New York Times, Saturday, February 25, 2017

SWIPE LEFT was the launching point for this puzzle. I heard it in an anti-smoking TV ad featuring the ditty "Left Swipe Dat" at the end of 2015 and wondered if it might make a fresh seed for a themeless. After asking around it became apparent that almost everyone but me recognized the phrase — mainly because I don't own a cell phone (much to the head-shaking disbelief of my family and friends).

Decided to stack SWIPE LEFT atop two other 9's by placing three vertical blocks, then placed three horizontal blocks midway down the left side and blocked diagonally up and to the right from there. Added a diagonal string to help divide the two halves. But then had to leave gaps below/above the three vertical blocks to avoid 2-letter spans. Upped the ante by sliding a pair of the blocks over to open the flow into the upper left and lower right (see picture).

The final fill felt smooth and even — not a lot of flash, but solid. Liked TOM RIPLEY, CRAISINS (yum — surprised it hadn't appeared before), CAPE COD BAY crossing BBQ RIBS (double yum!) and AIRSOFT, and even BIOBURDEN (it resonates with me as a dentist with the VA). Enjoyed the shiny clues Will and Joel came up with for CAMPS and SAHL.

And I'm glad Will kept my "cheese and rice!" clue for NERTS. The phrase brings to my mind a picture of Inspector Cramer (hmm...15 letters — add that to your list, Jeff) sitting across from Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in Nero's office, while chomping on his cigar and growling that minced oath in frustration!

Loved this one. A 66-word grid without extraneous black squares ("cheaters") is extremely tough to fill with snazziness and smoothness. Mark has so many great entries, BIOBURDEN my favorite (my previous career was in biotech). SWIPE LEFT is a Tinder thing (so I'm told), so that gives the puzzle some freshness.

What stood out for me was that so many of Mark's one-word entries were so good. I love Arthurian lore, so EXCALIBUR elated me. The word EBULLIENT feels so bubbly, so effervescent, so … EBULLIENT! And what a great clue for ARMADILLO, that it hops straight up when startled.

The fact that ABORIGINAL and ORIGINAL have similar meanings ... I stared at those first two empty squares for the longest time, wondering if there was some trick going on utilizing empty squares. Love it.

Single-word entries are often harder to make memorable than multi-worders — MINIATURE vs. something as neat as the mid-length BBQ RIBS for example — but Mark shined today.

Speaking of mid-length entries, BBQ RIBS wasn't the only standout. CAPISCE?, PUP TENT, OPEN NOW, TOY CAR, ALIMONY all added to my solve. Great stuff.

And what the heck kind of long entry starts with DS*? I was sure I had something wrong, especially since I was thinking about [60s sorts] as people from the 60s. LSD maybe? No, it was 60s ... as in 60 percent! What a fantastic clue/entry pair.

Nice and smooth grid, too. I did hitch on the BANC / BIEN crossing, as I don't know my Indochina War trivia. But this is a Saturday puzzle, so a ["Tres ___!"] clue would have been way too easy.

AIRSOFT was the one head-scratcher for me today. I used to run a boys' group, where we did all sorts of laser tag-type events, so it's mystifying that I hadn't heard of this. But one head-scratcher in a puzzle is fine and even welcome; a good source of learning.

DEWED was just about the only real complaint I had. "Dewy," yeah? But that vowel-consonant alternation in DEWED is so constructor-friendly.

All in all, such a delight to solve.