Adam Wagner author page

KATE: I reached out cold to Adam, whose puzzles I love, to see if he'd be interested in collaborating. He asked if I had any theme ideas, and I had the barest germ. I love words like these and learned that they're called lonely negatives (15 letters!!). I'd compiled a long list, but didn't know where to go from there. Adam came up with this brilliant construct. We aimed for different prefixes for each themer, and originally had LONELY NEGATIVES as the revealer. The editing team suggested cutting it, which let us add DISCOMBOBULATED — so much better! This was my first NYT acceptance, though it's the second to appear.

ADAM: I normally expect theme collab brainstorms to take weeks. Not so with Kate! She lobbed "Lonely Negatives" in her very first email! I suggested deploying blocks to clue themers self-referentially, and we were off.

I also normally expect to give fill guidance to newer constructors. Again... not so with Kate! She filled circles (squares?) around me. I mean look at that BE HONEST / I CANT LIE stack … that is truly awesome.

Lastly, one neat constructing quirk: bumping INDOLENT and MISNOMER in one block from the edges is the reason the whole grid works, because it makes the block over the D in DOLENT symmetric with the block over the B in BEKNOWNST, reducing two pairs of constraints down to one and allowing much more flexibility with the fill.

All in all, we hope this puzzle left you feeling gruntled!

Brooke: I love when I look at the latest NYT byline and see Adam's name because more often than not I'm about to be faced with a theme that wouldn't occur to me in my wildest dreams. I will never forget this Sunday or of course this theme-in-the-clues Thursday. Neither of us remembered this, but it turns out I reached out to Adam to compliment his very first NYT puzzle! I'm overjoyed that one of the cool theme kids was down to collaborate with me.

And what a collaboration! We worked so hard on this puzzle! Every single component was a whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-two-constructors situation. The theme is so different from Adam's original pitch (which we would, obviously, be nowhere without). We considered dozens of options for every corner of the grid, and we clued with exquisite care — clues which have largely been retained in print! The best clue in this puzzle is Adam's 22-Down and my second favorite is Adam's 50-Across. Perhaps related to the latter, I was sad to lose original Adam's DAD clue, which was [Most common job in America for men].

P.S. The third These Puzzles Fund Abortion pack dropped this week. Donate here to receive sixteen puzzles by these amazing constructors.

Adam: Geeking out that I get to share a byline with Brooke, who happens to be the constructor of my personal all-time favorite puzzle. And wow did working with her live up to the hype. Not only did she routinely turbocharge this puzzle with fill (ERHU! RAGEROOMS!) and clues ("Pre-sale alert?"! "The Wasteland"!), she's also just fun to work with. An absolutely ideal collab.

Besides the byline, my other favorite thing about this puzzle is how human the theme is. No code, no ChatGPT, just two friends texting each other messages like "what are words that have ... synonyms?"

P.S. As many of you know, I have a word game called Anigrams. I'm excited to announce that today I'm launching a Patreon for it! Come by for bonus challenges, new games, a playable backlog/archive (coming next week), or just to lend support. I'll also share a few NSFW theme examples for this puzzle that didn't make the cut. Hope you'll consider joining!

I'll be honest, I have no memory of constructing this puzzle. I think I made it two-ish months after my kiddo was born (in case that wasn't obvious from 10D, 38D, and 26D), probably while nap-trapped on the couch.

Come to think of it, and I'm guessing here because that whole era is a spit-up-filled, sleep-deprived haze, but the theme was probably inspired by the animal noises written on my kiddo's (many, many) diaper shells.

That also might explain why I only used animal sounds, rather than, say, SPLAT or BANG or — at the risk of pandering to a certain daily crossword writer — POW!

(Speaking of animal sounds, I can't write a whole constructor note without plugging my daily word game Anigrams.us — thanks to everyone out there who's been playing!)

Lastly, I want to thank my partner Anna. You are a superhero. I try to be a coequal parent, but no matter how many pump parts I wash or bedtime stories I read, there is no equal to the physical and emotional (and, for a few hours there, literal) labor you put into helping our child thrive in this world. I acknowledge that that labor is a big reason why I even have the space to pursue this wordplay hobby at all — and I thank you deeply for it. Love you, bub!

RAFA: It's a huge honor to share a byline with two besties and crossword idols for what is undoubtedly the best NYT puzzle of 2023 so far!

Three things:

• 16D is very apt
• Pour one out for my [Myrrh-thful trio?] clue for 51D
• I was skeptical of 3D when Adam proposed that corner, but now it's one of my favorite answers in the grid!

ADAM: While we're on the subject of pouring ones out, here's to Mike's absolutely brilliant (G)O(R)ILL(A) (C)OSTUM(E) = BLESSING IN DISGUISE.

And props to Rafa for the incredible, puzzle-saving (REC)TANGU(LA)R PR(I)S(M).

My main contribution is this preposterous grid design, where every single Down crosses at least one theme answer... and over half cross more than one... including an absurd 10 entries that cross three!

This is also a full circle puzzle for me, with GET BACK IN SHAPE and PICTURE IN PICTURE echoing the revealers of my last two Sunday outings.

MIKE: In addition to the one Adam mentions above, my favorites that didn't make the puzzle (because making paired symmetry work is truly, remarkably, unimaginably frustrating) are:

• UNL(A)WFU(L) ASSEMB(L)(Y)
• TH(E) TWI(L)(I)GH(T) ZON(E)
• (M)(A)ISO(N)(E)T(T)E
• A (S)(T)RE(E)TCAR NAM(E)D DESI(R)E

(PARTNER IN CRIME, BEST IN SHOW, ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, and DRIVE IN MOVIE)

A certain writer of daily crossword commentary likes to point out that "Will Shortz rarely takes diagonal themes because they're so hard to fill well." Just know that every time I read a writeup like that, I take it as a personal challenge.

Admittedly, yeah, the right half of this puzzle was brutal to fill. That I made it out of there with only one small SMEAR(er) is a miracle. That left half, though... what a joy! A dream! I could put in whatever long entries I wanted? With hardly any constraints? It almost made me wish there were puzzles that didn't have themes, that I could fill to my heart's content...

But no. That would just be silly.

Odds/ends:

• Fave clues 24a, 79a, 52d, 77d.
• Fave editorial additions 29a, 73a, 88d.
• I had clued INNER CITY as 'Urban area sung about by Marvin Gaye on the last track of "What's Going On"'. I'm on the fence about the revision, which only considers the phrase's literal meaning without alluding to its controversial historical connotations.
• I originally submitted the title "Figure Skating". Eds changed it to "Go Figure". And then Will himself dropped an absolute dime at the last second with "Going Off On A Tangent." There's a reason he's the .
• Speaking of s, go play Anigrams.us!

Wait a second... No rebuses, no grid art, no tricksy theme shenanigans, no circled or shaded squares, no rule breaking... Did I even make this puzzle?

Well, yes. While this is my tenth (!!!) puzzle to run, it's actually only the second one I made chronologically, before I got into my Thursday groove. Now, I could use that as an excuse for some fill dodginess but I'm gonna stand up for myself and say I'm proud of 2019 Adam's work here.

And don't worry, I'll be back to my regular tricksiness soon.

In the meantime though, if you are looking for a twisty word challenge, I recently launched a new daily word game! It's called Anigrams, and it's all about unscrambling words of increasing lengths. I hope you'll give it a play, and feel free to hit me up with feedback on the bird app.

Can you make it all the way to the ?

Cracking a theme idea usually gives me an endorphin rush, a sort of cruciverbal runner's high. (Punner's high?) (Sorry.) (Actually, not sorry. No shame in my game.)

With this idea, though, it was more a rush of tentative dread because I was certain someone must have beaten me to the punch. Heck, Jeff Chen himself had even tweeted about it six months earlier. And yet, despite checking every resource I could find, it seemed like the theme hadn't been done.

So I set out to make the grid... and quickly realized why.

I must've made over 25 versions of this puzzle (I only submitted three—don't worry, I don't waste the editorial team's time *that* much). An early rejection had NADA (GEENA DAVIS, ALL IN A DAY'S WORK) and SQUAT (SASQUATCH, LOUIS QUATORZE), which the eds thought were more analogous with "nothing" than "zero." I tried LOVE (ALL OVER, DONALD GLOVER) as a fifth rebus, but the fill buckled under the pressure. Even ZIP was almost a non-starter (you may have doubts about JACUZZI PARTY, but I promise it's one million billion times better than the only other phrase that hides *ZI P*).

Why spend so much time making a crossword? Because it's fun. And challenging. And, in my opinion, kinda beautiful. I'm lucky to have found a hobby that so perfectly suits what I'm about and a community of people with whom I really feel like I belong. Love you, crossworld. See you next time!

Today's theme was inspired by (warning: mildly NSFW) this scene from the 2003 superhero smash X2: X-Men United. The original idea was that the magnets in the grid were so powerful that they were pulling the letters I, R, O, and N out of the theme clues... like this:

9D: D_d CP_ __, say
10D: _ce c_eam c__e type
28D Del_ve_y _f tax payme_t
29D F__st, t_ a seama_

So you'd have to suss out that those clues were for the base words, PUMPED, WAFFLE, FILING, MAIDEN... and then tack on the 'extracted' IRON letters in the grid, stuck to the magnets.

Ultimately, the editors felt the quadruple dupe (qupe?) of IRON was too easy for such a late-week cluing gimmick (and I don't disagree), so it'd be better to just clue the theme entries straight and run it earlier on. That said, I'm still proud enough of this weird little idea to talk about it here!

A few other random thoughts:

• App/web solvers get a bonus grid art treat today. But paper solvers of my last puzzle got to physically cross their Ts in the clues with their pens/pencils. So we're even.
• Making the magnets fully free-floating forced a grid with lots of mid-length fill. That, plus my original plan for this to run later in the week, is why you've got trickier stuff like SESTET and HIDALGO in there on a Tuesday.
• I'm grateful that the editors kept my original cluing angles at 27A, 41A, 12D, and 56D.
• Thrilled to have worked in an anagram of my son Miko's name at 57A.

And as always, if you want to commend, complain, or collab, my dms are always open.

A few years ago my wife Anna made cake pops for my birthday. When I asked how the heck she made such perfect, Paul-Hollywood-handshake-worthy treats, she texted back that she used a "cake baller." I assumed this was a typo that was supposed to read "cake batter," but no — apparently cake ballers are very much a thing. For a good few seconds though, I found it very funny and bizarre that a digital text could make such an analog mistake as "forgetting" to cross a pair of ts. And thus a theme was born!

Big thanks to my brother-in-law Jacob for writing code to help me find l/t pairs. (If you're looking for something similar, XWord Info has since added a letter replacement tool, and Adam Aaronson's Wordlisted has one too that lets you search multiple wordlists).

By far the hardest part of this puzzle, though, was writing natural-sounding *non* thematic clues without any extraneous Ls, Ts or capital Is. That means no "to" "at," "all" "with," "this," "that," or "the" "other" "thing." To use a millennial reference, it felt like playing QWOP, where something as natural as running (or in my case, writing), suddenly became a near-impossible task, where I had to be hyper-aware of my every move, and would constantly faceplant by typing "it" without thinking about... it.

If you want help getting started making weird Thursdayish puzzles like this one, or if you just want to be my xfriend, come find me on the bird app.

They say good artists copy, and great artists steal. I guess in that sense I am both a good and great artist because this theme was pretty directly lifted from — er, inspired by — this brilliant puzzle from Rich Proulx. I love the idea of a hidden word theme where the nested words are related to the bigger entries they're inside of — they feel so much more special and rare, like cruciverbal truffles. Which I guess makes me the... pig?

(Quick tangent — I have since had the good fortune of getting to know Rich IRL at a couple of Bay Area constructor gatherings, and am pleased to report he is as amazing as the puzzles he makes. I knew we'd be friends when he asked me what my favorite chess opening was. [Swoon!]).

The inspiration for this theme came early in the pandemic when I found myself thinking a lot about "America's Dad" Tom Hanks. One night as I was falling asleep, my brain decided to point out that Hanks starred in both BIG and BRIDGE OF SPIES. I leaped out of bed and spent six hours looking for more examples.

(Quick second tangent — I am now the dad of a seven-month-old, and I find it hilarious that there was ever a time in my life where I would voluntarily give up sleep to research crossword themes).

A few more theme examples if you're hungry for more (click links for answers):

• Ben Affleck (1998, 2012)
• Will Smith (2019, 2001) OR (2020, 2001)
• Allison Janney (2007, 2015)
• Anthony Hopkins (1998, 2011)
• Mark Wahlberg (2006, 2012)
• Ben Kingsley (2016, 2011)

My original idea involved answers like TALL DARK AND HAND, clued as [With part of 64-Across, conventionally attractive.] 64-Across would then be the sizzling revealer ALL, and you'd realize you have to use part of that, aka SOME, to complete the theme entries (i.e. TALL DARK AND HAND[SOME]).

I quickly realized that the concept needed [Part of 64-Across] work so I sent it to my island of misfit themes and went on with my life.

Fast forward a few months. I was solving this puzzle by John-Clark Levin and Jeff Chen, and landed on the entry GRIFFIN, shaded in grey. "Damn!" I thought. "They've cracked the ALL/SOME idea using mythological creatures! I bet EAGLE and LION will be missing elsewhere in the grid, and you'll have to break GRIFFIN apart to fill the gaps! Brilliant!"

Of course, that was not the theme of that puzzle, not even close. But the nice thing about whiffing on a theme guess is that you may end up with an original idea you can use yourself! (Also — the actual theme of that puzzle is incredible. I highly recommend solving it if you haven't already).

This grid was a bear (or, half-bear half-human) to make, particularly in the central column where the themers intersect. I'm glad I was able to keep the animal theme going by honoring the GOAT Alex TREBEK, and my beloved HARIBO Goldbears. Big thanks to the editorial team for the many wonderful clues (though I will brag and say my favorite clue in the puzzle is my own, at 55-Across).

One last thing I'd like to share, and apologies for running long. My incredible partner Anna works as a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant trying to, in her words, "make corporate America less sexist and racist, among other things." One of the many great aspects of being married to her is that she always calls me out on my blind spots, and helps me learn from them. This puzzle had a few of those blind spots I'd like to address.

Firstly, is MANHOLE COVERS still a preferred term? I know some places call them 'maintenance covers' to use less unnecessarily gendered language. And for that matter, are all centaurs even men, anyway? Or is 'MAN' in that sense used like 'mankind'? But wait, is 'mankind' even a preferred term anymore? These issues may be small nits in the grand scheme, but even small issues are important to talk about. It's an ocean of drops, after all.

I've lost a lot of chess games in my day, so this theme is personal for me. And yet for all the chess I play, this puzzle wasn't inspired by one of my own games at all, but rather an episode of The Queen's Gambit where one of Beth Harmon's opponents lingers ever so slightly when knocking over their king in resignation. The theme flooded into my head immediately; the rest was history.

That's a lie, actually. The rest was not history. This theme set was a beast to assemble. I really wanted king T'CHALLA to work, but the only phrase I could find that hides him was CATCHALL ACCOUNT — like... an email account that all your other emails get forwarded to...? I also wanted SPORT UTILITY for TUT, but that wreaked absolute havoc on the fill.

Speaking of fill, well... listen. I don't like GARY, IN either. Or rather, I'm sure the city is wonderful. I just don't like any city + state abbr. in my grids. But if it lets me get away with WENTBYEBYE, HOTCOCOA, and OCTOMOM... get GARY IN there!

I had a couple clues I was sad to see go — "Priceless moments?" for SALES, "Dust that's meant to get in your eyes?" for CHALK ART, "Bounced playfully?" for WENT BYE BYE. The revealer was originally "Victory formation... that's often preempted by this puzzle's theme?" but I understand the need to make that one more on the nose, and overall I'm happy with editorial's revisions.

Lastly, while "Game Over" was my original title, I was holding out hope that they'd consider my ALT: "Topple The Patriarchy." Alas.

Hope you enjoyed the solve!

Until 2020, the only way to submit a puzzle to the Times was through the good old US Postal Service. I always liked submitting that way — it made me feel super cool to write "Will Shortz" on the envelope.

Only problem is, if you read the submission guidelines carefully, you'll realize you're not actually supposed to write "Will Shortz." You're supposed to write "Will Shortz, Crossword Editor." Which seems like a small difference... except I'm writing this envelope by hand, and I've already centered "Will Shortz" on the page. So now here I am having to cram "Crossword Editor" in increasingly tiny print off to the right as I hopelessly careen toward the margin, ultimately rendering the last few letters of "editor" so absurdly small that you'd need an electron microscope to decipher them.

I'm not sure what about this typesetting blunder screamed "crossword theme," but something tickled me about the idea of having to cram a bunch of letters into a rebus square at the end of a row because I couldn't adequately predict how much space I needed to fit a theme answer. And something tickled me even more about the futility of it being a haiku, as if writing a word small enough would somehow make it not count toward the poem's syllable limits.

Ultimately, I'm really proud of this one. I feel like there's a lot of "me" in it. Hope you enjoyed!

Few other things:

• It's odd how many pet-related bits of wordplay I included both in this grid and my previous one, considering I've never had a pet. I'm going to have to talk to my therapist about this.
• I hope you agree I was able to save PINE SAP and LPS with fun clues!
• Thanks to Joel and the whole editorial team, especially for the clue goodness on BUSES, and for the fun interplay at 62/63A.

Fun fact: I found out this puzzle was accepted the same week my wife and I found out we were expecting our first baby! For nine months, I wondered which would arrive into the world first. In the end, baby didn't want to be upstaged; Miko was born on 4/7! I've been solving the puzzle aloud with him every night since — gotta start 'em young, y'know?

As for this puzzle — it actually wasn't inspired by a DOG at all, but rather by a Tweet that referred to a certain once-ubiquitous figure in American life as a CARNIVAL BARKER. This immediately set my crossword spidey senses atingling. Such a colorful 15-letter spanner (when pluralized) — I just knew I had to build a puzzle around it.

I was able to think up BEER GROWLER and SUBWOOFER pretty much right away and figured I should develop a full set in no time. Instead, I spent two full days spelunking the depths of canine onomatopoeia thesaurus.com pages. At one point, I remember coming up with a themer idea literally in my sleep, yelling, "I've got it!" and writing it down in my bedside notebook. When I woke up the next morning, I was amused to see that my sleepy self had scribbled down... KING ARF-ER (9). Thanks for that, sleepy Adam. Ultimately though, I hope you all agree that ELITE YELPER is enough of a thing to be crossworthy.

Big thanks to David Kwong for suggesting BOB BARKER instead of CARNIVAL BARKER, allowing for more traditional symmetry rather than the "Dog Paw" layout I had originally (three vertical themers spaced at the top of the grid, and then CARNIVALBARKER horizontal spanning across the bottom), and also for talking me out of cluing the themers as "Brewery watchdog," "Naval watchdog," etc. Sometimes it's best to keep things simple. Thanks as well to Sam Ezersky and the whole editorial team for all the help and for taking my last-minute suggestion for the clue on 3-Down!