New York Times, Tuesday, June 27, 2023

The original concept for this puzzle had MOVEMBER as the revealer; I'd already participated in the past and was reminded of it when I came across the name while putting another puzzle together. The handlebar in the center was a perfect fit, and once that lil' cutie was in place, I knew I'd have to make the rest of the puzzle work, come hell or high water. The NE was the worst to fill and was the only part that remained unscathed through revision, mainly because there was very little that could be done to fix the iffiest parts (at least, by someone of my talent level).

About me: to do our part to ensure the entropy of the universe continues to expand, our family will be welcoming our third (and final) child by this time next month. If anyone wishes to shoot the breeze on parenthood, dynasty baseball, actuarial science, or, naturally, crossword construction, feel free to drop me a line (amgxwrd@gmail.com).

Submission stats:

• Submitted: 4/24/2022
• Revision requested: 7/15/2022
• Revision submitted: 7/22/2022
• Official acceptance: 8/8/2022
• Publish date: 6/27/2023
• Unchanged clues: 23
• Clues with minor edits: 25
• Completely changed clues: 30

This Seattleite is outraged at the snub. Mike "The Walrus" Holmgren took us to our first Super Bowl victory, and that loss foreshadowed …

Never mind. And it's still too soon.

Whimsical imagery in today's grid, the DALI, HANDLEBAR, and FU MANCHU styles on display. The HANDLEBAR is particularly elegant; the ends turned up as if waxed by Poirot himself. For a different venue, Jill and I did a full 21x21 with a HANDLEBAR MOUSTACHE curled and furled through the middle, featuring different people who wore that style. I liked Anthony's approach better, what with the variety on display.

Right, there's PENCIL, too. That one wasn't as amusing since it has no shape. It would have been fantastic to gradually reduce the size of the circles away from the middle for a tapered effect.

Or maybe sub something else into the puzzle. Like WALRUS.

Or Marshawn.

Gridding around visual letter patterns can be tricky, but they're much easier to work with when the image is more 2-D, like HANDLEBAR, beacuse you can more easily use black squares to create filling flexibility. Well done, such smooth results around it.

FU MANCHU is tougher since it pulls a uey, creating more constraints. Neat to get ON OCCASION running through it, though some awkward USOS / OLORD is to be expected. It's not enough to cry out to one's lord, thankfully.

Fun grid art, neat to see in a debut.