New York Times, Thursday, February 9, 2017

This puzzle owes its existence to my best mate, an Englishman from Nottingham. I get a big kick out of unnecessarily translating/annotating what he says in front of other people. ("Oh, guys, 'knackered' means 'super tired.' Isn't that weird? He's from England.")

I wrote this puzzle, along with the first 20 or so that I sent out for consideration my puzzle editors, by hand. It was during the editorial process that I learned that constructors tend to use software to help with fill. The exchange went something like:

Me: They want edits. I can't look at this puzzle anymore.

Puzzle mentor: Will's right - you need to iron out the fill.

Me: *gurgle*

Puzzle mentor: What word list are you using? Are you running CrossFire?

Me: Uh... yeah. Crossed fire. *googles CrossFire*

Puzzle mentor: Ross? Ross?

Me: *gurgle*

After a semi-concussive facepalm, I chose to look back on my countless pencil-and-paper hours as a rite of passage. And I especially dig that BREXIT found a home in the fill. It is my great privilege to be able to honor my best mate — an immigrant and a good man — in these fraught days.

Debut! Ross contacted me about another puzzle a few weeks ago, asking for some rework advice. Neat to hear that Will accepted it shortly after.

I liked the idea, symmetrically placed terms for the same thing in America vs. England. I've highlighted them below, as I found them difficult to keep straight. Nice to have ATLANTIC OCEAN down the middle, dividing the puzzle just like it separates the US and Britain in real life.

This is a grid screaming for mirror (or left-right) symmetry — it would have made it so much easier to visualize the theme. It would have also elicited a mirror-world sci-fi analogy for us ubergeeks, one where when you look in the mirror, things are identical … except in very subtle ways.

I usually think MATHS is amusing, but in this case, it muddies the theme. Fun that QUEUEING is LINING UP, KNACKERED is EXHAUSTED, but MATHS is … MATH. According to the theme, MATH should be where ABASE is. Inelegant.

I also thought it was odd to have the American terms on the right-hand side, and the British on the left. Why not the other way around, to reflect real-world geography?

I enjoyed many of the bonuses, DEER HIDES and GO VIRAL in particular. I'm mixed on ALITERATE, which my stupid spell check keeps changing to ILLITERATE. The former has dictionary support, but I can't imagine using this word except in some sort of party trick.

Tough to work around so many theme entries, even if they are shortish. Ross does pretty well, minor ICI, RAH, ATUG. I WON, I HEAR, I CARE are all fine, but in aggregate they seem awfully repetitive.

The only real trouble spots came in the NE / SW, no surprise given their big sizes and constraints. I would have deployed more black squares in these sections to avoid the randomish E TRAIN and ... AFLERS. That last one is tough to swallow.

But overall, nice idea, with ATLANTIC OCEAN placed perfectly.