New York Times, Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Occasionally a phrase presents itself that immediately triggers the thought that it might be conducive to a crossword theme. I've always been interested in themes that use diagonal sets of letters in a grid, so the "oblique" of OBLIQUE REFERENCE became a natural source for that format, and "reference" suggested the use of standard forms of reference books.

I liked the idea, but the construction, which needed to place the diagonals within the strictures of a symmetrical grid while including a large number of triple-checked letters, was very hard to manage. When I submitted the puzzle, the response was that the theme was good, but one entry could not be accepted. Several revisions followed, all receiving a "close but no cigar" response. I am very thankful to Will for having enough interest in theme to allow me to battle it out with the grid until it finally became acceptable. I hope solvers get some enjoyment from the final product.

Four REFERENCEs placed OBLIQUEly, i.e., diagonally through the grid. Any time I see diagonal entries, I brace myself for the onslaught of crossword glue. Four long ones forced me to take a deep breath before jumping in.

Pleasant surprise to not get as much as I expected! And I was mighty impressed by the SW corner. That's bound to be tough, considering that there are two intersecting themers and a whole lot of white space. I didn't say WHAT A BORE at all, especially since that corner came out so colorful AND clean.

No doubt, there were some rough patches, notably the south: ERTE KRONER (even as a finance guy, I blinked when it turned out not to be KRONOR), ERTE, ROUE, VERSO. None of those entries are bad, but as a whole, oof.

What interested me most about the puzzle was Jeffrey's decision to use mirror symmetry. He could easily have used regular symmetry, placing OBLIQUE REFERENCE in the center. But think about how many diagonal entries would have had to intersect that. He could have snuck ATLAS in a corner, but the other three would have had to run through OBLIQUE REFERENCE, making the gridwork almost impossible. At first, I thought it was an odd choice to use mirror symmetry, but it's a clever way to solve a difficult construction problem.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this more from a constructor's perspective than a solver's. After filling one REFERENCE in, the game was up, and what with the dabs of crossword glue and the heavy grid segmentation, it didn't provide much solving joy. But I did have a good time going back to deconstruct how Jeffrey went about the tough gridwork challenge.