Michael Schlossberg author page

The Very Hungry Caterpillar was one of our family's go-to bedtime stories when our children were little. Because it's such a recognizable book, I thought that a Caterpillar-themed puzzle would appeal to a broad range of solvers.

The biggest challenge I had in constructing this puzzle was to find a theme set that disguised the letters of TIDBITS within the caterpillar foods and their larger phrases while at the same time maintaining grid symmetry. I would have liked to have been able to line up the circles in the grid, as Will mentions in his note, and not all of the hidden foods spanned two or more words in their theme entries.

Also, it would have been nice to have had LEAF appear last, like in the book. I could have done this using CHE[L(S)EA F]C, which would have mirrored IN S[PI(T)E] OF in the front. But I needed LEAF in the middle of the grid for PUL[LE(D) A F]AST ONE, which mirrored [APPL(I)E]D SCIENCE later. Compromises, amirite? But on the plus side, I was able to fit in some nice bonus fill, and in the end I'm just happy that everything came together.

I hope everyone enjoyed today's puzzle!

I got the idea for this puzzle after seeing DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS in a news article. I thought, hot dog, that phrase has all kinds of crossword potential! Turns out, it's been done once or twice before. Then I remembered that The Times sometimes runs puzzles with unusual formatting, like this fun one by Joe Deeney. I thought that a set of literalisms deconstructing the grid would be an interesting gimmick.

The top right entry had the most possibilities — ENDLESS SUMMER, WORLD WITHOUT END, OLIVE GARDEN NEVER ENDING PASTA PASS® — but the seven letters representing NO END IN SIGHT balanced out its neighbor to the left. At 41 themed letters I thought I had enough material to work with, but I still felt that the puzzle was missing that, god I hate myself for saying this, je ne sais quoi that could really level up the solving experience. Ultimately, I thought the phrase TAKES THE EDGE OFF really tied the room together.

The editors accepted this for an "extra-crunchy Wednesday," but here it is on a Thursday, those sly dogs. I hope you enjoyed solving today's puzzle!

Sunday! This puzzle has a two-part gimmick: a title within a title, and a single clue that describes both works. I started by breaking apart shorter, well-known titles. A search of *H*A*T*C*H*E*T*, for example, resulted in THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. I wound up with a pretty small list, so I was happy to find five theme entries plus a revealer that gave me pairs of 18, 19, and 21 letters.

I like OTHELLO and HATCHET the best, MEDEA and HEIDI are solid, and DUNE is only meh (it's four letters, and you can find it within another of today's long answers). One neat find was that HEIDI also fits into the 21-letter gem WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. I had to go with the 19-letter THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, though, because it paired with FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.

The hardest part of this puzzle was writing the themed clues. I told myself that the editors wouldn't bail me out if I botched the one clue/two works execution. Fortunately, those clues survived pretty much intact. Not so much for most of the clues for my fill words. I am glad that my clue for 16-Across made the cut, though.

I hope you enjoyed this literature-themed Sunday puzzle. And I hope that everyone has a great 2023!

When brainstorming this puzzle, I wanted to make a grid where the theme letters evoke a recognizable symbol or pattern. An eye chart seemed like a good choice since the design itself is the letters, although in a real eye chart the letters start big and get progressively smaller. If I were making this puzzle again, it would be fun to attempt a 21 x 21 grid, embiggening a single E in a 5 x 5 square at the top, then a 4 x 4 F and P, and so on down to single-square letters at the bottom.

Today's layout required left/right symmetry, given the spread of the circles. I'm not usually a fan of quip or quotation puzzles since you have to rely on the crossing answers to complete the puzzle, but in this case, I felt like there needed to be a "why" to explain the eye chart. I settled on the idea that you pass an eye test (and this puzzle) if you get the letters right. Despite the constraints of the circled letters and the three-part answer, I think I got a relatively clean fill, so hopefully, everyone felt like they had a fair chance at solving this puzzle's message.

The editors came up with the hilarious clue for 62-Down. I wish I had thought of it.