New York Times, Monday, January 20, 2014

11D and 29D in this puzzle both run through two horizontal theme entries. I appreciate it when a constructor takes the time and effort, as here, to find lively answers for these important spots.

Liz, btw, is the first Times constructor to benefit from the paper's new pay rate — $300 for a daily puzzle. That's still not a lot, considering the amount of time and skill it takes to create a first-class crossword. But it's a lot better than the $40 that The Times paid when I started in 1993. And it's much more than any other daily newspaper currently pays. I will keep working to increase the rate further, because the contributors deserve it.

Tribute puzzle to a great man. Surprising that we haven't gotten more MLK tributes on MLK Day. Maybe it has to do with the conspiracy put on by The Man, who also somehow makes good people of the world work on a such an important day.

*shaking fist at The Man*

Tribute puzzles are hard to do. I think they should celebrate the person by giving us a reminder of their achievements, but since it's a puzzle, it ought to entertain as well. My personal preference is to avoid tribute puzzles unless there's a way to incorporate an extra element, something that could only be done in a crossword puzzle. For example, I did a Roger Ebert tribute last year for the LA Times, with black squares looking like two thumbs up on the sides of the puzzle. That sort of thing.

Ouch, I hurt my shoulder from all that patting myself on the back, so onto the puzzle. I absolutely loved seeing the crazy sequence of consonants M L K J R in the dead center of the grid. How many times do you see an entry as cool-looking as that?

I wasn't as keen on seeing WE ARE FREE AT LAST as the final theme entry, because by itself, it doesn't carry Dr. King's message very well, seeming to imply that he's saying that we are (currently) free at last. Perhaps just FREE AT LAST would have been better, clued as something like "38-across's hope for all people in the future". It would also have been nice to see LET FREEDOM RING too, another important phrase repeated in Dr. King's speech.

Puzzle-wise, nice selection of long downs. As Will mentions, those are important slots in a puzzle, as the long downs are an important source of potential snazziness. And as always, Liz does a great job of plunking in two winners, even though her theme density is high. And she also manages to sneak in ATTACK AD, very impressive! The fill suffers a bit though, with such difficult (for a Monday) crossings as APIA/PIAGET as well as unslightly crosswordese (AROO, A IS, NES), and an arbitrary score (ONE ALL). Probably all fine for a later week puzzle, but it's not my personal preference for a Monday.

I hope everyone has the day off today. If you're doing some volunteer work today in remembrance, TWO THUMBS UP. Ow, my shoulder!