TIMBER!

While listening to the Pitbull-Kesha duet "Timber" on the radio for the scrillionth time earlier this summer, my train of thought went something like this:

1. I really need to change the station.
2. Timber. That means falling trees.
3. Falling trees! That could be a crossword theme!

After an hour or so sussing out some possible theme entries, I went with my favorites. Normally with a hidden word gimmick I strongly prefer to have the hidden word straddle the answer words (as in ETHEL MERTZ and BURMA SHAVE). But I couldn't make that work with enough other trees for a Sunday-sized puzzle, so I used some single-word answers too (like INFIRMARY and TIPPECANOE). I felt compelled to have the trees symmetrically placed in the grid, which also limited my options.

Ultimately, Will and his team kept 97 of my 144 clues (67%) and slightly modified another 22 (15%). That means only 25 clues (17%) were brand new. But I won't pat myself on the back too much — it helps that 14 of the clues are [--] or [TREE]!

Happy Arbor Day! Wait. Arbor Day is end of April, six months away. Happy ... unArbor Day? Anyhoo, Sam gives us seven trees today, hidden within seven snappy and bendy phrases. I've highlighted them below so you can see the nice symmetrical arrangement.

Puzzles with short theme entries like ETHE/ELM/MERTZ are not for the faint of heart constructor, because using up your shot slots means you'll be required to incorporate a lot of long fill. To make things even harder, any time you have themers crossing each other (in this case, a quasi-Z-shaped arrangement) the surrounding fill is going to be a challenge due to relatively heavy constraints. Sam lays out his grid very well, spacing apart each of the seven themers so that there's not much overlap between any two. Notice how you could work on any one theme region without influencing any other too much? That's excellent use of black squares to create separation.

I really like what he did around ETH/ELM/ERTZ. To run FULL TILT, IN SPIRIT, and STEEL TRAP through that precarious region is strong work, especially considering the lack of glue required to pull it off. The other regions are also pretty good, although each tends to show minor signs of stress, an OMN here (in pharma development, "QD" is what we used; Dr. Denny-wife confirms OMN is unusual), a DSO there, a NOP loitering like a NOP-goodnik. That's to be expected with these constraints — note that these little offenders occur right at the heart of Z-bends.

I liked the general theme idea, but I think my stupid brain is preventing me from fully appreciating it. Jim explained it as the answers moving right and dropping down for a TIMBER! wordplay moment before continuing right. I can buy that, and it works better for me after I thought about it for a while. But my noggin can't get over the idea of a tree toppling over, not falling straight down like a building being demolished. I aspire to Jim's more flexible big-picture way of interpreting the world — he has always been better than me at seeing the forest for the trees.

(insert groan here)

Overall, a smooth puzzle, with just a little glue to hold sections together. A lot of great long fill like ONION RINGS and AS EASY AS ABC — well worth hitting the "Analyze" button below to see how much great long stuff Sam worked in. He has quite a few themelesses under his belt, and I bet that experience helped immensely with this grid.