MEASURE FOR MEASURE

Victor Barocas is a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Minnesota. He is married with two teenage children. He says that crossword constructing "reminds me of the research I do for my day job because I'm trying to do something that I don't know is possible. The constraints that my idea places on the puzzle may be too much. That uncertainty is somehow gratifying."

This puzzle, whose many circled letters appear in words across, down and diagonally (not easy to do!), must have been especially satisfying to create.

The triple-checked letters make for a fair amount of work to get everything to fit, especially with fairly long words as in here. That resulted in some sacrifices (TELIC next to ERENOW, for example), but, on the whole, I thought that it came out reasonably well.

The northeast section (around and including CELSIUS) was the worst part, with several failed attempts. The original version that I submitted had DESECRATE at 12-Down and RADIO DIAL / EVACUATES at 40- and 41-Down, but that led to too much bad fill around it.

After Will and company sent it back, I also explored versions with NO SECRETS / ANTIDOTAL / THE TUDORS and CASH CROPS / ARTISANAL / THE TUDORS, but the MOSS CRABS / ANTIPAPAL / THE TUDORS version won out in the end because it gave the best fill around it and both MOSS CRABS and ANTIPAPAL, although not in most people's normal vocabulary, are guessable with some crosses.

THE TUDORS was critical - it had the right structure, used the forced U and put a T before it, so there was lots of maneuvering room with ????IT at 57-A, and was a nice entry.

Harold and Maude is among my favorite movies, so a chance to get Bud CORT into the puzzle at 71-D was a plus; Harold and Maude is not for everyone, but there's a lot to like about it.

Finally, I hope that people enjoyed solving the puzzle as much as I enjoyed making it.

Four measurements, literally ON A SLIDING SCALE. Reminded me of a recent puzzle playing on OBLIQUE REFERENCEs.

It's nice that the scale intersects the measurement, i.e., MOHS coming off the M of MINERAL HARDNESS. That's much better than if there had simply been a bunch of diagonal scale names.

While the idea of intersecting a diagonal scale with its measurement is decent, it's not Sunday material. A 21x21 grid is so big that a theme needs to hold a solver's interest for an extended time. Here, once you discover one pair, what's left?

Sometimes I wonder if it's possible to perform a rescue by making the rest of the puzzle essentially a themeless, injecting so much color and snazz that a solver can't help but be wowed. I heard some kudos about Patrick Berry's Sunday themeless, after all.

Today, we get SAN SIMEON, THE TUDORS, POTLUCKS, SPOILERS, SUNKIST, that's all pretty good. Not nearly enough to qualify as a themeless-grade solving experience, though.

And oh, the crossword glue. That's going to happen when diagonal entries come off themers; so hard to work around. I was impressed through the top half — TELESTO and OTIOSE are tough, and ESS isn't good — but that's solid work around a diagonal themer.

Everything was copacetic … until I hit the west region. RSTU ought to be a puzzle-killer, and to leave that region with ENOL CORT RTE and RETHREW? It's a sad result of two tough factors smashing into each other: the inherent difficulty of a 140-word grid, and the inflexibility of diagonal theme answers.

Victor did an admirable construction job, considering the crazy constraints. But bending at least one of the limitations — maybe going up to 144 words — would have resulted in a better overall solving experience.

I hope Will and Joel listen to my pleas to turn around the flagship of the NYT crossword. I was first attracted to the NYT crossword because of so many brilliant Sunday puzzles. My 10+ years of solving experience has probably jaded me, but I think many factors came together to create a shortage of great 21x21s.

To better draw in more creative ideas, changes must happen. More money is great, don't get me wrong! I'm grateful to Will for increasing rates — astronomically, at that. But I'd be actively reaching out to specific constructors, asking for theme queries. Otherwise, it'll be more of the same, passively sifting through a (very) limited pool of Sunday submissions.