New York Times, Wednesday, July 21, 2021

I got the idea for this puzzle as I walked through Jim Horne's Grid Art gallery, where it struck me that quite a few of the grids were based around letters. Not seeing Z among them, I realized it was a prime candidate for several reasons: its symmetric shape that did not preclude full interconnectedness, its tendency to catch my eye when solving, and the possibility of the unchecked squares in its "inner pockets" not really being unchecked if filled with Z's. It was not long after that when I realized that double stacks above and below the big Z would not only let the grid breathe better, but also provide room for four "snaZZy" theme answers.

Having decided that those ten total Z's would be the only Z's in the grid so as to keep the theme tight, I struggled to find two pairs of 15's that worked well enough together. Even 15's whose Z's were not consecutive always seemed to result in at least one restrictive pattern that would also usually restrict its other crossing answers, and then filling around these pairs felt much harder than with the typical 72-worder. I was really not sure about ORANGELOS, MNEMONIZE, TRIPLE IPA, and a few others, but luckily Will Shortz didn't seem to mind them; I hope you as the solver don't either.

I dedicate this puzzle to 1-Across, his daughter Gianna, and their memory, as I played as him extensively and sometimes exclusively in my old NBA videogame... and of course, a hearty thanks to Will, his staff, and my fellow puzzlers for their feedback, in particular Judy Cole, who was one of several players kind enough to test-solve it between games of a Scrabble tournament in December 2019. Most of all, thank you for taking the time to try my puzzle, and I look forward to giving you more puzzles to solve.

Easy to figure out what this puzzle is all about! In addition to the Grid Art collection, please peruse the Visual Puzzles page to enjoy other pretty images.

I'm razzle-dazzled by black square grid art that looks spot-on perfect. For instance, Tim Polin's question mark is unquestionable. My first impression of today's was more of a 2, although the Z quickly snapped into place after uncovering GRIZZLED VETERAN.

You might wonder if this puzzle sets a record for Zs in a grid, but surprisingly, it doesn't even come close.

Alex wisely alternated his ZZs left-right-left-right, making his construction much easier. It would have been awesome to get 2x2 squares of ZZ/ZZ, or a stairstep with one pair shifted, but what are you gonna do. When the giant black Z takes up so much real estate, you don't have much remaining flexibility.

I enjoyed much of this solving experience, although it didn't completely cohere for me. Why pairs of Zs, when the center Z is solo? I often find record-setting letter puzzles more interesting from a constructor's point of view than a solver's, but in this case, a record number of Zs could have memorably synergized with the grid art. Going to a higher word count might have given Alex a shot at that, plus a chance to smooth out his grid, removing some of ZEALS (odd as a plural), NEB, ONZE, PLAT, PVT, etc.