New York Times, Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Classically, I think of going Dutch as going 50/50 on a bill. In an ideal world the long theme answers would be phrases that split famous Bills' last names evenly. Unfortunately, finding enough Bills with even-numbered last names that split nicely into interesting phrases proved surprisingly difficult.

Wikipedia defines going Dutch as "each person participating in a group activity pays for themselves"—so with that definition in mind, I think this theme still holds up, as long as you imagine that you just ordered salad while your date got two pre-meal cocktails and the lobster but oh-so-conveniently hasn't responded to your Venmo request yet.

Emily SPLITs THE BILL today, using themers with famous Bills at their ends. Fun to get Bill GATES at the ends of GUESSTIMATES, a fun word. (In my engineering days, we'd use that term in front of clients. In private, we'd use WAGs = wild-ass guesses.) Bill HADER was only vaguely familiar, but it only took a quick Googling to refresh my memory of who he is. Some nice finds.

WALL STREET CRASH … I grew up a Niners fan, so I enjoyed seeing Bill WALSH featured. But as a finance guy in a previous career, I didn't care for the reminder of 2008. Too soon!

This is a perfect example of why constructors call 12-letter themers an "awkward length." Typically, a revealer is placed in row 13 of a puzzle, which helps to maximize spacing between all the themers. But that's basically impossible with a 12-letter revealer. If you move SPLIT THE BILL down one row, those black squares on the left of it form two-letter words below. No bueno! It is possible to do this if you make your grid 16 letters wide, but that's a solution that comes with its own challenges.

What's the big deal, row 13 vs. row 12? It's a huge deal! Look at what it forces, just a single row of space separating pairs of themers. Big-time no bueno! It means that you'll have a difficult section in the west (ALERO / PLEX / ALEE), in the east (ADEAR / AEREO, in the middle-top (TIO / oddly spelled out AT AND T), in the middle-bottom (HOC / ETH). So many places of inflexibility mean there's bound to be crossword glue required.

It's possible to swap HOME INVADER and MARX BROTHER, and it's also possible to start GUESSTIMATES to the right side of the puzzle instead of the left. But that's only a few options to try out = very little flexibility.

A couple of nice bonuses in PORSCHES, CAR SEATS, and MAPLE LEAF = DYNAMITE! Much appreciated. I especially liked Emily's effort to include MAPLE LEAF and CANAVERAL, as those across bonuses are typically tough to work in. She did well filling those upper right and lower left corners smoothly.

And love it when a constructor has a sense of humor — sounds like there's a painfully amusing story behind that bad date, Emily!