INITIAL DESCRIPTION

I've long been fascinated with self-referential stuff, from the mildly amusing (e.g., the Liar's Paradox, "This statement is false"), to the visually dazzling (Escher's "Drawing Hands," "Print Gallery," etc.), to the deeply troubling (Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and its mathematical foundation-rattling), to the cosmically profound (Wheeler's Participatory Anthropic Principle of the universe, and the like).

While on the amusing side, I had stumbled upon self-referencing acronyms — so-called "apronyms," or "aptonyms." It recently occurred to me, "What great fodder for a crossword!" My first submission had five of them, including a few that Will wasn't that crazy about (e.g., ENERGETIC LITTLE FELLOW). But he and Joel were sufficiently intrigued that they offered to workshop the idea with me.

I shared a bunch more of my favorites, culled over time from various sources and my own addled brain. With Will and Joel adding their deft touches to a couple (A TOME LOCATING A STREET became AID TO LOCATE A STREET, for example), we ultimately landed on the six you see. Squeezing in six of such length made it challenging to keep the fill lively, and meant having to lose payoff entries such as the four-theme-word-crossing SELF-REFERENTIAL (and thus settling for the more subtle reveal in 69- and 120-Across), but I was very pleased with the final result and hope you had fun with it.

Once again, it was a huge pleasure working with Will and Joel. I was happy to see so many of my clues survive their expert and uncompromising editor's scalpel. It was also gratifying to sneak in a reference to our youngest grandniece, ABIGAIL, who I hope will appreciate the "tribute" when she learns to read.

Overall, I was sufficiently encouraged by the almost simultaneous acceptance of this and a not-yet-published weekday puzzle submission, after a disappointingly steady run of (however gracious and constructive) rejections following my "beginner's luck" first submission last year, that I think I'll stick with this new-found hobby/budding passion of mine for a while longer and see how it goes. Besides, Beebo (Abby) has quite a few siblings and cousins who may demand equal time.

Jerry wrote to me with this idea a while back. I thought it had potential, but I felt it was too easy to make theme phrases using just about any short word. Without something to link them all in some interesting way, I estimated only a medium chance of acceptance.

Shows what I know!

THREE ROLLED INTO ONE was my favorite. It sounds natural, and it's a nice description of TRIO. It's not perfect, as "rolled" feels off compared to "harmonized." But it gave me a smile.

AID TO LOCATE A STREET worked much better than the original Jerry proposed, but it did feel like an awkward dictionary definition. And does anyone call MARS a SPHERE? (Maybe poets?) And wouldn't one say SWIMMER WITH (AN) ARCHED NECK? (Says the annoying grammarian in me.)

Anyone have natural-sounding ones they've personally made up? I'll publish the best one below.

Any Sunday 140-word puzzle is difficult to build with smoothness and snazziness. Jerry gives himself a slightly easier than average task, incorporating only six themers (most have seven or more these days).

Jerry does a good job of spacing out his themers — note how there are at least two rows of space between each pair. He also uses left-right alternation — look at the placement of MOSTLY ARID RED SPHERE and AID TO LOCATE A STREET — a strategy that minimizes overlap between themers.

Mostly decent fill, although I wish Jerry had gone up to 140 words (he uses 138) to smooth out the north section. That ABOLLA / DOTARDS crossing … both are words that I'd worry about as a constructor. I hate eliciting grumbling from solvers. Crossing them together accentuates their presence, if not making for an unfair crossing.

As a solver, I don't mind some minor IOC, DAR, ECUA — short offenders that are figure-out-able — but with the addition of EVAH, ATNOS, TARARA, RAPA, etc. the crossword glue dragged down my solve. I would have liked to see a revision for better overall smoothness. Jerry's a hard worker — I'm confident that his next puzzle will have less crossword glue.

Overall, I liked that the concept spurred me on to think about what would make for some perfect examples.