New York Times, Friday, July 5, 2019

The seed for the puzzle was "PHARMA BRO," as it was an entry that the NYT team liked in a prior unrelated and rejected themeless. So I thought I was pretty safe going with that ...yes, you guessed it, it still didn't make the cut! Though deemed "fresh," it had to be taken out due to its "ephemeral feel" that wouldn't last the test of time or the syndication lag, all of which I ultimately agreed with. So, the "most hated man in America" (for a while at least, until _____ took his place — insert your fav public enemy #1 here) was out, and his employee PHARMA REP was in. In the process, AUDIO TOUR / SLEEP ON IT morphed into the slightly more conventional AUDIOTAPE / SLEEPOVER now in that SE corner.

Only a few of my clues made it through (like 22A and 32D), so I still have a lot to learn. For example for 11D, "Not the hang-gliding type?" turned into "One who hates heights," and "Drug pusher?" for PHARMA REP was replaced by "One making a living by pushing drugs, informally," which is more accurate I suppose.

My favorite bit of the puzzle is probably the DAYTRADER / FAT FINGER pair, mostly because of my current day job in markets risk management. Yes, the latter does happen more than you think!

Hope my first themeless is acceptable to everyone.

Constructor Log : Submitted March 2018 and accepted in June after the aforementioned revision.

I almost disqualified this puzzle from POW! contention based on technical flaws. A 70-word crossword (generally an easy themeless construction) shouldn't contain more than a couple of dabs of crossword glue. AEROS, AS FAR, DELED, UNSHY? Add in ASES, ERTE, SYN, TALI? Yikes! It's like seeing a bunch of unsanded welds holding together a bronze sculpture.

What's the most important aspect of a puzzle, though? How much fun and entertainment it provides. Nothing else comes close. I had a blast solving this one, for so many reasons:

Great feature entries. ON SALE NOW / AS IF I CARE / THAT'S A LIE = great triple-stack. FREECYCLE / RETROCOOL / ACROPHOBE, another one! With BAD COP running through it! Heck, most every long slot held something wonderful. AUDIO TAPE was only so-so, but everything else was great to stellar.

Playful clues. DAY TRADER is a fantastic entry, and [One who gives a lot of orders] makes it even better. (Buy / sell orders.) The neutral HULA cleverly plays on "wiggle room." Even the ugly as sin SYN gets rescued by disguising the link between "illustration" and "for example," making me think it was going for some art term.

MORE playful clues! Shouting HIDE at a birthday party. MARS, the subject of "areology"? Ah yes, the Greek war god is Ares — I enjoyed making that link. [Rush home?] needed a telltale question mark, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment. (That's a FRATernity rush, not a mad dash to get home on time.)

Then I put my constructor's hat back on, wondering why Freddie resorted to so much glue. Turns out that there's a reason for it. The four corners may not look any bigger than normal, but note how many mid-length entries link into them. The SE, for example: DAY TRADER, AERIES, DRY MOP running through the stack makes for a tougher constructing challenge than usual.

All in all, this puzzle gave me a feeling of glee. POW! for that.