Jeremy Newton author page

This theme started with visually representing famous painting titles in the grid. After a few brainstorms, the concept of altering art into wacky knockoffs took over. One early version had us changing the letters F-O-R-G-E-R-Y across seven paintings into random letters to form silly phrases. For example, the "G" from FORGERY would map to the "G" a solver replaces in Leonardo's "THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI" to become "THE ADORATION OF THE MANI". This was fun, but the incorrect letters were oddly arbitrary — and having the solver mentally replace the wrong letters with F-O-R-G-E-R-Y to reveal the original titles was potentially unsatisfying.

What we decided felt most fun and impactful was including well-known original painting titles in the grid as guides, with F-O-R-G-E-R-Y squeezed into key squares alongside original letters — giving the sense that the solver is actually comparing the original to a fake, much like an art dealer. Our original Times submission included slashes in the rebus squares. The puzzle editors removed them in the final version, and we both agreed that the puzzle was better for it, since telegraphing all 7 of the either/or squares from the start would make a less tricky and satisfying solve.

Tracy and I were pleased that THE SON OF MAN snuck into our theme about forgery — since this painting appears in the 1999 film "The Thomas Crown Affair" which features a forgery scheme.

To me, those three stacked circles on a traffic light seemed like a perfect visual to appear in a crossword. A satisfying concept clicked: Answers in one direction could include RED or GREEN, while their crossings could include STOP or GO.

My first strategy was dropping traffic lights into a sea of white squares. With unlit signal lights representing blank answer squares, skipped over by the horizontal crossers. Ultimately, this design felt too unintuitive for a solver to understand. A stronger strategy became using a traffic light as a triple stack of blocker squares. Having the unlit squares of the traffic signal behave as traditional blockers, while its RED or GREEN square joins an answer crossing through the light.

In my submission to the Times, I clued the word on the right side of an illuminated signal square as a separate answer with a misdirecting clue. [Money makers] for MINTS in WINTER (GREEN) MINTS, for example. The idea being this would help hide which light is colorized, allowing the solver "light" the signal. However, I appreciate how the Times team pivoted to a simpler approach of starting the grid with the signals lit. This helps establish the color rebus from the jump, giving the solver some early momentum while still leaving the fun GO/STOP twist to discover. Here's hoping this setup offers a satisfying solve!

The choice to include a yellow light was made about halfway through construction. I knew from the start that this puzzle theme felt incomplete without it, but what YELLOW represents isn't as clear-cut as RED or GREEN. So I proceeded without it. Until it occurred to me that having yellow represent both GO and STOP could be a fun twist. Producing a sort of Schrödinger answer, giving the solver a choice of either "braking" or "flooring it."

Favorite debut answer in this puzzle? DEADASS, of course! Fingers crossed, this puzzle leaves you deadass happy.

HI YALL (55-Across) from Austin, Texas!

I'd never seen the 7 members of this tight theme set executed in a puzzle before, so I gave it a go. The first iteration was a 21x called "Put Some Muscle Into It!" where I added each muscle to a phrase for wacky results. Like:

• S[QUAD]CAR TISSUES
• GUILTY B[AB]Y ASSOCIATION
• SHEPHERDS PI[LAT]ES

After this version of the puzzle was rejected ("didn't quite excite" the puzzle staff enough), I noticed enough material for a solid rebus theme but wanted to execute something more unexpected. Because this theme set lends itself to the notion of "stretching," I landed on sharing each muscle between two Across answers. After construction, I realized I might have been channeling this fun 2019 Sunday grid "That's a Tall Order!" by Finn Vigeland.

Several theme answers near the top and bottom were cemented fairly late in construction, as real estate and interlocks allowed. But ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY and BEST RAP PERFORMANCE were locked at center from the beginning as seed entries and motivation for knocking this version out.

Favorite answer/clue combos that made the cut:

• 85-Across ["And, uh, that about covers it"] SO YEAH
• 76-Down [Name of the girl on "Game of Thrones" who said "A girl has no name"] ARYA
• 103-Down [Like the clue for 103-Down?] META

Hope you all enjoyed this one!

I love the chance to defy solver expectations in crosswords. Instead of going the usual rebus route by squeezing POUND or NUMBER into a rebus square, I found it more fun to create the # symbol from an intersecting pair of symbols. I'm hoping the puzzle creates a satisfying "aha moment" when the combo of double-I's and equal sign jumps out.

For the "=" part of the hashtag, there's a decent list of possible answers that include the word EQUAL. For the possible double-I entries, the list is considerably short. And because the grid's real estate between horizontal "=" entries is super tight, the best-fitting vertical themers are ones with a double-I near their centers. Which led to ruling out answers that begin or end with "II", like I INSIST or POMPEII.

Ultimately, puzzle construction was far less bumpy when nailing down four horizontal themers with "=" symbols symmetrically placed in the grid. Doing so made the tiny set of possible vertical themers easier to wrangle into the mix.

Happy to see my clue for 1-Across making the cut, "Product that's available on tap?". I'd like to think A ___ might dupe some solvers into plunking in ALE instead of APP. I also really appreciate the Times editors' revision of my clue for ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL. That was irritatingly difficult to clue. I submitted "Assuming no other issues come up…". But updating to the straightforward clue "Translation of the Latin phrase ‘ceteris paribus'" works perfectly.

Hope you enjoy the #ThursdayTrickery!

Watching the opening rescue scene of "Black Panther" had me smiling and tearing up in the movie theater. Aside from being a terrific movie with a well-deserved Best Picture nod, what struck me emotionally was the powerful milestone — a spotlight shining on the first black superhero in a mainstream blockbuster. And the actor Chadwick Boseman was brilliant as Black Panther. Such an iconic performance!

I got inspired to honor this Marvel superhero with a puzzle. Found my first toehold into construction when I noticed the K in THE BLACK PANTHER can cross CHADWICK BOSEMAN at the middle. When two 15-letter theme entries cross like that, it's a gift from the Crossword Gods. No turning back at that point.

The Gods were merciful again, with Black Panther's alter ego T'CHALLA and his home WAKANDA locking symmetrically near the center. Just needed more theme to flesh out the North and South. I struggled a bit with fitting answers that included MARVEL, COMICS, or AVENGER. Finally, went back to Black Panther lore and was psyched that the source of his powers, the HEART-SHAPED HERB, could lock neatly across the top. After that, I was able to squeeze in SUPERHUMAN POWER just opposite the HERB, providing a nice tie-in.

For me, trivia-based themes can sometimes be less compelling to solve than themes with tricksy wordplay. Here, I'm hoping the dense theme interlock is interesting to discover with some fun supporting fill. A big thank you to Will Shortz and the editorial team for running this puzzle right now. I hope this puzzle does justice to the late Mr. Boseman's performance.

<Arms crossed, Wakandan-style>

As it happens, the seed answer that inspired this theme hit the cutting room floor. I remember feeling pretty giddy about finding THE S-WORD IN THE STONE, which made me think of someone with a sick sense of humor leaving a profane epitaph. In my first submission, that evolved into S-WORD SWALLOWER, a person clued as catching themselves before cussing. But alas, Will Shortz wasn't keen on this hyphenation. Admittedly, you often see it undashed as S WORD, so not exactly strong theme material.

Regardless, I'm proud of finding the solid set of 7 sneakily-hyphenated words that made the cut. My favorite of the bunch is probably B-LISTER PACK, since it evokes a kind of lesser-cool Brat Pack.

Trickiest part was wrangling the dashed Down answers that cross the themers at the hyphens. I tried to stay away from less lively possibilities (I'm looking at you, I-BAR and NON-U), while keeping the surrounding fill as smooth as possible.

Hope you enjoyed it!

CLERICALHEIR was the seed of the theme. And then HORROR, ERROR, MIRROR, and TERROR came together as a nice quartet. There's something reassuring as a crossword constructor when only a handful of words fit a restrictive word pattern: here, *RROR. I rest easier when not leaving out other possibilities.

I considered a reversal of the puns, where HOAR FROST becomes HORROR FROST, MERE MORTALS becomes MIRROR MORTALS, etc. But ultimately couldn't nail down a strong, consistent theme set I liked.

I found a reduction of "THREE R's" more satisfying — instead of revealing the common word pattern in every theme answer. Chopping off the last syllables of *RROR words seems closer to how most people pronounce them anyways. HOAR, HEIR, MERE, and TEAR pack more of a familiar punch when read out loud.

Being from Texas, I can assure you: these are spot-on pronunciations when spoken with a drawl. "Hold on. Gotta adjust this here rear-view mere."

Hope this was a fun solve!

"Sometimes an idea will wait 20 years to be a puzzle."
- Merl Reagle

I dedicate today's puzzle to the late, legendary puzzle master Merl Reagle. This theme was first attempted and submitted as "IS TOO!" to the Times six years back, filled with phrases + the "is" sound. After getting rejected for some shaky theme answers, I kept it around in my hopper over the years, surviving a handful of theme redesigns. This year I landed on a riff on the back-and-forth argument: IS NOT! vs. IS TOO! Sometimes a theme needs some time to percolate before it finds its legs.

Merl Reagle carried around a notepad for brainstorming ideas, always ready for when inspiration strikes. I mostly use my phone to keep track of puzzle concepts. I imagine all of us crossword constructors have our own favorite place we keep our brewing themes, waiting for their chance.

I'm sad that Merl didn't have the chance to flesh out all of the fun and clever theme contenders that lined his notepad. But I'm grateful for all the genius he got to share with us. His wrangling of the English language was unrivaled, and I'll personally miss his raw creativity and witty voice in crosswords.

Thanks, Merl!

This was inspired with a theme entry that didn't make the cut:

PUSS IN BOOTS, or PUSS IN BOO(S)TS

I really dug the idea of smoothing over the last word of the X in Y gimmick with an entirely new word formed by the overlap. There weren't too many possibilities I found that could fit the pattern smoothly. A couple others from the cutting room floor:

TIED UP IN KNO(T)TS
LIES IN WAI(S)T — Hmm, that doesn't have a pleasant sound to it. Good riddance.

With the eight themers that made it, the biggest challenge was positioning the overlapping "final" words. Because they're not symmetrical, I spread them into as much open territory as possible, without making the positioning of other black squares a nightmare. The resulting grid makes the corners a bit like islands, which isn't entirely ideal. But puzzling out the answers in those corners is still entertaining, I think.

An edit from Will and Joel I appreciate is the clue for MOE, the final word in YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND IN M(O)E. "Good name for a lawn care guy." Since it's part of a theme answer, I like the riddle angle here, which is less gettable than my original clue (referencing the Simpsons bartender).

Lastly, as a wink to the solver, I made the final Across answer in "Getting in the Final Word" the word LAST, from the themer CAME IN L(E)AST.

Hope this was a fun one to tackle!

My first "Upsides" submission was a 15x15 grid. Will Shortz said he really liked it, but he pointed out a glaring flaw. The Across answers along the left side were actually scaling *down* the wall, before continuing to the right. Like with STUNG hiding STUNGUN, here:

S
T
U
N
G U N

I'd convinced myself early on in construction that my left-side Across answers were climbing, in that they were *overflowing upwardly* against the wall. I immediately saw the goof when Will said he didn't understand the left side. So, back to the grid, I made sure the direction you'd read the climbers was going up:

W B A L E
A
R
T
S

But fixing the left side was insurmountable in a 15x15 grid, so I upgraded to Sunday-size. Which meant the chance to expand some climbers into longer, juicier answers. As well as smooth over some of the subpar fill from the smaller grid.

The southeast DIARY formation was the first set of climbers to go in, interlocking relatively fast. By far, the WARTS group in the opposite corner was the most difficult to nail down. I guess it's easier to start with the back parts of answers? The most enjoyable construction challenge was getting the TETON climbers to avoid repeated words. NO TAX, NOT EVEN A LITTLE, NOTE TO SELF were carefully chosen as to not share the same beginning word.

Really pleased how this turned out. Hope the solve was fun and a nice mystery!

First, I want to credit Will and Joel for the puzzle title. I suggested "Final Cuts", but "Multifaceted" is a much cooler way to hint at the gemstones. Thank you, guys!

So, this here was a rebound from a rejected 15x submission with hidden gems. Your usual circle-related-words-in-longer-and-hopefully-colorful-answers theme:

• TROPICAL PUNCH (OPAL)
• RUB THE WRONG WAY (RUBY)
• THE MIAMI HERALD (EMERALD)
• GAME THE SYSTEM (AMETHYST)
• and GEM CUT, the revealer.

Pretty solid, I thought. Especially the lengthy AMETHYST and EMERALD spanners. But the Shortz rejected it for two reasons: Not all circled words spanned across their parent words (OPAL). And more importantly, he wanted all circled gems to be fairly long. RUBY and OPAL were admittedly easy to wrangle.

Round two, I went for a more elaborate, Sunday-sized theme. Since I was working with gemstones, I considered a SWORD IN THE STONE concept — with different types of swords (EPEE, SABER, etc) wedged between gems. But quickly ditched that, since my list of sword types felt strained.

SET IN / STONE was a strong alternative. I first planned to thread synonyms of "set" through gems, since "set" has a wide range of meanings. I started with GEL wedged between AMETHYST in GAMETHeSYSTEM. But ultimately, this set-up felt too tricky to reveal to the solver. And seemed daunting to keep the synonyms of "set" airtight.

When finding that the word SET itself nestled nicely inside AMETH YST, the rest sorta fell into place. I noticed an "E" lurking between most of the gemstones. So, the embedded SET would thankfully work and be nicely centered. When starting grid placement, I found ROSETTA would join three centralized gem answers. From there, I spidered out and filled the remaining themers. And with a little luck from the Crossword Gods™ (cue Clark Griswold house-lighting chorus), the SET segments landed in symmetrical spots, which helped call them out more.

That's about it. I hope this was an enjoyable solve!

Favorite clue that made it: "Baywatch" stars often jogged in it (for SLOMO)
Saddest sacrifice: Having to drop THEMIAMIHERALD (EMERALD) so that the theme would work. Maybe I could use it in the sequel: 2 Faceted 2 Furious?

I'll see myself out.

A puzzle featuring RX as the theme has been a personal "constructor vendetta" for me. Maybe it's the lure of that damned Scrabbly X, or the excitement of getting a theme out that no one's done, or some unhealthy deep-seated obsession with prescription drugs.

My first RX-related submission to the Times was a 15x15 rebus, the second a 21x21 rebus. Both had not enough theme material and some really strained theme entries (example: RxKBP clued as a chess move). Two rejection letters later, I submitted a 15x15 with entries containing RX in the very middle (COLORXEROX, DEERXING, etc) with PRESCRIPTION as the revealer, but The Big Guy said not quite interesting enough.

Next, I tried an (unsubmitted) idea, involving a diagonal offset of R and X in the grid, to represent how Rx is often hand-written or how it's displayed on drug store signs. The horizontal theme entries dropped down one row at the X, then continued along their way. While sort of a neat trick (and "Medicine Dropper" was screaming to be the puzzle title), I thought this offset gimmick would be too arbitrary for some and probably too easy to figure out the R/X locations for others.

My final attempt at the RX theme involved a more visual gimmick. I hit upon the phrase FOLLOW THE PRESCRIPTION as some kind of directive / theme revealer. So then, I needed something to drive the solver to follow "RX" pairs across the grid. Going from SICK to WELL was an appropriate solution, I thought. After arranging theme answers to create the RX conga line, the originally-planned phrase FOLLOW THE PRESCRIPTION could only find room in the puzzle by splitting into FOLLOWING THE / PRESCRIPTION. And as luck would have it (thank you, Crossword Gods), this answer pair crossed nicely with my center entry, GROUCHO MARX MUSTACHE.

I originally shaded the RX squares to highlight the journey from SICK to WELL. But Will wisely hid their locations — it works much better that way. I'm super pleased how the trail of RX's turned out. And I'm relieved that my RX vendetta is over.