New York Times, Monday, February 20, 2017

ED: This is the fifth puzzle I and Paula Gamache have collaborated on successfully — and the second puzzle created for a special day of the year: this one, Presidents Day — and April Fools' Day. If you want to construct a puzzle with a "holiday" theme, better make sure it's never been done before.

Our concept was "presidential trivia" where we'd start each theme clue with "the only president that…" Paula checked years of Presidents Day puzzles. We had a shot.

Next task: gathering pairs of presidents according to numbers of letters in their last name. And then how many could be jammed symmetrically into a 15X puzzle grid. We were able to squeeze eight presidential names — or four pairs — into that one puzzle with the fill holding it all together.

The theme clues had to be biographical nuggets, unique and interesting, so that the solver didn't know them right away. Not like "the only president with a 9' x 4' bathtub in the White House." TAFT. (Too easy.) Or "the only president to lose his wife and his mother on the same day." T. ROOSEVELT (Too grim.) Each, we felt, should be an interesting little fact, that the solver might say, "Gee, I didn't know that."

Also, just because you have a viable theme for your puzzle, don't take the fill for granted. The fill answers have to be a good complement to the rest of the puzzle and not be boring or trite.

Our puzzle didn't get accepted the first submission. We ended up submitting more presidential clues (back to the history books) and a whole new fill before it was accepted.

Unless you're dead, never say die.

President's Day extravaganza, featuring eight POTUSes and interesting trivia. I had heard some before, like BUCHANAN the lifelong bachelor, and TAFT who went on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. And I think we've all heard enough about OBAMA's birthplace.

But there were a few good ones in there, especially ROOSEVELT climbing the Matterhorn. Appropriate for the Rough Rider!

It took me a while to read the long FORD clue, but I liked that one a lot. (He became VP when Agnew resigned, and then President when Nixon stepped down.)

And HARRISON's grandfather was also President? Yes — William Henry Harrison. I suppose the clue could have been written for the latter or the former.

On that note, I would have liked something pulling all the trivia together. The tidbits were interesting, but as a whole, it felt scattershot. Each and every POTUS has something quirky about him or his Presidency, so focusing the trivia around hobbies, political careers, families, etc. would have been great.

Although none of the themers are long, check out how many there are (highlighted below). Such high theme density almost always makes for a tough grid making challenge. Ed and Paula wisely spend many of their black squares in the middle, separating HARRISON / OBAMA / TYLER / BUCHANAN, and the results in the center are smooth.

But without many other black squares to deploy, they're forced to work with relatively big swaths of white in the corners. Some entries like INTERIM and STATION are good, and I like OZONE HOLE and MACADAMIA (yum!). But ORGANDY, TRALEE, WYNN, SMEW, make for more aggregated toughness than I think a Monday puzzle ought to have.

And the south suffers in terms of short fill, with ATIE, ADDN, LTD, LLCS. Those last two are fine, in common business usage, but as a whole, that little south section felt heavy with crossword glue, especially also considering SMEW and CLEO (do people really call Cleopatra that?).

Some trivia I'm glad I learned, but it would have been nice to get an organizing principle to rationalize why these eight Presidents were chosen.

Note to self: OBAMA at 44-Across — POTUSes at their appropriate number — would have been cool!