New York Times, Thursday, November 27, 2014

Thanks to this site, I see that this my fourth Times puzzle this year, the most for me since the five I had in Will's first full year as editor (1994). Having reread my previous author's notes of this year, I'm going to attempt to cover new elucidative ground with the following.

The "thank you very much" in different languages was in my Theme Idea Book for a while. What I thought might make it suitable for the Times was the lucky three-way theme answer intersection. For you Times Crossword History buffs, this "H-on-its side" is a theme configuration much favored by an eminent Times constructor of the past, Jack Luzzatto, who created many wide-open patterns of this sort.

So, totally unlike my last Times puzzle, where I closed off the grid to the max for easiness sake, I wanted to open up the grid as much as possible here to allow for many longer words, and managed to get the answer count down to 72, without having to resort to any obscurity/crosswordese compromises.

As for the cluing, not unlike acting, it really is more fun "playing the villain" and being mean-but-fair/accurate wherever it works. The three "Thanksgiving phrase" theme clues were obviously supposed to be of no help without quite a few crossing words. My two other favorite mean clues: The "music masquerading as cardiology" for PRESTO (15 Across), and "multi-keyword diversion" of "Counter with a sharp edge" for RETORT (42 Down). The seed for the RETORT clue was the word "counters" in its Random House Unabridged definition.

The nuanced approach I aim for with my tough factual clues is: a fact you probably don't specifically know, but with enough context to put you on the right track toward the answer. Which, when you get it, will make complete sense based on "general knowledge" only, which most people can be reasonably expected to know. Such as: the POTOMAC River (34 Down) meeting the Shenandoah at Harper's Ferry, Jean AUEL (49 Down) writing about Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals, and the admittedly not well-known Grand Duchess OLGA (23 Across), eldest daughter of Czar Nicholas II, though eminently inferable as a female Russian name from "Anastasia" in the clue. A factual morsel that couldn't fit into the puzzle: JUDGE JUDY (31 Across) is 2014's highest paid TV star by far ($40+ million) because her show is syndicated and she gets paid for each station that runs it. And of course, because of the high ratings her show receives.

Finally, to paraphrase Will himself in a post he made to xwordinfo earlier this year, there are many editorial approaches to crossword constructing that are suitable for the Times. I'm glad Will finds mine appropriate enough to have put it before you four times in 2014.

Nice little trick today, using the holiday to create misdirection. "Thanksgiving phrase" has nothing to do with the Thanksgiving holiday, but instead refers to "giving thanks." Appropriate for the day, and a fun twist of wordplay.

I had no idea JUDGE JUDY was the highest-paid person on TV in 2014 — not sure whether to applaud her for the empire she's built, or groan for what this says about America. That's a really cool piece of trivia, one I enjoyed learning and which will stick with me.

Stan's Saturday Stumpers in Newsday are regarded by some to be the most difficult puzzle of the week, and I'd have to agree, rarely (if ever) finishing one (even the one I wrote!). Often he uses oblique clues, single-word clues chosen for their ability to accurately describe roughly half the words in the English dictionary, shenanigans relating to dictionary definition #86, and SAT words to up the difficulty level to 11 and beyond. As a solver, it's usually not my favorite type of puzzle, in that it sometimes feels to me more like a homework assignment than a diversion.

But I can understand people loving that type of uber-challenge. And I definitely got a strong sense of satisfaction when I finished today's puzzle; that I was able to actually complete what felt like an incredibly difficult Thursday puzzle felt like a big win. Finally piecing together things like PARE from [Take a coat off] gave me a huge sigh of relief.

Interesting layout today. I usually like interlock, and it is pretty neat that Stan found three themers that connect so neatly. It's so unfortunate that the 13s in rows 3 and 13 require those unsightly triplets of black squares in each corner. Twelve extra black squares introduced into a single puzzle ... I would personally have preferred a straightforward 13/11/13 layout, which might also have opened up the grid for more colorful 8+ letter fill. Subjective matter — there will probably be some out there who think the black squares border the grid nicely.

Finally, I absolutely loved the clue for RETORT, most solvers thinking about a kitchen counter first because "sharp edges" usually refer to physical objects. Use the "comeback" definition of "counter" and you have a brilliant clue. That's the type of dictionary shenanigans that personally does it for me.