John-Clark Levin author page
5 puzzles by John-Clark Levin
with Constructor comments
See the 18 answer words debuted by John-Clark Levin.
| M | A | I | N | S | A | L | D | A | C | L | A | D | ||
| A | L | L | I | E | N | A | A | N | H | A | T | E | ||
| G | L | E | N | N | I | O | T | A | ||||||
| N | E | E | R | E | A | C | T | O | P | T | E | D | ||
| E | R | G | O | L | E | W | I | S | ||||||
| T | I | A | R | A | I | N | N | A | T | E | ||||
| S | A | L | A | D | A | D | D | S | N | S | A | |||
| L | O | N | G | J | O | H | N | S | ||||||
| A | H | A | C | O | S | T | F | L | A | G | S | |||
| D | E | N | A | D | A | L | A | I | L | A | ||||
| A | D | A | M | S | P | R | O | M | ||||||
| S | T | R | O | P | Y | A | P | A | T | B | R | O | ||
| T | H | O | R | E | L | W | A | Y | ||||||
| R | E | I | N | A | Y | L | A | I | L | L | B | E | ||
| A | N | D | S | T | E | S | T | T | I | L | E | D | ||
| M | A | T | C | H | E | S | M | O | S | A | I | C | S | |
| T | H | E | H | E | L | P | O | N | A | N | D | O | N | |
| V | A | N | I | L | L | A | S | C | R | E | A | M | O | |
| V | O | I | C | E | T | E | A | C | H | E | R | |||
| O | B | S | E | S | S | E | D | D | O | T | E | |||
| B | I | N | C | O | S | T | C | O | ||||||
| A | D | A | S | T | R | A | C | H | A | T | G | P | T | |
| M | E | R | M | A | I | D | R | E | F | E | R | E | E | |
| A | T | L | A | R | G | E | E | Y | E | S | O | R | E | |
| L | O | A | T | H | E | W | I | N | ||||||
| O | R | A | L | I | N | S | T | A | L | L | S | |||
| P | O | R | T | A | P | O | T | T | I | E | S | |||
| R | U | B | I | C | O | N | E | N | R | A | G | E | D | |
| A | T | O | M | A | N | T | S | A | S | H | I | M | I | |
| H | E | R | E | I | G | O | T | I | E | I | T | U | P |
| O | K | G | O | O | G | L | E | A | L | T | P | O | P | |
| C | A | R | S | A | L | E | S | P | A | R | O | L | E | |
| T | H | E | S | K | Y | S | T | H | E | L | I | M | I | T |
| A | L | E | S | P | I | R | O | A | B | O | V | E | ||
| N | U | T | S | H | O | E | S | W | A | D | E | R | ||
| E | A | S | E | D | N | E | T | S | L | O | O | P | ||
| R | A | P | T | E | A | S | R | I | A | |||||
| C | O | B | B | L | E | R | L | I | N | C | O | L | N | |
| D | R | E | I | C | E | D | D | U | O | |||||
| P | E | A | K | S | P | A | S | B | O | R | I | S | ||
| L | O | R | N | A | A | Y | E | S | S | A | G | A | ||
| A | C | H | E | S | S | T | R | I | P | G | N | U | ||
| Y | O | U | W | O | N | T | R | E | G | R | E | T | I | T |
| E | N | G | I | N | E | I | N | N | O | V | A | T | E | |
| R | E | S | T | E | D | P | A | S | S | A | G | E | S |
Delighted to be making my NYT themeless debut today! While I enjoy both themed and themeless construction, themes are so subjective that basically any concept will leave some solvers out in the cold. By contrast, the standard to aspire to on Fridays and Saturdays feels relatively more objective — even if it's harder to meet. The technical difficulties in doing so are a very satisfying challenge.
Today's puzzle was built around 17- and 63-Across, which struck me as really vivid and evocative phrases in the language. The diagonal stripe of blocks between them down the center limits the statistical dependency between the four quadrants — for example, the entries in the northwest weren't super constraining on what could fill the southeast.
This allowed the corners to be significantly cleaner and livelier than would have otherwise been possible. I know opinions on this vary, but I prefer puzzles that prioritize a smooth solve over maximizing openness and interconnect.
On a culinary note, if you haven't made 12-Down, it's one of my favorite Italian dishes. Quick and easy to make, even for novice chefs like me, and outrageously good when tomatoes are in season. You won't regret it.
Hope you all enjoy!
| B | U | S | P | A | S | S | A | R | C | H | E | R | S | T | A | M | E | |||
| I | F | O | R | G | E | T | R | O | S | E | T | E | A | S | U | G | A | R | ||
| G | O | T | O | A | R | E | S | T | A | U | R | A | N | T | A | R | E | N | A | |
| P | R | E | P | A | I | D | I | T | S | V | E | N | T | S | ||||||
| E | O | S | N | U | K | E | C | O | L | A | B | E | E | T | L | E | ||||
| D | U | C | T | T | A | P | E | P | O | R | E | C | L | E | A | N | S | E | R | |
| A | T | A | R | I | A | S | T | E | R | O | I | D | S | |||||||
| M | O | R | E | L | L | E | I | A | P | B | S | A | H | A | B | |||||
| F | E | N | D | O | U | R | R | A | D | E | M | O | T | E | ||||||
| T | O | D | D | Y | A | R | D | S | A | L | E | S | B | R | A | W | L | S | ||
| W | R | Y | B | E | F | O | R | E | P | I | C | T | U | R | E | D | O | E | ||
| I | D | C | A | R | D | S | O | L | I | T | A | I | R | E | R | A | N | T | ||
| N | E | A | T | O | P | A | D | D | E | N | T | E | R | G | ||||||
| E | R | T | E | M | A | E | M | E | S | S | A | C | E | L | A | |||||
| M | O | R | T | G | A | G | E | S | M | A | Y | A | N | |||||||
| B | A | K | E | I | N | T | H | E | S | U | N | L | A | M | P | P | O | S | T | |
| E | V | E | N | S | O | E | T | S | Y | S | A | R | A | U | T | E | ||||
| S | E | R | G | E | I | R | S | C | O | W | E | R | E | D | ||||||
| I | N | N | E | R | M | E | A | T | S | U | B | S | T | I | T | U | T | E | S | |
| D | U | E | L | S | P | A | N | C | A | K | E | H | A | N | S | O | L | O | ||
| E | E | L | S | S | L | A | M | M | E | R | A | N | A | T | O | M | Y |
This idea first came to me during a brainstorming session with Jeff Chen back in 2018. We were tossing around concepts for puzzles to collaborate on, but the phonetic substitutions here struck Jeff as "probably a bit too out there." Fifteen months later, I was flying home to California from England just as Covid hit. Probably somewhere over Canada, I finished my work, but I still had plenty of laptop battery. So I dusted off the old idea and had a draft grid by the time LAX came into view. Life got in the way, and it was another couple of years before I could polish it up and send it to the NYT.
The themer set in the published puzzle is the same one from 2018 — I later thought of MAS(TERKEY) but it didn't fit, and never found something workable for "chicken" (maybe someone reading this will discover one!).
I dedicate this puzzle to my late father, Michael Levin, who passed away after it was completed. Over the past couple of years, he couldn't solve on paper due to vision problems but could still complete puzzles just from hearing the clues and visualizing the whole puzzle mentally. Incredible!
| A | G | R | E | E | R | A | G | C | L | A | R | O | ||
| F | R | O | T | H | E | C | O | P | O | P | I | N | ||
| F | I | S | T | S | D | E | S | R | O | L | F | S | ||
| A | F | T | A | E | F | R | E | M | T | A | F | T | ||
| B | F | A | A | M | I | B | E | A | T | T | I | A | ||
| L | I | N | E | M | A | N | K | N | I | F | I | N | G | |
| E | N | D | P | I | N | A | V | E | N | G | E | |||
| H | E | A | D | T | O | T | O | E | ||||||
| C | H | A | R | T | O | R | T | E | B | L | O | C | ||
| L | O | G | O | E | L | I | T | E | L | O | L | A | ||
| E | L | E | N | A | M | O | E | T | E | N | D | S | ||
| F | D | R | T | S | A | R | A | H | G | S | T | |||
| S | A | S | H | A | M | E | N | L | O | |||||
| M | O | N | K | E | Y | S | S | I | N | U | O | U | S | |
| D | U | G | I | N | T | O | A | S | S | I | S | T | S | |
| S | T | E | T | S | O | N | W | H | A | T | T | H | E |
JOHN-CLARK: I'm delighted to be making my Times debut today alongside the fantastic Jeff Chen, with whom I've collaborated on several puzzles in other publications.
The idea for this one came out of brainstorming Jeff and I were doing around interesting letter movements—once we settled on HEAD TO TOE, the main challenge was finding pairs that were 1) long enough to be interesting, 2) widely familiar, 3) natural, and 4) pleasantly surprising. Jeff wrote some code to do an exhaustive search, but our choices were limited because most candidates didn't meet all those criteria. The first condition ruled out HEART/EARTH as too short. The second scotched GERVIN/ERVING, since many solvers won't know retired basketball stars. GELATIN is fun, but ELATING is an unusual form that feels a bit like crosswordese. And DEVOLVE/EVOLVED are too similar to each other. When we settled on the themers that made it into the puzzle, we liked that no pair shared any meaningful morphological elements (e.g. VOLV), hopefully increasing that sense of "aha!" on noticing each connection.
A few words of introduction to the NYT solvership ... I'm an Ojai, California native, and currently a Ph.D. student at Cambridge in the UK, studying how governments can do a better job anticipating the impacts of artificial intelligence. I also work as an author and journalist at the intersection of technology, politics, and security. Among more lighthearted pursuits, I've been known to perform stage magic and stand-up comedy, and will take even the flimsiest excuse to sing Tom Lehrer's The Elements. I'm quite new to solving (let along constructing) crosswords — although my dad has been a lifelong fan, and as a kid I enjoyed helping out when he'd announce "Ayyubid sultan, S---D-N" around the breakfast table. But credit to dear family friend and avid cruciverbalist Ivan Roth for giving me the inspiration to finally give it a real try. And big thanks to Will, Sam, Joel, and Andy for their improvements to our puzzle, and being a pleasure to work with!