New York Times, Friday, September 25, 2015

I put this puzzle together during the height of the triple-stack center craze of the early 2010's, when some of my favorite constructors were producing gorgeous examples of this type of grid. Basically, I wanted a challenge and a slick way to accomodate a double-Q, 12-letter seed entry.

Other than some less-than-perfect short stuff I'd like back (sigh), one entry I fell out of love with in this grid is INTERNET ECONOMY. I'd been trying to push more "business stuff" in the grid for a while, feeling that it was a major section of the newspaper that's too often ignored in puzzles. I didn't properly account for the fact that it's often the most boring section, too. This phrase feels a little shaky and doesn't sparkle enough for the amount of real estate it occupies. A bit of a miscalculation in my opinion.

That being said, it's not a terrible entry, and I think there's some fun stuff in here. I particularly like the musical vibe throughout — I was a classical pianist in a prior life. Hope you all enjoy. Happy Friday!

Awesome skeleton; three sparkly answers stacked in the middle with INTERNET ECONOMY running through them. (I loved seeing INTERNET ECONOMY — I always read the business section first.) QUOTE UNQUOTE is my favorite kind of entry — it baffled me, especially as I tried to figure out if it was one word or many, plus it's a great phrase and amenable to potentially sneaky clue.

The layout also allows for many more long entries. Ten additional slots for 8+ letter entries = such potential for assets!

Starting in the upper left: even though I tend to not like one-word answers and proper nouns that much, AMERICANA is snazzy, and PAVAROTTI both has huge fame and plays to the NYT's learned audience. I didn't care for IM A MAC as that commercial tagline is quite outdated by now, and ACS is a crossword convention that many an editor has let by. This annoyingly strict mechanical engineer sighs.

I dug the lower left. Although O SOLE MIO has been used a ton in crosswords now, it's still a classic work. The fact that PAVAROTTI has performed it many times helps its cause today. DONE DEAL is also a jazzy entry, and best yet, that corner is nice and clean. NEMEA might be tough for some, but this huge fan of Greek myths will be assigning stable-cleaning duty to any cynics. Plus, all the crossings are fair ... unless someone can justify hearing OYs on a ship.

(Okay, the Argo went through a lot. Oy!)

I don't mind a bit of ANODIC or AMINES, but both in one puzzle isn't ideal for me. Even with CEES and ACS, I still wasn't bothered … until I hit the lower right.

I'm vaguely familiar with PARSI, but PARSEE looks variant-ish, given that a few dictionaries list it as such. It might be perfectly fine since it's a word ported to English without a definite spelling. But man oh man, trying to figure out the BAER and GARRET crossings was rough.

I know Max BAER from crosswords now, but Arthur "Bugs" BAER and GARRET, a word rarely used during the Shortz era … yikes! Made for an unfortunately unsatisfying ending to an otherwise fun solve.