New York Times, Saturday, June 26, 2021

JOHN: I am excited to share a byline with Brad and it was great fun collaborating with him. We had two 15-letter entries (17-Across and 34-Across) we were looking to build a puzzle around, and Brad suggested many different grid layouts. When he presented the one we ultimately used, my eyes lit up as I loved the two double stacks and the flow of the grid. I never would have come up with it myself — the power of collaboration!

Writing clues with Brad was a treat and I learned so much going back and forth with him. My favorite entry is 34-Across, and Brad came up with an evocative clue for it. I also learned much from the editorial team's tweaks which strengthened the puzzle immensely — particular thanks for the clue for TOES … I would not have dreamt that one up in a million years!

We wrote this in April 2020, and since then Brad has become the editor of all the puzzles for Boswords, a series of crossword events organized by myself and Andrew Kingsley. We are currently preparing for our next event, an all-online, one-day tournament on Sunday, July 25. Registration opens on July 1 and you can find more information about this tournament (including our roster of constructors) at www.boswords.org.

BRAD: John has always been a quick-witted and congenial seatmate in the judging room at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. I jumped at the chance when he suggested we collaborate. Little did I know that he was mulling over a much bigger idea in the form of an expanded Boswords. I'm so proud of what John and Andrew have built, and proud that they've trusted me with an important role.

17-A and 34-A were both seeds of John's, and I was happy to get both into one grid when I pulled out an old-school pattern I'd used several times before. I hope John is right that my clue for 34-A is "evocative" — what I do remember is racking my brain for most of a day for just the right circumstance. I couldn't believe it when we got our preview of the NYT edit and I saw that the clue had stayed. But don't minimize how expertly John filled in around the 15s — once he was done I knew we stood a good chance of being accepted, and I loved his angle on parsing the letters at 32-Across. I wouldn't have thought of that, and many will be pleased to see it.

John and Brad! I love these guys, John one of the founders of the Boswords tournament, and Brad editing for it. During a historically rough time, when a ton of people needed a lot of diversion from the woes of the 2020 world, these online competitions provided a huge amount of entertainment.

Themelesses featuring grid-spanners often live or die on the quality of those marquee entries. Some of today's resonated strongly for me. I've said I COULD EAT A HORSE many a time, and I sarcastically often ask my daughter, CARE TO ELABORATE? regarding her various experiments in straight-faced lying.

It's unusual for me to solve a themeless that has feature entries new to our XWI Word List. John and Brad debuted three today! I couldn't piece together THE MUDVILLE NINE at first, but I eventually pulled Casey at the Bat out of the corners of my memory.

I filled in ___ SATISFYING and pondered, what could the first word be? Given that my kids turn into demons when given bubble wrap, I figured it had to be CHAOTICALLY or ANNOYINGLY. Perhaps I had a typo and the entry was SERENITY NOW? I had to mull over ODDLY SATISFYING, but I ended up deciding it was an oddly satisfying entry.

DRIVEWAY MOMENTS didn't click until most of the letters were in place, but what a self-explanatory, descriptive term. That is, unless you have kids who notice you drive up and bang on the car window yelling WHAT DID YOU BRING ME.

I appreciated that John and Brad didn't stop at those five grid-spanning entries, but laid out six more long entries. This math dork loved the CALCULUS clue, misdirecting with "has its limits." Fun to see it near SUM TOTAL, too.

Great clue for PRESS ONS. "Digital applications," as in fingers = digits.

There were some compromises, like SALE TAGS not doing much with that long slot, and some ATTY EAN HIES ORIG to hold everything together, but I enjoyed picking up those new long phrases, easy enough to make sense of.

Perhaps I'd get some MOMENTS if I parked in someone else's DRIVEWAY …