New York Times, Saturday, November 15, 2014

This crossword's first entry was reverse engineered in a sense, as "So that's it!" often serves as the clue for AHA. I'm hoping dedicated solvers appreciate that little inside joke!

Looking at this puzzle again, it reminds me that I'm a fan of constructing themeless puzzles with mid-sized entries of about seven to ten letters. That length is about the minimum for having a wide range of interesting, compound phrases to choose from, and simple math says more of those can fit into a grid compared to one loaded with fifteen-letter entries.

Loved this puzzle. Perhaps I'm simply on Peter's wavelength (although he's younger, a much better Ultimate player than this recently retired handler, and makes much more colorful themelesses — harrumph), but this grid sang to me.

Let's start with the raw quantity of assets. I count (roughly) 18, an amazingly high number. Typically I enjoy a themeless if it has ten assets as the very least, and the NYT averages 12(ish). I'm in awe of how smoothly Peter worked AFFLUENZA through that pair of MOONWALKS / PIZZA PIES. Beautiful but very difficult way to up one's asset count. Same goes for HONEY BEAR running through TAX CHEAT / WORKHORSE / HOLE IN ONE.

With such a high asset count, I'd expect some liabilities on the ledger making this possible. Sure, there's XKES, and … ETD? LTR? Let's put the liability count at two, since those last two are so minor. An (assets — liabilities) count of 16? Takes sky-high expertise to make this happen. I'm satisfied when that (assets - liabilities) number is over ten, so 16 is just silly.

And Scrabbly letters: the JQXZ count is four, pretty high. Dare I say, Peter has already broken my CROSSWORD UNHOLY TRINITY (CUT) principle? Damn you, Wentz!

I don't like to give unbalanced reviews — there's almost always some good and some not so good in any puzzle — but I feel like I'd have to stretch to ridiculous nits to say more about the puzzle's drawbacks. Maybe say something about how THE FED (great answer) isn't really a market leader (or shouldn't be, more accurately) so should have a question mark? I could have used a few more clever clues, perhaps something about PIZZA PIES being a "toss-up," or an interesting bit of trivia for a HOLE IN ONE?

Eh, forget it. With the sizzling grid and clues like ASNER referencing Lou Grant, KNEE PATCH extending the life of pants, not the length, and TAPS echoing Eine kleine Nachtmusik, I near 100% loved this puzzle.