Freddie Cheng author page

Of the many (too) weird and (too) wacky Thursdays I've ever submitted, this one runs much easier in comparison, as you could technically solve the whole puzzle being oblivious to the gimmick. The NYT team was even half contemplating it for a Wednesday. Thankfully, it did publish today, so I can finally hit for the cycle (bucket list!).

In previous Thursday puzzles, constructors have played around with pretty much everything they can get their hands on — from what can go in the white/black squares to the space outside of the grid and, of course, to the clues themselves. Why not play around with the clue numbers, too, I thought?

I restricted the theme entries to those with Arabic numerals only, as per the clue numbering format. Since moving black squares affected the numbering sequence, there was a whole bunch of trial and error in the construction, given the need for symmetry. I would have loved to restrict the theme squares to only one Arabic number per entry, but in the end, it wasn't worth sacrificing for the additional flexibility.

Kudos to the NYT team for clues 43A and 63A!

Constructors log: submitted/accepted in May/August 2022.

The seed for the puzzle was "PHARMA BRO," as it was an entry that the NYT team liked in a prior unrelated and rejected themeless. So I thought I was pretty safe going with that ...yes, you guessed it, it still didn't make the cut! Though deemed "fresh," it had to be taken out due to its "ephemeral feel" that wouldn't last the test of time or the syndication lag, all of which I ultimately agreed with. So, the "most hated man in America" (for a while at least, until _____ took his place — insert your fav public enemy #1 here) was out, and his employee PHARMA REP was in. In the process, AUDIO TOUR / SLEEP ON IT morphed into the slightly more conventional AUDIOTAPE / SLEEPOVER now in that SE corner.

Only a few of my clues made it through (like 22A and 32D), so I still have a lot to learn. For example for 11D, "Not the hang-gliding type?" turned into "One who hates heights," and "Drug pusher?" for PHARMA REP was replaced by "One making a living by pushing drugs, informally," which is more accurate I suppose.

My favorite bit of the puzzle is probably the DAYTRADER / FAT FINGER pair, mostly because of my current day job in markets risk management. Yes, the latter does happen more than you think!

Hope my first themeless is acceptable to everyone.

Constructor Log : Submitted March 2018 and accepted in June after the aforementioned revision.

After seeing a Kandinsky painting one day, I wondered if I could also build an abstract crossword "work of art" using shape/ color elements. I quickly settled on the idea of using entries that are not normally treated as colored elements to be re-interpreted literally as such. Although the finished ABSTRACT ART will probably never hang in a museum anywhere, I hope that it's fun to check out and solve nevertheless.

As a fun aside, I did come across this crossword museum piece recently however: 91-year-old woman fills in crossword at museum — only to discover it was a £60,000 artwork. Come to think of it; perhaps Will should start a crossword museum somewhere?!

With seven themers, it was a hard slog trying to get a clean fill, leading to numerous revisions in the "product development cycle" with Will and Sam, who were admirably patient with me. It was a good call from them not to settle though, to get to a more polished final product. With so much material already, I regrettably had to dispense with one of my comic book favorites: GREEN ARROW. Moving along in the DC Comics universe, we have instead actors KEATON [23A], and my favorite non-theme entry in the whole puzzle - GAL GADOT [2D/51D]. There's definitely some fanboy appreciation at work there...

The editing of the puzzle made clues generally tighter and better, though the original trickier clues for the theme entries (e.g. "American recorder?" for BLACKBOX and "Mark on a beach bum?" for TANLINE) were made more straightforward for a Tuesday audience.

Constructor's logs: Submitted Oct 2017, revised Feb 2018 after "liked the idea but needs changes," with acceptance in May subject to fill clean-up, and final version in July 2018 after numerous iterations.

The impetus for this one came from seeing the sign "Nikola Tesla Corner" on my way to work, on Fifth Av./40^th St. next to Bryant Park in Manhattan. The sign commemorates Tesla's labs nearby on 8W40th Street, as well as his time spent feeding pigeons in Bryant Park. As a former electrical engineer, I am pleased to introduce his full name into the puzzle.

Theme is pretty straightforward, featuring the full set of the non-esoteric TESLA anagrams, ending with LAST BUT NOT LEAST. Favorite non-theme entry is DON'T SPEAK, which was a massive hit for No Doubt. More personally, however, I liked it more because it's a phrase that stuck in my mind from the Woody Allen movie "Bullets over Broadway," where Dianne Wiest's character uses the phrase repeatedly on her opposites, with much comical effect. Not laugh-out funny, but I just found it very amusing and memorable for some reason. Not surprisingly, she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for that role.

Constructor logs: this was submitted way back in November 2013, and accepted in April 2014.

This puzzle, which I like to call "Eve All About", was submitted 2 years ago in March 2014, aiming for a Monday audience (I missed). I guess KEROGEN and KOPECK ruined it for a Monday…

The revealer / idea really just came out of the blue. With that in hand, the remaining theme entries followed quickly, though the symmetrical EVEs around the grid took some work to get a clean fill. After finishing the fill however, an "Uh-oh" moment struck me during cluing, when I realized that Americans rarely used EVEN STEVENS to mean "balanced", but instead used EVEN STEVEN. The former is much more common in the UK where I'm from, so it didn't even occur to me till then that I had a problem. Luckily, after a frantic Google search, I was rescued by the Disney TV series of the same name, and in the process learned quite a bit about its etymology.

As for EVEL KNIEVEL, I remember seeing him in his snazzy outfits on TV when I was a kid, and thinking, "Hey, that doesn't look too difficult, I can jump 20 double-decker buses easy, what's the big deal?!" That's the amazing thing about a child's mind — nothing's ever impossible, and, anything goes. Luckily for me, I only had a push-bike to experiment with…

About half of the clues survived the editing process, and that's a good ratio for me. Pro-skater Tony HAWK didn't make the cut (rightly so, since it would have made that area too difficult), but "Tri and tri again?" for HEXA did. Personal favorite entries: PETPEEVES / SEALEVELS. Note: even though in real life the first bothers us a heck of a lot more than the second, we should really pay a lot more attention to the second!

As these are my first comments for XWord Info, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Will for his guidance for this and previous endeavors. Construction newbies, do not be discouraged — Will is really very helpful!

As brief background, I originally hail from England, where you're more likely to come across words like AGNAIL (?) or WINDLESTRAE (??) than OREO in a crossword. I personally find US-style crosswords more fun though, with its smattering of general knowledge thrown in. Also, speaking as an ex-engineer with a poor command of Chaucer-English or botany, I tend to do better solving the US ones.

On to the puzzle, which was submitted in September 2013, with final acceptance in April 2014. Straightforward break-a-something theme, where you don't actually physically break any of the items. The original submission had the revealer BREAKAWAYS, but Will suggested and preferred BREAKABLES that you see in the final product. With six themers, there's some compromising (OK, ugly) 3-letter fill to enable some fresh vocabulary. Most questionable entry : MATIC (sorry about that, but it's my engineering background). Personal favorite : GAZILLION (useful in engineering also!). Cozy pairing : LEGWARMERS + SWEATPANTS (neither of which I've worn).

All the good clues are Will's — he's so much better at this than I am, especially at pitching to the right level of difficulty for the given weekday.