Parting Ways

David, Karen, and Paul Steinberg live in Pacific Grove, Calif. David is the puzzles and games editor for the Andrews McMeel Universal media company. Karen and Paul are his parents — also longtime puzzle enthusiasts.

The idea for this one was Paul's. David wrote a program to generate possible theme entries. When the standard 21 x 21-square grid couldn't be made to work for the theme, Karen suggested changing the grid size, which was successful.

Karen and David did the fill and Paul look the lead on the clues. This is the Times's first all-family crossword collaboration.

Paul's original proposed title for this puzzle was "One Way or Another" (like the Blondie song). His first thought was that the theme entries would have to be on diagonals (with circled squares) because he didn't think it would be possible to have them read both forward and backward. But David thought it might be by using a program.

Karen sifted through many, many single-spaced pages of candidates and, after removing the junk, whittled them down to 10 pages; everyone then discussed the best candidates to arrive at the final theme set.

Having flexibility in the grid size, because The Times occasionally publishes nonstandard sizes, was key to making this puzzle work. The taller and narrower 19x23 size David chose worked well, and he thought it might fly because it "played" like a 21x21 and even had 140 words.

Karen filled the grid, David made some changes, and because they didn't agree on one section (which neither of them liked), they decided they would separately fill it and then reconvene. They ultimately ended up using some parts of each person's fill. The 1-Across entry, MD-PHD, was the most controversial—no one was thrilled with it, especially in that position, but it allowed for the best fill in the upper left. After Paul did a draft of the clues, everyone helped finalize them.

Constructing newcomers Karen and Paul realize they're fortunate to have a crossword editor as a son!

You know what they say: the family that crosses words together never says cross words to get her!

Well, they should.

I loved seeing the three pics here: son, mother, and father, each contributing to the creation. I'll remember this one for that aspect alone.

Some great finds, too, especially those involving a space change. NO REG(R)ETS split into BERGERON and BERETS is excellent. And what a winner in DE(P)OSITION forking into PLUMPED / PLUM POSITION!

I didn't notice the Notepad until well after finishing, but I'm glad I did. I assumed that the circled letters had to be random because getting them to spell something out while adhering to the theme constraint and crossword symmetry would be near impossible. The key word is "near!" Spelling out SEPARATE separated this one from the pack.

All that, plus mid-length fill! Seven-letter slots often work best with boring entries like CHAPTER, so BIG NEWS, BODY ART, DETOXES, KASHMIR, MASCARA, PROGENY, TRILOGY add so much spice.

Entertaining discoveries all tied together with a solid meta-answer, put together by a family all contributing their parts? I could hardly ask for more.