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It is quite a thrill to have my NY Times debut. It feels like a long time coming — I wrote my first puzzle back when I was in college in the '80s. I became more serious about constructing in the early 2000s but took about 15 years off before I caught the bug again in 2019.

I don't have too much to say about this particular puzzle. Once I had the idea, the theme entries came quickly as it is not hard to mine for words ending in STONE. I did have an early iteration with a looser theme set that allowed names (e.g., SHARON, OLIVER) and phrases (e.g., STEPPING, KIDNEY) before realizing I could tighten things up and use only closed compound words. Luckily, there were just enough 6-letter options (if you count CHERRYSTONE, my least favorite) to cover the east and west edges and plenty of shorter entries to complete the border.

One noteworthy feature of this puzzle (at least to me) is that it is one of the first grids I designed with Crosserville, a new web app I've been working on. My puzzles from 20 years ago were made with a very simple program that I hacked together, and I decided that my pandemic project would be to turn that old code into a more complete and user-friendly crossword construction tool.

– puzzle by Jesse Goldberg

KYRA: The idea for this puzzle was inspired by Neil Patrick Harris and David Steinberg's HARRY HOUDINI puzzle from 2017. I really liked the disappearing entry gimmick and wanted to figure out some way to do the reverse of it. After workshopping some ideas with Sophia, we ended up turning that into the doubling concept in today's puzzle.

At first we planned on not using a revealer to make the "appearances" more subtle, but having only four doubled entries of pretty short words meant there wasn't enough theme, and having five made the grid near impossible to fill. It felt like serendipity when we thought of DOUBLE DOWN as a revealer because it could fill out the theme and still not constrict our grid too much (although it did mean we had to switch the orientation of our theme answers!).

SOPHIA: I want to shout out Patrick Blindauer's DOUBLE FEATURE crossword as another inspiration — I've probably been thinking about it since 2013 due to its unique use of rebus squares. This puzzle took longer from conception to submission than any other puzzle Kyra and I have written together, so we're happy to see it run!

– puzzle by Kyra Wilson and Sophia Maymudes

When I'm constructing themeless puzzles, I like to jam in as many long, fun/cute/conversational entries as possible. To accomplish this, I typically have to break up the rest of the grid with shorter entries which then results in high word counts. Low word counts and big white spaces have never been part of my repertoire. But when contemplating a themeless 21x, for better or worse, I needed to get out of my comfort zone and try an open grid with a low(ish) word count.

I spent two weeks spinning my wheels with different layouts, word counts, and seed entries. Eventually, it became clear that I was getting nowhere; I decided that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and "borrowed" this framework from Patrick Berry's 2018 126-word themeless grid (with a few adjustments, bringing it to 130). With that grid, I spent another 2-3 weeks filling it over and over and over again until I was satisfied with the content, saving any version that I thought had potential. I believe this puzzle is version #19 of 22.

Ultimately, I am happy with the fill, and although the white space consists of many crossing 6s— which aren't necessarily the most sparkly entries— I tried my best to provide amusing and clever clues wherever possible. Plus, I still managed to squeeze in some smile-worthy long entries, including debuts like FORGET ABOUT IT, LINE-ITEM VETO, AS I WAS SAYING, NOT EVEN CLOSE, COINED A PHRASE, HIGHEST BIDDER, and RETAIL THERAPY. I know a themeless Sunday isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I hope I've been able to provide some entertainment and maybe even encourage a few reluctant non-themeless solvers to give a Friday or Saturday puzzle a try.

Last but not least, with this themeless Sunday puzzle, I have finally hit for the cycle, with NYT puzzles published on each of the 7 days of the week. But I'm not crossing "Sunday NYT Puzzle" off my bucket list just yet… not until I get a regular themed Sunday published. So, keep your fingers crossed for me, and hopefully, I'll be back soon!

– puzzle by Robyn Weintraub

I am beyond excited to be making my NYT crossword debut… on my 40^th birthday, no less!

I am a longtime fan of all things wordplay—crosswords, puns, dad jokes, you name it. For the last few years, I have been participating in pun competitions around the country (yes, these exist!), and at the beginning of COVID, I decided to try my hand (or, more accurately, my brain) at constructing a crossword puzzle. With the amazing mentorship of a fellow Cornellian, Robyn Weintraub, I was able to put together this fun Monday puzzle. I can't thank her enough for the guidance.

My favorite clues are the pair of 43-across and 46-down. I probably got too much joy out of writing those. And, though I didn't say it in the reveal of the theme, 23-across makes both FORWARD ROLL and PAYROLL for a bit of an added bonus.

When not manipulating words for pleasure, for the last 10 years (after a 7-year career in finance), I have been running a consulting business helping people with online dating. And on rare occasions, my two passions — words and love (and spreadsheets, if I'm being honest) — combine.

If you have any questions or comments for me, you can find me at @ALittleNudge on Instagram.

– puzzle by Erika Ettin

Indie crossword constructor here with what was originally an attempt to make a nice, easy puzzle; it still is, but it's also quite different from the original submission. In particular, the seed entry (VELVET ELVISH, inspired by Kacey Musgraves) isn't in the grid at all. But it's still a pretty good set, and I'll note that the tweaks that the editorial crew made to the theme entries and their clues made them somewhat funnier, easier, and more on point (imagery-wise) than what I originally had (and I appreciate edits like that that make us constructors appear better than we are).

Speaking of edits: Speaking of edits: those who know me already know that 5D wasn't my original fill in this grid; instead, it was FURSONA, with a clue like "Portmanteau for an anthropomorphic animal identity". Unfortunately, even with a straightforward clue and fair crossings, Will and Joel didn't like that entry; this led to a long back and forth conversation that (even though I didn't, and still don't, agree with the outcome) I'm glad to have had with them, especially in the context of having more diverse representation in crosswords.

And with the chance to review the puzzle before publication (a change to the editorial process that I'm a massive fan of), we were able to continue such conversations and make the puzzle a bit fresher and more diverse, and hopefully more enjoyable as well.

– puzzle by Christopher Adams

Hi everyone! I'm a pediatrician in Cincinnati by day. I'm into movies, painting, origami, literature, and theatre, as well as science and medicine, so I hope I bring an eclectic vibe to my puzzles. I've been a crossword puzzle lover as long as I can remember, but mostly solved cryptics and only discovered the joy of standard crosswords a year and a half ago when I started religiously doing the New York Times puzzles. When I found out they took open submissions, I thought, "I'm a smart guy, I can do that, how hard can it be?" After more rejections than I'd care to relate (including this puzzle initially) I discovered the answer was, "pretty darn hard".

It was a humbling experience, and gave me a new-found respect for the folks who do this on a consistent basis. Luckily, with some patience, perseverance, and practice, I got this one to clear the bar after a resubmission and some tweaks. Coincidentally, I also had my first puzzle published in the Wall Street Journal a week ago Saturday. Many thanks to Will Shortz and the editorial team for giving this one a second look, and especially to Joel Fagliano for his support and suggestions.

And, of course, thank you to my wonderful wife who put up with all those hours of me sitting on the couch solving and building crosswords with a glazed look on my face, occasionally looking up and grunting when I discovered she had been talking to me for ten minutes. Love you!

The inspiration for this puzzle came when I was trying to build a puzzle with a "musical chairs" theme. I didn't come up with anything, but the pun "musical chores" stuck in my head, which ultimately led to the rest of the theme.

As expected, lots of my original clue hints were edited. Two that I was sorry to see go were "Source of income for early Amazon entrepeneurs" (RUBBERTREE) and "People who don't do things by the book?" (NONREADERS). Hope you enjoy the puzzle!

– puzzle by Sheldon Polonsky

This was the second themeless I ever made, and it was a bit of a lightning-in-a-bottle moment for me as a constructor who was still very new to the puzzle scene at the time. Compared to other themelesses I made in early 2020, this one has much more solid short fill (probably wouldn't jump to use RFK or EBOLA today, but they're both very real things), and the cluing is noticeably more interesting, with a surprising number of my clues making it through the editing progress. 5-Across, 52-Across, and 1-Down are some of my favorites!

It's also the only one of my early themelesses that I made with a center stair stack layout — the NYT team said they enjoyed the SETTERS / STREETS anagram "mini theme" in the middle, which was fun and also completely unintentional. Nowadays, I'd probably aim for a grid design with more than 11 entries of 8+ letters. In the spirit of the central seed, though, I think this one just has a lot of good vibes — hope it made for a happy solve! I'm always so excited to share puzzles that I make, and I'm really thankful that the Times chose to run this one, especially given how many phenomenal themelesses are being constructed and submitted these days (including tomorrow's gem by two of my favorite constructors!).

If you enjoyed solving this one and want to find more of my stuff, or if you're new to themeless constructing/puzzle making in general and want to connect, hop over to Twitter or my blog and say hi!

– puzzle by Matthew Stock

BROOKE: What a true honor to co-construct with Brian, one of my idols in themeless gridding, and to share the weekend with my day one crossword bestie Matthew. This was the first of many puzzles Brian and I have made together (here's another we blogged a few days ago) and I love its interconnectedness and all the great stuff we crammed into the fill and clues — I'm always into current music and literature refs, and love that we seeded this one with 28D (and that the neighboring 27D fell right into place), that we have the privilege of debuting 32D, and that we could highlight the work in 41A. Much appreciation to whichever geniuses on the editorial team wrote the clues for 6A and 53A!

BRIAN: Brooke is flat-out an awesome person to construct with — she is laser-focused on making every clue & every bit of fill as entertaining, fun, and inclusive as possible. Beyond what she highlighted, I really like the way the long central acrosses (from 24A to 39A) came together. They do everything — connect the big corner stacks, are lively phrases themselves, and even work well with all the central down 7s. We both are really proud of how the whole puzzle came together — this definitely won't be the last time you hear from us!

– puzzle by Brooke Husic and Brian Thomas

Hi all! Excited to debut, especially with this puzzle in tribute to my home country. My American test solver Alex said the Canadian focus made it more difficult for him, so now you know how I feel with every other NYT crossword!

This was the first 21x21 I attempted, and unsurprisingly my first submission left a lot to be desired. I'm grateful to Will and the team for taking a shot on my theme (and grid art) and encouraging me to re-design and re-fill the grid, then providing feedback through a few iterations.

I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't think of a clever title for this puzzle — though I did enjoy my tongue-in-cheek working title, "Polite Hosers" (credit to my friend Sam).

Two themers that got left on the cutting room floor that you can guess for extra credit (answers at the end of Jeff's notes below):

• "Trooper hit often played in stadiums"
• "Critically acclaimed Margaret Atwood novel"

Finally, to my Canucks out there: yes, I know our health care is not exactly free. Forgive me!

– puzzle by Stephen McCarthy

ACME: A couple of months into lockdown, I began cleaning up and clearing out files that had accumulated over decades. Decided to see if I could turn some partial ideas/rejects into something salvageable now that I had an extra ten years of experience.

This puzzle was originally 13 15 13 themers before four became the new three! The original set:

HAVEITYOURWAY 13
HERCURDSANDWHEY 15 (partial!)
ANCHORSAWEIGH 13

I changed it into three 12s and added an 8 (AIWEIWEI) and thought I could try mirror symmetry but didn't know how to do that. So I approached the genius, zen puzzlemaster Doug Peterson who added another 8 (ZIMBABWE!). We dreamed up new ideas and wrestled back and forth between his wonderful suggestions of "PROJECTRUNWAY" 13 or "GOYOUROWNWAY" 12. An instant earworm (and a puzzle) was born!

I'm truly blessed to be able to worship in the "Way of Doug".

DOUG: It's always a treat to work with Andrea, and I love salvaging a theme that's "almost there." It's hard to believe that this is our first NY Times collaboration. We're a regular team on the Crosswords With Friends app, so if you enjoyed this one, look for many more of our puzzles there.

– puzzle by Andrea Carla Michaels and Doug Peterson

Great to have my 20th crossword in the Times only two weeks after my last one! Arguably, this puzzle's revealer applies in three different senses (its surface meaning, the switch of the directional word in the film title, and the poor film direction described in the clues). Revealers typically only have a double meaning, so that's a fun little bonus I like about this puzzle.

I'm getting really into crosswords whose clues support and elevate the punniness or trickery of the theme entries. (For instance, this old JASA puzzle I developed with our class and my co-teacher Natan Last — the rhyming couplet clue idea was all Natan's, so I'm not patting myself on the back!)

Shoutout to regular New York Times crossword solver Rian Johnson, who most certainly did not misdirect "Knives Out," one of my favorite movies of the last decade! Trying to figure out a way to get that title in the grid was the seed for this theme.

– puzzle by Finn Vigeland

This is my first puzzle to use left-right symmetry, and I really came to appreciate the complexities of the form by working my way through this grid. The outward hooks of the theme entries forced me to move the entries one column closer to the center than I normally would have placed them. But the length of the theme entries and their shortening because of the hook shapes meant that they nested easily enough. The gridding challenge came with how to construct the middle sections, especially the longer entries in the top half and the 7-9 stack that crosses two theme entries toward the bottom.

The placement of the revealer was definitely my major hesitation when I submitted the puzzle. With everything going on in the bottom corners, the FISH / HOOK revealer just wasn't realistic down there. I'm grateful that the editorial team allowed the oddity of a split revealer at 1-/11-down.

As for the fill, it's rare for a favorite entry to be of the 3-letter variety. But I was thrilled to get the theme-adjacent DAM centered at the top. Elsewhere, I dig CAT PEOPLE (though despite loving my cat, Puck, I am a dog person) and LAP DESK (which I use a lot). I originally submitted a clue referring to ALASKAN Amber, a beer that is ubiquitous on the West Coast; but I just learned that it isn't distributed east of Ohio, so it makes sense that it didn't make the cut.

– puzzle by Blake Slonecker

The idea for this theme came while I was solving a Puns & Anagrams puzzle with the word ELONGATE, which Joel had clued as [Where to enter a North Carolina university]. That type of re-parsing is pretty common in P&A puzzles, but this one stood out because it occurred to me that ELON could ELONGATE its GATE — a trick that doesn't work most of the time. Hours of brute-force searching later, I had a theme set. The moral of the story, in my view, is that everyone should solve more P&As.

If you haven't had enough of these, the other decent ones I found could be clued as:

[Congresswoman performs some sneaker maintenance?]
[Novelist Patchett shares her newborn's weight?]
[Fratty guy confesses that his arms are sore?]

Big thanks to the NYT team for everything, but especially for keeping my silly clue/punctuation joke for 56-Down, allowing me to break the "don't editorialize" rule with 68-Across, and keeping my trinity of saintly clues at 36-, 37-, and 38-Down.

Happy Father's Day!

– puzzle by Michael Lieberman

A pretty straight-forward theme today, but hey, once you notice that the name MICHAEL CRICHTON has the word CIRCLE in it backwards, the only thing to do is to make a puzzle.

Thanks to the editorial team for keeping so many of my clues — love to see those references to The Little Mermaid, Mario Kart, The Lorax, Audre Lorde, and crusty bread — and for sending me on a journey to answer the very important question "What can be plump, anyway?" A non-scientific sample of my friends concluded that things that can be plump include seals, beanbags, dumplings, and lips. We all agreed that apples cannot be plump. My friends could not reach consensus on whether peaches can be plump, but I'm glad the editorial team sided with me. What do you think?

And though it's spelled differently, I hope this puzzle will give some solvers cause to start thrashing and singing: "Her boyfriend / He don't know / Anything about her / He's too stoned / Nintendo / I wish that I could make her see / She's just the flavor of the weak."

Enjoy peach season, northern hemisphere solvers!

– puzzle by Kate Hawkins

I am utterly thrilled to be making my debut in the Crossworld today, and to be making it in the NYT makes it a dream come true!

One of the things I did during The Covid Times was to rifle through old papers and objects from childhood. I found an elementary school essay that specifically mentions my love of crosswords, so this is a long time coming for me! I owe this love of words, puzzly and otherwise, to my parents and my grandparents, and I'm grateful most of them are still around to be able to do this one.

This theme idea came to me when, as I know is common, I was working out an entirely different puzzle concept. I came across the revealer phrase (Oh, Lucy van Pelt, you scoundrel...), and I was off in an entirely different direction. I have fond memories of reading "Peanuts" as a child; as a classical pianist, I particularly love Schroeder.

The puzzle initially had a few more rebus squares, but the fill suffered. Despite trying to make it work, I had to be rid of some them (Farewell, Talking HEADs and Lena HEADey!). I'm quite pleased with the final themer set, particularly 28-Across. The result, I believe, is 40-Down.

Deepest thanks to all the folks who looked over this and other puzzles over the years. I'm hoping that this one, even if the theme doesn't tickle everyone's fancy, will leave solvers wanting some delicious 38-Down or having 15-Across as an earworm!

– puzzle by Danny Lawson

I'm excited to be back with my second puzzle in the Times! This puzzle was my first attempt at using a staircase stack and I was happy to work in three entries that I wanted to highlight. Luckily, their letter combination also allowed for a lot of flexibility in grid design — so much so that it resulted in almost twenty different versions of this puzzle. This iteration was the one I labeled "final final" ("final" through "final 4" were already taken); perhaps I need to find a better naming system when saving my puzzles?

Since writing this puzzle over a year ago, I've found more joy in the clue writing process and hope I can more of my playful clues survive the editing process in the future. Continuing to develop my crossword constructing chops has been a very rewarding process, and I'd love to offer support to any new constructors or anyone curious about getting started. I would be happy to collaborate virtually, or if you're in the Austin area, coffee and crossword construction is always a great combo!

One last note: if you enjoyed this puzzle, my next themeless puzzle is tomorrow's Universal crossword as part of their #UniversalXwordPride month. Hope you check it out!

– puzzle by Scott Earl

JOHN: I am excited to share a byline with Brad and it was great fun collaborating with him. We had two 15-letter entries (17-Across and 34-Across) we were looking to build a puzzle around, and Brad suggested many different grid layouts. When he presented the one we ultimately used, my eyes lit up as I loved the two double stacks and the flow of the grid. I never would have come up with it myself — the power of collaboration!

Writing clues with Brad was a treat and I learned so much going back and forth with him. My favorite entry is 34-Across, and Brad came up with an evocative clue for it. I also learned much from the editorial team's tweaks which strengthened the puzzle immensely — particular thanks for the clue for TOES … I would not have dreamt that one up in a million years!

We wrote this in April 2020, and since then Brad has become the editor of all the puzzles for Boswords, a series of crossword events organized by myself and Andrew Kingsley. We are currently preparing for our next event, an all-online, one-day tournament on Sunday, July 25. Registration opens on July 1 and you can find more information about this tournament (including our roster of constructors) at www.boswords.org.

BRAD: John has always been a quick-witted and congenial seatmate in the judging room at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. I jumped at the chance when he suggested we collaborate. Little did I know that he was mulling over a much bigger idea in the form of an expanded Boswords. I'm so proud of what John and Andrew have built, and proud that they've trusted me with an important role.

17-A and 34-A were both seeds of John's, and I was happy to get both into one grid when I pulled out an old-school pattern I'd used several times before. I hope John is right that my clue for 34-A is "evocative" — what I do remember is racking my brain for most of a day for just the right circumstance. I couldn't believe it when we got our preview of the NYT edit and I saw that the clue had stayed. But don't minimize how expertly John filled in around the 15s — once he was done I knew we stood a good chance of being accepted, and I loved his angle on parsing the letters at 32-Across. I wouldn't have thought of that, and many will be pleased to see it.

– puzzle by John Lieb and Brad Wilber

ROSS: I'd been kicking the tires on different GRAVITY'S RAINBOW grids for a couple years when I mentioned this concept to Lindsey. I wasn't sure it was a workable idea, but the smoothness of the final product here is a testament to Lindey's top-notch gridwork.

I've written a bit more about today's grid on my personal puzzle site, Rossword Puzzles, and we'll talking about the construction on Monday evening on my Twitch stream, Cursewords Live. Join us!

LINDSEY: I was psyched when Ross suggested the idea for the puzzle. As a huge admirer of the work of both Thomas Pynchon and Ross, I was enthusiastically on board. The grid layout and fill were not the easiest, but the result is likely the most aesthetically pleasing of any puzzle I've had the pleasure of working on.

While I was delighted when Will Shortz let us know he was planning to run it during Pride month, Pride wasn't actually the inspiration for the puzzle (hence the inclusion of indigo, which I only just recently learned is not on the gay pride flag!). In any case, I'm happy to have our puzzle included here and hope to see more from LGBTQ constructors during all the rest of the months too.

– puzzle by Ross Trudeau and Lindsey Hobbs

"Reviews of Mom's Cooking," my first submission as a new pandemic-inspired constructor, grew from the seed phrase STEAK ACCLAIM, a mis-hearing when someone advised me to stake a claim — I believe to that bottle of cab I was eyeing at our school fundraiser (I'm a high school teacher; wine is important to us). Version 1 also included LEEK DETECTION ("Mom! You promised there wouldn't be onions in this soup. Why do I taste onions?"). The Times editorial team, though amused, noted that ‘steak acclaim' rendered the trick differently, which is true, and "leak detection" as a phrase wasn't strongly enough in the language, which is not true if you lived in my house where I had — no lie — 3 major leaks in 3 years.

Turning to the awesome Facebook Crossword Puzzle Collaboration group for advice, I was lucky to find Mentor Extraordinaire Rich Proulx, who helped me brainstorm new themers. Rich suggested SOLE SEARCHING, which led me to MUSSEL MEMORY. He cheerled and tsk-tsk'd me through myriad fill attempts, frowning upon anything that sniffed of glue. Version 2 had both fish entries (entrees), which the team had initially signed off on, but then they decided what they really wanted was a complete meal. Could I try again with a dessert? They even suggested one, TORTE CLAIM — so kind! I countered with MOUSSE CALL, got the thumbs up, and finally, taking pity on me no doubt, they gave this version the nod. Many thanks to Rich and the NYT team!

– puzzle by Pamela F. Davis