J | E | A | N | P | A | L | M | H | A | S | N | T | ||
O | R | B | S | I | P | S | O | O | C | H | O | A | ||
B | A | B | Y | A | L | B | U | M | T | R | A | M | S | |
S | T | A | N | C | E | A | F | I | R | S | T | |||
C | H | I | L | D | P | R | O | D | I | G | Y | |||
E | B | B | T | O | R | I | N | O | ||||||
T | E | E | N | V | O | G | U | E | T | O | A | S | T | |
C | A | R | E | E | N | S | I | M | I | L | E | |||
H | U | M | O | R | A | D | U | L | T | S | W | I | M | |
M | O | D | U | L | E | A | P | P | ||||||
S | E | N | I | O | R | M | O | M | E | N | T | |||
A | C | O | R | N | S | P | E | E | W | E | E | |||
G | O | T | A | T | G | H | O | S | T | T | O | W | N | |
E | L | A | T | E | T | E | R | I | R | O | O | D | ||
S | I | X | E | R | O | X | E | N | A | S | K | S |
I'm super excited to have a crossword published in the New York Times! I've only been solving crosswords for about a year and a half—I began when my cousins introduced me to them over Thanksgiving in 2016. After that, I and was hooked—I now joke that crosswords are my only hobby.
About a year ago, I was hosting a potluck on World Giraffe Day (June 21), and decided to try to make a crossword with giraffe trivia for my friends. It did not follow the common rules of crosswords (it was asymmetrical and had unchecked squares) but I had a lot of fun making it, and all my friends really enjoyed solving it. After that, I decided to try to construct crosswords to submit to be published.
This is the second puzzle I submitted, and I went through many versions of it trying to get the cleanest fill possible before sending it in. Thank you to my family and friends for always being willing to be test solvers and for tolerating me frequently talking about crosswords!