Brendan Emmett Quigley author page

Last December, as a new immigrant from Mumbai to the US, I was itching to remain connected to both my loves — crosswords and India. What better way than making a crossword to celebrate India? And what better icon than Taj Mahal to celebrate India? That's how the idea of this puzzle took birth.

I approached Brendan with the theme idea. He was convinced from day 1 that this was a winner idea! We put our designing caps on and started designing the shape of the Taj. While other theme entries fell in place as per Taj's shape, we both really worked hard to get right the placement of TOMB. To have TOMB right at the bottom centre, where it is in the actual Taj, brought the monument to life!

There's another quirk about this puzzle: in 2017, I was a resident of Mumbai and teamed up with Brendan to make the American Independence Day puzzle in NYT. Now, I am a resident of Princeton and teamed up with Brendan to celebrate Indian Independence Day (August 15) in NYT. Classic example of using crosswords to bring America and India closer.

BEQ: Before COVID forced me into "seclusion" (i.e. covering for Tabtiha's homeschoolin' and otherwise trying to keep Chez BEQ chuggin' along) and my schedule was a bit more normal, I would routinely buzz Ben about all sorts of nonsense. Maybe there'd be theme development (Ben covered this), or maybe I'd get his take on Matador's latest release. Loads of other topics in between.

But last year was a bit of, how do I put this?, "work when I can" kinda thing, so I missed out on a lot of regular chit-chattery. Not just with Ben, but with loads of people. Regardless, now that Tab's back in school, and I'm moving back to more (ahem) "normal work hours" (when you're a lifer like me, what truly is a normal work day?), I'm hoping to be talking to Ben again more frequently. Who knows? Maybe we'll come up with another theme.

BEN: It's a treat to be sharing a byline once again with longtime pal and crossword mensch Brendan Emmett Quigley. As with our previous collaboration from last May, Brendan and I joined forces on a phonetic theme. Over the years, Brendan has often consulted with me on getting the specifics right for phonetically themed puzzles he's worked on for various outlets, including his own site. Many's the time we've argued over linguistic fine points like whether to treat the unstressed "schwa" sound (/ə/) as equivalent to the vowel in "cut" (/ʌ/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet, aka "wedge").

This time around, Brendan had the idea for the MIDDLE C gimmick but needed help coming up with a good set of themers. Using resources like the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, we were able to put together a strong set of theme entries in which that middle /si/ syllable could be spelled in a variety of different ways. It was satisfying to be able to pack in seven themers plus the revealer without sacrificing the fill quality. As usual, Brendan's keen eye for gridwork and cluing ensured that the results would be top-notch.

These days, in addition to writing my weekly language column for the Wall Street Journal, I've been pitching in on a fun new venture called Beyond Wordplay, sure to be of interest to crossword puzzle fans. Check out our website and monthly newsletter, and also keep an eye out for the Beyond Wordplay crew at the virtual Game Night at the upcoming American Crossword Puzzle Tournament!

BEN: It's a real pleasure to be making my debut as a Times crossword constructor, and it feels like it's been a long time coming. I've been addicted to crosswords — and word puzzles more generally — ever since I was a wee lad and joined the National Puzzlers' League. As an adult, seeing the documentary "Wordplay" rekindled my love of crosswords, and I started attending tournaments and falling in with the cruciverbalist crowd. Around the same time, I became executive editor of the Visual Thesaurus and got to know Brendan, who created a monthly crossword for the VT. Since then, Brendan and I have had countless conversations about puzzles, music, and life in general. I suppose it was inevitable we'd make a crossword together.

The original idea for this theme came from Erik Agard, who has been nudging me into crossword construction for quite a while. Erik actually suggested a phonetic theme going the other way, with the vowels changing from /aʊ/ to /æ/. (As a linguist, I feel compelled to use the International Phonetic Alphabet!) Erik's proposed title for the puzzle was "Shifting Sands." Brendan and I kicked the theme around and discovered there were better possibilities doing the phonetic substitution in the other direction, so we switched it up and called it "Shifting Sounds."

After we brainstormed theme entries, Brendan took the lead in grid construction, and then I took the first pass at filling the grid. Brendan fine-tuned the fill and also improved the clues I came up with, bringing everything up to his usual sparkling professional level. Thanks to Will and team for tweaking the clues even further.

I'm glad we were able to make this into a Sunday puzzle, since it's a delight to make a return to the Magazine, where I had the honor of writing the "On Language" column for a couple of years after the passing of William Safire. These days you can find me in the Wall Street Journal's weekend Review section, where I write a weekly column called "Word on the Street," as well as in The Atlantic, where I'm a contributing writer.

JOHN: Not long ago, Will Shortz found out that I solved the puzzle daily and thought to link me as a "Celebrity Collaborator" with Brendan Emmett Quigley, one of his best puzzle constructors. By good fortune, at the time I was shooting DADDY'S HOME 2 in Boston, where Brendan lives. He and I met for dinner in a South End restaurant, just to get to know each other. A hyper-alert, excitable man, Brendan could barely contain himself. Before the main course even arrived, he lurched down, took a laptop out of his bag, and began my lightning-quick education in how to construct a Times crossroad.

Our first challenge was to come up with a theme that reflected my public persona and profession. We hit on one that I thought was pretty clever, involving a rebus of the word "act": "infraction", "factotum", etc. That was when I learned just how involved Will Shortz was in every single Times crossword: Brendan ran the "act" rebus by him, and he damned us with faint praise and said that we could do better.

In a few two-hour sessions in my Back Bay hotel room, with Brendan pacing around and staring at the traffic on Commonwealth Avenue, we hashed out the puzzle that appears in the October 18 edition of the New York Times. Brendan taught me volumes about the dark mysteries of puzzle creation as if he were giving me a backstage tour of the Met Opera House after a production full of dazzling stage effects. Our handiwork arrives about four months after we finished it, a period when I have had to keep its clues a secret from all my puzzle pals. This has been a task even harder than creating the puzzle itself. I'm that excited and that proud.

I hope you enjoy solving it one tenth as much as I enjoyed creating it. Well, co-creating. I'm nothing without the remarkable Mr. Quigley.

BRENDAN: It was a joy to work with John. It felt at times that he was tackling this project much like a method actor would tackle a juicy role. He went from learning about the characters in the crossword world and their philosophies behind puzzles to taking this information and imbuing it with his own experiences to make a puzzle himself. He had a hand in everything from theme development to grid construction to cluing.

In regards to the grid, I spaced the theme answers in a way that each corner would have flexibility, and so we crammed them with as much theater-related content as possible. KATISHA is possibly my favorite answer that's appeared in all of my puzzles this year, and it was all John.

MANGESH: I am from India and stay in Mumbai with my wife Rupali, kids Advait and Eva (named after my favorite crossword answer), and my parents. By profession am an investment banker with degrees in mechanical engineering and MBA Finance. I began solving syndicated LA Times crosswords in Times of India in 1997 to improve my GMAT score. After a dozen years of solving, I moved to construction and (after dozens of rejections) had bylines in NYT, WSJ, LA Times and Games magazine.

Inspiration for this special puzzle was two-fold. First, I wanted to use crosswords to bring people closer, to cross-pollinate ideas. My daughter Eva loves the song Fireworks by Katy Perry which has this phrase FOURTH OF JULY as symbol of achievement and victory. I thought what better day than Fourth of July to celebrate the idea of bringing people closer.

In November 2015, I happened to meet Brendan over coffee, and I bounced off this idea with him. He agreed to play ball. So an Indian and an American decided to come together to make a crossword for the US Independence Day. We thought that was one cool crossword friendship.

We quickly put on our thinking hats online (email and WhatsApp chat) — given the 12 hours time zone difference and around 12k kilometers between us. I came up with the idea to use FOURTH OF JULY with the four theme starters (JAY, YOU, ELL, WHY). Brendan quickly smelled, with ELLE, this idea could be sold. Brendan suggested the theme entries. We traded a few grids with theme entries and realized we had to ditch FOURTH OF and live with JULY. I was green at construction and Brendan could have graduated at Brown in construction :) He took the lead in filling up the grid.

My dream came true the day Will sent the acceptance mail. After years of rejection, that YES was something I really had waited for.

The second inspiration for me, personally, is the pride I take in the Make in India campaign launched by our current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Making this special puzzle in India for the US was my way of contributing in a small way towards the Make in India campaign. Another cute play on the US-India confluence in the puzzle is that TAJ (the symbol of India) joins with JULY (the revealer answer).

For me, this crossword is special in many more ways. NYT is celebrating its 75th anniversary and I cherish the opportunity to contribute in a small way to this cultural heritage of US. I realized how deep crosswords are ingrained in American culture when I briefly contributed to the Pre Shortzian Puzzle Project. Crosswords are truly culture carriers. Studying them gives you a sneak peek into the culture and society that enjoyed those times.

I dedicate this crossword to my father who celebrates his birthday on July 3. He learned to write the English alphabet with me in my kindergarten. He is a proud father today!

BEQ: I've hung with Mangesh at ACPTs before, where we were both judges. Nice guy, and I was happy to help him make this one.