New York Times, Friday, January 5, 2018

9-Down and the first half of 10-Down... sheer happenstance. Unforeseen. They just fell into place. Good — it's done, no need to squeeze WHITENED into a future puzzle.

I started with SMACKDOWN, cluing it as a verbal broadside that might elicit an "oh, snap." But the wrestling reference seems more mainstream. Glad to see Will (and Joel and Sam) cluing TOTES as it's now sometimes used. Like WHATEVS in a puzzle from last week. Is OBVS very far behind? I do check with some of my kids now and again for fresh words and phrases they view as legit. Oh, and 28-Across is a debut for me, either singular or plural, finally breaking my commitment-to-self never to use it.

I do attempt to mix spoken phrases and sentences (AM I TO BLAME, et al.) into the grid, minimize abbreviations (3 here, I think), and allow one partial max per grid (WALLA). I've been to both my place names: WALLA Walla twice — beautiful town, orchard country, with a colorful display of murals; OPORTO also (for ten days or so), where you can cruise through samples of vintage Quinta Do Noval, about the finest thing ever to emerge from a grape.

Fun note: SECRET WORD was originally MADE-UP WORD, which I loved (like nearly anything from "Jabberwocky"), but it was nixed in a previous draft as a, you guessed it, "made-up word." Minds may change about that down the road.

SMACKDOWN above RHINEGOLD — talk about something for everyone! Love the variety.

A 72-word puzzle has to be jazzy, with every single long slot used to its max. I used to watch a ton of WWE as a kid (sad, I know), so SMACKDOWN made me smile. I'm not an opera fan, but I appreciate Wagner. And RHINEGOLD is an interesting word.

BEACH COMB, yes! CACAO TREE yes! (Have you ever seen cacao fruit? Disgusting, hard to imagine how it transforms into chocolate.)

CRAWDADDY … mostly yes? Seems like this is a term in use, although it didn't ring true to my ear at first.

STANDEE ... not so much. DONATE TO is fine, but it's not going to win any awards.

AM I TO BLAME … I'm not sure on this one. I like it just fine, but is it a standout? NOT SPAM is the same. I see this phrase all the time with Gmail, but there's something about it that makes it seem slightly iffy as a crossword entry.

And HEADCOUNTS … occasionally people ask me how many plurals is too many in one puzzle, and I scratch my head. Why does it matter, if they're all normal words / entries? HEADCOUNTS does feel more sparkly in the singular, though. Totally subjective, since the plural HEADCOUNTS is dictionary supported.

Short fill. A 72-word puzzle must be ultra-clean. A bit of NEOS, GRAS, ROTOS, ACRO wouldn't be terrible in a tougher construction. But a 72-word themeless is not much of a challenge (unless you're working in a lot of rare letters, grid-spanning entries, etc.). So it's way too much in this puzzle.

That SW corner was particularly problematic for me, with ACRO / ROTOS jammed in. (I think NGAIO Marsh is crossworthy.) Maybe a cheater square at the S of HEADCOUNTS would have solved the problem.

Some nice feature entries — love me some SMACKDOWN! — but not quite enough sparkle or cleanliness to make the puzzle stand out.