BE PATIENT

Natan Last, 28, is a student at Columbia University studying for a master's in public policy. He has been a frequent crossword contributor to The Times since 2007 when he was 16.

For this puzzle's theme, Natan says, "I wrote a computer program to help me find words that [ ] once you [ ]." You'll know what goes in the blanks once you've finished it.

This was a lot of fun to make! (And looks like the red nose made it at least to the web solution, not sure if it'll turn up in print or not). Shoutout to the editing team for the back-and-forth (originally, I was fine if the post-operation word was short and uninteresting, if the hidden part sparkled—I had THIGH in GOT HIGH, leaving GO—but eventually was able to find a set that balanced the clued word and the gettability of the grid entry). Shoutout to friend and Python wrangler Kyle Mahowald for helping me brush up on my scripting skills! I'm a really big fan of out-of-the-box Sunday puzzles, hope this one tickles your funny bone.

YES! Finally, the NYT takes advantage of the Magazine's ability to do something that virtually no other crossword venue can: print in color. What better way to flaunt the fact that not only is print media not dead, but it can be better than e-formats? Yay for all the great old-timey things, said this Luddite!

This Luddite, who is happily using his computer to type this post … huh.

Great theme concept, too, playing on OPERATION's body-part-removal mechanism, interpreting phrases as if those parts were gone. (How anyone could successfully remove those friggin' little pieces without that horrible BZZT! Is beyond me, though.) I loved the ones that surprise, like how SPIT (SHIN)ED becomes SPITED. It'd be even better if SHIN had spanned the two words of the phrase, but that's asking for a lot.

It's not as interesting when a single word becomes another single word, i.e., DE(LIVER)ED to DEED. Slightly better is something like AL(ARM)IST to A-LIST, but it's still not as strong as SPIT (SHINED).

The one outlier: S(HAND)ONG. Since the base phrases aren't clued, they must be easily recognizable in order to generate a strong a-ha moment. Perhaps as a good Taiwanese boy, I should have known the province of SHANDONG, China, but considering I got kicked out of Chinese school as a kid, what do you expect?

I'd have gone with Garry S(HAND)LING or better yet, AX (HAND)LE. Five minutes of coding can do wonders!

It's rare these days that a Sunday puzzle will hold my attention — great fill like SKELETON KEY, BATARANGS, GOOD ONE, DEADPOOL helped tip the scales. Some aspects could have been improved, but overall, an amusing wordplay-based idea that entertained.