New York Times, Saturday, February 1, 2020

When I solved this puzzle earlier this week, roughly a year after its creation, it felt like it flowed nicely from start to finish — probably because there are only a couple of minor pinch-points in the overall grid design. And, amazingly, almost every submitted clue of mine made it into the published version. This wildly bolstered my usual plodding solving pace. Will and the editing crew typically throw in many more of their own twists and turns that wreak havoc with my solve time. Enjoy the rest of your Super Bowl weekend!

What a fantastic grid-spanning feature entry in DIDN'T GET THE MEMO! That's the kind of phrase that'll stick in my head.

It can be hard to build around a central grid-spanning entry; certain letters fixed into place, wreaking havoc on flexibility. I was impressed with many of the long entries Mark managed to cross through, DIY PROJECT (do-it-yourself) such a colorful phrase. IF STATEMENT is great, too, at least for us computer dorks. If you're a hater / Luddite, at least it's figure-out-able.

Well done with PICKLE JAR, too, making great use of a long slot parallel to DIDN'T GET THE MEMO. Typically, constructors would break this slot up to reduce the sheer area of the white space, but Mark has never been one to shrink from a challenge. PICKLE JAR is not only a fine entry on its own, but that delightful clue! Think about spears, as in dill pickle spears …

Not all of those long entries sang to me, though. ANGLE PARKING felt more askew than "diagonal" (although the Goog says both are fine), CORN TASSELS now makes sense but only after more Googling, ALTERNATE DAY feels a bit arbitrary, and RAN ARMS didn't hit me right at first. I ended up deciding that each was a fine entry, but all of them together caused a collective pause.

Some solvers will be sending me angry emails that POKER isn't part of the World Series! You idiot, don't you even know the difference between a sport and a game? POKER players (and those of us who used to watch way too much ESPN) know that the big events are called the "World Series of Poker." It's a nice cluing idea that might, unfortunately, get lost on the average solver.

I like Mark's efforts to push boundaries of what's possible. Not everything works as well as standard 70- or 72-word themelesses, but reaching for the stars is a good thing for the art form.