New York Times, Friday, December 23, 2016

This is my third puzzle in 2016, and my third Friday overall. Although I will happily return to themed puzzles when an interesting idea comes along, for now, I prefer focusing on the grids and cramming as many fun entries in as possible. Also, I learned a while back that female constructors are underrepresented on Friday and Saturday (not that we're all that well represented during the other five days of the week...), so by concentrating on themeless puzzles I'm doing what I can for the team.

As for this particular puzzle, my favorite entries are TRACTOR BEAM, CASH ADVANCE, KNOCK OVER and IMPRESS ME. I like the clue for BATCAVE, even though ‘Robin' isn't spelled correctly. And finally, I can't help but wonder if this puzzle's publication date of December 23 is in any way related to the final Across entry: SECRET SANTA.

Happy 2017 everyone!

Robin, you had me at TRACTOR BEAM. Not everyone will know what this, but those of us that do will screech HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHAT A TRACTOR BEAM IS? Probably in Klingon.

(It's a sci-fi beam using a graviton interference pattern to draw in an object. Duh.)

A lot of strong entries, highlighted by TRACTOR BEAM, CASH ADVANCE, GREEN SCREEN, and SECRET SANTA. Also nice: STARGAZER and IMPRESS ME anchoring the other two corners.

I wonder if some solvers will be offended by SECRET SANTA? It's fun for me, but it's certainly possible that it'll bring up unpleasant feelings of being outside the Christmas-focused culture in Murica.

It's tough to make your mid-length slots sing, but Robin does it in spades with BATCAVE. Not only is this a fantastic entry in itself, but the clue is so innocent. [Robin's refuge] surely means AVIARY? Not when the clue hides the capitalized R of Robin, Batman's sidekick. Awesome!

For me, the black square layout would have been a non-starter. That diagonal across the middle cuts the puzzle in two, only a single word connecting the halves on each end. Some constructors use a rule of thumb that if placing a pair of black squares anywhere results in two disconnected puzzle halves, that's a no-go.

For me, much more important is: how many answers connect the halves? If the black square above BETSY was turned into a white square, that would have allowed for a pair of answers to connect the halves at both top and bottom. Right now, if you can't figure out CBATTERY or NOSTRILS, that wall of black squares might as well be the Berlin wall.

Robyn uses such great entries — last time it was MIRACLE MAX and JEDI MASTER — right on my wavelength. Like the last one, there's too much crossword glue in this puzzle for my taste — ENE, MST, RELET, HRE, ACTA, SITA — making it feel rough around the edges, but I have a strong feeling that soon, Robin will be turning out themelesses that have the same sizzle without these crutches. The Force is strong with this one!