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TOM: Ethan and I became friends when we were assigned lab partners in high school chemistry class (thank you, late-alphabet names!). Our luck continued as lab partners in physics senior year and when we got into the same college.

ETHAN: After graduation in 2020, I constructed a mini-crossword for Harvard's version of Class Notes ("The Red Book"), where I mentioned that I hoped to have a puzzle in the Times one day.

TOM: I solved Ethan's puzzle and asked him if he wanted to collaborate — very happy he said yes!

ETHAN: As a solver, my favorite themes involve simple words parsed in surprising ways, so after realizing that BOXER could be a command, I was ecstatic. We started brainstorming themers around the holidays when stacks of FERRERO ROCHER chocolates were lying around my house. I noticed that ER appeared three times, and I told Tom we had struck gold.

TOM: ROGER FEDERER is probably our favorite theme entry. Ethan and I are both tennis fans, but when we constructed this puzzle, we had no idea he would be retiring so soon. We hope the puzzle can also be a small tribute to him!

– puzzle by Ethan Zou and Tomas Spiers

Three things I learned while making this puzzle:

• The website Rhyme Desk has a very useful phonetic word search function
• There aren't any great in-the-language phrases that use the word "taunt"
• The french "en pointe" is not pronounced the same as the english "on point" (I learned this one too late and had to re-do the whole grid after my first submission)

Special shout-outs go to Adam Wagner and Rafa Musa, who tolerated way too many "is this funny?" queries about potential theme entries, and also to the guy on the far left of 30-Across.

– puzzle by Michael Lieberman

This theme came to me on a hike in Bryce Canyon, Utah. It's not that there are a lot of bugs there, but on a long hike, my mind wanders and empties, which seems to create fertile ground for theme ideas. Once I started along the bug path, I was delighted to realize how many good expressions there were, ones that I had often used myself. Ants in my pants when I sit at a desk working on theme ideas too long, check. A bee in my bonnet when I am trying to find a grid that works, check. Butterflies in my stomach as I open an email from the NY Times Crossword editors to see if this might finally be an acceptance, check, check, check.

As a fairly new constructor when I made this puzzle, I thought that there were fixed tradeoffs in good fill — that once a grid and themes were in place, you could make a word or a section better, but another section would suffer. So I submitted the puzzle with quite a few problem areas, thinking it was the best it could be. Thanks to the many iterations with Wyna Liu, I was delighted to learn that this wasn't the case — a grid can almost always be improved!

– puzzle by Jill Singer

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.

– puzzle by Samuel A. Donaldson

Hi everyone! Thrilled to be making my NYT debut today. The inspiration for this puzzle struck me one day while making dinner with my (then) three-year old. I'm happy to report that Friday's are now the traditional 62-Across night in our household. Hope y'all enjoy!

Also, I wanted to take a minute to plug a crossword project I've been working on since this past summer: "lemonade disco". In an effort to support this inspiring community, I basically turned my indie blog into a venue for constructors to be published. I curate, edit, and publish a suite of puzzles each month for the world to solve! Anyone and everyone is welcome to participate! The next suite drops THIS THURSDAY the 17th.

More info can be found at www.taylormadecrosswords.com

Lastly, feel free to reach out! I'm always open to feedback, and I'm always willing to help others curious about the world of crossword construction. You can find me on Twitter @lemonade_disco_

– puzzle by Taylor Johnson

As a native of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn who studies knots for a living (seriously), I debated the merits of SHEEPSHEAD vs. SHEEPSHANK for a long time. Ultimately the decision came down to filling the rest of the grid. I ended up stuck with HSBC and IERE, both of which are awful, but less awful than the alternative.

The theme came to me after hearing the (truly awful) joke, "What is a horse's favorite dance move?" I responded with "What does a cow wear to a luau?" and then "What is a sheep's favorite rum-soaked sponge cake?" OK, the last one I just made up. But then I made the connection with the theme song (the song that makes the puzzle's theme) and the rest was a matter of fill. The theme put a surprising amount of stress on the puzzle geometry, but I hope you like the result.

What is my cat's favorite thing to scratch at 5am? Me. Ow!

Lastly, coach Popovich, if you're reading this, I had you in mind for 1-Across but the editors preferred the other Gregg. Go Sagehens!

– puzzle by Sandy Ganzell

The word MANDUCATING was the genesis of this theme, after noticing the similarity to MANSPLAINING. I thought it could be fun to clue difficult words both "rightly" and "wrongly".

Actually, MANDUCATING became the odd one out, since it's a fake portmanteau and the other theme entries are misreadings of single root words. (It also got changed to MANDUCATES for symmetry reasons.)

I did have RAPTORIAL = [Predatory.. NOT an introductory hip-hop lesson] as a second fake portmanteau option, but the editorial team felt the real definition was too familiar.

METROLOGY is the one I personally was most familiar with — it's quite important in science and engineering, particularly in advanced manufacturing.

ICI is a good example of a weaker 3-letter entry holding together a corner.

My clue for PLATED was [Arranged, like food at a fancy restaurant] but it got changed due to similarity to a recent clue for the same word!

My clue for AGE GAP was [Subject of the so-called "divide by 2 and add 7" rule] — but I'm not surprised this one got cut!

I focus more on themeless puzzles, and also tend to prefer simpler, non-groundbreaking themes but with relatively open grids and cool fill. Hopefully a bit of that comes across today — thank you for solving!

– puzzle by John Hawksley

This puzzle was inspired in part by Joon Pahk's very good "Deal or No Deal" puzzle from Lollapuzzoola 2020. During walks to pick up our daughter from daycare last fall, we fleshed out the idea and themers, which makes for a very fond memory of crunching through leaves and asking each other whether CHARD/CHARMED was better than HOMEWARD/HOWARD (neither obviously made the cut).

Our intent was to identify a few marquee entries that really had a lively definitional shift once the ME was removed. Once we realized the best ones weren't strictly letter symmetrical with one another like typical themers, we concentrated on laying them out at least N-S and E-W symmetrical in the grid as a basic skeleton, while taking advantage of any additional MEs that popped up as we filled (see: MEAD and MERV). We're really happy with the outcome (not the least of which was some fun-for-us bonuses like SWEET TEA and SOUS VIDE), though pour one out for MED STUDENT/D STUDENT not making the themer cut. Hope you enjoy!

– puzzle by Hoang-Kim Vu and Jessica Zetzman

Hi Crossworld! It's just MAGICAL to be making my NYT debut and even more so to be back-to-back with Robyn Weintraub, a constructor whose puzzles I've admired for years.

I'm a composer and musician based in NYC and I owe my interest in puzzles to both my grandmother, with whom I regularly solved puzzles when I was a child, and my father Richard, my most dedicated test solver (he said this one flowed nicely for him — hopefully it does for you too!).

I'm excited that I was able to squeeze in a bunch of debuts here, especially MOUSEKETEER (As a child of the 90s whose first two CDs were In The Zone and No Strings Attached, I'm glad I could honor Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake with that clue!).

I'll leave you with one fun fact about the edit: I submitted the puzzle with the clue for LAS being [Much of "Deck the Hall"], which is the original title and lyric of the carol, as opposed to the now-ubiquitous "Deck the Halls." The editing team went with the latter, and I certainly can't argue with the change, but for the purists out there, know that I tried!

– puzzle by Benji Goldsmith

In the spirit of the day, thank you to the editors and constructors who actively create space for representation — both in terms of whose puzzles get published and what people, places, and parts of language get featured in those puzzles. Thank you to the bloggers, commenters, and solvers who actively encourage dialogue around how we, as a crossword community, can continue supporting the voices of the marginalized.

First, I want to acknowledge that the 2/10/22 NYT puzzle has an identical revealer to this one. My puzzle was submitted in 2020 and accepted in 2021, so I felt shaken up and disheartened to see such a similar puzzle published, knowing mine was to follow. Now, I can appreciate each puzzle's unique flavor and understand the editors' choice to run both. I hope enough time has passed, and folks can still enjoy this one for what it is.

This puzzle was challenging to make! The theme's premise prevented me from using the (very helpful) letter "I" anywhere else in the grid outside the themed entries. Also, the editors and I wanted every dot in the puzzle to represent the actual word "DOT," so many other potential themers like DO THE RIGHT THING were off-limits.

The most complicated constraint to navigate was the way that each dot spelled the letters "D-O-T" going horizontally, but was essentially a blank space going vertically. Long story short: after solving the 3/18/21 NYT puzzle, I asked its constructor Tom McCoy for guidance since it had a similar use of "blank" squares. Without getting too nerdy, Tom was incredibly supportive in helping develop a Python script and custom word lists that made filling the grid a lot less impossible. Thank you, Tom.

Favorite clues that were kept: CHAOS, IMAC, ELOPE, SYMBOLS, ALOE, PANGAEA, SUNS, TSO, BDAY, and EMO.

– puzzle by Pao Roy

My summer was spent between making this puzzle and watching Love Island (UK) season 8 (apologies to my dissertation committee—I am back to it now), so it was only natural that the show tried to make an appearance. Sadly, my reference to one Italian contestant's profession of love, "Ti [AMO] e ti voglio per me" did not survive in the clues. I do like what the editors wrote, though, "Ti __" (bit of Romance language romance language). The double romance gets to the spirit of things.

I constructed the puzzle as part of the New York Times Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship. So I want to give a shout-out to the Games team for organizing the fellowship. To the editors, for the constructing workshops (and for keeping most of the other clues I was partial to). To Wyna Liu, especially, for her counsel and her enthusiasm at my postcolonial literature marquees. And the biggest shout out to my mentor Tracy Bennett for her kindness, generosity, and intelligence, for encouraging my decision to try a themeless, and for working through different ideas and hurdles with me, even after the fellowship was over.

– puzzle by Kanyin Ajayi

A certain writer of daily crossword commentary likes to point out that "Will Shortz rarely takes diagonal themes because they're so hard to fill well." Just know that every time I read a writeup like that, I take it as a personal challenge.

Admittedly, yeah, the right half of this puzzle was brutal to fill. That I made it out of there with only one small SMEAR(er) is a miracle. That left half, though... what a joy! A dream! I could put in whatever long entries I wanted? With hardly any constraints? It almost made me wish there were puzzles that didn't have themes, that I could fill to my heart's content...

But no. That would just be silly.

Odds/ends:

• Fave clues 24a, 79a, 52d, 77d.
• Fave editorial additions 29a, 73a, 88d.
• I had clued INNER CITY as 'Urban area sung about by Marvin Gaye on the last track of "What's Going On"'. I'm on the fence about the revision, which only considers the phrase's literal meaning without alluding to its controversial historical connotations.
• I originally submitted the title "Figure Skating". Eds changed it to "Go Figure". And then Will himself dropped an absolute dime at the last second with "Going Off On A Tangent." There's a reason he's the .
• Speaking of s, go play Anigrams.us!

– puzzle by Adam Wagner

I've been solving crosswords long and loudly enough that everyone in my life knows about it. In 2019, one of those friends, Pierre-Alexander Low, invited me to see a live crossword show starring Will Shortz and Joel Fagliano in San Francisco. Before the show, Pierre told me a group of Bay Area crossword constructors was having dinner around the corner. Did I want to crash it? (I did). The people I met there were universally friendly, funny, and wicked smart. I'd never thought about making crosswords before. But after that night, I knew I wanted to be part of this community.

Three years, one pandemic, and countless stops-and-starts later...here I am! This is my 3rd published puzzle and my first in the Times. To any other underrepresented folks interested in making crossword puzzles, check out Erik Agard's Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory group on Facebook. It's where I met two of my incredible crossword mentors, Ross Trudeau and Paolo Pasco (I met a third, the marvelous Andrea Carla Michaels, through Pierre that night in 2019!).

– puzzle by Chloe Revery