New York Times, Tuesday, October 14, 2014

The inspiration for this crossword came from another puzzle I was working on that had the word "mustache" in it. That led to the word "handlebar" and then to the plural "handlebars" and I thought, "Aha!" (a favorite word with crossword constructors) — broken into two words, it becomes HANDLE BARS and I thought that would be an apt description for what a bouncer does. This led to the other three themed entries: TRADE SECRETS, PLOT POINTS, and COVER STORIES. The key was that the first part of the phrase had to be used as a noun in ordinary usage and a verb in the puzzle. I particularly like the double entries at 10 and 64 Across, even though they are not part of the puzzle's theme, and the clue for 54 down.

This article in Cornell's alumni magazine has a little more information about me.

Interpretations of common phrases as if they described a career; fun stuff. Being a former mathlete PLOT POINTS made me smile. And in my last career I had a lot of work in patents and copyrights, so seeing TRADE SECRETS repurposed in a kooky way also gave me a laugh.

Typically I'm not a fan of sectioning off parts of the grid, like the NE and SW today. I find that it often messes with grid flow, potentially stranding the solver in a tiny section with few ways of breaking in. But I like what Adam's done today — by separating those two little areas, he gives himself wide freedom to do most anything he wants in there. I like the little bonus of GIVE / AWAY and DOWN / EAST; something a little novel. Losing a little grid flow felt like a worthwhile trade-off to me.

One aspect that I found a little odd was that only one of the themers was a single word. HANDLEBARS sticks out in my mind, as TRADE SECRETS, PLOT POINTS, and COVER STORIES are all nice two-word entries. I do like how Adam made sure each resulting themer was a present tense verb plus a plural noun — that's the kind of consistency I like. If the theme concept were more constrained, that would be one thing. But it seems like there are enough phrases in this ilk that HANDLEBARS could have been something else that fit with the other three perfectly.

The grid felt fairly smooth to me, with one exception: the west, containing AMAIN, and AMANA crossing both LAHTI and ALERO. The latter three are perfectly reasonable answers, but proper names can be tricky (especially when they cross), potentially leaving the solver with a sense of malaise if he/she doesn't know both. I realize Christine LAHTI is pretty famous, and there are a lot of people who own AMANA appliances and old ALERO cars, but perhaps swapping out BANDSTANDS for something else would have produced a smoother experience for more subsets of solvers.

Entertaining Tuesday.