Sam Ezersky author page

As Will notes in the Magazine blurb, this grid contains the lowest answer count (118) in Times Sunday history. (For reference, most of these 21x21 crosswords contain around 140 answers, with little variance, given their constraints and our specifications.)

All I'll say is this: I'm very excited to see the puzzle that one-ups this one. And eventually, the one beyond that. And all the other puzzles — themed and themeless — that continue to move a genre forward, try something totally new, or anything in between.

When I joined the ranks of the "Crossworld" as a high schooler in 2012, I worried I'd be late to the game, so to speak. The greats were already there, and it was a privilege to join this select community at all. It's still a privilege, of course … but over the past decade, I've gotten to witness so much outreach, collaboration, and more and more fresh faces enter the fold.

I've gone from being one of a small handful of "indie" crossword constructors to one of many editors for mainstream puzzle publications, who also get to enjoy the dozens of envelope-pushing, individually run puzzle projects and websites in their free time.

Our Crossworld is in a wonderful place, y'all.

Thanks to all the constructors whose work inspired me once upon a time. And thanks to all the constructors and solvers who continue to welcome others into this rewarding pastime.

GO BIG OR GO HOME, HUH? (16)

This puzzle wasn't supposed to be 16 squares wide, which pushes the envelope of standard themeless construction. Buuuut … if one is to break the rules, those 16s better be a highlight!

We'll call it a happy accident, though. The inspiration for the whole puzzle was VIBE CHECK; in one of my earlier conversations with Everdeen, I swore I'd build a themeless grid around the phrase at some point. I placed it at 1-Across, as many do, and the NW corner began to fall into place — VAMPIRES / I PRESUME, APIPHOBIA(!) / MR GOODBAR, EBB, CIA, etc. But it was the peculiar PE???? slot, now at 4-Down, that led me to explore all sorts of BIG* options crossing that third letter.

As you can see, I ended up flipping the grid after discovering BIG TEN CONFERENCE … and, later, turning CIA on its own into CIA WORLD FACTBOOK. AMAZING SPIDERMAN and its clue came to me simultaneously, but only after I wended my way there through the SE stacks.

Hope there's enough extra juice here to justify the extra column and that it leads to an extra-enjoyable solve!

The "letter/phonetic change" pun puzzle has eluded me for too long! As a solver, I grew up delighting in gems like USE THE FORCEPS LUKE and PIZZA RETREAT, but never found myself interested in brainstorming any myself. I wanted every last theme I created to feel unusual, or at least technically intricate. After all, as a constructor, I'll always be most drawn to crosswords in a challenging sense — can I pull off such a crazy theme idea based around this one example? Can I pack a wide-open corner with all this jazzy fill?

Today's puzzle is the result of dialing things back a notch, while still staying true to my quirks. It occurred to me one day that there were plenty of words like JACKET, BUCKET, TICKET, etc., and so I simply pursued a way to create punnery around this. I'd wanted to make a pun theme forever, but the set of examples needed to really sing. It took a bunch of imagination on the cluing side to make this a reality in my mind, along with the desire to pack in as much content as possible — wouldn't it be weird if I only had a small selection of -CKET examples? Too much theme tends to cause filling troubles, so I knew what I was getting into … but hey, constructor quirks.**

We talk a lot these days on the editorial team about what makes a good pun, and everyone's mileage varies; for me, though, it all comes down to whether or not I can imagine the punny phrase used in a goofy, real-world, outside-of-crosswords context. There's "crossword funny" — i.e., okay, you've found that adding a few letters can make something wacky — and then there's "dad joke funny." My goal is to impart the humor of the latter within the constraints of the former. At its best, it leaves you with both groans and ahas. My fingers (and words, of course) are crossed.

Enjoy my latest for The Times, a privilege as always!

**P.S.: Bits of fill like EATS PALEO? PRE-WEB? File these under "constructor quirks," too. My style is to err on the side of peculiarity over boredom, any day of the week.

I'm a THEMELESS JUNKIE (15). This isn't news to the real ones who've solved my stuff for years. According to XWord Info, more than 60% of my standard, non-variety crossword publications have appeared on a Friday or Saturday.

This puzzle today feels different, though. I'd always been so interested in the "How low can you go?" word count quests or asking myself, "How wide open can I possibly make this corner while still retaining good fill?" This pattern of so many shorter interlocking 7s, a classic grid skeleton, never appealed much to me as a constructor. Give me a challenge! Force me to use my imagination to pull off a technical marvel! My solvers deserve a formidable-looking Saturday, which would then be extra satisfying to solve!

Whew, was this grid a challenge, all right. A challenge to make every last 6-, 7-, 8- and 9-letter answer fresh, peculiar and/or fun to clue. A challenge to pack so much juice into each corner without relying on overfamiliar, pedestrian answers like ESTATES or TSETSES, or short gluey bits to hold the longer pizazz together. I'm not saying every last one of these is so sparkly (looking at you, GATEMAN and CARTAGE … and, believe me, it hurts to use DERE!), but hopefully nothing here makes you deep sigh and say, "I'm so damn tired of seeing this in puzzles."

To aspiring constructors taking notes: My strategy mostly revolved around using answers in the middle of the stacks that, well, you'd be surprised to find in the middle while solving. Answers like A LA MODE and ENTENTE traditionally appear in slots like 15-Across, to hold together zippier 7s on either side. So I hunched that if I, for instance, stacked the Scrabble-icious™ GROUCHY under POP QUIZ, it'd lead to fresher results with rarer letter combos. Or, if I needed to use something vowel-heavy, I'd resort to a new, cool-to-learn word like ÉCORCHÉ.

Finally, I've brought this up before, but it was delightful to bake in common words like ETHICS, TAXING, ENERGY, PIGTAIL, PRICES, DATING / PETUNIA / INEXACT, etc. They allowed me to kick back and have a blast with tricky, evocative and/or wordplay-inspired cluing. I know many constructors are interested in highlighting flashy names and elements of modern pop culture — myself included — but this I highly recommend as well!

Hope this thing elicited just as much "17-Across!" as "18-Across!" while solving. Happy April Fools, the best holiday in puzzledom!

Shoutout to the late, great constructor Henry Hook for inspiring this one — featuring a longtime favorite band as a themer — and all the other fun puzzles that have riffed off overfamiliar clue-speak over the years. I'd always wanted to make something similar.

A variation on Henry's "with" trick seemed like a good starting point, though I never got very far. Then one day I randomly discovered the IN ITSELF / "Inits." + ELF find, and realized I could tie it together with Henry's trick and other related wordplay. Each answer would be its own joke, so the solve could twist your brain all the way through. And I figured that having ELF appear as a grid answer — as opposed to the simpler [Inits. before elf] — would best disguise the gimmick.

As I continued to brainstorm other ideas, I figured that constructing the grid would go smoothly, given the flexibility:

• I could use an answer like INHERENTLY and INTRINSICALLY instead of ESSENTIALLY.

• The "with" trick could be modified in both answer and clue ("with OVER," "with FOR," etc).

• When the "in slang" / SLA___NG wordplay came to me, I could use MBA instead of MMI, for SLA(M-BA)NG, and then an answer in the grid like ACTION-PACKED.

But "and OTHERS"? That bit of wordplay took forever to flesh out. In fact, the elaborate combo of 64-/65-Across, a now-cherry on top of all the trickery, came only by dumb luck! I'd practically given up at one point, having been unable to find a single fair crossword answer to proceed "OTHERS" ... pretty remarkable that two, STE and PBR, saved the day.

BLENDED FAMILY, though, felt like the only real option to associate with this "stepbrothers" find. What else was both on target and in the language? And STE / PBR needed to be side by side in the grid, so solvers could clearly see their combination. Maybe ELF and another 3-letter themer could pair symmetrically opposite those two, and the last could sit squarely in the center?

Before I knew it, I was racking up constraints — and especially pesky shorter ones — which forced the grid skeleton you see now. It contains a bit more 3s and 4s than I like, which explains a slight crossword-y feel in things like B-TEN, OLA, both TV AD and AD REPS, RKO, etc. But I'm hoping the positives still outweigh the minuses in things like BBQS / QUIZ / SONGZ (a debut?!), DOORMAN and its clue, the two 10s, and fun words like TONIGHT, SPIRAL, ORANGE, SAMMY, SLIME, NOODGE, etc.

Now, did you enjoy the puzzle? Hope the answer isn't [No. after 1-Across]!

Always a thrill to offer a Saturday themeless in The Times, but this puzzle feels particularly special to me!

I'd never before made a grid with triple-stacks across the top and bottom. Since I eschew computer-assisted filling and/or personal word lists while constructing, the feat always seemed impossible, or at least not worth the shorter compromises going Down. So when I noticed how well MUSEUM EXHIBIT and LET IT GO ALREADY could stack together as you see now, with a ___ THE ___ phrase sitting atop, I had to try conquering the challenge once more.

A sincere thanks to the town of BUSHEY for its existence, which saved me from ripping up the whole puzzle at the very end, when I still couldn't get BUT HEY to fit 1,000 headdesks later. Oh, and a non-sarcastic "Thanks, Obama!" — 10-Down might sound a bit arbitrary as far as crossword answers go, but I'm hoping the clue has turned it into a smile-inducing "aha."

I should also note that, for those keeping score, the grid has 64 answers. This ties my lowest answer count to date, alongside my 2018 ACPT Finals puzzle (see: "The Hug"). It might not seem like much, but the feeling is similar to that when you shave even just a second off your best 5K time.

*Grins from ear to ear*: "Yes we can!"

This one's not my usual constructing style. I fought the urge early on to make the grid as wide open as possible, and left in more crossword-y glue (T-MAN, TNN, ASP) so that every last long answer could be fun in its own right — even common words like LAUREATES and ELEMENTARY preserve the human feel of a puzzle, and offer tons of cluing possibilities. With this approach, I'm hoping there aren't any answers outside of 1A that cause solvers to say "Weird" or "Huh." Okay, maybe LINAC and URSAE crossing ENESCO wasn't so great ...

My favorite aspect of the final publication isn't the zip, though, but the smoothness of the NE / SW corners: FLOORS / RING UP / ENERGY and DOOBIE / NO LOSS / AND YET, all crossed by real-word 3s and 4s. The clue I miss most, that (understandably) didn't make the cut: SHORTSTOP, clued obliquely as ... [Second or third person?]. But I'll settle for any angle that includes a Baltimore Oriole.

Enjoy the puzzle, and give today's Scrabbly Spelling Bee a go!

A standout themeless is so tough to make nowadays. Increased diversity in constructors has brought more to the table in terms of interesting fill, and word lists continue to be expanded and optimized. There are so many weekend-level puzzles I review and set aside, noting something along the lines of: "This is a well-made puzzle that I'd probably enjoy solving ... but is there room for it in our files?" We simply can't accept them all.

Lately, I'm thinking more than ever about cluing, which I genuinely believe can add just as much to the solving experience as the grid itself. A constructor's ability to write clues might serve as the tiebreaking factor for my final vote, though I'm also talking about "cluability" — can these answers get fun, imaginative clues in the first place?

This sort of mindset has gotten me more interested in mid-length stuff like THRILLER, SYMMETRY, TROPHY, TRENDS, ANIMAL, CLENCH, etc. along with a short fill buildup like HIM / SOLE / CULT / SCAN. It's not that I'm anti-name in any way — look, I started this puzzle with TYREKE, and as a solver, I love when I can resonate with a puzzle's references — but I believe that a preponderance of names leads to cluing inflexibility. The same for crossword-y mainstays like VIE and RNA; perfectly cromulent, sure, but there's only so much you can do with them. I'd place ON A (partial phrase) and HUD (abbreviation) in a slightly higher tier, as they can at least get fresh angles in their clues.

The art of making crosswords is one giant balance. I find my philosophies behind it to be ever-evolving, so I'm eager to engage in these discussions with solvers and constructors alike. Hope you enjoyed the puzzle, and thanks for hearing my thoughts!

P.S.: In case you haven't heard, you can now submit your own Times crosswords digitally. Find out more here.

Several years ago, before joining Will and Joel at The Times, I had one of my own puzzle submissions rejected, whose theme presentation just wouldn't offer up a strong enough click with the majority of our solving audience. It involved puns around interesting names for groups of animals: "Group of rhinos on Wall Street?" for STOCK MARKET CRASH, "Group of crows in Egypt?" for MURDER ON THE NILE, etc. Perhaps this would amuse those familiar with "crash" as the term for a group of rhinos, but to the many solvers discovering it mid-solve, the puzzle probably would elicit more "Oh, fun fact, I guess" than that smile-inducing "Aha!" we strive for.

I thought about that puzzle a lot while agonizing over how to present the theme idea in today's. It seemed too cool to me that various English words were spelled the exact same way as written-out numbers in foreign languages. How could I get solvers to appreciate these finds in crossword form while (most likely) showing them something new?

I hope this puzzle provides that smile-inducing "Aha!" on your end, and isn't just indulging my soft spot for constructor-y wordplay. There's a lot going on in the grid, and I'd like to thank the crossword gods for some serious luck with the theme symmetry.

P.S.: Yes, there were other possible fills for that southeast corner ... but I like keeping my grids on the wacky side.

In my most recent puzzle's constructor notes, I outlined that I start with a feature entry or two and arrange the black squares as I go, so that I can have the greatest amount of flexibility possible.

This here is what happens when that style of puzzle making runs off the rails.

I'm a sucker for eye-popping letter patterns, and love a good constructing challenge, so I began by placing TECH-SAVVY in the bottom of the grid and immediately stacking HEIST FILM on top of it. The terminal bigrams formed for the crossing Downs (HT, EE, IC, etc) all presented interesting possibilities, with LV adding the greatest constraint (CTRL-V? SUPER BOWL LV?).

Thus, I swore I was going to do absolutely anything in my power to get this to work. And I especially wouldn't budge once I saw GIBRALTAR could stack atop the other two to lock in the crazy CAPITAL V and WOOKIEE. So although I had yet to truly fix a single black square anywhere in the grid — this stack might have worked in the lower right after all — I developed some serious constructing tunnel vision, convincing myself that I could let my mind run wild with all sorts of options for the surrounding slots in order to preserve the sparkly stuff I wanted.

Fortunately for me, as you see now, I was able to pull it off. But it required:

• An overlarge grid (16x15) that, despite still remaining under the maximum answer count (72), felt unnecessary for a weekend offering.
• The equally bonkers AC TO DC, because ACTOR ___ or ACT ON ___ or ACT OF ___ just wouldn't work with ...
• ... OPSOMANIA. COME. ON. I really do think this is a nifty word, and teeters on fair game for a Saturday, but won't blame anyone who feels otherwise. Guess I'm going to have to start using it in everyday conversation?

My self-criticism aside, I really do love how this thing turned out in the end, even if I know the puzzle won't be well-received by everybody. It is a very on-brand themeless from me after all, with its tacky letter blends, creative fill (perhaps overly so) and some diabolical clues. In fact, the pairing of CROP CIRCLE with [Unbelievable discovery in one's field] might just be my all-time favorite.

Shoutout to Byron Walden for the inspiration, with his absolute tour-de-force Saturday from 2008! Something something about imitation and flattery ...

This puzzle is brought to you by the free Wi-Fi that I couldn't actually get to work.

I mean this in two senses: I first created the grid while sitting in a packed bus, unable to connect to its alleged "complimentary internet" ... and that NW corner, where I began, originally had FREE WIFI in place of FREEMIUM.

Flexibility is key to balancing liveliness and smoothness in themelesses. When I construct these puzzles, I place the black squares as I go, and let their constraints trickle down to flesh out the eventual skeleton. In the grid to the right, my top stack is basically finished, and already clears my bar for enjoyment, but I've left myself a whole bunch of fun options for 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-Down since their lengths aren't yet fixed. I generally try to cram in as much cool stuff as I possibly can when I get started, and if there's even one thing that makes me scowl, I peel back.

That said, for this puzzle, in particular, I took a completely different approach than usual: dropping that black square right below THREE the moment I saw it would facilitate AREN'T WE ALL and WHAT'S NEXT with still zero junk (gird to the left). There's something to be said for a truly eye-popping, low-word-count grid, and maybe some time (read: "never") I'd love to see if I could've pulled off, say, a quad stack of 9s in those Downs. But I was super pumped about what I had going for me here, so I did what I did and moved on to make sure I could pack as much juice into the symmetrically opposite corner.

You'll notice that I tacked on four more black squares to form those T-shape configurations, which still feels inelegant to the constructor in me ... but zippy stuff like HIT JOB, Y SHAPE, BRO HUG, COACH K and SPRINKLE wouldn't be there without them.

As always, hope you enjoyed!

Today's puzzle is hereby dedicated to my housemate, Nick. The revealer was all his idea; I just happened to flesh out the exact wordplay and build the whole thing myself instead of seeing through on a collaborative effort. Sorry, Nick!

Note to aspiring puzzle makers: Be wary of interlocking theme answers. They. Will. RUIN. You. Really, though, crossing ADD TO QUEUE with CALLING IN (T)STION adds so much more of a constraint to the rest of the grid. Then there's crossing SAFE ZONES with the symmetrically placed revealer, and having to connect BOOK O(F) RA at the F. Don't forget that CY(B)HICS / BERETTA still needs to find its way into the grid somewhere ... and now we're up to three theme answers being accounted for.

TL;DR: I played a giant game of Tetris in order to fit all the thematic pieces into one 21x21 puzzle, while still holding myself to my usual high fill standards. Thus, this took tons of reworking, but the time and effort to produce a particularly enjoyable grid versus one that just fit the bill felt worth it. As I outlined in my latest article on crosswords, keeping the solver in mind is what matters most.

Now ... grab yourself a print copy of The Times, and enjoy this year's Puzzle Mania!

Welp, this is about everything Constructor Sam could have wanted:

• A theme with an unconventional revealer that leads to quite the "aha" moment.
• Kooky bits of fill like I AM ALI and DVD-VIDEO to accompany a youthful, sportsy vibe in AIGHT, NOOB, VIKES, BREES, etc.
• Shoutouts to (objectively) awesome things in the clues, from Kendrick Lamar to Taco Bell's Baja Blast.

But Constructor Sam is just one solver. Editor Sam certainly knows that this puzzle isn't for everyone, and promises to make sure Constructor Sam chills on those sick, twisted puzzles he creates ... it's been quite the stretch as of late! That said, Editor Sam is at least put at ease by the fact that there's still universally fun fill in TWIST TOP, ROOM TEMP, ACTED BIG and HIP-HOP, as well as a nice theme set he hopes any solver can appreciate.

Whether you're a fan of Constructor Sam, Editor Sam or think Sam should just stick to leading the #HiveMind from his Twitter ... hope you got something out of this one!

NO SIR. IMS. PRELIM. ASAP. SAND PILE. WIN. The clues for these answers are all Will's; I can't take any credit for them outside of giving my thumbs-up to the guy while editing together. They're much better than my originals.

AERIE. DOYLE. MY FAIR LADY. IVIE. The clues for these are my own, but after coming up with replacements per Will's thoughts:

• [Aptly named clothing line from American Eagle] felt a bit too similar to recent clues for AERIE, even if this was a lively angle.
• ["A Scandal in Bohemia" was his first short story] seemed like a better clue for "Arthur Conan Doyle" rather than just DOYLE. Would you ever refer to him by only the final part of his name?
• [Musical whose main character has a Cockney accent] for MY FAIR LADY, on a Saturday? Too easy!
• [Good name for a botanist?] just didn't quite nail IVIE, which was crucial for such a weirdly spelled name. There had to be a better profession to associate "ivy" with.

All the remaining clues are either entirely my own or were slightly tweaked for style/clarity (like adding "in the 1960s" to the NEODADAIST clue, changing "sweet, spicy" to "sweet-and-spicy" for BBQ WINGS, etc). I'll call it all a major constructing 59-Down!

This is all to say, I've learned by now how rewarding a concerted cluing effort can be ... and how much the results can elevate the puzzle no matter which day of the week it falls on. While lively, fresh vocabulary is what makes a grid sing on its own, sometimes clues can come in and turn otherwise normal entries into highlights for the solver.

Perhaps the EAU clue elicits a memorable "aha" moment, or native New Yorkers enjoy the fresh take on METS. Those "Coiner of the word ___" clues, like the one for CARROLL, tend to be interesting. Notice how none of these involve question marks, either; fresh, smoothly executed puns are a welcome sight, in my book, but they're just one way to enliven the solving experience.

I'll hop off my soapbox now. Here's hoping you solvers aren't a tough crowd!

SAM: Unbeknownst to Byron, I've wanted to get a theme like this published for years. I submitted a 19x19 grid with OUTSTANDING DEBT to the Indie 500's inaugural guest constructor contest, though there were clearly superior puzzles in the pool. I had another 15x15 construction with DOPE SHEET, SICK DAY, COOL BREEZE, etc., but I just wasn't in love with the theme set enough; how could I refine this idea more?

It wasn't until recently that I realized my flaw in execution: the DEBT in OUTSTANDING DEBT didn't really change meaning from its base phrase. OUTSTANDING BALANCE came to mind, and I liked that I could interpret the phrase as a completely different lexical chunk: an asset for a gymnast. It wasn't long after that I thought of RADICAL MOVEMENT, and noticed that these could be clued quite crisply ... as "compliments"!

I was so sure this time around that my puzzle idea could work out ... until my theme well went dry. AND I still had to get everything to lay out symmetrically. Enter Byron, who, after hearing my pitch, quickly came up with SMASHING PUMPKINS and SWEET TALK, much to my amazement. OUTSTANDING BALANCE would have to become OUTSTANDING BILLS, but that was OK by me. I not only had a full theme set now but an opportunity for another Sam and Byron collab, which was such a blast the first time.

So we happily set off to make an easy, friendly 140-word Sunday ... LOL, you thought.

"Let's shoot for 124 [words]!," I chatted Byron, adding a laughing emoji so I could pretend I was totally joking about trying to break records and not insane. Fortunately for me, Byron is, in fact, insane, too. As you can see, we ended up "settling" for 128, though that's probably for the best.

BYRON: Collaborating with Sam is fairly predictable: it's not going to be easy, but it's going to be fun. We both like wide-open grids that are a challenge to fill at all, and then require many iterations to fill well. We ended up with some great chunks that we didn't use just because they didn't work with other parts — the downside of having lots of connectivity and maintaining symmetry. The BARBADOS section ended up being the linchpin — credit to Sam for figuring out that bit out. Hope you enjoy solving it as much as we enjoyed making it.

I'm always intrigued by themeless constructors that refer to a single "seed entry" they use to kick off each grid. For me, I guess that was DOOMSDAY CLOCK, which I had recently written down with intent to build a puzzle around it. But really, the "seed" for this puzzle was the promising overlap that MAD MAGAZINE and DOOMSDAY CLOCK showed when stacked in this particular arrangement. Except for the *GC* pattern, every last bigram felt like it could yield a ton of results, which meant that I would then have great flexibility to find some snazzy long entries for the middle region. Two 9s and another 11 later, it appeared my reasoning did "check out" (my original, overly diabolical clue for ADD UP).

As for the rest of the puzzle, I'm happy with pretty much everything except for those black squares in the NE / SW corners. I think I had other fills that worked without them, but being able to pack in KYLO REN, OTC STOCK, PRINT RUNS, DNA BANK, SPORTS BAR, and even DOLLOPS felt worth it. Some might not know LA LIGA, and many will squint at both ION GUN and SCARLET A, but sometimes a little surprising crunch in a weekend offering is fun! Hope nothing gets too stuck in your teeth, now.

The single feature of this puzzle I'm most proud of? That fresh clue for ARR! I know, it's super cheesy, but figured this would add a bit more excitement to your solve than [Flight board abbr.]. It's the first time we've ever used such a cluing angle for ARR in our daily puzzles.

This is my 25th puzzle in the Times, which feels like a milestone. I may now be working full-time for The New York Times Crossword, though every time I have a puzzle published, it feels just as exciting as my 2012 debut. Thanks to all my family, friends and fans for continuing to make this dream possible!