New York Times, Monday, June 20, 2022

The initial idea for this puzzle involved removing -LAND from country names and finding phrases that ended with the remaining letters. But the archetype of "the end of each themer can be followed by X" is rather passé, so the idea evolved into demonyms and homophones. My apologies to the Danes, but DEIGNS isn't a noun and doesn't have any good phrases.

Though I'm satisfied with this grid, there's room for improvement. Forty blocks is too high for my tastes. TUE is gluey. The collision of ANKA/DIOS/KOLN is rough. The longest non-theme answers are only some 7s and 8s. After the grid was accepted as a Monday puzzle, I tried redesigning the grid with fewer blocks and some longer bonuses for practice. I succeeded, albeit with not quite Monday-friendly fill, and the reworked grid lost ETHNIC which feels apt as a secondary revealer.

If it seems like the clues are leaning heavily on country names or their adjectival forms, that's a deliberate attempt to underscore the theme. Thanks to the editing team for changing my rambling clue for KOLN: German name of a German city whose English name is actually French.

Regarding LESS, when I submitted the puzzle, I was unaware of the debate over this, but Weird Al, renowned grammarian of "Word Crimes" fame, agrees with the clue.

About ALL, Dante's original Italian phrase ("Lasciate ogne speranza…") suggests ALL should precede "hope," but its placement differs depending on the translation, possibly for meter.

Anyway, happy solving.

It takes a lot to distinguish a nationality homophone puzzle, given the genre's long history. All the way back to CZECH for errors and travelers' CZECHS … talk about a CZECHERED PAST! Solvers might beg for mercy — using CZECH PLEAS, of course. Christopher's presentation is a nice change of pace; a much more subtle approach that didn't me want to Taiwan on.

I appreciate how thoughtful and critical Christopher is with self-examination. I bet moving NECK TIES down one row would clean things up in aisles 5-8, KOLN being a potentially tough get for newer solvers, especially ones who are young enough never to have encountered Paul ANKA.

There's so much goodness, though, that I didn't mind the slower solve. For every tougher ELEGIAC, there was an angelic ANGELOU. No BACKLASH from this satisfied solver, even if I couldn't speed through as satisfyingly fast as usual.

Hilarious clue for GEESE; the type of freshness I love in Monday cluing. It made me wonder if Reese Witherspoon played identical twins, she'd be listed twice as Roose.

I appreciate it when a Monday puzzle obscures the theme until the last moment yet still manages to be accessible to a broad range of people. I won't Dane to say that I'm looking forward to the next one, but perhaps I'll feel more refreshed by this genre around the Finn de siècle.