New York Times, Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Even though this is my sixth NYT puzzle, I'm very excited to say that today's puzzle is actually my solo debut! Not only that, but it contains a whole lot of music references — now that's what I call a WIN-WIN SITUATION!

Puzzles are a funny world because, due to the often substantive queue times, a published puzzle can be something of a time capsule. It is both very cool and very humbling. Looking at this puzzle today (which I wrote over a year ago), I see a lot of things that I like and a few things that, if I were to make this puzzle now, I don't think I would include (I'm looking at you IMF and ELD)! These days I'm trying to take a bit of a Marie Kondo approach to puzzle making. "Does this word spark joy? No? Bye-bye!"

That being said, there are a handful of classical music references in here plus a musical theater reference, so things are still deeply on brand. SONATAS and CHOPIN feel particularly special to me since it was a Beethoven SONATA that got me into the performing arts school where I went to high school and then, four years later, both a Beethoven SONATA coupled with a CHOPIN ballade (plus the obligatory Bach) got me into music school at IU (Go Hoosiers!). I also happen to have Chopin's signature tattooed on my side next to my heart, so I'm definitely not deeply emotional about the fact that I got his name into an NYT puzzle with my name on it.

I did have GROUPS clued as "Possible therapy settings" since I also worked as a therapist until about a year ago, but alas, it did not make the cut!

I hope you enjoy the puzzle!

Earlier this year, Will Shortz mentioned that he sees too many "hidden words" themes. I think there's still room for exploration within this theme type, but you need some extra element. An offshoot has been "two of the same hidden words," but even that is reaching saturation, especially because solvers can tire of finding the same string over and over.

A great example of what can make one of these stand out is a DOUBLETREE puzzle. It's hard to find strong phrases that hide two types of well-known trees, so the discoveries are interesting, they feel rare, and the variety is great.

Today's theme does score points on that "rare" criterion; few phrases fit the *WIN*WIN* search pattern. I only found TWINKLE TWINKLE, but that only exacerbates the theme's repetitive feel, WINNIE WINKLE, which is esoteric to say the least, and the WINKLEVOSS TWINS. I might have used that last one, since that duo has been in Facebook-related news recently. Still, such a small selection of possibilities makes for a "tight" theme, lending some elegance.

I appreciated Amanda's care in gridwork. I did hesitate on BWANA and STYNE. They're both fair game, but they might cause newer solvers to stumble. Not ideal, but acceptable.

Although the theme was more of a drawing to a close than a win-win, the bonuses of BENIGN, ONE AND ONLY, STENCIL, LOONIE and the mostly smooth grid help elevate my solve.