New York Times, Thursday, April 29, 2021

Until 2020, the only way to submit a puzzle to the Times was through the good old US Postal Service. I always liked submitting that way — it made me feel super cool to write "Will Shortz" on the envelope.

Only problem is, if you read the submission guidelines carefully, you'll realize you're not actually supposed to write "Will Shortz." You're supposed to write "Will Shortz, Crossword Editor." Which seems like a small difference... except I'm writing this envelope by hand, and I've already centered "Will Shortz" on the page. So now here I am having to cram "Crossword Editor" in increasingly tiny print off to the right as I hopelessly careen toward the margin, ultimately rendering the last few letters of "editor" so absurdly small that you'd need an electron microscope to decipher them.

I'm not sure what about this typesetting blunder screamed "crossword theme," but something tickled me about the idea of having to cram a bunch of letters into a rebus square at the end of a row because I couldn't adequately predict how much space I needed to fit a theme answer. And something tickled me even more about the futility of it being a haiku, as if writing a word small enough would somehow make it not count toward the poem's syllable limits.

Ultimately, I'm really proud of this one. I feel like there's a lot of "me" in it. Hope you enjoyed!

Few other things:

• It's odd how many pet-related bits of wordplay I included both in this grid and my previous one, considering I've never had a pet. I'm going to have to talk to my therapist about this.
• I hope you agree I was able to save PINE SAP and LPS with fun clues!
• Thanks to Joel and the whole editorial team, especially for the clue goodness on BUSES, and for the fun interplay at 62/63A.

I can't remember struggling to solve a Thursday this much in years. Quote puzzles usually ease up on the Down clues because you essentially can't use the Across entries. Not today. I absolutely love the clue for BUSES, "certain ways to work," misdirecting toward collaboration styles. It was harder to appreciate than usual, though, since I was so badly stuck trying to uncover the first line of the poem.

Fun concept, playing with the HAIKU form of 5-7-5 syllables. I didn't get why the extra syllable of LONG was squeezed into a rebus square, though. Seemed like the gag would have worked just as well if it hadn't been rebusized. Maybe that would have allowed for a more elegant Haiku presentation of three lines? It'd be hard to pack seven syllables into 15 or 16 letters, but it's not like there are many other constraints in a Haiku.

There was so much to love in the grid, great use of mid-length slots: OR WORSE, HUMOR ME, COME NOW, OBSCENE, AP SCORE, and especially PIEHOLE. What a wealth of riches! I don't mind a bit of RHYE, tricky KURTZ crossing UTZ, ERLE, etc., for that payoff.

Love the clue for OWLS, too. Excellent appropriation of the phrase "head-turner."

However, it was tough for me to fully appreciate all the great aspects of Adam's grid when the solve was so off-the-charts difficult. Along with not having a great rationale for a rebus square, it all didn't resonate. A simpler presentation might have been more effective, perhaps a paradoxical haiku?

Jim Horne made me spit take with laughter with the ones he mentions below.

Today's crossword reminds me of a favorite, not haiku, but poem anyway:

There was a young girl from Japan
Whose limericks never would scan.
When someone asked why
She replied with a sigh,
"It's because I always try to fit as many syllables into the last line as I possibly can."

There's a companion poem that goes like this:

That girl had an intimate friend
Whose limericks came to an end
Suddenly.