New York Times, Thursday, July 11, 2019

I'm surprised to see this puzzle published so close to my Tuesday crossword from April 9, 2019. Both puzzles rely on the same linguistic oddity (semordnilaps), though the rest of their gimmicks are very different. Even so, spacing the two puzzles further apart might have allowed the previous theme to fade a bit more from solvers' collective memory. On the other hand, there's only one overlapping semordnilap pair: the NAME TAG/GATEMAN combination. Fortuitously, that's also the last one a solver would encounter if solving top-to-bottom.

Today's grid was made six months before the April puzzle. It's interesting to me that solvers are encountering them in an order opposite their creation. Though perhaps that fits perfectly with the semordnilaps theme. ;-)

For this puzzle, I focused on long (6+ letters) semordnilap pairs that exhibit changes in spacing. I think it's much more exciting to find TO ORDER hidden in RED ROOT than REPAID hidden in DIAPER. Of course, there aren't a lot of long semordnilaps to choose from, so my options were pretty limited. Some of the other pairs that didn't make the cut include STRESSED/DESSERTS, DELIVER/REVILED, NO TIPS/SPIT ON, NO PETS/STEP ON, and WONTON/NOT NOW.

One ding for the puzzle is that the theme answers (CUSTOMIZED, STUDENTS, etc.) are somewhat prosaic. That's due to (1) terse clues (similar to a classical definition theme); (2) limited options on the semordnilap front; and (3) symmetry and length requirements. Hopefully the fun of the puzzle isn't in the theme words themselves — it's in deciphering the clues and figuring out the backwards answers.

We've seen dozens of backwards puzzles, enough for us to compile a list. I can't remember another one where the entry is backward, and the clue is too, so I appreciate Alex's attempt to go above and beyond.

(Shout out to Mike Shenk of the WSJ, who while editing one of my backward puzzles, came up with the idea to flip the print clues such that they looked as they'd appear in a mirror. That was brilliant.)

I'm a big fan of Alex's gridwork. With five themers — three of them shortish — you have a fantastic opportunity to add in sparkling bonuses, while keeping the short fill smooth. Alex did just that, with smart positioning of his long downs. Note how WHEN IN ROME / SWIM CAP / OX TEAM / BLURTS / LETS NOT / CHATTERBAG alternate down up down up down up, for best spacing.

(Not sure why I entered CHATTERBAG instead of the correct answer. It ought to be a thing, I tells ya.)

A lot of constructors try a "parallel downs" structure, like WHEN IN ROME / HUMANITIES. It's not hard to do when you don't have many constraints in the area — there's just GNITSIXE nailed into place. It's more a matter of willingness to put in the time to find a stellar solution. Too many constructors give up around attempt number 20, unwilling to iterate into the hundreds to come up with a winning set as strong as today's.

Huge props for craftsmanship. I'm glad Alex tried to make this concept stand out from the muck of backwardsville, but it wasn't quite enough.