New York Times, Thursday, March 11, 2021

This puzzle started when I had the idea to use either LATE TO THE PARTY or LATE TO THE GAME as a revealer and to have the theme answers all be phrases that had been changed to be an hour late. I wrote a couple of grids based on this idea but felt like the connection between the revealer and the theme entries was too loose, so I let the grids sit until several weeks later when I suddenly had the idea to make the revealer directly related to daylight saving time.

I have Andrea Carla Michaels to thank for Darkness at Noon — I had been considering Shanghai Noon or Zero Dark Thirty for a third theme answer when I ran the idea by her, but I liked her recommendation best. The 15/15/15/13 lengths were not easy to work with — I know the fingers of blocks in the SW and SE corners aren't ideal, but they were the only way to get clean enough fill.

I had thought this theme would run on a Tuesday or Wednesday, so the editorial team toughened up some of my clues (for instance, I'm assuming my straightforward clues for NANCY and SHERYL were too easy). However, they kept close to half of my original clues, including the dual [Noise from a fan] clues and the reference to Safari for IOS.

I've always liked puzzles where numbers in phrases are changed (a division one and one around extras come to mind), so it was fun to create my own take on the genre. Hope you enjoyed the solve!

I don't mind Seattle winters, but they drive my wife to despair. Even though DARKNESS AT ONE PM would be an exaggeration, I think it's what my wife perceives. Thank goodness we're SPRINGing FORWARD soon!

I liked Leslie's plays on two familiar figures of speech, FIVE (to SIX) O'CLOCK SHADOW and BURN THE MIDNIGHT (to ONE A.M.) OIL. Clever use of mirror symmetry, too, making possible a theme set of 15 15 15 13 (note that they're all odd in length; that's the critical element).

My lack of familiarity with DARKNESS AT NOON was probably yet another hole in my knowledge base. I asked two highly well-read people, Jim Horne and my wife, if they recognized it. Both of them said something to the effect of "… yeahhh …" Maybe throw in a few more h's. Made me wonder, why not use another colloquial NOON phrase?

Blew my mind that after 30 minutes of searching, the best I could do was HIGH NOON or SHANGHAI NOON. I'm a big fan of the "Rush Hour" pairing of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, but him and Owen Wilson ... yeahhhhh.

Some delightful clues. I was stuck in the northwest corner, [Signs of something moving?] befuddling me. Ah, TEARS show that someone's been moved! Crossing that with [Crow native to the Midwest] is diabolical. I ran through all the types of blackbirds I knew (two) and thought it had to be a Native American reference. Ah, SHERYL Crow was born in Missouri!

I should explain two entries. DESI confused me because I'm used to cluing it as DESI Arnaz, but it's also a term for some peoples of the Indian subcontinent. And SINE of pi is zero, when expressed in radians, which is … yeahhh, you don't care.

I found the overall concept too straightFORWARD and easy to figure out, but I enjoyed the apt use of the two colorful base phrases. I might have had a stronger impression if Leslie had gone with HIGH ONE AM (nine letters is also possible in this mirror symmetry layout) and clued it as the phrase (not the movie) to make all three themers more consistent.