New York Times, Friday, June 23, 2023

I first encountered the New York Times crossword puzzle one Saturday in high school. I scanned the clues and guessed a few answers before putting it away. Years later, my partner, Emily, and her mother — both avid crossword solvers — explained the rules to me, and it was then that I began solving the NYT puzzle regularly. During the pandemic, I started constructing my own crosswords, initially just for friends and family. I loved the challenge of it, and I'm so proud to now have a crossword published in the NYT!

I seeded this puzzle with PALATE CLEANSER, which I thought was a refreshing entry. It took me a while to get the upper left to work out, but once I decided on MAGICAL REALISM as the other long entry, PEOPLE PLEASER and MONOPOLY MONEY fell into place pretty quickly. I hope you enjoy this Friday puzzle!

Diagonal symmetry isn't for everyone. I love the novelty of it, and there are several technical aspects that constructors can take advantage of. Some people have trouble seeing diagonal symmetry, though, so I've gotten many "this is weird" comments over the years. I appreciated Kunal's big black triangle in the upper left corner, which automatically shouts from the rooftops that this cannot be regular symmetry. You can almost picture it as an arrow that runs along the axis of symmetry.

One of the benefits of diagonal symmetry is that you can run pairs of long entries together in one corner, and you don't have to replicate the feat in the opposite corner. MONOPOLY MONEY / PALATE CLEANSER + PEOPLE PLEASER / MAGICAL REALISM is a feat of magical people pleasing.

It's so helpful to have the flexibility to change the lengths of your marquee entries in the opposite corner. NEWSROOM / DRIES OUT + TIME LOOP / UNCTUOUS is a solid quartet, and you could even try 9-letter entries instead of 8s. I like Kunal's decision to stick with 8s, which allowed for extra bonuses, even — keep it up with KOI PONDS and KEEP IT UP!

This isn't a standard 70-word themeless layout, so I'm more willing to accept some TOI GMAN ASET STET dings to make the quartets of intersecting answers happen. Still, with even more DELS IRANI (more commonly IRANIAN) SSA MTA, it's too much for me to give it POW! consideration.

Although we're seeing more diagonal symmetry lately, it's still a genre that doesn't have much precedent to study. Neat that a debut constructor would take up the challenge.