New York Times, Tuesday, October 19, 2021

I submitted this puzzle in June of 2019, and kind of a lot has happened in the intervening 28 months. Not the least of which is that I no longer use answers like SST in my crossword puzzles. ("Bygone boomer?" More like "bygone crossword answer," amirite?)

Despite some clunky fill, I do love the tightness of the theme. CHARLOTTE'S WEB, AUNTIE ANNE'S, and EMILY'S LIST are on a very small list of common possessive phrases that use THE BRONTË sisters' names. (EMILY'S WONDER LAB didn't, you know, exist yet when I made this puzzle.) Even then, the set can't be laid out in standard rotational symmetry and only works in its present mirror symmetry layout since two of the answers just happen to interlock. Sometimes you get lucky.

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Crossword constructors jump at sets of three or four (sometimes five). Perfect sets make such great crossword themes, and ANNE, CHARLOTTE, EMILY are exactly that. Even a boor with my lowbrow tastes can appreciate that.

It's a shame that there's no wordplay reveal possible, as there might be for Jane Austen (maybe you could riff on "plain Jane" or AUS + TEN somehow). THE BRONTËS tells it like it is, unfortunately without any of the wit exhibited in "Pride and Prejudice."

If you tell my b-ball buddies I said that, I'll deny everything.

Exactly three sisters is a tight set. How to showcase them, though? CHARLOTTE is a tough name to integrate into a phrase. Besides CHARLOTTE'S WEB, there's CHARLOTTE HORNETS (I'm targeting Terry Rozier in our fantasy draft this year), the delicious CHARLOTTE RUSSE, and CHARLOTTE AMALIE.

EMILY is even harder, surprisingly, with mostly only people as options: EMILY DICKINSON, EMILY POST, EMILY BLUNT. EMILY'S LIST disguises things much better (EMILY is an acronym, not a name), although it was awfully tough to figure out for this apolitical person.

I can hear Ross's thought process: with two possessives, why not go consistent with a third? AUNTIE ANNE'S has a special place in my heart since on my honeymoon in Malaysia, my pregnant wife could tolerate zero smells. I fetched many AUNTIE ANNE'S pretzels from the malls for her, while I gorged on Panang curry (sitting far outside as I ate).

The consistency of three possessives theoretically might enhance the theme. However, it felt odd. The BRONTË sisters weren't known as Anne's Brontë, etc. So ... why? I'd have preferred random phrases with no consistency for consistency's sake.

Hey, I never said I was consistent!

I enjoyed so much of this solving experience, neat to see the BRONTËs get their due. Loved the bonuses of BETA APPS, ACUTE ACCENT, EARLY RISER, SENIORITIS; Ross as always doing such top-notch gridding. That wasn't enough to overcome no zing in the revealer along with some head-scratching, though.