I like exploring rough waters. Low word count themelesses are really tricky, so most of my ventures in this area haven't been very successful (that's code for "they stunk up the joint"). In fact, I had thrown in the towel a few years ago, vowing never to waste my time on low word count grids, most of which necessitate heavy crossword glue and not a lot of colorful entries. What sort of solving experience is that?
And then Tim Croce used a grid pattern I had never seen before, one I thought was visually stunning. Not only wide-open and ultra-low word count, but it was something that looked like it should be hanging on a wall (kind of like a KNIFE BAR!). I liked it so much, I decided to get back on the horse and see what I might be able to do with a similar layout.
I'm a big fan of feature entries, and Tim's grid only allowed for nine-letter entries, nothing longer. So I shifted some blocks around, tested out what might produce flexible patterns, and settled upon a layout featuring two 13-letter words. THOUGHT POLICE was on my mind after having re-read "1984," so I tested that out in both of the slots. When it became apparent that HAN SOLO, one of my favorite characters of all time, might work crossing THOUGHT POLICE, I decided to dive in.
Some hundreds, maybe thousands of iterations later, I had worked out two of the quadrants pretty well. But the area in the middle wouldn't cooperate, not allowing me to knit the pieces together. Ugly situation, potentially untenable. Quit-worthy. I came up with a few options, but nothing would hold the quadrants together at 20D, a key entry. After dozens of hours sunk into this venture, it felt like the puzzle had beaten me.
But, I'm stubborn. I ran through several sources to search for everything under the sun that might possibly work in that slot. When PEN CAPS popped out, I reminisced about using pen caps as projectiles in rubber band slingshots (my parents were politely asked to remove me from Chinese school), I decided to see where that led. Thankfully, things fell from there.
Meaning, I only had another half to do.
The entire grueling experience reminded me of my original clue for PEN CAPS: [Hard things to chew on in class].