New York Times, Saturday, October 2, 2021

In January 2020, I saw a piece in the NYT announcing that the U.S. Navy was going to name an aircraft carrier in honor of Doris Miller. I had no idea who Doris Miller was, so I investigated. What I discovered was, first, that Doris Miller was a man, and more important, that he had been a war hero who sprang into action during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He tended to the wounded captain on the bridge of their ship, the USS West Virginia, and then fired on Japanese planes using an anti-aircraft gun that he, as a mess attendant, had never been trained to use. After ferrying many wounded soldiers to safety, Miller was among the last to leave the ship.

Miller was eventually awarded the Navy Service Cross for bravery. However, it seems clear that had Miller been white, his valor would have been recognized sooner and hailed more widely. Thanks to Erik Agard, crossword constructor extraordinaire, I found a wonderful lecture by Professor Robert Chester of the University of Maryland, which taught me more about Doris Miller's brief, eventful life.

Doris Miller was my seed entry for this puzzle — and I am delighted to shine a small light on his heroism. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Wyna Liu, who encouraged me to zhuzh up my clues and showed me what spicier clues would look like. Many thanks to Wyna, Joel Fagliano, Will Shortz, and the entire NYT team for making my puzzle livelier and more fun. I also want to give a shout out to the test solvers, who perform invaluable work ensuring that puzzles are solvable, interesting and current.

Three outstanding feature entries with clues elevating them even further:

1. I fall for the cab(ernet) misdirect every time, but I still love it. Pulling a three-dollar cab out of my fridge isn't quite as inspiring as getting something from a WINE RACK.
2. EXIT INTERVIEW is a stellar phrase. Repurposing "canned lines" — playing on lines you might give the interviewer after being canned — is wickedly clever.
3. Seattle is chock full of hipsters and posers. They're usually saying cannabis-related things, but when they pose for pics, they say CHEESE. Then get hungry and order cheese from Uber Eats.

I also appreciated the effort to make the neutral CHECKED INTO stand out. Fun to think of two completely different CHECKED INTO meanings: registering at a hotel or investigating a UFO sighting.

68-word constructions are so tough to get both clean and colorful. If it's not some wastage in SESAMES, ECONOMIC, OUTYELLS, it's ORTs of ENTO EPS TSE WPA. The gridding challenge can make constructors BE SORE, all right.

Interesting to learn about DORIS MILLER. Didn't know him (or that he was a man), but he's definitely crossworthy, as the first African American to earn the Navy Cross. Such an impressive profile in courage.