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Hi, Crossworld! I'm thrilled to be making my NYT debut today. It's been so much fun getting to know many of you virtually over the past year or so, and I hope we're all able to gather and meet at an in-person event soon. Until then, please say hello on Twitter (@footnote24) or the Crossword Discord Server.

The idea for this puzzle came while I was reading Erik Larson's Devil in the White City. I had just started constructing, so I was hyper-aware of word lengths, and I noticed the matched pair of FERRIS WHEEL and EIFFEL TOWER. I knew that another World's Fair was coming up soon, so I figured there was potential for a timely puzzle (though admittedly not a groundbreaking one). When I saw that SPACE NEEDLE and the revealer would complete the set, I was off to the races. I was pleased to sneak in EPCOT as a mini-bonus in the middle row, and I'm happy (and surprised) to see that I'm debuting non-themers 3-Down and 66-Across.

The original plan (both mine and the NYT team's) was for this to run on or around 10/20/2020 when the 2020 World's Fair was scheduled to kick off in Dubai. That didn't happen, for obvious reasons, but I hope this puzzle reminds solvers of past vacations taken and sights seen—and I hope that we're all able to safely travel and explore again soon.

As a Dodgers fan still not fully over the 2017 World Series (although 2020 helped quite a bit in that respect), I should note that the stacked pair of 4-Across and 15-Across was unintentional but apt.

Finally, thanks to the NYT team for allowing me to make a last-minute cluing change (to my own clue!), which I very much appreciated.

– puzzle by Michael Lieberman

A very late "Happy Lunar New Year!" to you all! I'm so excited to be making my New York Times Crossword debut.

I started solving crosswords at the beginning of 2020, and transitioned to constructing in March just as quarantine was kicking off. As a university student, it was a great way to fill a spring break with nowhere to go.

I owe a lot of thanks to everyone who used their constructor notes to encourage people interested in learning to construct (Erik Agard and Ross Trudeau come to mind), without whom my ideas would never have left the recesses of my notes app. I also want to give an especially big shoutout to Rich Proulx for patiently mentoring me over dozens of emails!

A fun fact about the clue for 26-down: the only other use of "wine-dark" by Homer is to describe oxen, an extra nod to the theme. I was also a little sad to lose my original clue for PEWS ("Laser gun noises"), but my favorite out of many great new clues by the editing team was definitely 25-Down.

– puzzle by Ann Shan

I am a history professor at Heritage University, which is located within the Yakama Nation and just outside Toppenish, Washington. I have a 40-minute drive through hop fields and orchards on my way to and from campus (back when I went to campus), and many of my puzzle ideas form on those drives.

This theme arose from brainstorming words that could hint at a rebus theme. When JAM came to mind, NBA wasn't far behind. My prime gaming years were the 1990s, and I played NBA Jam a lot. As an Oregonian, my favorite duo was Portland's Terry Porter and Clyde Drexler (great crossword name).

I originally submitted this puzzle with theme-entry clues that included the names of NBA franchises. Some were naturals: SUSAN B ANTHONY was "Feminist Trail Blazer"; PINBALL was "Game for Wizards." But others were too stretchy, and the gimmick was scrapped. Good luck guessing my clues for CANADIAN BACON and NEWBORN BABIES!

– puzzle by Blake Slonecker

I wanted to make a grid around AKIRA KUROSAWA because he's so often seen in puzzles on a first-name basis, understandably, but he deserves more than that. I'm not sure if the entry is a first, but it's certainly rare. I clued it via a lesser-known but marvelous film of his; I can only hope that some people will go watch "Stray Dog" after solving this puzzle. I also had a little Shakespearean strain throughout the clues as an homage to Kurosawa, who is in many ways the Bard's modern equivalent.

I'm pretty stoked to have my Times debut on a Friday, which is my personal favorite solving day. I've been making puzzles for several years now, but very sporadically and mostly for my friends. I enjoy constructing crosswords, especially freestyles because it's an interesting exercise to take an algorithmic framework — in this case, strings of letters in a grid — and imbue it with some of the more inscrutable aspects of culture — slang and humor, for instance. The dichotomy pleases me.

When I'm off the grid, as it were, I'm a classical flutist. I also have a podcast, Impolite to Listen, where I chat casually with my friend about classical music and its attendant matters. I find that the motions of the mind are similar between constructing crosswords and making music. Is there some truth there? I don't know — I am not my mind's accountant.

– puzzle by Sridhar Bhagavathula

13-letter answers don't get much airtime in 15×15 themeless puzzles because they can result in awkward black square placements, so I was happy to work HIDDEN TALENTS and POTATO BATTERY into this grid. Of course, there was a tradeoff: I only had 12 remaining long slots (of 8+ letters) to work with, and the pressure was on to convert many of them to exciting entries. Nowadays, I aim for 16 to 20 long slots in themeless grids so that more neutral entries like ROUTINES don't feel like they're taking up quite as much space.

The openness of the top-right and bottom-left corners made this grid tougher to fill than a typical 68-worder, but I think it turned out fairly clean. I particularly like that all the 3-letter entries here are common, everyday words. I hope solvers found it to be a smooth and satisfying experience.

After receiving the edited proof for this puzzle, I spent some time thinking about inclusivity and representation in crossword puzzles. The wonderful folks at the Times were gracious to let me voice my thoughts in their daily Wordplay column. If you have a few minutes, and especially if you're interested or involved in constructing crosswords, I'd be very grateful if you read today's post on Wordplay.

– puzzle by Sid Sivakumar

I wrote this puzzle while taking an economics course in college. The class was mostly partial derivatives, but I'd say this makes a better crossword theme.

I got quite lucky that SUPPLY and DEMAND are both six letters; most other lengths wouldn't really work. The theme largely dictated how the grid was constructed with PRICE and QUANTITY forcing black squares along the edge. With that in place, there was only one good spot for ECONOMICS and ADAM SMITH. QUANTITY is definitely not the easiest word to have at the bottom of a stack of three long answers, so I had to start constructing in that section of the grid.

I appreciate the editorial team taking my suggestion of putting axes on the puzzle in the print version. I think it is fun and might make the theme a little clearer.

Constructors used to (maybe some still do) use graph paper to make crosswords. It's funny that this is the opposite, a puzzle that makes a graph.

I hope you enjoyed solving!

– puzzle by Eric Bornstein

It is such a joy to be making my NYT debut! I am a 16-year-old from Conway, Arkansas, and I am actually pretty new to the crossword scene — I started solving at the beginning of quarantine last year. I began constructing in the summer after stumbling upon a mind-blowing instructional video by David Kwong. Without a doubt, my decision to reach out to Judge Vic Fleming, an experienced NYT constructor in my area, catalyzed my path to success due to his invaluable mentorship and advice. I would highly encourage new constructors to pursue a mentorship, as it was so helpful to me. Mentorship resources can be found at the Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory on Facebook or the Crossword-related Discord Server. And, of course, the practice of solving every day and reading great crossword blogs (Wordplay, XWord Info, Rex Parker, Crossword Fiend, etc.) has certainly made me a better constructor.

The idea for this theme came to me while I was half asleep, surprisingly, and after waking up, I reached for my phone and quickly began researching car brands that could be reversed and fit into phrases. While I made my way through the list of brands, I eliminated the ones that obviously wouldn't work (I'm looking at you ZNEB-SEDECREM) and avoided brands that aren't as common on the road. Filling the grid was a bit tough considering the constraints of the revealer, so it was difficult to really open up the grid and allow for some sparkly long downs. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy with the result, especially with 1-Across to kick things off.

Thanks to the NYT Editing Team for the cluing changes, and thanks to all who have supported me in my puzzling efforts!

Hope you enjoy it!

– puzzle by Simon Marotte

NANCY: I initially had an idea for a puzzle about "spoilers" but my many theme answer ideas were all over the map. Nor did I have a really good method for how to clue them smoothly. I think I remember that I had a lot of cross-referencing between the clue and the answer and that the clues tended to be overlong.

Enter Will Nediger. First, he whittled down my theme ideas to come up with the three that were the strongest and the most internally consistent. And then he found this incredibly elegant way of cluing them: brief, clear, simple, and completely fair. Provoking curiosity but giving absolutely nothing away. When I saw his solution — one I don't think I would have thought of on my own — I may have actually shouted "Eureka!"

My second "Eureka!" was when SPOILER ALERT turned out to have the same number of letters as TOO MANY COOKS. From such serendipitous occurrences comes the untrammeled joy of the puzzle constructor :)

WILL: I'm really proud of the construction and the tightness of the theme here. In retrospect, though, I regret including "spare the rod..." in a wordplay theme (my responsibility entirely, not Nancy's!). I tend to think of it as a quaint saying because it's now widely understood that corporal punishment is harmful and wrong, but of course, it's not entirely a thing of the past — I apologize to anyone whose solving experience was soured by its inclusion.

– puzzle by Nancy Stark and Will Nediger

This puzzle started when I had the idea to use either LATE TO THE PARTY or LATE TO THE GAME as a revealer and to have the theme answers all be phrases that had been changed to be an hour late. I wrote a couple of grids based on this idea but felt like the connection between the revealer and the theme entries was too loose, so I let the grids sit until several weeks later when I suddenly had the idea to make the revealer directly related to daylight saving time.

I have Andrea Carla Michaels to thank for Darkness at Noon — I had been considering Shanghai Noon or Zero Dark Thirty for a third theme answer when I ran the idea by her, but I liked her recommendation best. The 15/15/15/13 lengths were not easy to work with — I know the fingers of blocks in the SW and SE corners aren't ideal, but they were the only way to get clean enough fill.

I had thought this theme would run on a Tuesday or Wednesday, so the editorial team toughened up some of my clues (for instance, I'm assuming my straightforward clues for NANCY and SHERYL were too easy). However, they kept close to half of my original clues, including the dual [Noise from a fan] clues and the reference to Safari for IOS.

I've always liked puzzles where numbers in phrases are changed (a division one and one around extras come to mind), so it was fun to create my own take on the genre. Hope you enjoyed the solve!

– puzzle by Leslie Rogers

This crossword would not exist if it weren't for my coworker Tim, who taught me about the intricacies of the Mexican flag. I forgot why we were even talking about it to begin with... probably nerding out about "Jeopardy!" as we often did at the office. I was aware of the eagle but never noticed the snake before, which I thought was pretty cool.

I'm a civil engineer at the NYC Department of Transportation. I work in the Geometric Design unit, which in itself feels like a giant puzzle. Pedestrians, bikes, vehicles... they all compete for the same limited space, so we need to get creative with our designs to safely accommodate everyone.

It makes me happy to see others get joy out of my work. In addition to constructing crosswords for fun, I design my own "escape room" puzzles. I would lock my friends and family in my apartment and see if they can get out. I don't have fancy video equipment to spy on them from the outside, so I'm in there moderating. My most recent escape room was pretty well-received (it's Pokémon-themed)!

When I told my friends that my puzzle would debut on March 15, a few of them jokingly commented, "beware the Ides of March"... Let's hope I can make this day lucky for me. One puzzle in the Times is a good place to start.

Happy Benito Juárez Day! "Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz — Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace." ― Benito Juárez

– puzzle by Philip K. Chow

This puzzle started with TED DANSON. I've been a fan of his since before his "Cheers" fame. That reminds me — I should go back and re-watch "The Onion Field" and "Body Heat."

Since this submission was accepted, JANET YELLEN has been elevated to a cabinet position. I was glad to get that little injection of currency in the puzzle. A counterbalance to MICHAEL BOLTON, perhaps.

A little over four years ago, I started writing a crossword puzzle for a local monthly publication called Groundcover News. A couple of years ago, I recruited crossword constructor, editor, New York Times staff member, and fellow Ann Arborite Tracy Bennett to split the duties with me. So now we alternate months, with Tracy often co-constructing with Vic Fleming. What is Groundcover, you ask? From their website, they are an organization "founded in April 2010 as a means to empower low-income persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed." Groundcover vendors can be found on street corners and in front of shops in and around downtown AA. The puzzles that Tracy and I construct are originals, with an NYT Monday/Tuesday level of difficulty. Occasionally the themes are Arbor-centric, but most are accessible to a wide audience. So, if you happen to find yourself in our town, pick up a copy. If you'd like to subscribe or make a donation, visit Groundcover News here.

– puzzle by Peter A. Collins

Ever since solving David Steinberg's excellent FROOT LOOPS puzzle, I've thought about using some sort of loop-based trick. This puzzle finally gave me the chance to do it!

To brainstorm potential words for the loops, I went on XWord Info to look up all the ways that ADO has been clued in past crosswords. It's a common answer, so this gave me many options. Without that flexibility, I might not have been able to fill the grid, because this type of theme is very constraining. The interlocking geometry of the theme entries is simply incompatible with many words (including some of my favorites: BALLYHOO, BROUHAHA, HULLABALOO, and HURLY-BURLY — it seems that certain letters really evoke a commotion!).

Thanks, as always, to the editorial team for their work; I especially like the clue [Salk and Pepper, in brief], which they added. I also appreciate the new initiative of sending the puzzle PDF to constructors a couple weeks before publication so that we can let the editors know if there are any changes we would like to be made.

– puzzle by Tom McCoy

I'm thrilled and honored to be making my NYT debut! I had been solving on and off since the mid-1990s but really picked it up over the past few years once I started solving on my phone. I've been constructing puzzles over roughly the same time period. I'd like to thank my mentor Mark McClain, who I found on the Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory group on Facebook. He's always been eager to share his thoughts on my work and ideas. Without a doubt, he made this particular puzzle better by pointing out obscure words and areas overloaded with proper names. Oftentimes, it takes a fresh set of impartial eyes to notice these things. I'd also like to thank my wife Amy, who assured me that REIKI is, in fact, a thing, thereby saving me from having to refill that section.

The idea for this puzzle came to me when I remembered that Canadians supposedly like to say "eh" after everything. A small investment in a rhyming dictionary yielded me several word pairs like FILL / FILET, PARK / PARQUET, etc. I specifically stuck to words where the accent is on the "eh" syllable at the end. I originally had all my the themers clued as "what the person is really trying to say." For example, TRAILER PARQUET was "That's some fancy flooring for an RV, isn't it?" UNSOLICITED BIDET was "That weird bathroom fixture was pretty unexpected, wasn't it?" I guess the editing team thought better of that idea.

This is my first 21x puzzle. I must say, making this grid and filling it was not easy! Not for me anyway. It only took me 7 weeks, hehe. I'm pretty sure I gave up in frustration many times along the way, only to resume reluctantly a few days later. I ended up writing a computer program to help me sort through the hundreds of layout possibilities and identify the handful that had the most flexibility. That was exhausting. But I'm sure glad I powered through.

Many thanks to the editing team for their improvements to the clues and for pointing me in the right direction through all of my other rejections.

– puzzle by Julian Kwan

AMANDA: Always a thrill to be back in The Times, especially with my forever-collaborator Ross! Our puzzle today is interesting for me because it turns something I hate (the "who wore it better?" question) into something I love. To me, the existence of this question in its typical context represents so many of the problematic viewpoints society seems to have towards women.

What I love about the question's transformation in this puzzle is that, through the lens of comparing these quasi-silly outfits on male animals and characters, it sort of illuminates how ridiculous the question is to begin with. (For what it's worth, I'm very here for comparing how we all look in FOOTIE PAJAMAS because the answer is "Totally awesome!")

If I were making this puzzle today, there's no universe in which I'd allow NRA to be in here, even with a clue like this one that I can get behind. It's easy to look back on past work with a critical eye, but even the stuff I wish was different serves as an opportunity to reflect and grow, or reflect upon growth.

I hope this goofy puzzle brings you as much joy to solve as it brought us to make! If you're interested in learning how to make puzzles, particularly if you're from an underrepresented group, feel free to reach out on Twitter and say hi. (@AmandaRafkin).

ROSS: What she said! If you're interested in learning how to make crossword puzzles, feel free to get in touch via Twitter or Rossword Puzzles.

– puzzle by Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau

Kangaroo words are words that contain a shorter synonym hidden inside. For example, the word STEALTHY contains S-L-Y. And if the shorter "joey" word is an antonym rather than a synonym (like today's theme entries), the container word is called an anti-kangaroo word. Interestingly, there are far fewer solid anti-kangaroo words than kangaroo words.

I was happy to see the clues [Color on the flag of every permanent U.N. Security Council member — RED] and [Distance between "some" and "where" in "Somewhere over the rainbow" — OCTAVE] made the cut. I enjoy writing evocative clues for common words. In particular, the latter paints a strong mental image of stretching my right pinky to hit the second C while playing the piano. On the other hand, I was saddened that the editors removed several women from my clues while adding men to clues that previously did not contain a reference to a person. I strive to be inclusive in my clue writing, especially when the grid entries aren't very diverse.

Finally, March 6th was the 500th anniversary of Ferdinand Magellan landing in Guam (my birthplace). To commemorate this anniversary and celebrate Mes CHamoru (Chamorro Heritage Month), Jim Peredo (whose family is Guamanian) and I are publishing four Guam-themed crosswords in the Pacific Daily News. You can check out the first three here: "Island Time" by Alex Eaton-Salners and Jim Peredo, "Travel Advisory" by Jim Peredo and Alex Eaton-Salners, and "Seal of Approval" by Jim Peredo and Alex Eaton-Salners. The fourth will drop this Sunday.

– puzzle by Alex Eaton-Salners

I've always wanted to try my hand at a triple stack. As I was fooling around with layouts, I noticed that you tend to get a pretty enclosed center when you place black squares around triple stacks in a natural way.

For this puzzle, I wanted to keep the middle as open as possible (which hopefully is more satisfying for the solver). As a trade-off (in terms of construction difficulty), I put in some cheater squares in the corners. It's nice because when you arrange them in threes like that, it's more aesthetically pleasing than if you use two blocks, and it's also considerably easier to fill.

When I began the actual construction, I found I could fill in either stack fairly easily. Connecting the two, however, was proving impossible. I was wondering if maybe I'd bitten off more than I could chew in terms of the open middle. So I bailed and added another cheater square. The result is the grid pattern is a bit chunky. The good news was that it was now quite easy to fill in, and I could be selective in choosing words.

Thanks as always to the editorial team for improving the clues.

– puzzle by Daniel Larsen

Last summer I emailed a constructor friend of mine to share the news of my 3rd NYT Sunday puzzle acceptance. I said to her in the email, "I'm over the moon!!!! ...maybe there's a theme there? Synonyms for OVER THE MOON, sitting atop names of moons?? I'll have to investigate!"

...and here we are! Incredible.

This puzzle was a lot of work. I started with a long list of moons and a long list of phrases containing synonyms for OVER THE MOON. My original design used OVER THE MOON as an in-grid revealer, and I tried very hard to have the moons go in order (from top to bottom in order of the planets). I also wanted to use the more well-known moons as much as possible, and I knew that it was really important for the moons to be the exact same length as the synonym in each phase. Taking all this into consideration, it was quite tricky to figure out how to make it all work. Once I decided to give up on keeping the moons in order, and I realized that I could take the revealer out and use it as the title, things started to come together.

Now, the fill. Stacking theme answers is always rough for a constructor because of the constraints around the stacks. So while I did my best with this one, I know the fill is messy (I've mentored a handful of new constructors in the past year, and there are so many things in this grid that I would call my mentees out on!). But overall I hope you were able to look past the cringe moments and enjoy the puzzle.

– puzzle by Olivia Mitra Framke