New York Times, Thursday, June 15, 2023

First solo! I was still so new for my debut collab in 2021 that my co-constructor had to do most of the heavy lifting — I've developed a bunch as a constructor since then. I've also gone into video game law & joined a competitive Only Connect fan league since then, it's been a wild few years.

A couple of puzzles have used this central themer to signal answers circling back on themselves, but the phrase "square one" feels so literal in crosswords that I kept wondering if I could make it work with a different take. My ground rules:

• Both across and down themers, each keeping direction like they emerge from a portal.
• 1A/1D should feel like complete entries, not suffixes, so the puzzle doesn't start with something gluey.
• 1A/1D have to finish lots of words without feeling repetitive or cheap, so there weren't too many viable options that started with the same letter.
• The themers shouldn't just take a suffix to make a different version of the same word, there should always be a twist.

I really like the variety of themer changes. A couple do have semantic links — VICARs stand in VICARIOUSly for higher-level clergy — but hopefully, none felt predictable. Interestingly, the submission suggested not flagging themers, but the asterisks are mildly less evil if you're into that.

Just a little look at my theme process. Come say hi @hero_complex on Twitter and suggest other fun themer pairs!

I've brainstormed with so many people on BACK TO SQUARE ONE concepts, running through such a vast range of potential implementations. I'd never considered going to back to 1-Across for Across themers AND 1-Down for Downs! Clever way to flesh out the concept and to avoid the problem I always worried about: repetitiveness. After FACET(IOUS) and SPEC(IOUS), I might have stopped solving, but then PASS(IOUS) didn't make sense. My frustration flipped to delight when I realized it was PASS(IONS).

Why IOUS and IONS? As David mentioned, they 1.) have numerous Replacement Finds and 2.) start with the same letter. In the past, I've even considered using IOUS at 1-Across, but I worried that solvers would wonder, why that particular entry? Turns out that having both IOUS and IONS crossing at the I — the Roman numeral for one! — made me forget about asking why; my critical brain simply clicking off to enjoy the experience.

Why not have all the themers symmetrically placed, though? Although there's only one strong seven-letter IOUS find in CONTENT(IOUS), you could use mirror symmetry and even delay the revealer to the bottom of the grid—

Sorry, I'll stop my TED(IOUS) why why why and simply say that David managed to create something that I could not. I'm both envious and pleased for NYT solvers who got treated to so much fun.