Matt Fuchs author page

MATT: It is so exciting to see this puzzle run on my birthday — thank you to the Times for this awesome and memorable present!

Victor wrote me after the publication of my last Times puzzle expressing his interest in learning more about crossword construction. While I struggle to devise theme ideas and prefer the later stages of filling grids and writing clues, Victor had no shortage of theme proposals and was eager to develop them further. After some exchanges in which Victor brought up phrases involving animals like "Pigs in a Blanket" or "Elephant in the Room," it occurred to us that we could represent those "___ in the ___" expressions using literal Across and Down crossings. That realization also meant we could eliminate the inconsistencies or redundancies of articles and pronouns from one phrase to another.

Since my last puzzle, I started graduate school in architecture and am currently living in Cambridge, MA, where I understand the puzzle community is strong. It's tough to balance puzzle constructing with the school schedule, but I hope to find more time for it and to branch out further in the world of puzzle people!

VICTOR: This puzzle is dedicated to the memory of my father, Gilbert Sloan, who died peacefully on May 24 at the age of 94. While he didn't get to see the puzzle in print, I did tell him it had been accepted, and he was one of our test solvers. Whenever we would visit, I would photocopy the puzzle (yes, I still solve on paper) and we would work on it side by side. We would also listen to the Sunday Puzzle on NPR (with Will Shortz) and we would race to solve it and call the other person.

I got the theme idea from a book about English language curiosities and realized there were a number of animal idioms in the form (animal) in the ____. I reached out to Matt, who graciously agreed to work with me to bring this to fruition. I learned so much in our collaboration.

My portion of the payment for this puzzle will be donated to the Newark Museum of Art's Explorers Program, which is the successor to the Junior Museum program that gave my father his first exposure to science in the 1930s.

About me: I am a rheumatologist currently working for the Peace Corps (I was a Volunteer in Cameroon from 1981-83). This October, my wife Sandra Gong and I will celebrate our 35^th anniversary. We are the proud parents of 2 amazing daughters, ages 24 and 19.

I am thrilled to be returning to The New York Times with a second puzzle! A lot has occurred since my Times debut. Back then, I was halfway through high school, and my understanding of crossword construction at that time seems rather naïve to me now. During college, my crossword productivity slowed to a trickle, but now that I've graduated, I have been able to return to puzzling more actively.

By day, I am working to become an architect, and in my spare time I'm pursuing several interests (puzzles included), such as studying French and creating art projects at a local glass studio just outside Washington, D.C.

The seed for this theme was the expression DARN SOCKS, which I realized could be interpreted as a funny expletive. This entry sat idle for a while until I managed to hunt down other phrases to complete the set of themers. In designing my grid, I tried maximizing the number of seven letter entries, because I've found them to be a sweet spot for evocative words and phrases (answers like TIKI BAR, I'M NO USE, LAB MICE, and CAR WASH appeal to me because they pack so much color into a mid-length slot and are ripe for clever clues).

I'm always excited to develop a new puzzle, so if anyone's looking to collaborate, feel free to email me here at mattfuchspuzzles@gmail.com. I look forward to writing and contributing more puzzles and hope it's not another seven years before my next appearance in the Times!

I am a sixteen-year-old student from Bethesda, Maryland. Even though I am young, I have loved solving crosswords for a long time. In the past couple years, I became interested in making my own crosswords, and I have been the puzzlemaker for my high school newspaper since then.

This puzzle, which marks my debut in The New York Times, was a total adventure and learning experience for me. It started when I met Ian Livengood, an alumnus of my school and a prolific Times crossword contributor, at my school's career day. I told him about my love of crosswords, and he encouraged me to submit one of my puzzles to The Times.

I had constructed the earliest version of this puzzle to be used in my school's newspaper. Bringing the puzzle up to Times quality, however, required me to rework and refine both the theme and the fill. Though the original theme stayed the same, some of the original theme words, such as UNKNOWN QUANTITY, and HIDDEN TALENTS, didn't make it through the editing process. It took me a while to refine the theme, with phrases such as VICTORIAS SECRET and LA CONFIDENTIAL tossed around, but eventually the puzzle all came together, and PRIVATE PARTS and its double meaning came to be.

Some of my favorite words in this puzzle that came from all the reworking and the many drafts include CLAM BAKE, JOURNAL, FIVE AM, and my hometown shout-out, DC AREA. Unfortunately, some of my other favorite words such as EXLAX (I really like Scrabble-y letters) and SINATRA didn't make it, but hopefully they will make it into my next Times puzzle!