"Triple Play," by Jim Leeds

Constructor's Comments

"Triple Play" is one of my favorite 15xs after 22 years of published puzzle construction.

Each of the five theme entries has two words.  The first word, a famous person's (name ending with a double letter), and the second word, beginning with that same letter, form recognizable but misspelled phrases.

For me, puzzle construction evolved from a skittish attempt into a passionate pursuit!

The joy of awakening to a publish date—the thought that that day, scores of folks, pen or pencil at the ready, will be poring over cogent clues, trying to solve what came from my brain, is . . . is . . . well, there's nothing quite like it.

"Fashion Advice," by MaryEllen Uthlaut

"Curses!" by Andrew Zhou

"Victory Parade," by Sheryl Bartol

Constructor's Comments

I started on my path to coming up with this theme when I heard an NFL quarterback talking about "running the table."  As a sports fan, I love an exciting finish, and this theme covers many of them.  The one I couldn't fit in was BUZZER BEATER.  Maybe I'll work it into another puzzle!  Please be sure to check back for tomorrow's puzzle constructed by my mentor and sister, Debbie Ellerin.

"Recycled Letters," by Jake Halperin

Constructor's Comments

To me, this is a refreshing take on familiar anagram themes; I hope solvers see it the same way.  It's a pretty tight set of theme entries in that of all the words made from the letters EILT, I used all the ones that contain each letter at least once, with the exception of illite.

David encouraged me to redo my original grid, which was truly not great, and he made some masterful tweaks to this one.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, considering the amount of theme material, and I'm glad I managed to keep EXTRA LIVES and DRIVERLESS in there.

"Prankster's Refrain," by David Steinberg

Constructor's Comments

I'm trying something new for today's post:  Our first-ever video constructor notes . . . not!  I thought about having a link to Rick Astley's YouTube video as the title for this puzzle but ultimately felt the puzzle was troll-y enough as is ;).  I'm also very grateful for KAUAI, whose unusual letter pattern saved the day at 34-Down.

"Thoroughly Themeless III," by Evan Kalish

Constructor's Comments

I've never found stacks of 15-letter entries satisfying to work with, so I thought I'd tweak the form to get some underappreciated 14-letter entries in on the cruciverbal fun.  The first phrase in the grid was YOU ARE NOT ALONE, which is both a) a statement many people need to hear, and b) a subtle reference to Doctor Who (series 3).  I was pleased with the entry directly underneath that as well.  Of course seats are limited.  Everything is, ultimately, limited!  Ah, marketing.

That stack in the middle allowed several long entries to shoot vertically through it, 4- and 10-Down being my favorites among them.  I tried to throw in some fun with those tight SW/NE corners; hope you weren't seeing double in the bottom left!

Fun fact:  16-A has never appeared as a New York Times crossword answer in any form!  We’ll resolve that little oversight sooner rather than later . . . right?

"Wide-Open Wednesday X," by Erik Agard

"Wide-Open Wednesday IX," by Paul Coulter

Constructor's Comments

This is me playing with the limits of a themeless puzzle again.  I wanted to do some grid art and use it as a clue.  LILI isn't quite symmetric, but it's close enough that the visual effect comes out in a pleasing way.  Once again, I'm grateful to David for his high editorial standards, forcing me to make the puzzle so much better than my original submission.

"Wide-Open Wednesday VIII," by Andy Kravis

Constructor's Comments

I originally constructed this puzzle for a contest run by Andrew Ries, who makes excellent freestyle crosswords himself.  The seed entries were, as you may have guessed, the interlocking 15s running through the center of the puzzle—I think there's something really beautiful about the fact that they both have the
???? D??K CON?E?T letter pattern.

I think this is a tremendously difficult puzzle, not only because it contains a lot of trivia, proper nouns, and difficult vocabulary but also because the clues I submitted are quite tricky.  Whether David has done anything to mitigate my jolly sadism I can't say, but in either case, I hope the puzzle is an enjoyable challenge!

"Wide-Open Wednesday VII," by Paul Coulter

Constructor's Comments

This is my first published themeless.  I'm grateful to David for the opportunity.  Creating lively fill isn't one of my strong points, and he was very generous with his time to help make this grid so much better than the original.  Its inspiration is the B-2 bomber shapes.  When I notice these in grids, I tend to ding those puzzles half a point for using cheater squares.  So I thought, hmm, is there a way to make these shapes a positive aspect?  Fortunately, STEALTH and BOMBERS are the same length, enabling this mini-theme.

"Wide-Open Wednesday VI," by John Guzzetta

Constructor's Comments

SRIRACHA was the first seed here, a spicy sauce that was once a specialty item but is now added even to potato chips and fast food.  The second seed was 34-Down.  I love glued-together words like PROMPOSAL.  This one may not be familiar to everyone yet, but hey, I have teens in the house.

"Wide-Open Wednesday V," by Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen

Constructors' Comments

Mary Lou Guizzo:  I asked Jeff for his help to redo a themeless that I'd been too ambitious with, trying to incorporate four 15-letter entries that intersected.  We kept three of the originals:  DROP OFF THE RADAR, GEOCENTRIC ORBIT, and PUBLICITY STUNTS.  Jeff came up with a skeleton grid running STRAIGHT SHOOTER down the middle and refined it to the final version.

Many moons ago I took an astronomy class and enjoy learning terms such as geocentric or earth orbit.  But even if you're not into science terms this one should be inferable from the root words.  Dubailand was a new term for me that Jeff introduced and I enjoyed learning about.  It's another word that even if you're not familiar with is inferable.

At any rate, I hope you enjoyed your solve.

Jeff Chen:  I'm not usually a fan of themelesses seeded with crossing 15s, since they force so many constraints, but it was a fun challenge to try to work in other long entries like FBI REPORT and DUBAILAND.  I had a layover in Dubai a few years ago—it's one of those places that you can't quite believe is real.  Imagine what DUBAILAND might be!

Always a pleasure to work with Mary Lou!

"Wide-Open Wednesday IV," by Jim Quinlan

Constructor's Comments

I've taken several stabs at designing a themeless with FEEDING THE TROLL as one of the seed answers.  I'm pretty sure the first themeless grid I designed crossed that entry with HOW 'BOUT THIS HEAT (where FOAMS AT THE MOUTH is in this grid).  While I was super-proud of my work, it got kicked back to me with the note, "The phrase 'how 'bout this heat' yields less than 10,000 Google hits."  Whoops.  I really thought that was a thing people said. . . .

I'm very happy to have my debut in PSC with this puzzle, and I'm particularly grateful for David's patience as I reworked a corner that wasn't up to snuff.  (The original entry for 1-Across was TIPSTAFF.)

"Wide-Open Wednesday III," by Brian E. Paquin

Constructor's Comments

Many times when I have finally finished polishing up a puzzle, I have become neutral to it.  The familiarity thing kicks in.  But I think I will always like this one, if only because Sylvester the Cat is running through the middle.  :-)

"Wide-Open Wednesday II," by John Guzzetta

Constructor's Comments

When I first started constructing themeless puzzles in 2016, I dared not stray far from the same basic grid pattern of triple-stacks in each corner (see, for example, The New York Times 1/27/17, 5/19/18, and this Friday, 9/14/18).  Which meant that my notebook was full of 11-letter seed answers.  In 2017, I got my legs under me enough to venture into more challenging and interlocking designs.  But I still had a whole bunch of 11-letter seeds to try out.  Thus, RAREFIED AIR and SERIAL DATER were the seeds for this puzzle.  Enjoy!

"Wide-Open Wednesday I," by Sam Ezersky

Constructor's Comments

Exactly one year ago today, I worked my first full day under Will Shortz as The Times's new assistant puzzles editor . . . so of course it's only fitting that I have my first non-Times puzzle published in years!

Seriously, though, this is a real treat for me, and I hope the *cross*over is fun for you solvers.  David and I have been tight ever since meeting at the 2013 ACPT, when we both were still in high school.  We're off now trying to do big things in our respective puzzle markets, and there's nothing but love and respect all around.  Oh, and learning from one another as we continue to discuss our constructing/editing endeavors.

Looking forward to carrying on this spirit for the years to come!  Thanks again, David, for the opportunity.

"Two Plus Two," by Alex Eaton-Salners

Constructor's Comments

Some of the other theme entries that got left on the cutting room floor:  GOTHAM CITY, AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, and GOLDSMITH.  There were also many possibilities with GOOD as the GO (IN GOOD SPIRITS, GOOD SAMARITAN, GOOD PUBLICITY, etc.).  Unfortunately, there was only room for one due to duplication concerns.  I was really lucky to get GOT A BITE and GO WITH IT to symmetrically interlock with ALGORITHM and GOOGLE HIT.  The latter pairing is also aesthetically pleasing, since complex algorithms underlie Google's search function.

"Jam-Ups," by Jim Bordoni and Zhouqin Burnikel

Constructors' Comments

We're very excited about this puzzle.  It's Jim's debut.  He's an avid crossword solver, and he helps coach the cross-country team at Mountain View High School in California.  We finally met two years ago when he visited Minneapolis to see his son run in the Roy Griak Invitational.  This puzzle was the result of many ideas we brainstormed together.  Thanks for making this possible, David, and thanks for the new title also.

"Four of a Kind," by Alex Eaton-Salners