New York Times, Tuesday, February 17, 2015

The story of this puzzle is a bit like Disneys "The Incredible Journey." The poor animal started out in San Diego, 3000 miles from Will Shortz's house, and had to doggedly find its way there — without any cats to help. It was the seventh version of this puzzle that eventually got accepted — I think Will started to feel sorry for the little pooch!

I was always optimistic about this puzzle, in spite of the 51 blocks, the asymmetry, and the rejections, because to me the grid art is super clear. I have shown this image to about a hundred people over the last year or two, and ALL of them see the dog, sometimes with a little prompting. A lot of them don't just say "dog", they say "Oh look — a Scottish Terrier!"

This grid might not look hard to fill, but 76 words in a 15x16 puzzle equates to 71 words in a normal sized puzzle, and with a lot of theme entries the fill was LABorious. The area under Scottie's chin was particulary hard to fill cleanly, and that doesn't even have any theme entries in it. Will wanted it for a Monday, but I think ISEULT at 27-Across pushed it over into a Tuesday slot. It's certainly more fun to clue for a Tuesday.

Will was kind enough to take my suggestion and publish this puzzle on the day of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show finals, but he opted not to mention the show in any clues. He also did not seem at ALL interested in possibly appearing on live TV to discuss Scottie's physical attributes with the dog show judges.

Hope you enjoyed the puzzle!

What a cool visual. Sometimes grid art takes a bit of squinting and an overly active imagination to properly enjoy, but I really liked how well Bruce conveyed a Scottie dog with just 24 black squares. Compare to the image on the right — a spitting image.

I also liked the idea of "dog names that can be disguised as other things." CHOW, BOXER, POM, HUSKY, SETTER are perfect, as they have other definitions completely different than canine ones. Most of these have been mined for clever clues, so I enjoyed the turning of the tables. It's too bad that not all of the nine met this criteria.

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? Or IN … since the dogs are inside the puzzle, not outside of it? As much as I love/hate that earwormy song, it doesn't feel quite apt for a revealer. Matter of opinion, of course.

While I enjoyed the novelty of the visual, the lack of symmetry did give me pause. We've had some puzzles with an asymmetrical center but symmetrical perimeter, and having at least a touch of symmetry somewhere is awfully pleasing to the eye. I don't think that's possible here, given all the theme material, but I might have liked less theme density in exchange for perimeter symmetry.

On that note, even taking out POODLE would have been nice, allowing the south section to be filled more cleanly. Such a tricky area, given BLOODHOUND's appearance. It's always tough to make these judgment calls about theme density vs. cleanliness of fill, and each constructor will have his/her different idea on where the line should be drawn.

But overall, I appreciate the gridwork. The west section is particularly pleasing given the raw size of the white space. I like that Bruce left himself with few constraints in the biggest section to fill, allowing himself to work in some nice answers with just AN EEL as the lone liability.