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The published puzzle today looks quite different from what the constructor sent me. Allan had the theme answers running vertically, which I didn't see any reason for. So I switched the Acrosses and Downs, so the main theme entries would read the usual way. A couple of corners were polished, too. The thing I probably like most about this puzzle is the bonus, "explainer" theme entry, TAMES, at 30D, crossing the "M" of DELI MEATS. A very elegant touch.

– puzzle by Allan E. Parrish

I'm very impressed with Ethan's clues. Most of these are his. Lots of good ones, but my favorites are 10D, 12D (I did not know that!), 32D and 38D. I also like 64A, which is a tricky answer to handle. When I consider submissions, I pretty much ignore the constructors' clues, which I know I can revise myself, if necessary. But I do give some preference to contributors (like Ethan) who I know write good clues, and I tend to publish their puzzles more quickly after acceptance.

– puzzle by Ethan Cooper

This puzzle reminds me of a supposed "themeless" crossword that Will Weng once ran, in which each of the long answers contained a synonym for "rear end." After publication, when the hidden theme was pointed out to him, the proper-minded Weng embarrassedly expressed regret about publishing it. I wonder what he would have thought about today's theme?!

– puzzle by Peter A. Collins

I have a feeling today's puzzle won't be liked by some of the crossword bloggers, as the grid's vocabulary isn't the most scintillating, and it has a lot of three-letter words. Still, the fill is solid, and 17A, 38A, 25D, 26D and 43D are quite nice, so to me this is worthy. Most of all, the gimmick with the black squares is just ... wow!

– puzzle by Joe Krozel

Anytime a puzzle contains triply-checked letters, like the circled ones here, there are likely to be compromises in the fill. The middle section of this grid has more unappealing entries than I like — especially CES, SDS, NLERS, ALAI, ASTA, SNO, and DAL. So the question becomes ... is the "aha" strong enough to outweigh the puzzle's weaknesses? In this case, obviously, I thought the answer was yes.

– puzzle by Ed Sessa

One tricky answer to clue here was BAD GIRL (34A), as almost any clue could be seen as sexist. BAD GIRL has a negative connotation that BAD BOY does not, which seems unfair. The clue I ended up with, "Biker chick, perhaps," was my attempt to be neutral — which I think it is.

– puzzle by Josh Knapp

Today's puzzle, along with those for Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this week, were used last Saturday at the 7th annual Bay Area Crossword Tournament, in Oakland, Calif. The event was run by Andrew Laurence to benefit the Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

– puzzle by Gary Cee

Years ago my friend Evie Eysenburg, one of the New York Times crossword testers, was at Bloomingdale's buying something. The clerk had to call the credit department to verify Evie's information. For clarification the clerk spelled Evie's last name "E as in 'eye," Y as in 'you,' "S as in 'sea' ..." — which left the person in the credit department going "Wha-a-a-at??!" She and I have been laughing about this ever since.

After I told this story to Joel, he and I tried to think of a name in which every letter could have a confusing "clarification." He cleverly turned the result into a Thursday theme.

– puzzle by Joel Fagliano

The Thursday-Saturday puzzles this week were all created by constructors in their early 20s, part of a new generation of puzzlemakers. I don't have any hard figures on constructors' ages, but my gut feeling is that the median age has declined by about 15 years since I started in 1993 — from around 55 then to 40 now. Someone should do a study.

– puzzle by Erik Agard

Should a theme come with or without a revealer? To me it depends on the puzzle. Sometimes a revealer entry — one that explains what or where the puzzle's theme is — is needed for clarity. In this puzzle, though, you're on your own. You just have to notice that the starting words in the five longest Across answers are related. If you do, you get a nice aha.

– puzzle by Ian Livengood

Like almost all puzzles that contain triply-checked letters, like the shaded ones here, this puzzle includes some vocabulary that is not as crisp or clean as in puzzles with regular checking. That's just the nature of the beast. I thought this puzzle's theme was cool enough to justify the AAR, the LLD'S, the SSE, the ENS, etc. The grid really doesn't have anything awful, and overall it's about as clean as it can be given the constraints.

– puzzle by Gerry Wildenberg

This puzzle, along with Monday's (plus the Tuesday and Thursday puzzles from next week), were used last weekend at the 18th Westchester Crossword Puzzle Tournament in my hometown of Pleasantville, NY. All the money raised went to a local charity. Andy Kravis took the train up from his home in Manhattan to watch. It's a great experience to watch 60+ people race to solve a puzzle you've constructed! It's also a pleasure for the solvers to meet the constructor in person.

– puzzle by Andy Kravis

One of my rules for crosswords is that I want the solver to understand every clue after its answer is filled in. The clue can be misleading, infuriating, maybe impossible to get without all the crossings, but once it's filled in, the solver should understand what it means. I know I hate it when I don't "get" a clue. Hence, I have some qualms about the clue for NEWSMEN ("Post office workers?") at 18D. Some solvers might wonder, after finally filling in the answer — Why would newsmen work at post offices? (rather than get that Post here is a proper name). In this case, though, qualms be damned. The clue was too good not to use.

– puzzle by Patrick Berry

I accepted this puzzle only recently, but decided to run it quickly because of the recent death of 15D. Not that it mattered, but the puzzle just felt more timely this way. I love the quad-stacks besides, some of the best work on this sort I've yet seen.

– puzzle by Martin Ashwood-Smith and George Barany