New York Times, Friday, June 19, 2015

Today's puzzle coincides with my father's 83rd birthday, so I dedicate it to Prof. M.J. Ashwood-Smith, aka Dad!

About a year and a half ago, my files included a puzzle that quad stacked 15s on both the top and the bottom. However, there were too many problem "crossers" running down though one or another of the quad sets. Most of these problems were in the top row, but because of normal crossword symmetry, any possible fixes to the top quad created additional problems for the bottom quad. I was about to abandon the project, until one afternoon in a coffee shop, I noticed that the lower quad might work quite well alone, as the basis for a puzzle with Left-Right mirror symmetry. Moreover, I noticed that two extra 10-letter words (27-and 28-D) could be thrown into the mix.

A few minutes later, I sketched a suitable grid on the back of a napkin, leaving a reasonable amount of flexibility for the rest of the grid. I was happy to get in JOHN STEINBECK and ORWELLIAN, and the rest of the puzzle came together nicely around them. My only qualm was that I had to allow everyone's favorite bump in a log, KNAR, into the puzzle. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time the New York Times has used such a grid arrangement with a quad stack on the bottom.

With Will Shortz's blessing, I've also created exclusively for XWord Info a version of the puzzle that has the identical answer grid, but most words clued at the Monday/Tuesday level (clues written by MAS and George Barany). This is to make the point that wide open quad stack grids can be built using, for the most part, easier words that are accessible to early week level solvers (for the handful of slightly hard words in the grid, I have made sure that the crossing words are all easy).

But wait, there's more. With George Barany, I created a sister puzzle, which also has Left-Right mirror symmetry, but this time the quad is on the top (it had similar origins, where we had to toss a bottom quad). You can find two versions; unfortunately, both of them had an unfamiliar partial at 14-Down, and that was enough to be a dealbreaker. Still, George and I think that you'll enjoy these.

Happy solving!

A ton of great material + a wide-open grid pattern I haven't seen before = win. I've often wondered why triple-stacker (and quad-stacker) specialists don't use mirror symmetry more often. It's not great for traditional themelesses, but it's perfect when you want to feature one grid-spanning stack without having to create a symmetrical one.

Such nice grid-spanners in the quad. Beautiful choices, each and every one. I STILL DON'T GET IT is a marvelous entry; so colorful and in the language. The prices to pay are ARE I, ENDO, LESE, and the awkardish IN A PEN / MISADAPT, but I think those are reasonable given the quality of the long answers. When you throw in how MAS worked in the beautiful COWGIRL and CAFÉ AU LAIT with MANIACAL laughter, the bottom half makes for a strong puzzle just by itself. I'd actually be okay with a little more glue, given how eye-poppingly open and fresh this grid looks.

But wait, there's more! I was impressed that MAS didn't stop there. Getting JOHN STEINBECK and ORWELLIAN … plus two nice corners in the top! I'm a huge SATCHMO fan, and although I didn't know GI BLUES, it's a fun entry. Working all this in with just a few AN OX, ADANO / KNAR kind of things made my solve very fun.

Bravo to MAS for trying something different; branching out from his typical triple-stacks — we've seen so many of those that they've gotten repetitive for me. I would likely have given this the POW just for the bottom half alone, but the top half was sure a bonus. Looking forward to more experimentation with new and eye-catching grid patterns.