New York Times, Friday, May 24, 2019

This is my 24th New York Times crossword. It has been 983 days since my 23^rd. My first was 35 years and 19 days ago. You see, I can't help counting things, and looking for chronological milestones. So you ought to be able to deduce how today's puzzle came about.

Early this year, I discovered that the bicentennial of Queen Victoria's birth was coming up and that it would fall on a Friday. That cried out to me for a Times themeless with QUEEN VICTORIA in the center. So with Will's approval, and a couple of revisions, both to "lively it up" and remove the unfortunate dupe of MEXICANS and TEXMEX (now TEXTED at 40 Across), today's grid was born.

My cluing was intended to be top-to-bottom tough, endeavoring to have as many never-before-seen clues as possible, with as much wordplay meanness as possible. Will did ease up on the overall difficulty but kept my favorites, including the double-twist "Opening of an account" for AS I RECALL (63 Across), "Grp. that no one under 30 can join" for U.S. SENATE (36 Down), "Priciest 1952 Topps baseball card" for MANTLE (27 Down) and the rather long and weird "Fictional land named in some real-life international law cases" for RURITANIA (60 Across)—which avoided the usual citing of "The Prisoner of Zenda".

In the memorable words of the eminent American philosopher Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.

But wait, one more thing. My snooping around 1819 a few months ago turned up another very famous person born exactly one week after the Grandmother of Europe. I think it rather unlikely that next Friday's Times puzzle will mention him, but whether it does or not, you'll be able to find him quickly enough with a Web search.

QUEEN VICTORIA's 200^th birthday! An excellent feature entry to build around, and so nice to catch the bicentennial. Can you imagine people naming an entire (Victorian) era after you? Unfortunately, "Chennian" doesn't have the same ring to it.

Stan's "Saturday Stumper" puzzle in "Newsday" is often the hardest puzzle of the week, of any publication, bar none. It's great for the top of the tip-top solvers who want a devilish challenge. I gave it up a while back because I averaged approximately zero point zero zero letters filled in.

Today's puzzle had a stumper-ish vibe: not many playful clues, and a ton of difficult (to the difficult power) ones. Even the one delightful clue, [London or Manchester] for WRITER made me stop and think. Jack LONDON, yes, but MANCHESTER? That's ... William MANCHESTER, who confusingly was an American? It's clever, but it would have a bigger impact on someone more well-read than me.

TIX are [Passes, informally]? Yes, when they're passes to the movies. [Tool used on foot] is an EDGER? I suppose so, although I've used them while sitting down, too. Why so specific about using them on foot?

Satan is the DEUCE?

Yikes! This is supposed to be the easier of the themelesses, Fri vs. Sat. I bet it's tough for Stan (you ever notice how Stan and Satan only differ by one letter, hmm?) to make things easier when he's so used to aiming for harder than diamonds.

I liked some of the other feature entries, like SLAPDASH, OPEN BAR, LEND AN EAR, US SENATE. There were so many entries that felt out of my generational grasp, though. I do like PASCAL and MANTLE, both timeless fellas. But with the addition of ABRAM, NONCE, LINDY, the puzzle as a whole had a past-tense / historical vibe.

Not a bad thing, considering how many older solvers there are.

However, with how hard it played for me — more a hard Saturday than a Friday — it wasn't my cup of Victorian tea. I'm a big fan of Earl Grey's spicy bite, so I appreciate Will asking Stan to lively (liven?) it up. Could have used another round of iteration in that regard.

I understand Stanley Newman's reticence to avoid well-worn clues, but no sneaky international law reference is going to stop me from being reminded of one of my favorite films, The Prisoner of Zenda. Of course, I mean the 1937 version with Ronald Colman and Madeleine Carroll. There are several other film versions including two previous ones from the silent film era and a near shot-for-shot color remake in 1952 starring Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, and James Mason. The Colman version is best.

The point is, crossword solving is personal, and a single answer that happens to spark joy, even for tangential reasons, can elevate the whole experience. I enjoyed today's puzzle far more than Jeff did. "We are, in fact, amused."