New York Times, Thursday, December 29, 2022

We are delighted to share our first puzzle collaboration with you! This puzzle was developed in summer 2021 as we were wondering how it was possible that we had never made a puzzle together. Rachel had the initial theme idea with EMUS/EMULATES, and we worked together to nail down exactly how we wanted to execute the SHIFT mechanism. Together, we equally shared the work of selecting the theme entries, laying them out, and filling the grid, and then we wrote the clues together over Zoom, bouncing ideas off of each other and laughing a little too hard at the "Chicken king" echoing clues. We're delighted that our original clue for 40D made the final cut (representation matters!).

A little about us: we are the proud owners of the crossword blog Just Gridding, where we post our own puzzles, occasional collaborations with other fine crossword folk, and the occasional "Just-The-Grid," where we crowdsource clues to create a finished puzzle. We have also worked together on the fundraising crossword packs These Puzzles Fund Abortion and These Puzzles Fund Abortion Too. We are excited to be working on our next TPFA puzzle pack and encourage you to check out www.abortionpuzzles.com for more information about this project!

There are so many "entries that need some chunk removed to make sense of their clues" themes these days. To attract any attention, you have to do something different. Claire and Rachel did just that, neatly pairing up themers within rows and using LATE SHIFT. Row 3 has such a strong example: LATERALLY and TEMPS have to be interpreted as LATERALLY and TEMP(LATE)S. See how the LATE shifted from left to right?

There are many possibilities for this theme — you can use our Replacement Finder to see others — but Claire and Rachel picked great examples:

CIRCU(LATE)S <- EMULATES

COLLATED -> CLEAN S(LATE)

TRANS(LATE) <- VENTILATE

It was difficult to see some of these shifts, since LATE moved from any part of the first word to any part within the second. As much as I love trickiness on Thursdays, having some like this would be ideal:

TRANS(LATE) <- LATERALLY

Note how much easier it is to see that LATE shift, when it's simply jumping over one block, and not a random number of letters.

Gridding around five full rows is much harder than gridding around five long themers. That may be counterintuitive, but being forced into a couple of black square placements right off the bat takes away so much flexibility. Great use of diagonal slashes in the middle of the grid to separate the themers as much as possible. A bit of GOL is inevitable, but having the World Cup so recently behind us helps save that entry.

Ticky-tacky complaints aside, I loved this solving experience. I felt so smug thinking that I had it figured out at LATERALLY to RALLY, only to be slapped upside the head by TEMPS not making sense. Such a wonderful way to interpret LATE SHIFT for Thursday trickery.