New York Times, Tuesday, February 23, 2021

I'm thrilled to have another puzzle in The New York Times, and less than two weeks after my last one to boot.

My favorite clues that I wrote: 39 Down and 40 Down.

My favorite clue from the editorial team: 11 Down.

My favorite NYTimes debut answer: 57 Across (I mean...).

My favorite rendition of the national anthem of the United States: see 14 Across.

My family finds it hilarious that this particular puzzle has found a home with The New York Times. I hope you're not too grown-up to enjoy it.

A dose of POTTY MOUTH wordplay today, THRONE, HEAD, JOHN, LOO, disguised at the end of themers. I used to find potty humor so much funnier before the realities of having kids smacked me with its poopy stink. Still, I appreciated how well Kate hid these terms, employing non-bathroom-related meanings.

It's a funny image, Jon Snow sitting on the IRON THRONE, taking care of business...

"Taking care of business" is what I tell my kids when I need to get my book and spend 30 minutes sitting on the—

Oh, you're grossed out already. Right.

I also appreciated that Kate found a fairly tight set. I thought of CAN and LAV, but what else? It's impossible to disguise LAV as anything else, so besides something like CATCH AS CATCH CAN, it'd be tough to add anything else into this theme set.

A central 9 (ELTON JOHN) creates four big corners chock full of 7s, and I generally like what Kate did with those regions. PHONICS / SCEPTER, talk about BONUSES! OCTOPUS / KARAOKE / CLATTER is great too. I typically do everything in my power to avoid SSR since it's a tough initialism, especially for younger generations far away from USSR, but I don't mind OKC UKE SER as much. If we're expected to know ETRE, SER should be fair game.

However, much of this assessment is subjective. These short gluey entries all called out on editors' spec sheets, yes, but which ones are better or worse varies widely from editor to editor.

The thing I liked best about this puzzle is the reminder that I'm out of the potty training phase, and soon, I'll be back to full potty humor enjoyment. Yesterday, I had quite the struggle with a toilet plunger and one of my kids who refuses to eat fiber, but someday, this will all be behind (rimshot) me.