New York Times, Thursday, November 23, 2017

Hello solvers, hope that this one wasn't too rough on you. All comments on my puzzles are welcomed, in any forum that you choose.

The phrase "halftime show" combined with "60 minutes" was the seed for this puzzle; it took much longer to decide upon the actual theme, combining a mathematical multiplication/division with some form or reference to a creative work.

Bonus note: I did initially seek a "quarter" clue instead of "fourth", but I could not really find an appropriate "quarter" phrase that met the full theme.

Someone may likely find a perfect fit for this, but in the end I decided that "fourth estate" was the best and most cluable option, if slightly inelegant for "one-fourth".

Mathplay! Some beautiful finds, like [Double feature?] interpreted as "double the number in a feature film," turning "Three Amigos" into SIX AMIGOS. And [Halftime show] as "halve the time in a show," creating THIRTY MINUTES out of "60 Minutes." THIRTY MINUTES would be much more appropriate for us short-attention span people LOOK, SOMETHING SHINY!

Ahem. I was proud of myself for getting RICHARD … something. IX? IV? Okay fine, I didn't read "Richard II" when I was supposed to.

What, it's "Richard III"?

I knew that.

It took me a while to figure out THE JACKSON ONE. What's a "fifth act," I wondered? The … fifth act of a play? Is it like a third wheel, in that final act of a play that JUST WON'T END?

Maybe "Richard II"?

But that "fifth act" business was the only one that didn't play on a common, in-the-language phrase, so some good finds overall.

Okay, I was still confused on [Fourth estate?] hours after solving. Did that mean … fourth in a series of estates? Is there something called "Zero Oaks," so THREE OAKS is the 4^th, using zero-based indexing? (Man, I'm a nerd.) Or take one-fourth of something called "Twelve Oaks"? Huh.

Ah, right. There's something called "Twelve Oaks" in "Gone with the Wind." Huh.

I didn't notice until the very end that Howard formed a sequence with his themers! Well. Kinda. Sorta. If you squint. It's 1/2, x2, x3, 1/4, 1/5.

*squinting harder*

Oh, 13-letter themers, you pains in constructors' patooties. Notice how Howard had to put the first and last themers in rows 4 / 12 instead of the usual 3 / 13? Crunches things up, but good! And with that central 9 splitting the puzzle in half, forcing big corners … oof, that's so tough to construct around. It's no wonder there's a bunch of OCTO, HEA, ANET, AMAS, ESE, etc.

Too much crossword glue to feel like an elegant product, but I can understand the decision to achieve the sequence(ish) of themers, which forces a terribly difficult arrangement of themers. I might have chosen to go more randomly, thus opening up more themer possibilities, especially with the movie and the play. And maybe dropping THREE OAKS.

Overall, a bit kooky with some blips in most aspects of puzzle design, but an interesting idea that made me think.