29A. “The Southern slang expression “Bad plan!” results in an expression closely associated with political attempts to be popular. My mind went there when I understood that dogs don’t hunt. The reason I first wrote “won’t” in “DON’T” was because the following presidents expressed it that way. Lyndon B. Johnson and bill clinton. However, both words are listed in the bibliography.
38A/38D. These two entries formed an awkward intersection in the first letter. In 38A, “several score marks” resolves to RESTS, musical notation (“mark”). I skimmed through the alphabet and was half convinced that “best” (something like outscoring) and “test” (something to do with “mark”) might work. “Twisting the screwdriver?” For the 38D, we thought of “wind” with a spiral motion. The entry here is RIND. It’s like the garnish part of an orange slice. driver cocktail.
11D. This entry is such a fun and sarcastic commentary, I’m surprised I didn’t hear it more often. Sure, we’re neurotic enough for that to be appropriate. When someone does something like going to the psychoanalyst’s couch, try lightening the mood by saying, “Send the page to the teacher.” Freud! ”
32D. This entry may not resonate with those who have not attended a remote gathering in the past few years. Anyone familiar with tinkering with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Hangouts knows that when you “prepare to speak in a modern meeting,” you’re unmuted. And hopefully don’t forget to mute again before tweeting anything else.
Constructor notes
ben: Words of 11-15 letters are rarely seen in crossword puzzle calculations. The shortest word allowed is 3 characters. So a line with two words followed by a black square has a limit of 11 characters, and a line with one word is often just a 15-character spanner. I created this grid specifically to have 15, 14, 13, and 12 character slots and started filling it with PAGING DR. Freud.
The first draft of this grid had some duplicates and mediocre padding, so I posted it online to see if anyone could help (shout out to the Crosscord Discord). Julien stepped up and rebuilt the top half of the grid and improved it significantly. It wasn’t until a few months later that we actually met in person. I am always happy to connect and collaborate with other builders and am grateful for the online community that makes this possible.
julian: Thanks to my dad for teaching me all about the bokeh effect of cell phones. Not only is the bokeh effect a great addition to my word list, it has made my photos twice as good. While filling in this grid, I noticed that BOKEH was an option for her 5-Across slot and prayed that it would work without using crossword glue to fill in the surroundings. I was lucky that it worked out in the end.
I would like to thank Ben for not only his generous and supportive attitude, but also for helping me since I started making puzzles. He gave me an honest yet encouraging critique of my first puzzle almost two years ago. And they continue to give me great advice when I have a theme idea, or an unthemed grid. I’m honored to be making my New York Times debut with him!
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