Kevin Curry author page

Zhou: I am so very thrilled to be making my NYT debut (especially because there were many times over the last two years where I was convinced it would never happen), and it is particularly meaningful to be sharing a byline with my favorite person in the whole world.

My original concept for this puzzle involved a passcode that was a Schrödinger entry but with one unchecked square… I reluctantly agreed to Kevin's simpler approach of putting a lock in the middle, secretly still thinking my way was better. Yikes! In hindsight — I hate to say it, but: Kevin, you were right. (Please don't use this statement against me in the future.)

Lastly, and most importantly, we're actually not the first people in our family to publish a crossword in the Sunday NYT. Our two oldest kids, Kaela (newly 9) and Nate (10), were published in the Kids section in April (interview by the incredible Christina Iverson here, solve the puzzle here). Time will tell if Vivi (almost 7) also catches the construction bug.

Kevin: Zhou and I met as teenagers. It's fun to think back to those days: she convinced me to dance the hula with her in front of 500+ people, and I convinced her to play offensive line on my flag football team. Our interests were so different, but we were always looking for ways to help each other grow.

Fast forward more than two decades: many of our interests have converged as we've shared our lives together. But our spirit of tackling new challenges side-by-side remains. This particular puzzle builds on literally hundreds of hours put into puzzles that were rejected. With the help of Christina and the amazing editing team, we couldn't be prouder to share it with the world.

This note wouldn't feel complete without mention of our friends Shawna and Austin, who we've tackled many escape rooms with. There's nothing quite like the feeling of deciphering the final challenge and becoming 42-Downs. We hope that this puzzle recreates some of that magic for you!

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!

I live in Seattle with my wife, Zhou, and our three kids, and I've become obsessed with running along a beautiful lake near our house. (I have a goal to run every day this year.) Sometime last year, I decided to ditch my earphones and be more present for the views of Mount Rainier, the beautiful sunrises, and, of course, splashing through puddles during the many, many days of rain. The side effect of that decision is that I think about crossword ideas. A lot. This one came to me at the end of a tiring run where I was imagining the Rocky theme music to pump myself up. Although "I OF THE TIGER" didn't make the final cut, I had lots of fun brainstorming this theme set.

When I'm not "runstorming" crossword themes or chauffeuring my kids around town, I spend a lot of time at the climbing gym, where I've met some of the most important people in my life. So, I'm grateful to the editors for keeping the clues for 70A and 56D as a nod to that community.

Hi, Crossworld! I'm a part-time corporate carbon footprint consultant and part-time stay-at-home dad of three young kids (although the title is ironic since it seems like we're never at home). I'm thrilled to be making my solo NYT debut on lucky 4/4.

This puzzle came to me at the end of a long day, when I was at my wits' end with my kids. They were running around the house while we were trying to eat dinner, and one knocked over her milk for the third time that day. "Rag time," I groaned. Then a light bulb went off. I wrote the Scott Joplin clue and stuck the entry in a prominent spot of a blank grid. Even though I don't drink and had to look up what a martini is, the rest of the puzzle somehow fell into place.

A big thanks to my wife, Zhou, for enduring years and years of dad jokes while I looked for the perfect one to print in the Times. I hope this makes it all worth it. After all, when does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent!