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Kevin Curry: This one wouldn't have happened without my wife, Zhou, who suggested that it would be fun to hide Bigfoot in a crossword puzzle. I couldn't believe that it hadn't been done before, until actually trying it... and failing miserably. Bi-directional rebuses, putting cryptids in black squares... nothing was working. What's a novice crossword constructor to do with a good idea but execution issues? Email Jeff Chen! And of course, he quickly uncovered CUBICFOOT, and we were on our way to the puzzle you see today.
This isn't the first puzzle on which Jeff and I have collaborated. I initially reached out to him almost three years ago - at the time, I was still creating grids by hand. He was so generous with his feedback that from that point forward, sharing an NYT byline with Jeff became one of my top crosswording goals. Along my journey to finally achieving this goal, I've exchanged notes with many other brilliant people in the Crossworld. I have to pinch myself every time I have the honor of publishing a puzzle for this thoughtful community. Can this be real or am I just imagining things? Who knows?!
Jeff Chen: It's a joy to work with Kevin. Not only does he brainstorm a huge breadth of ideas, but he's worked hard to build impressive gridding skills. Super fun to develop this crossword with him!