New York Times, Thursday, May 25, 2023

AK: I got to know Garrett last year in my American studies course at Riverdale Country School in The Bronx. Yes, Garrett was a terrific student, but he proved to be an even better crossword constructor.

GC: It was so cool to be in the classroom with Mr. Kingsley, a constructor I'd always admired. That class will always hold a special place in my heart, and Mr. Kingsley was a great and entertaining teacher (… except for the one time I fell asleep in the front row, sorry!)

AK: The inspiration for this specific puzzle came after I had cooked split pea soup for the first time. I discovered that what makes split pea taste so good is the pound of bacon the recipe requires. I approached Garrett with the theme idea, and it came together quite quickly. This is my second puzzle that looks like it has rotational symmetry but doesn't. I guess that's my thing now.

GC: While I'm sad to be leaving Riverdale, I'm off to The University of Chicago in the fall and am delighted to join an ever-growing community of crossword constructors (hi, Josh Kindler and Katherine Baicker!). When Mr. Kingsley and I started working together last year, we set a goal to get published in the NYT before I graduated, and I'm happy to say — with three weeks to spare — mission accomplished! Oh, and happy birthday, Mom!

A few years back, a friend and I were exploring SPLIT PEAS, and while it was neat to find PHILLIPINES = PHILIP PINES, every other discovery was so short, splitting 4 / 4. Building around a central 6 / 5 was such a pain. Mirror symmetry worked, running all the themers vertically, but the entire thing felt tenuous, especially since it's rare for editors to take themes using short entries.

Therefore, I convinced Sam to change to what I thought was more interesting … which Will Shortz rejected.

As is often the case, it shows what I know.

There ought to be a word for "enough symmetry to fool people into thinking there's symmetry." If you don't pay close attention (or if your anal brain refuses to let you ignore asymmetrical aspects, no matter how small), the grid might look perfectly fine. Those black square chunks in the center play some mind games!

I can see why Andrew and Garrett wanted to run their themers horizontally — it can be trickier for solvers to read vertical themers, since so many of us are used to reading left to right, not up to down. They could have used up/down symmetry to do this, but Will has said several times that he thinks up/down symmetry looks weird.

Asymmetry is like nails scratching down the chalkboard of my eyes, but there's something vaguely pleasing to this execution. Along with a reasonable find (that I dismissed, telling Sam that it wasn't a big enough change) in POWERSUPPLY to POWERS UP / PLY, it all made for a solid solve.

Never listen to anything I say if you haven't already figured it out.