New York Times, Monday, July 1, 2019

This puzzle represents my record for theme efficiency. I thought of the idea and then scoured the databases for double-alcohol phrases. There aren't many. It's a challenge just to find candidate alcohols with short, common letter combinations (SLIVOVITZ, for example, isn't going to work), and even after you do, there aren't many phrases in which they are doubly embedded. HARUM SCARUM and HEAR YE, HEAR YE are the only ones of their type I could find. But those are great seed entries, so when I discovered MAKE MINE A DOUBLE was (amazingly) 15 letters, it would have been constructor malpractice not to make this puzzle.

So, I jimmied up LOGGING INTO, which isn't very exciting, but it works, leaving me in need of one 12-letter theme entry to round out the set. IMPORT EXPORT was my first try, but the NYT editing team didn't like it, because nobody orders a double port. Fair enough. But ALE was the only other possible option, and I had already tried to find a 12-letter double-ALE phrase and gotten nowhere. After lamenting the fact that ALEX HALEY wasn't named ALEX HALEYSON, I went on the "Alex" page of Wikipedia and almost immediately hit on ALEX VAN HALEN — 12 letters. Whoomp! (There it is.)

Next time I'm frustrated by the Crossword Gods foiling my beautiful theme idea (nobody take my SPICE GIRLS theme, I just need a match with ROSEMARY CLOONEY), I'll think of this puzzle.

If you construct long enough, you'll keep having that déjà vu feeling all over again. About ten years ago, I went through a process similar to Damon's:

1. At a bar, after a hard day. Make it a double, please. Hey. HEY! HEYYYYYYY!
2. Down the double, rush home.
3. Search *RUM*RUM* (where the * indicates "any string of letters, any length"). Exactly one (usable) result? HARUM SCARUM? It's absolute perfection when you find a great phrase, and zero other possibilities. That's the epitome of elegance.
4. Search *RYE*RYE*. Exactly one phrase again, and it's a beaut — HEAR YE HEAR YE. The goddess Crucivera is benevolent! These are some Odin-eye-sacrificing type of results, that they are.
5. Search *GIN*GIN*. Hmm. A dozen or so results, many good but nothing fantastic. Still, SLINGING INK (slang for writing) and HANGING IN THERE are nice.
6. Search for one last alcohol that will work. Searching. Searching. Searching.
   {Five months later...)
7. Argue with self. ALE is the only other frickin' possibility. But No One tells a bartender to double an ALE. Swear at Crucivera and forsake her. Screech and duck from the gluey blob bullets she angrily fires at me. Abandon idea and move on.

Looking at this with fresh eyes, I still have the same concern about ALE (and if you nix PORT, you have to nix ALE too, yeah?). It's unusable in this concept. Going down to four total themers — employing something like LOGGING INDUSTRY to balance out MAKE MINE A DOUBLE — would have been thin, but at least passable.

Overall though, the excellent gridwork make this a doubly-friendly Monday offering. Worthy bonuses in NO SIREE BOB, LAKE GENEVA, along with some SVELTE, DELUXE, ATM FEE, LAWFUL, even fun HDTVS atop AEIOU. With barely any DSL OPEL glue, it's top-notch craftsmanship, as I'd expect from a pro like Damon. That's especially appreciated, given how tough it is to work with five longish themers.