New York Times, Saturday, October 16, 2021

A perfect Saturday crossword.

72 words is the max allowable for a themeless, so the bar is sky high. Not only do you have to maximize every long slot and use near-zero dabs of crossword glue, but these days, there's another requirement: your short entries can't be boring. Will Shortz gets so many themeless submissions that he can shrug at entries like ERA AREA ARENA. Maybe this seems arbitrary, but it's hard to produce anything interesting for these words now — interesting both for him and for solvers. Caitlin and Erik hit all these marks.

Where this puzzle absolutely dazzles is in clever cluing. Roughly five great ones and I'm impressed, but I tallied nine today. Even better, they came from a wide assortment of categories:

• Question Mark Fun. Clearly, something tricksy is going on with [Undesirable bedmates?]. Doesn't stop the fun of talking about WEEDS in flower beds.
• Innocent Misdirection. Repurposing "blowing off steam" to describe a VOLCANO is Einsteinian.
• Punnery. I'd never think of turning Watergate into "water gait" or linking it to WADE.
• Figure-out-able Trivia. "Four-letter countries" is a common trivia category, and if you remember French colonization in West Africa, TOGO pops out.
• Colloquial. NO SPOILERS is such a zingy phrase. "Wait, wait, don't tell me!" is even better.
• Enticing. Someone with an awesome catchphrase, IT'S HANDLED? Now I can't wait to find out who Olivia Pope is!

On that note, I need to issue an apology to Kameron Austin Collins, as well as other solvers out there who love names in grids. Years ago, I got turned off when OLIVIA POPE caused me to finish with an error. There are many solvers who write to me that they hate names in grids — whether or not they're fairly crossed. I ignorantly assumed that this was the vast majority of solvers. Now I realize there's a segment, notably of younger folks, who strongly disagree.

I still don't love name-heavy grids, preferring pure fun and diversion in my crosswording. And from a results-driven perspective (if that's one of your goals), today's approach finally got me to read up on Olivia Pope — with high interest, at that.

When a name-heavy grid comes up, I try to keep Erik's editorial philosophy in mind: "this one might not be aimed at you, but maybe tomorrow's will be." I'll continue to make mistakes and say ignorant things, but I'll strive to keep listening and learning.

Anyway, I wish I had the skill to make a puzzle half this outstanding. Perhaps my favorite of 2021.

P.S. CONEY refers to the CONEY dog. Megatoad for the win!