Roland Huget author page

This puzzle has an unusual history. It was first constructed in August 2017. In October Will et al. said that they liked the theme, but that one of the themers was too obscure. After settling on a replacement, I was given the challenge of coming up with a polished Monday fill.

I ran into a snag in the W and NW. After several attempts, I couldn't come up with a grid that didn't have either trite short fill or longer answers that were inappropriate for a Monday puzzle, or both. Finally, Sam Ezersky stepped in and fixed it. I suggested we share construction credit, but Sam declined. The puzzle was accepted for publication almost exactly a year ago.

Editors have made significant changes to my grids twice. Both times I learned a valuable lesson. In this case, I learned that when you paint yourself into a corner, as I did here, you have to go back far enough to revisit key decisions made earlier in the fill. Often, a less preferred option for a word slot ends up opening up the grid later on, resulting in a more successful fill overall.

This puzzle was constructed in September 2017 and accepted for publication in January 2018. It's had an unusual history. The original version was constructed in September 2016, but was rejected because there were too many problems with the triple stacks. That effort, however, established the central fill. Over the next year or so several versions were produced using that same central fill, but they all fell short in the triple stacks or their crossings.

Last September I decided to give it one last attempt. I did some work supplementing the 15-letter answers in my word list. I also decided to change the last two letters of CEREMONIAL STAFF to RT, because it offered more possibilities for the bottom stack. I took more time to produce this version, and it is the best one of the bunch. I was elated when it was accepted.

A fair number of my clues survived the final edit. Two of my favorites are SUPER GLUE (34A — Stuff used in some nasty pranks) and REROOTS (37D — Gets accustomed to a transplant).

Thanks to Will and his team for their patience with me on this one, and for their work on the clues.

The original version of this grid was constructed in September 2016. A revision to the SE quadrant was requested, a revision was submitted, and the puzzle was accepted for publication in January 2017.

The requested revision was the removal from the SE of the exclamation AM I BEAT, which was deemed too contrived. I have said this myself while plopping down on a chair — maybe it's a Canadian thing.

The block layout for this puzzle is one of my favorites. I've had success with versions in which there are two blocks in the middle breaking up the 15s, and in which there is a single block dead center. This version has no central blocks. These puzzles are among my first attempts at wide open grids.

With open grids it's often difficult to achieve a Scrabble average above 1.50, which is typical for a NYT crossword. That certainly was the case here, with this puzzle coming in at 1.40, as did the original version. The open areas are conducive to low Scrabble score letters, namely, the vowels, L, N, R, S, and T. In a higher word count grid it's possible to find spots for higher value letters in the peripheral short fill — not so here. I decided to leave well enough alone.

As I look over the clues, 26-A PORE and 13-D ANDIRON make me chuckle, and I have Will and Joel/Sam to thank for that. I note that a fair number of changes were made to the clues I submitted, which have made the puzzle tougher, I think.

This puzzle was constructed in September 2016 and accepted for publication in December. This grid layout has appeared in The New York Times before and I have always been struck by its pleasing symmetry and intimidating look.

In my first attempt at this grid I used my homemade grid filler, but it had difficulty with the open quadrants. Fills were hard to come by, which hindered progress, and meant that fewer fill possibilities came under consideration than I would have liked. The resulting puzzle, while a good effort, fell short of the mark.

In September 2016 I purchased a commercial grid filler and was impressed with how well it handled this grid. The puzzle we have before us was constructed using that tool. I went on to construct several more open grids using my new toy, some of which have been accepted for publication.

I have found that the two grid fillers complement each other well. When I don't have to deal with large open areas, I use both. In fact, I often prefer my old grid filler when seeking to fill areas that have pre-placed letters.

This puzzle was constructed in five stages — the small center, followed by each of the quadrants in turn. The center was quick and easy, and I decided to include scrabbly letters there because I knew the rest of the grid would offer little or no flexibility in that regard. The quadrants, of course, were more difficult and took more time. In the end I was surprised that the time it took to fill this grid was not significantly greater than that of a typical grid.

My favorite clues are the ones for ALFREDO (47A — Saucy name?) and AIR HORN (6D — Bleachers blaster).

This puzzle was constructed in January 2015, and a revision was suggested in June 2015. After re-submission the revision was accepted for publication in October 2015.

The construction started with WHAT A JOKE, a sarcastic comment that often finds me stifling a chuckle when I hear it in person. The next placement was ZEBRA FISH, a term I hadn't heard since I was a boy. So it was with these two scrabbly entries that things got underway, with fingers crossed for a you-know-what.

I mentioned in the notes for my debut puzzle that I use a home-made grid filler program. One of the limitations of the tool is that it uses an unranked word list (of freeware origin) that still contains plenty of clunkers. This means that achieving a clean fill with lively entries is an exercise in patience. In the original construction of this grid I wasn't patient enough, because I allowed two iffy words into the fill. It was lucky for me that they were confined to the SW quadrant, or Will and Joel might not have suggested a revision.

The clue for ROSETTI (36D — Mozart contemporary Antonio ____) is intended to be tricky. I figured some solvers would put SALIERI.

I think Will and Joel's YOYO DIET — [Go in and out of middle management?] — is funny and clever.

This puzzle was constructed in November 2015, and accepted for publication in March 2016. This is one of a trio of themeless grids of similar design that I constructed in 2015, where the starting point for the fill was a central 9-letter idiomatic remark. All three puzzles were picked up, two of them here.

This fill started with ARE WE GOOD. I think idiomatic expressions make good crossword entries, especially those uttered in private or unguarded moments. To those who say WHO WAS IT is perhaps too much of a good thing, I say SPARE ME. ;-)

I like pangrams — they're fun to solve and to construct. When I solve a puzzle that's shaping up to be a pangram, I root for it to happen. The challenge in constructing a pangram is to accommodate the high Scrabble value letters without using answers that otherwise wouldn't be allowed in the grid. I think this effort was successful in that regard.

I would like to thank Will and Joel for their work on the clues. I particularly like their clues for MASSEUR (1D - One pressing the flesh) and MEAT RUB (1A — Barbecue chef's coat). As for a clue that survived the final edit, I like the one for SOFA BED (28A — All-weather convertible?).

This puzzle is a milestone for me, in that it is my first themed puzzle in The New York Times. It was constructed in August of 2015 and accepted for publication in December.

It has an unusual history. The puzzle was last in a package of four that was mailed off as soon as I completed it. The next day I gave in to my lingering doubts about the answer I chose for 38D and sent off a revision (the version we have before us), along with an explanatory note. I'm sure this kind of thing is not a hit with editors, so now I have a "cooling-off period" for sober re-assessment before I let go of a grid, so that this won't happen again.

The idea for this theme came about during an online brainstorming session. The pattern "element symbol-something" is easy to search for, but doesn't yield many useful results. I was lucky to find symmetric pairs of themers, and also lucky that my first choice for revealer was the right length. I recall regretting that I had to leave TIN SNIPS on the table, but there was no mate for it, and the grid already was getting pretty full of theme squares.

The clue for IRON FENCE (26A - What hath the gardener wrought?) gave me a chuckle. It's there thanks to Will and Joel. It seems that less of my clues are being re-written than in previous published efforts. That's an encouraging sign which I attribute to more practice in solving quality puzzles.

The crossword we see before us is actually the third version that was submitted using this grid skeleton. I recall several aborted attempts at this grid before I completed a fill that I felt comfortable in submitting, in the summer of 2013. It was rejected, and from that effort only HERE AND NOW made its way into the final version, although not in the same word slot. The second version was submitted in late 2013, just when I was starting to get the hang of crossword construction. It too was rejected, but the top and bottom stacks and the vertical SILENT TREATMENT got a thumbs-up. The final version, incorporating these elements, was completed in June of 2014, and was accepted for publication in September of that year.

It's interesting to revisit an early construction that one hasn't seen in a while. Thankfully, there aren't any entries here that make me cringe, but my style definitely has changed since this puzzle was produced. More than I realized, this puzzle is tailored to the over-fifty crowd. I hope younger solvers aren't put off by that.

My favorite clues are 26A: MENNONITE: [One speaking the language Plautdietsch] and 56A: ARM WRESTLE: [Try to win hands down?]. I can't claim credit for either.

I became interested in crossword puzzles fairly late in life. When your debut publication occurs in your early sixties, you aren't going to break any records in that area. Still, I have certain goals in mind that would give me great satisfaction to achieve.

This is my second crossword puzzle in The New York Times. This puzzle underwent several revisions. I will remember it as one for which persistence paid off.

The first version of this puzzle was constructed in the summer of 2013, when I had little experience with sub-72-word grids. It was rejected, but MAHJONGG, OKEY-DOKEY and WINGDINGS got a thumbs-up. I decided to re-work the grid, retaining these long answers (except that WINGDINGS became RINGDINGS). My aim was to create a smoothness that the original version lacked.

I re-submitted at the end of 2013 and was pleasantly surprised when Will expressed interest in the crossword. He requested that several short answers be replaced, which required revision to the SW and NE quadrants. A final revision of the NE quadrant was needed to remove an obscurity that I introduced in the previous revision. The crossword was accepted for publication in the spring of 2014.

I'm pleased with how this puzzle turned out. Having said that, today, with one more year of puzzle constructing experience, I would do the final revision differently.

My favorite clues in this puzzle are 24A: "Unpleasant surprise from a worker" (STING), and 3D: "Black Friday event?" (MAD DASH). I can take credit for the latter only.

I would like to thank Will and Joel for their fine work on this puzzle. Two tweaks got rid of an answer that was awkward to clue, and had a more subtle benefit as well. Their clues greatly improved the puzzle, in particular, the clever handling of a boo-boo, and the dialing of the difficulty level to "eleven."

I am a retired nuclear engineer, and I live in Kitchener, Ontario. I started constructing crosswords in the summer of 2012, in order to try out the computer program I wrote for filling a crossword grid. After I debugged the program, instead of moving on to another software project, I stuck with crossword construction. Looking back at my early efforts, I can't believe I actually submitted them.

Since then, there have been many rejections. It's taken a while to learn how to use my tools properly, to improve the wholly inadequate word list I started with, and to get a better feel for the crosswords that appear in top publications like The New York Times. Things started to come together for me in the fall of 2013 and, as I write this, I have sold a handful of puzzles.

This is my debut crossword in The New York Times. I will remember it primarily for that, but also for being the first crossword I sold that didn't require any revisions to the fill. I put this puzzle together in late 2013, after I had taken a break from crossword construction to do some much needed work on my word list. The striking grid layout, with its crossed triple stack 11's, has appeared in The New York Times before.

When I did the construction I had already experienced many rejections, and had not yet sold a single crossword to any publisher. In that circumstance, you have doubts about everything you produce. In particular, I remember wondering about GRANDNEPHEW and OILSEED. They're both not-often-used terms that didn't offer many possibilities for clues. I didn't get my hopes up when I submitted the crossword. I was elated when it was accepted.

I would like to thank Will Shortz for his improvements to the clues. My favorite is 31A: [Event often with gate crashers?] GIANTSLALOM.