REVOLUTIONARY

David Steinberg sold his first crossword to The Times in 2011, when he was 14 and just finishing the eighth grade. A prolific contributor since then, he has had 94 crosswords in the paper altogether.

A 2019 graduate of Stanford University, studying psychology and computer science, David recently moved to Kansas City, Mo., to edit crosswords for Andrews McMeel Universal syndicate.

As is the case with a surprising number of my puzzle ideas, this one came to me during finals week. I had a 15-page term paper due two days later, which made the opportunity to "procrastistruct" a 21x21 more appealing than ever before!

My first challenge was coming up with a symmetric, lively theme set. I made a point of avoiding theme entries with extraneous ball strings, such as CLASSICAL BALLET for the LBAL slot. The theme set I almost used had WELL-BALANCED DIET paired with FALLBACK POSITION. Both of these entries seemed a little dry and perhaps more in-the-language as just balanced diet and fallback, respectively. After coming up with the four main theme entries, I threw in GOES FOR A SPIN and TURN TURN TURN to ensure that there would be enough theme material.

For 21x21s, I'm the kind of constructor who prefers 142- or 144-word grids with silky-smooth fill to 140-word grids with more pizzazz but also more trade-offs. In this grid, I attempted to balance the two philosophies by keeping the individual sections relatively closed off. As per usual with my grids nowadays, I made a point of avoiding trivia and spreading the cultural references I did use across generations.

I wrote a good chunk of the clues on the plane ride home from this year's ACPT. A couple of my favorites are [Producer of brown eggs] for CADBURY and [Garden item that sounds like the plural of another garden item] for HOSE. I also included two shoutouts to my new home, Kansas City: [Burnt barbecue bits] for ENDS and [Royals' org.] for MLB.

Hope you enjoy!

The mighty orb, fit for a king or queen with its regal aura. What Atlas held high! The onus of Sisyphus! Lo, the lunar rotundity!

I'm apparently obsessed with balls.

It's rare for a Sunday puzzle to hold my attention all the way through. This one did. The theme wasn't stellar, but there were enough visuals — the four spheres in thin outlines, and the giant one quasi-outlined by black squares — to pique my interest.

David did a standout grid job, giving us quality fill, packed with a huge quantity of bonuses. It's almost impossible to execute on a Sunday 140-word puzzle without some ENS ESSE FHA NCO OBI RTE USS, but note how minor and ignorable most of those things are. I doubt most solvers would even remember encountering them.

And the bonuses — these are just my top ten (!):

1. APPARATED (sorry, Muggles — this is HP's equivalent of teleporting)
2. TASMANIA
3. POTLATCH
4. QUANTICO
5. BRAVADO
6. DEFCON
7. KAZOOS
8. CAT TOYS
9. KIRSCH
10. REGIFTS

Okay, I have to mention one more. How brilliant is [It charges to do some cleaning]? Everyone charges to do some cleaning, even my enterprising four-year-old. But wait — "charges," as in plugs in to the wall! Delightful.

Creating a magical Sunday grid isn't magic. It's a matter of not trying to do anything lower than 140 words, being careful about spreading out your themers, and then spending dozens of hours testing, resetting, repeating, exploring nearly every branch of your decision tree. Once you get to David's level of experience, it comes much faster, but I imagine this one still took an eternity.

The themers felt more like they were worming — right, down, left, down — more than rolling, but what can you do. When you have little features like having the first themer be GET THE BALL ROLLING, it's easy to brush away the quibbles.