New York Times, Friday, July 23, 2021

This crossword marks my seventh themeless puzzle in a row, far exceeding my previous streak of one.

I like most of the editorial improvements but a few of my favorite clues got the axe, including: "Method of measuring fiber intake?" for 66-Across and "One relatively close to an actor" for 21-Down.

Mike mentioned a while back that he's had a lot of success in themelesses (more than with themed), because he sticks to a sweet spot: the 70-word puzzle. Not a high degree of technical difficulty, but if you can squeeze every drop of color out of your long slots, while keeping the short material silky-smooth, you can achieve success. Such peppy and positive answers in EYE OPENER, HOT TICKET, NICE CATCH. I wouldn't say 100% CRUSHED IT, but it's close.

Even his add-a-preposition phrases are solid. It's not exciting to see ICE OVER, but DABBLED IN is a whole lot better than something like DONATED TO, for example.

The only plus/minus ones were ECONOMIZE and SPEED TEST. While the latter is a two-word phrase and even colorful in some ways, all those EST letters at the perimeter of a puzzle are a bit of a constructor's crutch.

[Enterprise group] is awkward for STARFLEET, but I admire the wordplay attempt. A shame that it didn't point even harder at Enterprise, the car rental company, but people who don't even know what STARFLEET is (heathens!) would never catch onto amped-up cleverness.

Interesting COSTA RICA clue. I enjoy these, where my initial reaction is "How the *@#$ should I know that?" to realizing that almost all countries dedicate huge portions of their budget to military and asking myself which ones might not. Given that my time in COSTA RICA was filled with surfing, friendly locals, and easy living, the pieces fell into place.

A note on LT DAN: I thought Gary Sinise's "Forrest Gump" role was outstanding. Will Shortz let me know a while back that he wondered if LT DAN had staying power. I politely reworked my grid to remove LT DAN, all the while pointing my phaser at Will. (Set on stun, of course.)

Not as much clever cluing as I like in a Friday themeless, but a few worked well, like SPEED TEST playing on a measurement for how "well connected" you are. I admire Mike's "fiber-intake" clue even more, and with some refinement, that could have been spectacular.