New York Times, Tuesday, April 23, 2019

One of Amanda's friends frequently posts silly, punny riddles such as "If April showers bring May flowers, then what do Mayflowers bring?" HOME OWNER was the answer to one such riddle (though the actual riddle has since been forgotten) and became the seed entry for this puzzle.

TWO OF A KIND and THIS SIDE UP were found pretty quickly, but we struggled to get that last entry. CHOO CHOO TRAIN was a contender but it didn't seem like owls were really pets outside of the Harry Potter books. And ZOINKS seemed a bit too short. TATTOO INK saves the day!

DANDRUFF and SPURRED ON were among the others we thought about, though they didn't span a couple of words. The Beach Boys have such great music - PET SOUNDS immediately jumped to mind as the revealer. Our original clue for 3-Down paid homage to the hamsterdance song of our college years, but the new clue is a lot more fun. Thanks as always to the editorial team!

PET SOUNDS indeed, common household pets making themselves heard today. Amanda and Karl found four solid words-hidden-in-phrases, TATTOO INK my favorite. Great discovery.

Probably not a lot of solvers will notice this, but it was elegant that Amanda and Karl picked four PET SOUNDS that were all four letters apiece. There's no rule that says this is important or even desirable, but it pleases my constructor's eye to see the consistency.

It could have been that it's tough to find a longer sound hidden within a phrase — try it with SQUEAK or CHIRP or (what do hamsters sound like?) — but still, all-four-letter-sounds was a nice touch.

I would have liked some rationale for why the sounds were hidden in phrases — at least, more than just "that's a good way to insert them into a crossword." It does work, but it's not as fist-pumpy as if there were some spot-on revealer like PET SOUNDS IN THE MIDDLE.

The gridwork … not my favorite of Amanda and Karl's products. ACRO SOTO TES XERS LARAS MUFTI clumped up, leaving me with a sense of inelegance. A shame, as the themers were interesting enough to warrant some POW! consideration.

Tough layout, what with the central TATTOO INK forcing big corners. Then you have the ??F?I pattern forcing MUFTI and then ROTI. Both of those are generally fine, but not desirable in early-week puzzles — especially crossing each other. I'd have tried moving TWO OF A KIND and THIS SIDE UP each one row away from the center, which might have helped with better spacing.

But some nice bonuses in FACE PAINT, KING TUT, HAMSTER (which muddied the theme a bit, but not so much as to be distracting) to liven up the solve.