New York Times, Thursday, September 30, 2021

As I mulled how to make an auditory-centric puzzle, an idea clicked. I snapped up my scratchpad and scraped together a list of every sound ever made. I thought knocking out a list of zippy theme entries would be a snap but finding combinations that sizzled was a grind. Can you think of any other sound pairs that aren't in the puzzle?

Interestingly, quite a few of the sounds I collected are also the names of tech companies (e.g., Twitter, Yelp, and Zoom). If you are a tech startup looking for a name and wanting access to my highly proprietary list, please make a generous contribution to Rachel Fabi's fund to help Texan women deprived of access to safe abortions. She'll send you a bunch of excellent crosswords to boot.

Finding clever clues for common fill words is tough. My favorite by the NYT staff today was "place to live and learn." Speaking of which, Joel was a pleasure to work with on this puzzle.

If you've already learned how to construct a puzzle and are wondering how to hone your craft, I highly recommend finding a constructing buddy. Different from a mentor, a constructing buddy is someone who is at your level of experience — someone who you can freely bounce ideas off and who does the same with you. This can be helpful for a few reasons:

1. Constructing can be pretty solitary. Bringing someone into the mix can make it much more enjoyable. (There's a reason collaborations are so popular.)
2. Helping someone else is an excellent way to learn. Having to express what you like/dislike about your buddy's theme idea, grid structure, and fill will deepen your own understanding of what makes for a great puzzle.
3. It's easy to lose perspective when you are excited about a theme idea or puzzle grid. You need someone to help you kill your darlings.
4. The process of bouncing ideas back and forth can lead to new insights. Your buddy might steer you in a new direction or rescue your theme by finding a match for your orphan theme entry.
5. Dealing with rejection is a huge part of being a successful constructor. The five stages of grief go down easier with a friendly ear.

For me, that person is Simeon Seigel. His insight, creativity, and patience have been a godsend to my constructing. This puzzle would not be here without him.

If you want to try working with a constructing buddy, reach out to me on FB or Twitter and I'll find a match for you.

SOUND MIXING, indicating two-word phrases that are made up of two common sounds. Rich made a great call kicking off the puzzle with TWITTER BUZZ. Not only is it a fresh entry, but there's something so neat about the natural pairing of birds and bees. The clue misled me in a wonderful way, making me think that [Birds] + [Bees] was going to lead down a very different path.

No, I didn't write in THE JOY OF SEX, you did!

Alas, that might be asking for too much. To find several pairs like a RING and a POP merging into a RING POP is still interesting.

LOW ROLL was the weak link. I appreciate that it's harder to identify a LOWing as a cow's sound, and ROLL's meaning changes nicely from that of thunder, but it feels like an arbitrary phrase. For example, "snake eyes" is so much more in the language.

Rich featured so many great bonuses in his grid, so useful in holding the attention of solvers who might not connect strongly to the theme. I don't care for AS A PIN as a six-letter partial, but getting the color in DOWN ARROW, MAINSTAGE, PLANE RIDE, and DATA MINER feels worth it.

Now I'm curious how many other theme phrases are possible. My first impression was that there are probably hundreds of possibilities, given how many noises there are (anyone who doubts this doesn't have young kids). However, the constraint of having to pair them to form a valid phrase would make things challenging. Well done to find these four that work!