Joseph Knecht

  Double or Nothing Courtesy of The Swiss a duet devoted to electronic dance music One of the silver linings in the otherwise dark clouds of the global pandemic is a new generation of constructors who, locked down with time on their hands, have produced some wonderfully clever crossword puzzles.  Such is the outing of  today's constructor David Tuffs, who is making his debut appearance with the LA Times, but who has had at least three puzzles published in the NY Times    I personally hope his outing here is the first of many more.  David is fourth-year linguistics student at the UC Santa Cruz, and he certainly brings the right tools to the table.  Today's theme was one I found helpful.  It was obvious by the second clue that the letters in circles were all double letters, but it was not until the reveal that I understood there was an extra layer to the theme: 40A. High-stakes gamble, and how the answers with circles can be

  Today's constructors, Erica Hsiung Wojcik and May Huang appear to be making their debut in the LA Times, but they are not new to constructing.  Erica, who is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Skidmore College , recently debuted a Friday puzzle in the New York Times on 4/29/22 .  And this is a  brief chat with her that the Times published for the occasion .  May often collaborates with her husband Kevin and they both run an indie constructor site.  She is a writer and translator, originally from Taiwan and Hong Kong . And unless I missed something, their theme is pretty simple.  Enclosed within the circles (sorry Anon ) in each themer are the reversed names of various hues of the color RED : 17A. Some plant-based patties: SO Y BUR GERS .  RUBY , as in gem quality corundum . 27A. Little by little: SLOWLY BU T SUR ELY .  Little by little, in the presence of oxygen iron turns to RUST resulting in