New York Times, Saturday, May 22, 2021

SID: This puzzle owes its existence to a grid design technique I associate most strongly with Robyn Weintraub. Robyn often places her double and triple stacks just inward from the edge of the grid, using small "fingers" of black squares to partition the outermost rows and columns into three segments each instead of two. Short entries at the border of a grid are usually easier to wrangle than long ones, so this strategy offers more flexibility to the constructor, and consequently, more interesting fill to the solver. Here, Matthew and I extended the technique by creating domino-shaped "fingers" all around the perimeter and placing triple stacks in each quadrant. We hope the result makes for a pleasant and smooth solving experience.

It was fun to get GENERATION ALPHA into this grid. I enjoy including entries that represent the youngest segment of our solving audience, like Matthew's students. It's also exciting to debut 3-Down, a not-so-subtle homage to the brilliant crossword podcast Fill Me In, hosted by puzzle luminaries Brian Cimmet and Ryan Hecht. (Sorry it took so long, guys! I'd been trying to get you in at 3-Across all this time.)

Lastly: I recently started editing the new crossword feature for The Juggernaut, a digital publication focused on stories relevant to the worldwide South Asian diaspora. Our goal is to publish puzzles with themes, entries, and clues that highlight South Asian culture, emphasizing cultural elements rarely seen in other crossword venues. If you liked seeing MAHARISHI in this Times crossword and want to see more brown representation, the Juggernaut puzzles are for you! And if you're interested in constructing a puzzle for The Juggernaut, please get in touch — we're committed to publishing newer constructors, especially folks with South Asian cultural backgrounds.

MATTHEW: Thrilled to share this funky puzzle with y'all! I haven't worked much with lower-word-count themeless grids (almost all the themeless constructors whose work I admire most live in 70-to-72-Wordville, and I spend a lot of time emulating them), but working on this inventive 64-worder with Sid was a treat. I'd like to think we've each improved our cluing chops since dropping this one in the mail last year, so I'm extra thankful to the Times team for coming through with some great edits, including 23-Across, 48-Across, and 40-Down. Happy solving!

I love the aesthetics of the unusual black square "canes" — reminds me of a CANDY CANES puzzle Mary Lou and I did years back. And from a constructor's point of view, it also allows for juicy quasi-sectioning of the grid. Once you get a rough idea of what the middle might look like, you can start to work on each of the four corners independently. That's so valuable, allowing you to segment the grid into smaller, much more manageable chunks.

There were so many fantastic long entries jam-packed in, starting with FILL ME IN, hearkening to the great Ryan and Brian podcast. Check it out when you can; they're fun to listen to.

I just finished "Money Heist" and am going through serious withdrawal, so I loved uncovering HEIST FILMS. EVIL EMPIRE nearby could have made the puzzle's tone too dark, but cluing it to the sci-fi trope made it sing.

I had to laugh at my sheer stupidity, putting in UMM for a sound chewing on a pencil and thinking that GENERATION ALPUA was some gen-alpua term that made fun of people like me. HMM, indeed. I didn't know that they moved from Gen-Z to Generation ALPHA, but I have to admit that it's just a hair more logical than my thinking.

Speaking of making fun, BOOBOISIE's clue felt ... bad. The term amused me to no end years ago, a flagrantly offensive portmanteau of boob and bourgeoise, but I worried that it could feel like it was thumbing its nose at solvers, so I made sure to clue it to the source (Mencken). The clue today felt ... insulting? Condescending? It's okay if I call myself a boob, but not if you do. So what if it's true?!

DONK gave me a smile, as my son often donks his sister on the head. I shouldn't laugh, but if you can't laugh, you cry. Hopefully, the DONK / TRINI cross didn't bam-boob-zle anyone.

Although I had a few reservations, there was so much to love; so many vivid long entries are carefully woven together, a feat of construction. Even when you lock down a possible middle like EVIL EMPIRE / GENERATION ALPHA / HEIST FILMS, one or more quadrants don't cooperate. Amazing that Sid and Matthew were able to wrangle them all so smoothly.