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LOREN: A couple of years ago, Andrea emailed me, telling me I should consider trying to construct. We started working on various ideas — man, she's a bundle of energy and enthusiasm! And patience.

It occurred to me that I could take some wordplay I'd been joking around with for years before constructing and translate them into themes. I've been maintaining for years that BOOBY TRAPS would be a fun name for a bra store. So then I thought it'd be a cool revealer. My thought on its execution was utterly pedestrian; Andrea is the one who suggested going the disguise-the-bra-type-in-another-phrase idea. We racked our brains coming up with kinds of bras — training, halter, Wonder, support, plunge — until we settled on this group.

It's cheeky, but I hope solvers will be good sports as Will continues to allow the Gray Lady to, well, to bust out of her more traditional confines of propriety and decorum.

ACME: I was impressed with Loren's unbridled enthusiasm and hysterical anecdotes on "another" blog and thought she'd make a fantastic constructrix, if given a bit of a nudge. This took 3 1/2 years to "develop"! It was quickly accepted 3 years ago but sat on for who knows why! By the time it was ready to publish, we were told the fill would no longer fly. We had five entries, some starting with the bra type, some ending, so in order to get a cleaner fill, we decided four would be the new five, and we would start all the theme phrases with types of bras.

Loren created a nice new grid with CHEST in the middle. But in the end, CLINT gave us the cleanest. We are thrilled that it's finally seeing the light of day … and yes, we would like a medal AND a chest to pin it on!

– puzzle by Loren Muse Smith and Andrea Carla Michaels

This puzzle began as a shameless attempt to pander to Will Shortz's love of table tennis. I had been making puzzles with themes that didn't amuse Will quite enough, so I figured that a table tennis theme might do the trick, if I could do it in some new way. Unfortunately, I wasn't finding word play that I liked for any related words except "game," so the theme evolved into what you see today.

In my original puzzle, I had tried to use the clues to link each of the long theme answers to one of the corner words. So, for example, the clue for GILGAMESH was "Ancient epic of Mortal Kombat?" referencing the VIDEO game of the same name. (And the clue for VIDEO was "How the hidden feature of 16-Across might begin.") Similarly, the clue for MAKINGAMENDS was "Saying ‘Sorry!'?" referencing the BOARD game. The clue for TORNLIGAMENT was "It might hobble a Horse?" referencing the BALL game. And the clue for AGAMEMNON was "Greek king who returned from War?" referencing the CARD game. I was pleased with how my clues had a one-to-one correlation with the corner words. But I also knew that the connections were pretty subtle, so it didn't quite work. I suspected that many solvers might finish the puzzle without even noticing my carefully chosen details! Would you have noticed?

Will obviously decided that the connections were better made by way of the note that he attached to the puzzle. I feel better knowing that he couldn't figure out how to do it within the cluing either. Thanks, Will for making it work!

– puzzle by Ruth Bloomfield Margolin

Three things:

(1) The final grid I submitted had NEW SHOOTER instead of PEA SHOOTER at 11-Down (and RENT at 13-Down, in case you're wondering). My clue for NEW SHOOTER was [Croupier cry as dice are passed]. I still like NEW SHOOTER, but I agree that PEA SHOOTER is the better entry.

(2) Only 33 of my original clues made the final cut. (Happily, that includes [Column that's beside the point?] for TENTHS.) Another nine had to be edited for length or clarification, but poor Will and company had to completely re-write 31 of the clues (plus the clues for the revised entries discussed above). I'll try to do better.

(3) Did you notice that the NTH breaks at a different point in each of the three theme entries? ALL IN THE FAMILY breaks after the N, EVENT HORIZON breaks after the T, and ELEVENTH HOUR breaks after the H (well, okay, it doesn't really "break" there, but you get the idea). That was intentional, since I worried that if two entries broke at the same point it would look inconsistent for the third to break at a different point. Maybe I overthink these things.

– puzzle by Samuel A. Donaldson

Sometimes, you just need one word to get your crossword constructing juices flowing. For me, that word was "MISSISSIPPI," the letters of which were spelled out big and bold on a TV ad I saw last March. I immediately noticed the repeated, consecutive three-letter strings in M(ISS)(ISS)IPPI and wondered if there were other words with the same pattern. Up until then, however, my search queries had all been simple — using letters, asterisks, and question marks.

Fortunately, my Google searches led me to the Regex Dictionary and I found the following formula: ($c$c$v)\1 — and then I just interchanged the "c's" (consonants) and "v's" (vowels) within the same formula to find more words using the on-line Regex Dictionary and also the one found on XWord Info. Surprisingly, there were not a lot of single words with this pattern so I was happy to be able to find nine such words to incorporate into phrases for a Sunday puzzle.

Although I did come up with my concept and title independently, I discovered during my word searches that John Farmer's 10/16/2014 NYT puzzle had the same basic concept, except his repeated three-letter strings were at the end of one word and the beginning of another (e.g. SCARLETTER). Therefore, I felt confident that my "original" theme idea was still unique and was thrilled that Will and Joel apparently felt the same way.

Construction-wise, however, they were less than thrilled with my original grid, saying it was overly segmented with too many 4 and 5-letter words. Of the 140 words I had in the original grid, 111 words were 3's (22), 4's (44), and 5's (45). By shortening two of my theme entries and moving some black squares around, I was able to open up the grid and reduce the number of 3, 4, and 5's to 81 words out of 138, and add some longer, more interesting fill.

Hope you enjoy my second solo Sunday puzzle!

– puzzle by Tracy Gray

Today's version of CUTIES is the 4^th iteration of this puzzle. It started life as a 21x21 puzzle, but I quickly realized two things (after a quick rejection) — first, this theme is more appropriate for an early week puzzle rather than a Sunday puzzle, and second, it is difficult to come up with enough meaningful QT theme entries that are in common usage to accommodate a Sunday puzzle.

There were two 16-letter entries in the larger version that I wanted to salvage for a daily puzzle — QUENTIN TARANTINO and QUIDDITCH TOURNEY. Both of these entries were in the second version (15x16). Will thought QUIDDITCH TOURNEY was a bit contrived, but he did like QUENTIN TARANTINO, so I kept that entry in the third version. However, in reviewing the grid in version 3, there was too much subpar fill necessary to accommodate QUENTIN TARANTINO. In the end, Will/Joel suggested letting go of this theme entry and the net result is what you see today in version 4.

With respect to clues, most of mine (75%) survived — a high percentage for me. The only two I was disappointed to lose were 39A — I originally proposed "Necessary skill for Jeopardy" (QUICK THINKING), but I can understand perhaps not wanting to reference the game show; and 52D — I proposed "With 53-Down, Jethro Tull's best-selling album" (AQUA LUNG), but then I date myself. Undoubtedly too obscure a clue except for us Tull/Zeppelin fans from the 70s!

As always, Will/Joel provided invaluable advice and assistance. Very much appreciated.

– puzzle by Pawel Fludzinski

Actors, musicians, and politicians: when I started researching famous people who shared names, those were the trends. We have John Adams (composer and US president), George Clinton (funk legend and Jefferson's VP), Paul Simon (musician and politician), Joe Jackson (musician and baseball player), and Jack Johnson (musician and boxer). The theme came together when I found four twelve-letter actors who shared names with other famous figures: ANNE HATHAWAY, GRAHAM GREENE, MATTHEW PERRY, and STEVE MCQUEEN.

At the time I made this, the pangram seemed worth the price of some weak threes (SDS, SSS, ICK, RTE), Looking back, I'm not so sure — but hopefully solvers who enjoy pangrams appreciate it. The center-left and center-right sections have the weakest fill, and I wonder if I could have avoided that by spacing out the theme entries more. One challenge in making this puzzle was limiting proper names in the fill, since the theme entries are so dependent on them.

Some things I enjoy: I really like HITIT at 1-Across to begin the puzzle. The BURLY ASSES in the bottom right are delightful (I swear that was the best fill). I lived in Abu Dhabi for two years, and accordingly there are some words from the Middle East here: HIJABS, IRANI, EUPHRATES, and AQABA. Overall, I enjoyed making this crossword — one of the first I ever made — and hope you get a kick out of seeing two famous figures juxtaposed next to each other by virtue of their name.

When I last wrote notes for a crossword, I was completing my Master's in Teaching. I'm now teaching world history at Park Slope Collegiate, a small public school in Brooklyn. Good luck out there to all the teachers out there who make crosswords part of their daily routine!

– puzzle by Will Treece

Arr, my puzzles always seem to be published at the times when I'm busiest! I'll keep my notes short and sweet this time.

I'd had the FORTY NINERS/FORTY NINE R'S idea for a while, but I just couldn't get the grid to fill as cleanly as I wanted. So I shoved what I had into my ever-growing "Works in Progress" folder and moved on to other crosswords. Last June, I rediscovered the puzzle and became inspired to finish it! After a bit of Crossword Compiler wizardry, I was able to make a customized word list containing only entries with at least one R, since my goal was to have 49 R's in the grid such that every entry had one or more R's. I was thrilled that MARGARET FARRAR fit into the grid, since she's one of my heroes! REARVIEW MIRROR was also a fortuitous find.

Not surprisingly, the nonthematic fill still ended up being weaker than what I usually strive for, but I decided to just go with it and write a set of clues. Having 49 R's in the clues was more of an afterthought, but I thought it would make for a nice touch. I realize that many solvers don't enjoy stunt crosswords, which is why I try to stay away from them in general. Every once in a while, though, a constructor's gotta have a little fun!

I hope you have as much fun with this puzzle as I did. Even if you hate it, I promise there are plenty of non-stunt Steinberg puzzles in store for you!

– puzzle by David Steinberg

So I have a secret . . . I love pandas! There, I've said it.

This is my first foray into grid art. The "eyes" of the grid came pretty quickly for me as a starting point. I always love pushing the rules ever so slightly, so I was pleased when the unchecked squares looked good. After that, there aren't many other placements that work for the nose and ears.

The "triple PA" was a must have for me. Once I got into the corners, it wasn't too difficult to add more PA's, especially near the bottom, which is broken up a little more. I was a little iffy on ENSE and SSTS in the South East and was willing to sacrifice one of the PA's. But Will seemed to be ok with it, so voila, there are 11 PA's That's good right?!

Have to tip my hat to Patrick Blindauer who beat me to the "panda punch" about a year ago. But I hope that with my cute and cuddly grid art, solvers find this fresh and fun.

– puzzle by David Kwong

Hi everyone!

I'm a first year at UChicago, where a surprisingly high number of my friends do the crossword. Maybe it's a thing here. Still figuring it out.

I blame my mom for my crossword habit. She still knows more words than me, but not for long!

Anyway, I like puns. That's probably the only explanation for this puzzle. If I remember correctly, I came up with the theme while thinking about why the scarecrow won an award. (He was outstanding in his field!) Turns out there are a lot of synonyms for "outstanding" that can be pun-ified. Some other possible theme entries I had considered using include a striking LABOR UNION, an exceptional ASTERISK, and a noteworthy LEGAL PAD.

I'm glad Will and Joel kept my clues for 49-Across (not applicable to my parents, thankfully) and 11-Down (has Dwight Schrute ever been in a puzzle?). I really like their new clue for 58-Across.

Back to puns: David AXELROD recently founded the Institute of Politics here, and he has a podcast called "The Axe Files" (har har har).

I'm excited to be published and I hope you'll see me around some more in the future!

– puzzle by Zachary Spitz

This puzzle was submitted in two versions — the version here, and one in which you got the full name of the theme entry. I really preferred the more tricksy version here, so I'm happy Will did as well. Some may grouse that the type of auto isn't consistent (that is, I have makes and models freely mixed). Unfortunately, it was either that or a puzzle without enough theme density for my taste. REO was originally part of it, but Joel and Will asked for all the cars to be modern; OLDS, as a short form, didn't cut it either.

A concern in construction was that the solver had to have enough left in the grid so that you could figure out what the full phrase was, and GTO was particularly problematic — almost anything ending in "-ING TO" for the first word like COMING TO could conceivably stand alone as a slangy version of that word (e.g. "Comin'" or "Lyin'"). I wanted to find an entry in which, even as a standalone, it was clear you needed to tack on GTO.

The big shock for me in previewing this was that roughly 75% of my clues remain more or less intact, 22A and 5D being my favorites.

A playful, though perhaps dark element in this puzzle, is that AUTO, by becoming "automobile," is rendered no longer automatic. Machines can complete our thoughts for us, before we even know what that thought is. So if you don't know entries like "HELP ME RHONDA," you can type in "HELP ME R," and the search engine autocomplete will do its thing, unlike in earlier times, when you might never have found out, unless you asked someone, or browsed your local record store...

– puzzle by Andrew Zhou

This is one of the first themeless grids I attempted. Lynn Lempel used the same grid design for a NYT puzzle, so I think I borrowed from her. However Joel noted in the acceptance email, "One thing that almost made this a no, despite the good fill, was the grid shape. Will really doesn't like when the black squares segment the grid into thirds like this. It highly increases the chance of the solver to get stuck in one particular area." I mention this for other budding constructors as a word of caution.

I was pleased to fit GABRIELLE GIFFORDS in the grid along with Zooey DESCHANEL and Nancy PELOSI. I've admired Ms. Gifford's comeback after the devastating injury she suffered in an assassination attempt in 2011. She and her husband, former astronaut and Space Shuttle Commander, Mark E. Kelly, campaign tirelessly for common sense gun control legislation.

I'd like to thank Will and Joel for accepting and editing this puzzle. They've improved on many of my clues and it is a better puzzle for it. I laughed when I read the clue "Going places?" for THRONES. They made a slight change in the grid. I had ALII for 5-Across with ISS for 8-Down, and GUAM for 26-Down with GIDDY at 26-Across, UTES at 31-Across and ASS at 34-Across.

I hope you enjoyed your Friday solving experience. I will keep trying to up the percentage of crosswords constructed by women. I encourage other women who have the inclination and time to do the same. Both Jeff Chen and Kameron Austin Collins have offered to mentor women. Editors such as Ben Tausig are encouraging women as well. In a recent solicitation for a new constructor for The American Values Club he noted: "In the interest of equal representation and also of producing a more welcoming vibe in the universe of publishing/intellectual life, we strongly encourage submissions from women and/or people of color. Though all applicants will be seriously considered, these will be given priority consideration." The deadline for that position has passed but I applaud him for reaching out and encourage all editors to do the same as the statistics show a VERY discouraging drop in female constructors.

– puzzle by Mary Lou Guizzo

This was my first attempt at a triple stack; I think I'd gotten scared away by the idea that they require bad shorter fill, but after finding this trio I knew I had to pursue it. I really like when themelesses open up into quadrants with space for shorter double stacks, which I've found gives you a lot of leeway to insert something fresh. Got lucky with the SW, though I tried to re-fill that corner for a while before I talked myself into allowing ETCHEDIN, which still has a funny ring to me.

On the cluing side, I'm happy a lot my clues made the final cut — YOGA PANTS, HOP ON POP, HAMPSHIRE were the ones I was most happy to see transfer. Will and Joel did a great job hacking away at my tendency, these days anyway, to write overlong trivia-laden clues :) We've got another editorial attempt to, maybe the phrase is "freshen up" the clue for MEN — this one feels as though there's more potential for empowerment.

Hope you enjoyed the puzzle! And if you're a woman interested in learning how to construct themelesses, I'd like to throw my hat in to the ring of constructors happy to mentor.

– puzzle by Natan Last

SAM: I like collaborating with Jeff because he thinks through every detail of a puzzle throughout the construction. It's as if his mantra is "How can we make this better?"

JEFF: What can I say? I like to make butter.

SAM: I first wrote to him with the idea for this puzzle. In my original pitch I proposed that the theme entries start by running Down and then turn into Across entries on the word(s) that could also go with "right on." I wanted his help in building the grid because of his skills in grid engineering. He wisely proposed that the answers should start as Across entries and then pivot into Down entries on the "right on" words.

JEFF: Speaking of engineering, that stupid engineer inside my head just couldn't let go of the idea that vertical answers going down and turning to the east would be TURNING LEFT, NOT RIGHT. See, you have to look at it from the point of view of the little guy traveling down the answer. Frame of reference, people! He would start by going downward, then making a left-hand turn--

(insert sound of that stupid engineer being throttled)

SAM: After a few emails about how the theme entries should work and what they should be, Jeff did his magic and produced a terrific grid. My entire contribution to the fill consisted of saying, "Yep, that looks good." So I took the lead on the clues. If you ever need to kill six or seven hours, by the way, write clues for a Sunday-sized puzzle.

JEFF: In case anyone is curious, for this magic, I chose a 9 ¾" wand made of yew, with a dragon heartstring core.

Or rather … the wand chose me.

SAM: Will and Joel liked the idea, but they asked for a few tweaks to the grid. Shortly thereafter, Jeff had some alternate versions from which to pick. Et voila.

JEFF: Easy as churning butter!

– puzzle by Samuel A. Donaldson and Jeff Chen

This puzzle was a long time in the making! I submitted the first version back in early 2014. It was rejected because my central theme answer, THIRD CULTURE KID, was deemed too obscure. I did a bit more brainstorming for alternatives and landed on THIRD TIMES A CHARM — a much better entry, but one that requires a 16x15 grid.

After producing several possible grids, I resubmitted the puzzle in late 2014. I heard back from Will with a tentative yes, provided I could clean up a few iffy entries. At that time, I was using the entry FOURTH OF JULY and no matter how creative I was with my block placements, the J was proving to be quite a problem. Changing that entry to FOURTH ESTATE helped alleviate some constraints and I was able to come up with a much cleaner fill. I resubmitted again this February and it was finally accepted!

I'd say that THIRD TIMES A CHARM is an apt description of this creation process but looking through my records, I found about 15 drafts of a completed grid! In one version, there were no blocks between 12/36-Down and between 28/49-Down, but unfortunately the fill had too many compromises. I'm pleased that I was able to pack in five theme entries although it certainly complicates the construction process.

Will changed a number of my clues, mostly skewing easier, since I wrote the initial clues expecting this to be a Tuesday or Wednesday puzzle. Did you catch the tie-in from the clue for 27-Down?

– puzzle by Parker Lewis

Looking at this puzzle again with fresh eyes, I'm very happy with the dozen 10-letter entries wrapping the edges. That holds true even though the NE quadrant was reworked during the editing process, which knocked out my initial seed entries. It'd be preferable to have gotten a few more exciting answers extending off those stacks into the puzzle's center, though thankfully nothing ugly had to be forced in. BACKPAGE is probably my favorite, yet BIGTOES might be evocative enough to help people stay from their third pass at Thanksgiving leftovers. (It will not deter me from embarking towards a tryptophan-based coma, however.)

Themeless puzzles come with the expectation of difficult, misleading clues. Typically in such cases, a country followed by "cabbage" in a clue hints that the answer will refer to currency. In the case of 22-Across, it's literal cabbage! It's a fun misdirect to include such feints among the scads of legitimately tricky clues.

– puzzle by Peter Wentz

I was drawn to a supersymmetric grid largely because it's fun to look at. But I also knew I'd be dealing with 36 7-letter words and 12 5's — pretty cramped space for snippets of conversation and snappy phrasings. And so there are none! Still, it was a keen exercise in mining for energy in a highly restrictive environment.

13 D AGOUTIS... years ago, on a nature trip to Belize, our group adopted a wild agouti, named him "Rudy," fed him, and smuggled him home inside the leader's shirt in coach class. Great pet, very affectionate animal.

20-Across, ON POINT, is actually one of my favorites, and I sought to clue it cowboy-style (being a fan of Lonesome Dove), as the lead flank position for cowboys on a cattle drive. I'm also glad to get 55 -Down GARO Yepremian in here — I remember him as a kicker playing with no helmet (!) and also, at one point, famously trying to throw the ball for a touchdown, with no success.

Lastly, 44-Down ANYMORE is an absolute monster to clue. "These days" is as fair and accurate a synonym as you'll ever see. Special thanks to Will and Joel for terrific cluing throughout the puzzle, especially for 50-Down (CHIDE, cross-referenced to TUT), which never would've occurred to me.

– puzzle by Ned White