"Free for All XIII," by Ryan McCarty

Constructor's Comments

I started this puzzle with SEERSUCKER SUITS running right down the middle—it's still a fun and interesting entry despite all of the friendly letters, which is a relatively rare combination with 15-letter entries in my experience.  I don't own a seersucker suit, but I do have a pair seersucker pants I'll wear with a navy suit jacket to the office in the summer on occasion.

From there I worked on getting a solid triple stack in the middle, which took a bit of trial and error but eventually worked out.  After getting the middle solid, filling each of the four corners didn't take too long, as they were pretty isolated.  Even so, I have many half-finished puzzles on my computer where I've given up after attempting to fill some wider corners cleanly, so I may have gotten lucky here :-).  My favorite answers are probably FRAT BROS and POLI SCI MAJORS, but maybe that's because Princeton Reunions are around the corner. . . .

I also want to give a shout out to my sister Kristen who is graduating from West Point today!  I couldn't be more proud of her.

Editor's Comments

Getting a "stagger stack" as lively as POLI SCI MAJORS/LET'S MAKE A DEAL/DANIELLE STEEL to work with clean short fill is quite an achievement.  Having SEERSUCKER SUITS run through everything brings the puzzle from "wow" to "WOW"!  Elsewhere in the fill, I like how Ryan placed a focus on entries that are legitimate and interesting yet rarely show up in crosswords—for example, I don't recall having seen ZEBRA FOAL or DNA CHIP anywhere else.  And finally, I got a kick out of seeing FRAT BROS at 1-Across—even though I'm the furthest thing from one myself!

"Sunday Freestyle XI," by Ryan McCarty

Constructor's Comments

I really enjoy constructing low word-count themeless puzzles with wide-open grids.  When I heard about these themeless puzzles being of medium difficulty, I decided to take on the challenge of making a typically difficult low word-count puzzle more accessible.  That meant doing away with all of the obscurities, difficult proper names, etc., that you might be able to get away with in a harder puzzle, which was no easy feat.  I came up with this 64-word grid design specifically because it used a lot of shorter, more familiar 3-, 4-, and 5-letter Down entries that would (hopefully) help to reveal the longer, jazzier Across answers.

When I'm not making puzzles, I do tech consulting at the SEC and sing in and compose/arrange music for various groups in the D.C. area.  I hope you enjoy the puzzle!

Editor's Comments

When Ryan sent me this wide-open grid, my jaw dropped!  I then shifted my attention to the fill, where I expected to see at least a few iffy entries holding everything together.  Nope—in fact, there isn't a single entry I'd ding anywhere in the puzzle.  "Okay," I remember thinking, "constructors often get stuck with bland long entries when the short fill is that smooth."  Wrong again—there are so many entries I like here, especially WELL SHUCKS, ARGYLE SOCK, I'M TERRIBLY SORRY, SIDE SALAD, ALOE VERA GEL, BREADBASKET, LOW-ENERGY, HIMALAYAS, UNDERCOVER AGENT, SNEAK A PEEK, and the wacky-looking KC ROYAL.  Ryan may be relatively new to the game, but he's already becoming one of the top themeless constructors in the business.