New York Times, Wednesday, January 27, 2016

The inspiration for this puzzle was Bob Dylan's classic song of 1964, "The Times They Are A-Changin'," and the realization that the title could be split into three seven-letter sections. I knew that there were four common anagrams for TIMES (SMITE, EMITS, MITES and ITEMS), but I set out to find all the possible permutations and discovered the additional pair of two-word phrases, IT'S ME and I'M SET.

So, despite no long themed entries, the puzzle has a total of nine theme-related answers. This makes getting interesting non-thematic words in the grid a larger-than-usual challenge. I was very pleased to have been able to include IN THE MOMENT and INDIGO GIRLS (who appeared as NY Times crossword fans in the wonderful documentary "Wordplay") as the two long down words as well as the secondary entries of SEE PAST, TUNA SUB, CIA GATE, I AM SAM, SO I SEE, and A AND E.

There are a few crosswordese bits in the fill, but on balance, I feel the theme density and the many interesting side entries more than compensate for them.

THE TIMES / THEY ARE / A CHANGIN tying this puzzle together, featuring six (!) fine anagrams for TIMES. They're starred in the clues, but I highlighted them below in blue so they stand out better. (I must admit, I missed two of them at first.)

I felt like I ran into a lot of crossword glue as I solved — ALIT, APO, SMOOT, ATNOS just to start along the left-hand side. And given that at first glance, there didn't seem to be a huge amount of longer theme material, I stopped to consider why this was.

A normal weekday puzzle has roughly 50 theme squares, something like four themers of 12ish letters, or five themers of 10ish letters. This one, at 53 squares doesn't seem to be much different. But it's much, much harder to work with a bunch of short answers than it is just a few long answers. This might be counterintuitive, but every time you place a word, no matter how long, it reduces your flexibility. Now consider that Adam had nine (!) entries to place. That fixes so much of your grid into rigidity.

The next problem is adhering to the 78-word maximum. Because every theme answer is relatively short, you must work in some long fill. I really like INDIGO GIRLS, IN THE MOMENT, even TWITTER, SANCTUM, TUNA SUB, CIAGATE. But every time you place one of those, it further chokes down your flexibility, forcing so many little areas that require crossword glue to hold them together.

Now, I still didn't love running into IM AT, REOIL, I GO, TEM, etc. during my solve, but at least thinking about the construction challenge made me better appreciate it. I do wonder if it might have gone a bit smoother if two of the six anagrams had been placed on the west and east (roughly ,where ALIT and ESOS are). That might have helped them to stand out, as well.

It is pretty cool to have six different anagrams that all work just fine — quite a nice find. That plus a perfect revealer splitting up just right for symmetry made it an interesting theme idea for me.