Kevin Patterson author page

Of the many joys of puzzling, one of my favorites is the process of opening a puzzle, seeing a funky symmetry-bucking grid, and immediately knowing there's a fun gimmick to suss out. Sean Yamada-Hunter's THAT'S A BIG IF puzzle, Liz Gorski's Guggenheim tribute, and countless Joe Krozel puzzles have scratched this itch for me, and I've always wanted to try my hand at something similar.

I'd been kicking around the phrase TAKE THE L as a theme for a while, but it never really went anywhere. Then it hit me — black squares forming L's could be a clear W!

This puzzle took more trial and error than any I've made before or since — even finding the appropriate shape for the L's took me a few days! A few early versions of the puzzle contained non-thematic L's, but I thought those might distract solvers and removed them. This is why the inelegant ONE SKI survives instead of MUESLI, which would've been oodles more fun.

E-BIKE, BOW WOW WOW, AVATAR, AVICII, and the clue for POT DEALERS — there's a lot of stuff in here I'm glad to bring to a Times crossword.

I think it's interesting, too, that Matthew Stock and I used such similar revealers to such wildly different ends!

I'm proud of this one and hope you agree the effort was worth it!

Psyched to be back in the NYT!

As the theme might suggest, this puzzle was born in the early days of quarantine, when I was looking for a source of optimism. It had been a while since I'd come up with a theme I liked, and spending more time than ever in my living room, staring at my laptop, I really felt the rut. But hark! — metaphorically and literally, a SILVER LINING appeared! The theme required a lot of iteration. It would've been nice to fit DOLLAR or MEDAL in, but them's the breaks.

The theme also required some concessions in terms of sparkling fill, but I hope you find something in here that speaks to you. Shout-out to my favorite furry friends, KOALAS, who finally found a way into one of my grids — they've had a tough go-around Down Under, and I'm pulling for them. I especially like a couple of the vertical stacks here — GO TO JAIL / EARWORMS and BRONCO / FIASCO. It was a tough grid to fill cleanly, but I'm proud of how it turned out.

To the people who were my SILVER LININGs through a tough year — my girlfriend Liz, my parents and uncle, my roommates and friends — thanks for being there for me.

As always, my e-door is always open to aspiring constructors in need of a grid review, a second opinion, or general crossword chitchat. Find me on Twitter at @KPat95 and shoot me a DM, and I'll be happy to help :)

Hey, gang! It's a week of second shots for me: a few days ago, it was the vaccine, and today it's the New York Times Crossword!

Many find inspiration in its more storied forms: a shooting star, a beautiful painting, a profound quote. Not me. All my best themes seem to stem from memes, TV, or, in this case, stray texts from friends who'd rather keep things LOW KEY for the weekend.

A big thank-you to the editorial team for pushing me on this revision process. It offered me a chance to swap out MOTOR CONTROL for the far sexier BIRTH CONTROL and also enabled me to pay homage to the great FRANK OCEAN (waiting on that album drop!). I'm excited that they let me use a slightly more modern clue for HALSEY, too.

One of the best aspects of the crossword community is how eagerly experienced constructors help newer ones. I want to continue this tradition by keeping an open e-door policy on social media. If you're an aspiring constructor looking for advice or a second opinion, please DM me on Twitter (@KPat95) or Instagram (@KPatterson95).

Thanks for solving — I hope you enjoy :)

I'm thrilled to be making my NYT debut! A quick thank you to Ross Trudeau, my parents, and my girlfriend for their help and support in this process.

Devising novel theme ideas has always been the toughest part of construction for me. To combat this (bear with me here as my nerdy desperation comes out) I began inspecting things I'd see in daily life for names that could do double duty. Finally, though, I got the greatest birthday present a guy can ask for: a workable revealer. They say big things come in small packages, but I guess the stuff AROUND the package can come in handy, too.

I initially shied away from using TOILET as a "wrapping paper," and the version of this puzzle I submitted used GRAPH instead. Will and the editorial team encouraged me to look past the breakfast test and suggested A TOI / LET GO as a theme combo, and I think the puzzle is all the better for it. An earlier version of the puzzle had ASMR / MR OWL in the northern section, but that didn't pass muster with test solvers. I'm especially happy with 59A in this grid, and the 8D/54A connection especially tickles my fancy as a fan of movie trivia.

I hope you find something nice wrapped in this one!