New York Times, Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Hello, Crossworld! I teach English at Barrington (IL) High School. Go Broncos!

I may be the Person Who Took the Longest to Get an NYT Puzzle Accepted. I submitted my first puzzle in 2007. Fourteen years and 30ish rejections later, on June 16, 2021, I opened an email from the Times including the glorious words "we are delighted to officially say YES!" Weeping may have ensued.

This might also be the first puzzle completed with psychic help. After receiving a conditional acceptance pending extensive revisions, I chatted with my friend, psychic Marla Frees, who helped me overcome severe "reviser's block". Having no knowledge of the puzzle, Marla intuitively guided me to the very thing I had to do to successfully revise!

I dedicate this puzzle to my parents who would have been very excited today. Both were alive when I submitted my first puzzle but have since passed away. Also to my awesome brother Rick!

@Carly Simon, 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee/my favorite singer/songwriter: If you'd like to collaborate on a New York Times celebrity puzzle, JLMK! Twitter @Baker_BHS.

Today's theme quip isn't original to me, though I feel I made it my own with the 15/3/15/3/15 layout and the intriguing solitary rebus. It was hard to include exciting longer fill, though I like SAWHORSE, TAKE FLAK, LIT OUT, SURE DO, COOL TO. Ideally, I'd have replaced FRUTTI, KISSIN, and PENH but was glad to include Agatha Christie, teenaged-me's favorite author.

Quip puzzles are some of the most divisive crosswords, judging by the sheer quantity of hate mail I see around them. They're not my favorite, since everything rides on a single quote — either it sticks the landing for a perfect ten, or it falls on its butt. Today's elicited a rare chuckle for me, but more importantly, that E/A square helped elevate it. It's unusual to have a single oddball square, and today's was both easy enough to figure out and served as a great punchline.

It can be tricky to split out quips into symmetrical lengths, and the 15 / 3 / 15 / 3 / 15 does work. It's not ideal, though, since those tiny 3-letter words make it feel fragmented. Since this isn't an exact quote that must be duplicated letter by letter, perhaps a different wording could have worked.

The best I could come up with — after an hour's worth of banging my head! — involved much different wording:

• NO MATTER HOW HARD 15
• YOU PUSH 7
• THE ENVELOPE 11
• IT STILL 7
• STAYS STATIONARY 15

That's worse than Rob's solution, but you get the idea of where brainstorming might head.

It's important for quote puzzles to have smooth fill since solvers can essentially only use Down clues. Rob did solid work there, with no oddballs making the puzzle intractable. Bonuses like SAWHORSE and TAKE FLAK also added color while remaining accessible.

It wasn't great to have so many add-a-preposition entries in COOL TO, STICK TO, AS TO, LIT OUT, but I sure appreciate mid-length bonuses like SURE DO.

Quips have to be amazingly zingy and/or contain an element that helps make them memorable. While today's didn't quite elevate into the ranks of the quote puzzle Hall of Fame, it will surely stick in my memory.