New York Times, Thursday, May 30, 2019

My original submission obfuscated the theme more as their clues were simply "PETER RABBIT," etc. I liked the solver having to work more for the aha moment, but that might have been a bit too cerebral. Overall, I think Will's edits work well.

I had a decent list of potential theme options, but it was pared down a good deal when I added the constraint that the clues had to be two separate words (and no hyphens). For example, I could use BLOOD MOON to clue "LINE DANCE" but not BLOODLINE to clue "MOONDANCE."

Glad to see my favorite clue made the final cut (4-Across).

Thanks to Will and team, and I hope you enjoy!

Tough concept to explain. Maybe a mathematical explanation will help:

Take valid phrases of the form A + B.

Find valid phrases of the form A + C and B + D.

A success is defined as C + D, also forming an in-the-language phrase.

It's a nice variant of the overdone "both words can follow X" theme type. It's also hard enough to explain (read: mind-twisting) that there's likely room for more instances of this concept. Some great finds, like DOG / STAR -> DOG PADDLE + STAR BOARD -> PADDLE BOARD.

I liked the consistency of this puzzle, but the lack of tightness bugged me. It felt like there could be dozens, or maybe hundreds of solutions. To confirm my impression, I looked at DOG / STAR. Took only about a minute to find DOG POUND + STAR SIGN -> POUND SIGN.

It's still a good theme, not exactly like anything I can remember. It would have been better, though, if all the themers somehow related. Now that would have been POW!-worthy.

I sometimes get feedback that I dream too big when I critique puzzles, wishing for things that aren't possible. True enough, so that's something I've been trying to avoid. Today though, I think it would have been relatively easy to tighten up the theme, especially with the help of a little coding to fully explore the solution space. (Brandon has a point about single/multi-words, but I doubt most solvers would notice and/or care.)

That issue aside, the puzzle still worked well for me. Solid themers, six of them making the theme feel meaty. Decently clean fill (EDS EEN ESO LAN NUS I see you). Best of all, a ton of interesting mid-length fill in AMIRITE, ATE CROW, BEELINE, IRON MAN, PALADIN, SENATOR — that's the way to elevate a solving experience. I did notice how many three-letter words there were, making for a somewhat choppy solve, but all the snazzy seven-letter fill was worth it.