New York Times, Wednesday, August 13, 2014

After noticing the contents of AN(GER MAN)AGEMENT, I made several iterations of a puzzle containing different European nationalities (LA(SER B)EAM, LAI(D AN E)GG, etc.), but I couldn't come up with a revealer that was clever enough to tie it all together. I set the puzzle aside for awhile, and when I revisited it months later, the whole LANGUAGE BARRIER angle just jumped out at me. It was the construction equivalent of putting down a tough Friday or Saturday puzzle, then picking it up again after a break and immediately cracking it.

I personally like solving "container" puzzles and being made aware of words hidden inside familiar phrases — I hope others get the same type of enjoyment from this one.

I debated for a long time whether or not to highlight the four hidden language names in this puzzle's grid ... but ultimately decided it would be more enjoyable if solvers had to find the hidden names themselves. Hope I'm right!

Nice "hidden words" theme today, one I didn't see coming. I liked how each language runs across two words, breaking the LANGUAGE BARRIER in a way. Juicy theme phrases too, ALL ATINGLE and THE BREWERS both ones that you don't see very often in crosswords. Will's comment was interesting to me — it took me long enough to figure out what the languages were, that I decided to highlight them below. I liked having to search them out, especially given that this is a Wednesday puzzle. Adds body to the solving experience.

Big, open corners give so much potential for long fill. Man oh man did I love uncovering BUG JUICE; what a beautiful entry. Same with I RESIGN. But filling a corner like that is a themeless-esque challenge, always calling for balancing snazz vs. cleanliness. Was BUG JUICE and I RESIGN worth the price of CEN, EPT (EPT is such an inept word)? Not sure. I bet Dan debated whether or not to break up BUG JUICE and go from 76 to 78 words in his puzzle.

The NW and SE corners were a much clearer case for me. I love getting ECLAIRS and YES WE DO as bonus material, and it comes at only the cost of ROS Asquith, who I know from children's lit but most people will not. Even if you don't know her though, the crossings are all fair. You might not even notice the ROS entry as you fill in the crossing words — such a minor little entry. Thumbs up on the decision to keep those two corners wide-open with long fill.

Finally, there was a clue/answer pair that took me ages to figure out. I stared at [They know beans] for the longest time, even having ?OYA in place. SOYA, perhaps? I ended up guessing (MTG feels like a weird abbreviation for "meeting") and scratched my head. Why would Francisco GOYA, the Spanish painter, know beans? Ah. It's the food company GOYA, a big supplier of beans. Clever!