New York Times, Friday, May 14, 2021

With this puzzle, I wanted to try out a new themeless layout that allowed for some 13-letter entries. I started with this grid layout and one seed: ALLSYSTEMSGO. I quickly discovered that I was onto something when I dropped NOTUPTOSNUFF into 21 Down, and then it was pretty smooth sailing from there. I hope you all enjoy the end result! Thanks as always to the editing team for sprucing up some of my clues and also for keeping my favorite one of mine ([Leftovers from a doughnut, say] for TIREMARKS).

PS: if you're a POC or are from an underrepresented group in crosswords and you have an interest in dipping your toes into construction, I would love to do what I can to help you get started! Whether it's discussing theme ideas, trading tips on grid construction, or collaborating on a puzzle, I would love to chat! You can DM me on Twitter @yacobyo or hit me up on Facebook.

Now, this is how you execute on a 70-word themeless! The competition is so fierce in the themeless space these days that a 72- or 70-word grid must explode with sparkly color and be immaculate. Yacob hit on both marks.

Check out his conversion rate of long slots: 14 entries of 8+ letters and only one (STRESSORS) is more neutral than an asset. Such awesome marquee entries — AU CONTRAIRE, NOT UP TO SNUFF, and fittingly, ALL SYSTEMS GO. So evocative; the solver in me would enjoy the puzzle on the merit of that trio alone.

Yacob appealed to my technical side, too, with his unusual layout that interconnects so many long entries. I appreciate how he made it feel like I was experiencing great TRAIL MIXES, TEASER ADS, SEA TURTLE, NOT UP TO SNUFF, BRUTE FORCE moments without pause.

That last one could have been tricky to clue, given these times, so I appreciated it referring to cracking a code. Because my coding skill is so basic, I've employed much BRUTE FORCE in my Python programming.

(Talk about STRESSORS, says my poor computer.)

I enjoyed the cluing, too: if you'd asked me which U.S. city has the largest Basque community outside Spain, BOISE would not be in my first 100 guesses. What a neat piece of trivia that spurred me on to learn something new.

I should explain the cleverness behind the TIRE MARKS clue — doing doughnuts is different from eating doughnuts. I enjoyed the clue, but it'd be hard to appreciate if you'd never heard this usage.

Interesting clue for CTRL. I was aware that SZA was a celebrity, and I was worried that the album title would be some insider thing that would flummox this pop culture idiot. I was relieved that it turned out to be a familiar set of four letters I use all the time, and it made me want to read up on her. My inner nerd loves that album cover!

Fantastic puzzle. I give preference to great themes since they're incredibly difficult to think up, but on most weeks, this would have gotten the POW!