New York Times, Thursday, April 1, 2021

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]!

April Fools! Sam fooled me once, then he fooled me again. Shame on me! Then he fooled me yet again. Who's the shame on for the third time?

But then I smugly defeated him!

Until Jim Horne pointed out that I didn't actually figure out the last theme answer. Not properly, that is.

More accurately, not at all.

Talk about fool.

Understanding that VERY RELIGIOUS was DEV took forever, but that was a nice a-ha, riffing on the old crossword standard of [… with "out."] DEV + out = devout. It's been done many times before, yet I always fall for it.

I thought I had the concept at that point but ESSENTIALLY didn't make sense with ELF + Inits. I thought maybe the letters E L F could somehow be in ESSENTIALLY? Finally, I realized that it meant Inits. + ELF = IN ITSELF. Fun discovery.

Finally, I was no fool! Yet I was. MMI, in slang = BAD MOUTHING? For a while, I figured this must not be theme-related. You know what the kids say these days when they want to insult you badly, they throw you some MMI!

Isn't that like the stink eye? The stink-I times two thousand?

Ah, it's MMI in(side) slang = sla(MMI)ng. Zoicks, that's tough to see!

My last chance at redemption: … and others. Huh. Oh, I got it! BLENDED FAMILY indicates to take STE PBR and TAHOE, and blend (anagram) those letters! Damn, I am so smart!

Oh. It's STE + PBR + others = stepbrothers. TAHOE didn't have anything to do with it?

Well, it should have!

Hatchi matchi, this was a toughie. I liked some of the cluing touches, like Bjorn Borg known as Ice-BORG. Great nickname! And I'm terrible with modern music references, but SONGZ is a great last name for a singer.

Finally, VEAL as "parm for the course" is punnily outstanding. Almost worth all my confusion and hair-pulling right there.