New York Times, Tuesday, February 6, 2018

The initial spark for most of my puzzles is rather obscure, but I can say definitively that this one was born on 11/7/16. I had an NYT puzzle that day with some IC phrases (INNER CHILD, IVORY COAST, etc.) and an "I SEE" revealer. One of the online reviewers commented:

"We remain in the well-worn, hoary, ultra-basic theme-type universe, with loads of dull short fill to boot."

That was actually one of my better reviews at that site, but Loren Muse Smith took offense and fired off the first post of that day, which was very supportive of my puzzle. She then went on to list other potential phonetic theme revealers like excellency and escapee (theme recently done by CC Burnikel elsewhere) and DEVIOUS. I was grateful to Loren for her support, and even more grateful for new theme ideas! I tried to get her to co-construct this one but she begged off — however, she and I have a Valentine's Day puzzle coming up next week in the 42-Down.

Will and Joel said "nicely done, and the fill really sparkled" — I remember wishing I could do something about the crossing of DENOVO and ORONYMS, which Will said pushed this puzzle from a Monday to a Tuesday.

D* V* phrases, tied together with a revealer of DEVIOUS … as in "D V us"? Or "DV's"?

I tried to make sense of it for ten minutes before giving up and asking Bruce. He thought of it as "D V - ous," as in "-ous" = a descriptor, like "-ish" or something.

Huh. It doesn't work for me, but I can understand his thinking.

Bruce did such a great job with his mid-length fill. Having a 9-letter entry in the middle of your puzzle will usually mean a bunch of 7-letter entries in the corners, and those can be so tough to make stand out. But check out DAD BODS / IN ERROR / NO CAN DO, I'll BITE / SAY WHEN, I HOPE SO / LA TIMES, ADOPT ME! Good stuff in every corner.

Earlier in his constructing career, Bruce tended to use too much crossword glue, and there's a hint of that today in TELE, OTOE, OTT, ESS. (I think OTOE is a tribe educated folks ought to know, but I admit that I've only ever seen the word in crosswords.) Today, I didn't mind as much, because these all helped him make the mid-length fill so snazzy. I think it was a worthwhile trade-off.

Oh, NYT constructors! Please please please, can we stay away from ADORBS tween talk? I know it's in the language (no matter how badly this old guy resists), but sigh. Totes srsly!

(Sadly, these are real things people say.)

While I liked many of the themers, DARTH VADER in particular (talk about a DEEP VOICE!), this initialism theme type feels like it's losing steam. These days, an initialism puzzle needs something to elevate it — rare letters like Z or Q, or perhaps a stellar, witty revealer that produces an incredible a-ha moment.