New York Times, Saturday, December 22, 2018

probably every constructor has been asked "the question": which do you write first, the grid or the clues? if you think about it, there can only be one right answer: it has to be the grid, because you need to clue every entry that appears in the finished grid, whereas if you write all the clues first, you can't possibly expect to grid every entry you've clued.

on the other hand, you can certainly start a themeless puzzle by coming up with one good clue for a marquee entry and using it to seed the grid. that's what i did in this puzzle, with the BEER GOGGLES clue. (i'm pleased to see it unchanged in the final puzzle!) my usual grid pattern in themelesses has stacks in the NW/SE corners, but i don't love doing that with 11-letter answers because it necessitates a whole bunch of 3s in the NE and SW. so this time i tried crossing staggered stacks in the middle of the grid, and i was pleased with the results. (tip of the cap to andrew ries, whose "stagger sessions" from last year inspired this grid layout.)

I like joon's layout. Most themelesses using sets of long entries interlocking in the middle have problems, either

1. Not having much oomph in the corners, or
2. Restricting the solving flow around said corners to work in extra pizzazz.

Note how joon kept the four corners wide open, answers flowing around, and still managed to work great stuff like ADULTING, ZOOTOPIA, YOSEMITE. Takes a lot of skill (and time) to make this happen.

I also appreciated the trio of SPLASHY TRASHY MEATY. Felt like a spoof ad for Arby's. We have the meats!

With the very difficult-to-fill grid, some trade-offs are expected. I'm glad that joon avoided almost all crossword glue (EOE, GRO, YSER pretty minor). But with a tough name in each corner — NADINE / EVONNE / ARNESS / PEIRCE — it felt like a lot of what some people will call "trivia."

Along with some tough vocab — INCEPT SUBORNS ESPIAL — I think this one is well placed on the hardest day of the NYT crossweek. It's all fair, but it's certainly not easy.

Not a ton of SPLASHY entries in the middle, BEER GOOGLES and GOING STEADY the exceptions. But I like how the clues elevated the otherwise boring NEGOTIATION and CORRECTIONS. The former is perfect, no telltale question mark to give away the game. Who doesn't know some dullard who talks about their job on and on? In this case, "talks" is the noun form. Perfect!

The question mark in [Slip covers?] did alert me right away that something was up. But the fantastic repurposing of "slip covers" was well worth it.

There's a double hint in the "Slip covers?" clue — the question mark and the extra space. The fitted cover that slips over a chair or sofa (or book!) is a (single word) slipcover. Did Will Shortz need both? For me, probably, but I imagine there might have been some internal debate.