New York Times, Wednesday, July 13, 2016

This puzzle has a somewhat circuitous history. The idea came from a text conversation with my little sister (presented with her permission). I thought that this sort of joke had potential for a Sunday puzzle (which could be titled "DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU?"), so I started compiling a list of abbreviations that were also words in their own right.

By the time I had done a pretty exhaustive search of abbreviations, I did not have quite enough possible theme entries to make a whole Sunday puzzle because there were not enough abbreviations that were spelled out letter by letter (like how ACT is actually pronounced "ay-see-tea"). However, there were many more abbreviations that were not spelled out letter-by-letter (like "sing." for "singular" or "in." for inch), so I ended up switching to that type of abbreviation to make the Sunday "THE SHORT FORM," which appeared a little less than a year ago.

I didn't want to waste the few spelled-out abbreviations I had found, though, and that's where today's puzzle comes from. So, a big thank-you to Sammie for taking the ACT and sparking two entire crossword themes for me!

P.S. If any of my other sisters are reading this, know that it was Sammie who entered her name into my phone that way.

I greatly admire constructors who can come up with novel ideas. So many crosswords have been made over the years that just about everything feels like it's been done to me. Tom comes up with a neat concept today, one that feels fresh, using TLAs (three letter acronyms) to replace a regular word. PICK ME, U.P.S.! had me chuckling, and MAMMA M.I.A. was clever. But my favorite was LET ER R.I.P. — not only is it a colorful base phrase, but the result is so enjoyably kooky. COMMON E.R.A. and DISAPPEARING A.C.T. (American College Testing) didn't do as much for me, but they still work well, consistent with the others.

Tom does so well with his grids. Many constructors would cite the fact that they have five longish themers, and call it good to produce a smooth, if unexciting, grid. Tom works in not just two, but four long downs, all of them really nice. Amusing to have GRAVE PERIL intersecting LET ER R.I.P., and ASYMMETRY is snazzy. We even get a ROM COM and a MEANIE — fun stuff.

Fun PALIN clue. It's so easy to take potshots at her, but this quote, "Buck up or stay in the truck," reminds me of the various Bushisms out there. I think I'll choose ... stay in the truck? I guess?

All this, with just a minor SCIS abbreviation and a NEURO prefix. I don't mind ILIE at all, since ILIE Nastase was a very famous tennis player. Sometimes he gets clued as a partial, just for a little variety, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that Tom was thinking of the tennis player.

I wasn't too hot on the D, E, A, N, S list cluing both ANDES and SEDAN, because having an "order for a Dean's list" didn't feel totally in the language. Still, A for effort, and it's nice to get some novelty here and there.

When someone gets too high on my POW! list, I up my bar for them so I can spread the love. But with an entertaining, innovative idea, and a beautiful grid to boot, I tip my hat to Tom this week.