New York Times, Wednesday, June 24, 2020

This is the first of my puzzles to run in the New York Times since the birth of my daughter. My last NYT puzzle ran on April 3, which was also her due date, but she stubbornly waited an extra week and didn't join us until April 10. I did that day's great NYT puzzle by Byron Walden in the hospital in the wee hours of that morning, awaiting her arrival, and had quite a laugh when 18-Across [Shot in the back] turned out to be EPIDURAL. Funny how crosswords mirror real life.

I'm pretty happy with this grid, especially the 6x6 corners in the NE and SW. In hindsight, I probably created a puzzle with a Monday/Tuesday theme and Thursday/Friday fill, but I'd like to think there is room for puzzles like that occasionally. GRAYLY is a bit of a clunker, but I think most of the rest of the long fill is fun.

I can't take credit for great clue at 36-Down (an improvement over what I submitted, "Non-PC types").

Ah, initialisms, our old crossword friend. Since they've been done so many times over — even IC made an appearance back in 2016 — it's important to do something a little extra. I appreciate how Joe played on COLD OPEN (a term for a show's first segment sans introduction) to hint at the I C phrases. That's a fun bit of wordplay.

Joe's comment about theme / fill mismatch is spot on. Usually, it's a great idea to offer something for everyone, so no one feels completely left out. Want to include your favorite pop song? Probably best to balance it with entries from a wide range of other areas.

However, that concept doesn't work when applied to the big picture. If you have to toil this hard to uncover entries like VIZSLA, RH MACY, AMALFI, KATANA, the payoff has to be worth it. A simple initialisms concept doesn't fit that bill.

Some solvers will complain that VIZSLA is a weird entry; they hate the puzzle because of it. That's not totally fair, since VIZSLA is a real dog breed that some pet owners will find obvious. However, hearing this type of feedback has affected my constructing preferences. These days, I tend to shy away from anything that might attract the "weird" tag, trying instead to let my short fill be largely unnoticeable; ignorable.

I loved the MALLET clue, referencing Whack-a-mole. That's constructing in a nutshell, trying to smack down any gloop that bubbles up, in the eternal struggle of smoothing out a crossword grid. Great clue for EEYORE too, "the Gloomy Place" making me think of much more villainous characters. A relief to finally land upon the mopey yet lovable ol' donkey.

I'd have much preferred a Monday grid to synchronize with this Monday theme, but I can understand Joe's motivations. Construction can get repetitive, and it's hard to resist challenging oneself.

ADDED NOTE: reader Zach Schiff points out that Jack Daniels is from Tennessee, but IRISH COFFEE uses Irish whiskey (usually Tullamore Dew or Jameson). For the sake of science, I now will go drink one of each to compare. Maybe a bigger sample size would be useful ...