New York Times, Thursday, March 9, 2023

Tons of compound words can be "flipped" to make a new unrelated term. HANG.OVER flipping to become OVER.HANG, say. The components --HANG and OVER — are unchanged, so it's not super interesting. I went looking for terms where the space between the components has to shift for the flip to work, so that one of the components is brand new to the equation. Adding an /s/ turned out to be the most reliable, consistent approach: TOOL.BARS flips to BAR.STOOL, and I liked how "stool" just shows up unexpectedly.

I was surprised at how few good candidates I could find with this property. Some from the discard pile included: HOT.POTS, HOT.BLOODS, WAY.SIDES, PACE.MAKERS, and WING.CHAIRS. Sometimes an extra /s/ suffix is needed to make a grid work; too many can feel like extra fluff in lieu of meatier vocabulary.

For this puzzle I liked how the added /s/ is the key to the gimmick. My original submittal greyed one side of each compound answer, as an option to make it easier to see the "sides". The editors went with no greyed squares; a bit harder, but hopefully fun and not frustrating.

I appreciate that Simon did his homework. So many constructors have approached me with the exact same flippin' flipping concept, switching front and back halves of words. It's been done so many times, that you need something different to even get noticed. I like today's constraint. Although the second word doesn't change, the overall effect is punchy. ALE HOUSES to HOUSE SALE works well.

It's not every day that we're treated to kookiness in a grid. We've added thick lines below to mimic what the NYT has done with the print edition. I was positive that the thick lines were hurdles that the themers had to jump over, but this works, too. It's a shame that there aren't any numbers at the H of ALEHOUSES and second H of HOTHEADS — feels like there's some clever approach that could make use of that.

There's often A LOT TO LOSE when you work with adjacent long Downs. Getting all the Across answers to play nicely is a bit of herding cats. Running two themers through that area risks cat scratch fever. Excellent work in the lower left, a SECRET DOOR running through the good ol' US OF A. The opposite corner suffered some AGITA, but that's a reasonable price to pay for ANIMANIACS / WATER SNAKE.

Hardly a MOUE-inducing entry elsewhere! That's solid work, for a six-themer puzzle.

I love it when the NYT messes with the boring ol' square grids that are just so square. Cool idea to draw in those thick lines — especially intriguing that the one in the middle of PRINTOUTS seems to close off that passageway between black squares, like a door that could swing open. Crossword theme radar pinging …