New York Times, Thursday, October 21, 2021

I hope you enjoyed this one. This was my first attempt at making something tricky, and I liked this particular idea because it allowed for colorful theme phrases that would be too long for a 15x15 grid if presented straightforwardly.

The major constraint was that I didn't want to use more than one phrase in which UNDER is followed by THE, and there are a whole bunch of those and not many others. I'm sure I missed some, but I found only four non-THE options that I really liked (COURAGE UNDER FIRE was the fourth, but I didn't use it because it's just basically the opposite of CRACK UNDER PRESSURE).

From there, symmetry dictated that I go with DRINK UNDER THE TABLE instead of WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE, FLY UNDER THE RADAR, SWEEP UNDER THE RUG, THROW UNDER THE BUS, HOT UNDER THE COLLAR, etc. DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS could have worked, but I think this theme type works better without proper nouns.

Regarding 17-Across, I am obligated to inform you that the 1986 BMX classic(?) Rad—my honest-to-god favorite movie of all time—is now streaming on PRIME VIDEO.

X UNDER Y phrases, expressed literally as YX. I like the vertical nature of the themers; so appropriate for this concept. Four fantastic phrases, too: LIVING (UNDER) A ROCK, CRACK (UNDER) PRESSURE, DRINK (UNDER) THE TABLE, and TESTIFY (UNDER) OATH.

Vertically-oriented themers can be difficult to build around — specifically, it's challenging to make the grid shine with sparkly bonuses. Many editors won't allow long Across bonuses in a puzzle like this, because they muddle what is theme and not. Great decision today to go hog-wild with POTHOLDER, PRIME VIDEO, OK CORRAL, PARKOUR, PINKY TOE, GO FOR A WALK, BOOTY CALL all horizontally flashy. I'll gladly accept a bit of EFTS SYST GBS as a small price to pay.

Quantity/quality of bonuses is essential when considering veteran solvers who have seen literalism themes dozens of times over the years. Even if you've encountered THE TABLE DRINK before, at least there's a wealth of rich bonuses to uncover.

I'd have preferred some extra layer to elevate this concept — perhaps linking the four themers by subject matter? Making a story out of them? There are dozens of X UNDER Y phrases out there, so there's enormous room for brainstorming a way to make this stand out from the pack. Great effort to inject spiciness into the solve, though.