New York Times, Monday, June 22, 2015

Wordplay themes like this usually get slated for Tuesday/Wednesday, but I think it's nice to provide the Monday solver with a curveball every now and then. The repetitive nature of the joke here worried me a little, but I remembered really enjoying Michael David's puzzle from 2012 that had a similarly repetitive theme.

I also liked that this theme felt modern, but didn't really require knowing anything about Twitter beyond that @ symbols are used. Hopefully, that would make it appeal to solvers of all ages.

Finally, I'm continuing my crusade of low word count Mondays. I wasn't able to get to 72 this time, but I think this is a pretty smooth 74-worder (the middle-left with OTRA/GRATA/SANTO is probably the choppiest section, but they're all Monday-easy). I couldn't decide if SHUTTERFLY was overdoing the Internet vibe of the puzzle, but I think the clue saves it. I was proud of the clue for TAXIDERMY, which is definitely hard for a Monday, but sometimes you come up with a perfect clue and it's hard to pass up.

On Twitter, your username is prefixed by an at sign — I'm @JeffChenWrites, for example (follow me if you want useless witticisms!). Today's puzzle riffs on that, with normal words starting with AT parsed into AT + (wordplay-twisted username). I got a laugh out of many of them, AT TRACTION being a perfect one for a tire company. Michelin ought to snap that handle up. It'd be so much better than Corporate America's sad attempts (or should I say AT TEMPTS?) to get on social media and appear hip.

It's not often we see one-word themers. Rich Norris has told me a few times that it takes a lot for him to consider themes relying on one-word entries, because they're not as lively as multi-word themers. But this one works for me, doing a nice job of playing on Twitter's syntax.

Strong execution, as we've come to expect from Joel. Those parallel downs — STATE FAIRS / YOGI BERRA and STAND TALL / SHUTTERFLY — are so hard to execute on, since they almost always require a few trade-offs in the crossings. The NE corner turned out so well, with STATE FAIRS and YOGI BERRA both stellar answers, with just a SYNS running through them. It's too bad that SYNS is at the very top of the puzzle instead of buried somewhere in the middle, but overall, it's a great corner.

Joel pointed out GRATA as one of the lesser bits in the puzzle, and some people may wonder why. It's easy recognizable as [Persona non ___], right? The problem is that there aren't many ways to clue the entry. A quick search at our Finder page shows that most of the times GRATA has been used, the clue has been exactly the same. Variety is a key to crosswords, so that makes GRATA a bit of a non grata answer.

Loved the [Professional stuff?] clue for TAXIDERMY. It took me a while to grok, since it seemed so difficult for a Monday, but I really appreciated the boost of fun. More, please!