THEME SHMEME

Caitlin Reid, of Santa Ana, Calif., is the mother of two boys and two girls ages 4 to 11. Like Margaret Farrar, the first crossword editor of The Times — who was also a busy mother — Caitlin does most of her puzzle work after the rest of the family has gone to bed. That's when things quiet down.

Caitlin is a classically trained pianist who plays at her local church. Her favorite crosswords to make are themeless ones, like today's, which feature long, fresh, lively vocabulary and lots of humor and playfulness in the clues. This is Caitlin's ninth crossword for the paper, including a collaboration last Sunday.

This puzzle was a doozy to make because there were SO. MANY. POSSIBILITIES. The word and block count crept a little higher than I was initially aiming for, but once I was able to find juicy entries for the top and bottom of the grid that worked symmetrically, I knew I had to make the rest of the grid work no matter what.

A couple clues that didn't make the cut: [Read 'em and weep, maybe] for 24-Across, and [Certain seasonal strain] for 64-Across. Grateful for Will and the editing team's polish and for 38-Down (any clue that conjures images of Tina Fey and the old SNL crew strutting around in ridiculous pants is a good one in my book). And as always, I hope this puzzle makes for a satisfying solve!

Philosophically, I'm not a fan of 21x21 themeless puzzles. A huge puzzle ... about nothing? That fundamentally doesn't work. Not a single headlining piece of entertainment has been about nothing —

Huh? Seinfeld was a show about nothing?

Okay, wise guy, now it's time for the Airing of Grievances.

Running a quarterly themeless Sunday puzzle might work for some subgroup of solvers, and it might even elate them. So what's with my bias?

It could well be that I'm adversely affected by my constructing background. Hearing so, so, so many constructors say, "I couldn't think of a theme, so I made a themeless" — plus hearing that submissions are perpetually skewed, with floods of themelesses and only dribs of Sundays — makes this strategy feel like a cop-out.

My bigger issue is that I see so much possibility in the 21x21 canvas, the big board begging for artistic and creative brilliance. I've heard the argument that it's too tough to come up with a brilliant Sunday theme every week, but I don't buy that. Evan Birnholz (of the Washington Post) doesn't always hit, but at least once a month, I sigh, wishing that Will Shortz would hire a team of people like Evan, tasking them with rejuvenating Sunday puzzles.

It's not fair for this philosophical discussion to ignore Caitlin's puzzle, so I will say that I appreciated much of it. A ton of entries delighted — TRICK OR TREAT, DELETED SCENES, SKINNY DIPPING, SLUMBER PARTY — making this far from a TERRIBLE IDEA. Great clues, too, a SHOE STORE a place to "go for kicks." Overall, it worked much better for the broad solving audience than the last one.

I enjoyed enough of Caitlin's work that I gave it some POW! consideration — but only relative consideration, because it's much better than most recent Sunday NYTs. That's a big problem. I'd love to see Will Shortz figure out a way to tackle this issue, casting aside the old-school way of doing things, steering the NYT toward a brighter future for Sundays.

I love these themeless Sundays.

Adeste Fideles doesn't ring a bell? You may know that melody by another name: