New York Times, Saturday, April 24, 2021

MIKE: I had only wanted to publish a NYT puzzle on a Saturday someday so it's extra sweet that this is my debut! Kristian and I have written many puzzles, and most collabs have gone like this: I get stuck with about half a grid, maybe with a few marquee entries I'd like to keep, and then he keeps the best stuff and finishes the grid, also taking care of house-keeping issues like cheater squares and such.

He knows how much I love cluing, so he lets me have first crack at the clues, then he'll edit those and let me have a last look, and voila. I absolutely adore ‘?' clues — my fave part of the whole process is coming up with clever clues for as many entries as possible. It doesn't hurt our creative process that we've been close friends for over 30 years.

As for me, I've been an avid solver since 1996 or so, but I mainly solve (and construct) themelesses. My earliest constructions were dreadful. Early in 2020 (not originally having to do with the pandemic) I really dove in. I found dozens of unfinished drafts, and started many new projects. I work at crossword construction most days, some days for hours. I have a Ph.D. in poetry — my 2nd book, "Letter to So-and-So from Wherever," is available from C&R Press. I'm also a singer-songwriter — my band CLOP's album, Fame For Zoe, is available on iTunes, Spotify, and elsewhere. I'm also a self-described KenKen expert.

KRISTIAN: We met on our first day of college, and we've been friends ever since. I'm so happy that his debut puzzle is a Saturday NYT puzzle, as it has been a dream of his for years to get a themeless puzzle published in the Times.

This puzzle started the way most of our collaborations start — Mike sent me a partial grid with some great entries, and I worked through it to try to fill it without compromising the good stuff while trying to minimize the not-so-good stuff. I'm really happy with the result. I really like Mike's stack in the upper left corner and I like 9-Down and 30-Down. I also love some of the clue changes that the editorial team made, with my favorite being the clue for 63-Across. I hope everyone enjoys the puzzle as much as I enjoyed working on it with Mike.

I've had the fortune to spend some time with Kristian at the ACPT several times, so it gave me a laugh to see some of his humor come out today. There's something so hilarious about a Saturday NYT crossword kicking off with DIM BULB and WISEACRE. Beautiful clue for AWAY TEAM, too — I could not imagine what kind of Rocky Mountains wouldn't be in Colorado. That's baseball's Colorado Rockies, on the road!

I flew through this puzzle, finishing in well under record time. Given my theory that difficulty and enjoyment are often inversely proportional, I should have given this one the POW!, right? I did enjoy it, especially with the fantastic wordplay in KRIS KRINGLE as a literal "stocking stuffer," and LADY FRIENDS cleverly using the modern word "boo," as in one's romantic partner.

So why did I enjoy yesterday's more? I couldn't place my finger on it, but it helped to list out some of today's entries:

HARRY STYLES

ANISTON

ELOISE

MASERATI

BEAVIS

MRS POTTS

These are all people that others will likely resonate strongly with — maybe someone who loved Eloise as a kid, someone who watched a lot of Beavis and Butthead, someone who's soothed by Angela Lansbury's singing voice. Me, not so much — but that's okay. It's not simply that these folks are all Caucasian. It's that I don't have a personal connection to any of them. People-heavy puzzles can be divisive, but as Erik Agard said recently, if this one isn't aimed at you, that's okay; hopefully, an upcoming one will be.

Fantastic clue to end this post: [Hardly a man without morals] as AESOP. No morals to this post, simply one dimbulb's opinions.