Samuel A. Donaldson author page

This puzzle idea started when I realized BUMPER CROPS could be visually depicted in the grid as two crops "bumping" off a common letter. From there I researched many different lists of crops and started pairing answers that contained common central letters that would also feed into longer entries. Sometimes the pairings came naturally and worked easily (like CORN and TOMATO) and others proved restrictive (hello, OAT and SQUASH).

I think my favorite feature is the use of two revealers. Originally I had just BUMPER CROPS in the middle row. At some point I realized FRANKENFOOD could also be a suitable revealer that I could maybe use instead, saving BUMPER CROPS for the puzzle's title. But then I thought of COLLISION COURSES as yet another revealer, so when I saw that FRANKENFOOD and BUMPER CROPS were both 11s, I decided I wanted to use both of them as revealers and save the longer COLLISION COURSES for the title. I was happy to get the central fill smooth enough so both revealers could be close to the center, leaving me more room to make the fill work in the each of the corners with the theme entries.

SAM: Doug and I have collaborated on many crosswords over the years (Lisa Loeb and I have the same Peterson Number!). This one pretty much followed the usual process: I came up with the theme idea and revealer and pitched it to Doug; he kept one of my theme entries and came up with three replacements that were better; he constructed the grid (in this case, being careful not to include the letter I anywhere in the grid); I nodded and said to myself, "yep, this is pretty much perfect;" I wrote the clues (in this case, it was only at this stage that I thought of the gimmick for cluing the theme entries); and Doug corrected the errors in my clues.

I vividly remember receiving the acceptance for this puzzle last summer while on my first trip to the Napa Valley. That's a nice place to celebrate an acceptance!

DOUG: It's always a blast to work with Sam, and not just because he's way too nice with his constructor comments. This puzzle wouldn't exist without his creative spark. Hope you enjoy solving!

SAM: I came across the phrase JUST FOR KICKS and thought it would be a great name for a shoe store. That's when the theme idea for this puzzle hit. I had wanted to collaborate with Tracy for some time, so I sent her a set of proposed theme entries and asked if she wanted to join in the fun. Happily, she agreed.

TRACY: I tackled the initial challenge of the 12-14-14-12 grid. Together, we went through several iterations of the grid, opening up 4- and 31-down for some colorful long down entries, but having to deal with some frustrating fill constraints in two areas.

SAM: I really admired Tracy's construction. As she says, a grid built around two 12s and two 14s imposes significant constraints. She made it look easy.

TRACY: With the exception of EDDA, I think we were both happy with the finished puzzle and were thrilled when we got the yes this past February.

SAM: Here's hoping the next royal baby is named Edda!

BRAD: As I recall, this collaboration started when Sam sent me a dense and ambitious block at the middle of the grid. EMOJI and ROGUE ONE were the clear stars. It was mostly beautiful, but I think there was some plural that set off my Hinky Meter.

SAM: What, ALGEBRAS is bad? More importantly, I now want to make a puzzle containing HINKY METER.

BRAD: I sent back something that kept ROGUE ONE and crossed it with a specific EMOJI that we thought lent verve in its debut.

SAM: Yes, credit to Brad for the use of a particular EMOJI, and double (nay, triple) credit to him for the [Sext symbols] clue. One of my favorites.

BRAD: Sam supplied another great pop-culture 15, and helped me out with the nice SET MENU in the NW, as I wanted to recycle COSMIC JOKE from an abandoned draft of something I did with Byron Walden. Sam was crushing it on the cluing front, too: 39A, 10D & 11D echo. We submitted two clues for 17A, both his, and I was hoping maybe to see the other one, which poked fun at an urban myth about their shelf life.

SAM: I love me a Wilber-Walden collaboration--a guaranteed thirty hours of staring and erasing (and fun).

BRAD: Sam and I both worked on all the remaining corners after the SW went in, trying out combinations off the Z, voting Version 1 or Version 2 like at the eye doctor. Always a joy to see Sam's mind and craft going on all cylinders.

SAM: Brad is one of the great collaborators in crosswords. I believe this is his 25th collaboration in the Times, a testament to how well he plays with others. (Hey, I now have something in common with Emanuel Ax!) He is forgiving and supportive, but his keen eye also gets you to perform at your best.

Doug: Sam came up with the theme concept and a great entry in DIRTY CHERRY, but we couldn't find another 11-letter theme entry to pair with it. CHEVYWEIGHT was a possibility, but we felt it had a couple of strikes against it.

Sam: One problem, we felt, was that some solvers would give CHEVY the soft, "sh" sound instead of the hard, "ch" sound, even if we clued CHEVY with reference to Chevy Chase instead of the car make. The bigger strike, though, was that it was the only one-word theme entry.

Doug: We considered putting DIRTY CHERRY in the center of the grid, but when I tried squeezing in that 5th theme entry, the fill got fugly. Would it have been worth it? My grids usually end up on the "less theme, better fill" end of the spectrum. Thinking back to my wasted youth in front of the TV, I can envision two groups facing off in the bar at the Stamford Marriott: "More theme!" "Better filling!" "More Theme!" "Better Filling!"

Sam: This is one reason (among many) why I like working with Doug. I probably would have ended up in the "More theme!" camp, but the acceptance email from Will and Joel specifically mentioned that they liked the fill. And what's not like to like with SHAMWOW and...is that, is that HAIR GEL? Doug's craftsmanship with the grid is likely what sold this puzzle.

I sometimes worry that another constructor will beat me to print with the same theme idea. That happened here, when Jeff Chen published "Break a Leg" with the CrosSynergy syndicate last October (which was several months after this puzzle had been accepted). Jeff's theme entries all use leg bones, making his theme tighter than mine; the bones in my puzzle are from all over the place. Still, the ideas here are very much the same. I prefer to think of this as a case of "great minds thinking alike." Or more accurately, "feeble mind submitted first but great mind did it better."

I wasn't sure whether this would be a Tuesday or Wednesday theme when I clued it, so maybe that explains why just 30 of my clues (38%) made the final cut. Another 16 clues (21%) were modified slightly, meaning 32 (41%) clues in the puzzle are one for which I cannot take credit. Very likely, the ones solvers like best are from that last group.

As the first person ever to publish an "add-a-sound" theme puzzle in the NYT, I want to take this chance to thank...

Wait, what?

You mean this gimmick isn't entirely novel?

Oh.

Well, then.

Ahem.

Um, I hope you liked it. The "add-a-SHUN" idea came to me when I heard the phrase "tricky diction" on the radio. I thought for sure it was a play on "Tricky Dick," a political nickname familiar to those in my age cohort. It wasn't. So I figured someone needed to run with the idea.

My favorite parts of the grid are the northeast and southwest corners. All that open real estate looks nice.

I still need to get better at writing clues. Only 40% of the clues (55 of the 138) are entirely mine. Another 21 (or 15%) are essentially what I submitted, but with slight changes to diction or syntax — hopefully mostly for space constraints and not for content. That means 64 of the clues (45%!) come from Will and Joel (and maybe others from the testing process).

SAM: In December of 2014 I sent a partially completed grid to Brad, asking if he wanted to collaborate. That's code for "I like what I've done so far, but I can't seem to make anything else work. HELP!" The grid I sent him had the northwest and southeast corners done. Not surprisingly, what he sent back was terrific. He balances my low-brow MAMA BEAR, SPEED DATING, and SIPPY CUP with the RIG VEDA, the VISIGOTHS, and (what now may be my new favorite word) CREPEY. The result, I hope, is a balanced puzzle that puts up a tough fight.

I always like to track how many original clues survive the editing stage. In this puzzle, 27 of our clues (about 40%) made the cut, while another 10 (almost 15%) were edited slightly, probably for length. Will and company came up with 31 clues from scratch (that's 45% of the total). My favorite new clues are [Following the beat?] for ON PATROL and [What isn't working?] for ME TIME. Of course, I mourn the loss of some clues resting atop the cutting room floor. Maybe we'll have another occasion to use [Turns to stripping?] for SHREDS and [It can be used to drop acid] for PIPET.

BRAD: People would not think me so highbrow if they could see me Facebook messaging with Sam during "Orphan Black," I don't think. Anyway, it's our second puzzle together, and as before, I really liked working with him on it. Sam's chosen grid designs are challenging (usually 68s like this one) without being too constricting, so we steer clear of most haggling over fill and worry that the fill is not clean enough. His corners with the nice 11s were impeccable (I was imagining drinking VEAL MARSALA sauce from a SIPPY CUP and a BAD DEAL or two that might result from SPEED DATING), so I pushed myself to come up with what I hope are relatively fresh SW and NE corners. Sam really goes for it with humor in the clues, so he gave me a lot of "wish I'd thought of that" moments as we put the manuscript together. That plus his nice clue echo at 47D and 49D.

I have to say, when VIZSLA went into the center of the grid, I had a flashback to about ten years ago when my friend Frank Longo put XOLOITZCUINTLI into a themeless grid for the New York Sun. This was well before John O'Hurley had occasion to talk about the XOLO on nationally televised dog shows, so I leaned on the Down crossings for that answer. But I thought it was time to fete our furry friend from Hungary.

SAM: I like collaborating with Jeff because he thinks through every detail of a puzzle throughout the construction. It's as if his mantra is "How can we make this better?"

JEFF: What can I say? I like to make butter.

SAM: I first wrote to him with the idea for this puzzle. In my original pitch I proposed that the theme entries start by running Down and then turn into Across entries on the word(s) that could also go with "right on." I wanted his help in building the grid because of his skills in grid engineering. He wisely proposed that the answers should start as Across entries and then pivot into Down entries on the "right on" words.

JEFF: Speaking of engineering, that stupid engineer inside my head just couldn't let go of the idea that vertical answers going down and turning to the east would be TURNING LEFT, NOT RIGHT. See, you have to look at it from the point of view of the little guy traveling down the answer. Frame of reference, people! He would start by going downward, then making a left-hand turn--

(insert sound of that stupid engineer being throttled)

SAM: After a few emails about how the theme entries should work and what they should be, Jeff did his magic and produced a terrific grid. My entire contribution to the fill consisted of saying, "Yep, that looks good." So I took the lead on the clues. If you ever need to kill six or seven hours, by the way, write clues for a Sunday-sized puzzle.

JEFF: In case anyone is curious, for this magic, I chose a 9 ¾" wand made of yew, with a dragon heartstring core.

Or rather … the wand chose me.

SAM: Will and Joel liked the idea, but they asked for a few tweaks to the grid. Shortly thereafter, Jeff had some alternate versions from which to pick. Et voila.

JEFF: Easy as churning butter!

Three things:

(1) The final grid I submitted had NEW SHOOTER instead of PEA SHOOTER at 11-Down (and RENT at 13-Down, in case you're wondering). My clue for NEW SHOOTER was [Croupier cry as dice are passed]. I still like NEW SHOOTER, but I agree that PEA SHOOTER is the better entry.

(2) Only 33 of my original clues made the final cut. (Happily, that includes [Column that's beside the point?] for TENTHS.) Another nine had to be edited for length or clarification, but poor Will and company had to completely re-write 31 of the clues (plus the clues for the revised entries discussed above). I'll try to do better.

(3) Did you notice that the NTH breaks at a different point in each of the three theme entries? ALL IN THE FAMILY breaks after the N, EVENT HORIZON breaks after the T, and ELEVENTH HOUR breaks after the H (well, okay, it doesn't really "break" there, but you get the idea). That was intentional, since I worried that if two entries broke at the same point it would look inconsistent for the third to break at a different point. Maybe I overthink these things.

BRAD: The ambition and versatility of Sam's work intrigued me from his very earliest appearances. He can deliver fresh, well-turned themes and also notably elegant themeless puzzles. He did lots of the heavy lifting here; I contributed the starter and the last corner, but he set me up very nicely. We've done others together since then in which the collaborative process itself might warrant a bit more discussion. Nice to have some longer entries feeding into the center from the border — no islands in the design. Quite a good number of our favorite clues made the cut, too.

SAM: I enjoy Brad's puzzles because they always teach me something new. The process for solving his puzzles usually goes something like this: (1) tentatively write one answer after another; (2) finish the grid feeling uncertain about four or five squares; (3) look up the answers where those mystery squares cross; (4) change 90% of the uncertain squares to the correct answer; and (5) vow to brush up on opera, literature, and other elements of the humanities.

Constructing with Brad is a similar process: (1) receive a partially completed grid; (2) look up three or four of the answers; (3) realize they are real words (and, in fact, darn good ones); and (4) try to contribute something of equal value. It's great fun to work with him. Brad mentioned our success in getting some clues to stick; specifically, 32 of our clues (47%) were left as is, 14 (21%) were polished but retained their original concepts, and the remaining 22 (32%) were completely overhauled, nearly always for the better. (Our original clue for 40-Down referenced the quarterback of my favorite NFL team, but I guess philosophers are a little more high-brow.)