I did find this cool crossword by Andrew Zhou, but my idea was different enough from his that I moved forward with brainstorming more theme answers, selecting a symmetrical set, and then constructing the puzzle.

This puzzle is light on theme material (seven themers as compared to the eight or nine that I usually aim for in a Sunday), which allowed for a grid with more long and mid-length non-theme material than in most 21 x 21 puzzles that I've constructed. On that note, I'm amazed that OREOPIE is making its debut in a New York Times crossword: a seven-letter phrase with five vowels is extremely useful from a construction perspective, so whatever the reason for its absence to-date, I suspect it will show up again. ARTY-FARTY is also making its first appearance; those who know me won't be surprised at how tickled I am to be the guy responsible.

Because it's Earth Day when I'm writing this, it seems appropriate to note that proceeds from this puzzle are going to support my undergraduate alma mater, the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley, where faculty and students bring incredible energy and intellectual horsepower to bear on the many environmental challenges facing our country and our planet.

I came across P-trap = POTTY MOUTH first, and my hopes shot up. A Sunday grid is so big that needs a great theme to carry me all the way through, and this concept was so promising. Trap is slang for mouth, P-trap = phrase that starts with P and points to a mouth. Perfect!

GARDEN APARTMENT worked, too, although I wasn't sure what a GARDEN APARTMENT was — a flat with a garden outside? Apparently so! Easy enough to understand.

E-bond … even though my finance guy brain said, "does not compute," I vaguely recalled that term from a dark corner of my crossword memories. Ah. A series of bonds sold to raise WWII funds. Even though ELMERS GLUE fits it perfectly, not knowing what an E-bond was right away made it tough to enjoy.

C-sharp = COMPASS NEEDLE. There are sharps containers out there, but the connection from "sharp" to "needle" isn't as strong as I wanted. Feels like with all the musical notes, some other option would have been stronger. There are other C- phrases, too, like C-section, C-clamp, C-ration, etc.

Although the theme didn't hold my attention, the grid SURE DID! Excellent bonuses, so much AUTOTUNERS, ARTY-FARTY (artsy-fartsy feels more in use, but both are listed in dictionaries), NEW DEALER, SIREN SONG, and a lot more. It's not the cleanest grid in the world in terms of short fill but experiencing all those long bonuses was valuable.

Men in Black is one of my favorite classic movies, so repurposing that to describe GOTHS gave me a big smile.

Great concept that might not have hit its full potential, but I appreciated that Dan worked in so much else to enjoy.