Neil Padrick Wilson author page

NEIL: I've spitballed some puzzle themes with Jeff before, but this is the only one that has managed to get off the ground. (Har har). Thanks again, Jeff!

At first, I thought this might need to be a 16x15 puzzle. My original themers included "FIREWORKS DISPLAY," "AIR BALLOON FIESTA," and the revealer, "WITH FLYING COLORS." Thankfully Jeff talked me down. We considered other themers (e.g., SOAP BUBBLES, AURORA BOREALIS, and LANTERN FESTIVALS) before ultimately agreeing on the themers here. They all have a different type of imagery about them. And being gay, I was super happy we managed to squeeze in RAINBOW FLAG and GLITTER BOMB — and both as debut entries, no less!

We went through many grids before landing on this one, including "mirror symmetry" grids. We started with some using 37 black squares, but I kept pushing for a more open grid. I think the result ended up pretty ideal, given our constraints. And even though there are technically two "cheater" squares, they're both essentially necessitated by the central pair of revealers.

"IT'S A BIG IF" still sounds a bit funny to my ear (I think "THAT'S A BIG IF" is more spot-on), but Jeff seeded that into our fill, and I didn't have strong objections. We also had a last-minute moment of panic where we noticed the word "FREE" showed up in our grid twice, but thankfully one of our earlier drafts had a corner we could substitute back in!

JEFF: I liked so much about Neil's basic concept. AIR BALLOON FIESTA, though ... it didn't hit my ear right, so off to Google to went. To my surprise, that phrase (in quotes) got a ton of hits.

Maybe my own ignorance was at fault? Or my weird phobia of hot air balloons pecked slowly open by peacocks? In any case, we almost talked ourselves into letting it slide — it is evocative, no doubt — but a few trusted friends gave me quite the side-eye when I proposed it. Off to search for new themers!

This puzzle had its genesis in an older puzzle that was rejected in January 2017. That was back when I did everything by hand on paper. (Oof!) In the hopes it helps newer constructors, I figured I would share and focus on the rejected puzzle!

The marquee answer was LEFT SHARK, which ended up being a large reason the puzzle was rejected. Editors were concerned that the seemingly uncoordinated dancing shark from Katy Perry's 2015 Super Bowl half-time show was too much of a flash-in-the-pan, and would not stand the test of time. While I'm *still* not convinced that's the case, I certainly understand the hesitation! Lesson: while it's okay to incorporate pop culture into your puzzles, make sure it's firmly embedded in pop culture.

I remember having a beast of a time with the Northwest corner of this puzzle; nothing seemed to work, and I was continually tearing out large portions in an attempt to find fill I was happy with. So boy was I pleased when I went out on a limb and tried sliding FIRST LOSER at 5D! Things fell into place (including the lovely NANOTECH answer at 2D) with only a couple of concessions. The phrase "second place is just first loser" was common to *me* (maybe from board gaming?), and I knew the phrase was generally popularized (or at least attributed to) Dale Earnhardt, Sr. But it turned out that editors felt the phrase was not firmly "in the language," and so did not pass muster. Lesson: a phrase (or quote) familiar to you might not be familiar to others.

Besides those two entries, themeless grids are highly competitive. As such, you need to get as much mileage out of your longer entries as possible. UNDERSEA, ALLOWANCE, PREJUDICE, AIREDALES, and SCISSORS are just not terribly punchy answers. Lesson: While mundane longer answers can be elevated to great answers with proper cluing, too many of them drag a puzzle down.

Perhaps the most important takeaway from the puzzle was that I loved SNOOZEFEST in at 30D. I was determined to get that entry into a published puzzle. Unfortunately, I was beaten to the punch, but hey... FIRST LOSER isn't that bad!

In the hopes it helps new constructors like myself, I thought I would share my original grid for this puzzle and explain why it was rejected.

First, 41D (TCH) was a puzzle-killer. Using XWord Info, I knew that TCH had never been used in an NYT crossword, whereas its cousin TSK had been used many times. Since I use "Tch!" fairly frequently (as a dismissive noise), I just figured it was waiting for the right time! Will explained that it looks like a string of letters without a clear meaning. So: if you're going to use original short fill, stop and consider whether there's a reason it hasn't been used.

Second, some of the short fill wasn't particularly good: AVAS, LYN, SSA, and SMS (a plural name, an old name, and two S-heavy acronyms). Individually none of these are particularly offensive, but the more you pile up, the worse. The finished product still has some fill I would rather avoid, but I tried to make it more interesting.

Third, the grid design has issues. My inexperience with themeless puzzles shows. Ideally, the lone black squares in the northwest and southeast corners (which split potential 9-letter entries into two 4-letter entries) would be removed. In both versions, I did try many times to remove them, but I was never satisfied with my fill. (Which itself is a lesson; sometimes fill is more important than an ideal grid). The grid also has an excess of 3-letter entries, though that's a trade-off when you seed in 11-letter entries.

Fourth, a personal lesson: ditch your quirks. In the accepted puzzle, I intentionally avoided any two entries meeting at a pluralized "S," as I consider that merge to be an unofficial "cheater" square. Had I let myself ignore that rule that nobody else has to follow, I surely could have improved on the result.

I submitted my first puzzle to the NYT over a decade ago in college. It was soundly rejected. Importantly, Will Shortz hand-wrote a response explaining why, and I thought that was just THE coolest thing — and I still have that letter today!

The first version of this one was rejected too. The revealer was simply BOTTLE in the bottom right corner, and it had too much crosswordese. I went through about six versions (including an attempt to have INABOTTLE vertically with all four themers crossing it, and another attempt at shaping a bottle out of the black squares) before hitting on this one.

Now that I am starting to develop some chops, I can better critique the puzzle. First, I never did like SIRBARTON as an entry, but I was so nervous about not having a wide enough "range of knowledge" that I opted to include it. I also regret that SIRBARTON crosses with BOZ, RCA, and ASTIN. This was avoidable. Ditto for EXETER crossing LEOX and ERNO.

I also regret disallowing a single plural "S." (LENS doesn't count!) One of my pet peeves as a solver is seeing lots of plural entries, especially two that meet at the "S." I should learn to break this rule on occasion, such as changing REPIN (13D) to SEPIA (and hence ACER to ACES).

That said! I like this theme — it is strict and tight. I had a blast writing the clues (my favorites being 22A, 38A, 58A, and 19D, the gist of which survived the edits). And I learned quite a bit from the process. Even though I just had a themeless puzzle rejected the other day (d'oh! — it's a tough market), I am confident my puzzles will improve with experience!