New York Times, Saturday, January 21, 2023

I'm a bit verklempt to be debuting SHABBAT SHALOM on, appropriately enough, a Saturday. Not to get all schmaltzy, but it's so exciting I could plotz or kvell, maybe both, who knows. Mazel tov to me!

With this, my fifth puzzle (but who's counting), I truly feel like part of the New York Times crossword mishpocheh.

Now I hate to be a kvetch, but oy vey did it feel like forever to get a response on this puzzle and I had major shpilkies while waiting; my pulkes were pulsating, my tuchus was twitching. I know — it wasn't pleasant for me either.

But then those mensches on the editing team had the chutzpah to email a big "Yes" and all that other mishegas just disappeared.

If you could have seen me in that moment: my schmatte completely shvitzed through, my punim covered in schmutz, tchotchkes strewn across my bathroom floor. This schlub couldn't have been happier if he was noshing on some blintzes and rugelah, Bubelah.

Anyway, enough of my shitck — enjoy this meshuggeneh crossword and, as my Zayde used to say, "Gesundheit."

Standard "stair-stack" themeless layout, with the central triplet of SHABBAT SHALOM / PEOPLE WATCHES / NOT DOING SO HOT serving as a solid foundation. A close friend of mine is Jewish, so his crossword-crazy mom will love seeing that first entry today. PEOPLE WATCHES is already a great entry, and its clue makes it even better. That odd hyphen in "tourist-spots" — making it a verb — is brilliant.

And NOT DOING SO HOT is hardly not doing so hot, especially with the funny "on the struggle bus" clue. I've never used the term before, but I sure enjoyed digging into its origins. Do yourself a favor, and don't look up its definition on Urban Dictionary. I wonder if some troll is laughing at me right now.

The layout looked familiar, partially because so many themelesses these days get built on the "stair-stack" framework, but also because there's this anal website that makes it too easy to figure out topologically similar — or in this case, identical — grids. There's nothing wrong with copying someone else's layout, but I appreciate variety.

That's totally a first-world constructor problem. Much more important is how much pizzazz a themeless delivers, and David did well with so many strong long entries. TINSELTOWN is shiny, HALF SIBLING made me do a double take with the [Brother from another mother] clue, and BEST OF SEVEN is loaded with imagery for us basketball nuts.