New York Times, Friday, April 21, 2017

This is one of the first themeless puzzles I ever constructed. My first version was rejected, and I set it aside for a while, and then after this version was accepted, it sat in the queue for a while longer, getting jumped by a few of my other themeless puzzles.

Looking over it with fresh eyes, I like it. The Texas region makes me cringe a bit — ANNEE crossing RONA and LINTEL is less than stellar — but I'm quite satisfied with the rest of it. My favorite answers are GRAMMAR NAZI and GO-GO BOOTS (not coincidentally my seed entries). To my knowledge, neither has ever before appeared in a crossword puzzle, and I think the clue for the former ("Type for who this clue will be annoying?") is pretty clever. I really like my submitted clue for the latter too, which was basically the same as the published clue ("Iconic part of Nancy Sinatra's early attire"), but I omitted one word: Nancy. Of course, the solver will immediately think of Frank Sinatra, which is the trick.

In another bit of misdirection, I hope fellow baseball fans will appreciate the clue for TOTAL BASES ("A batter receives four for a grand slam"), once they realize RUNS BATTED IN doesn't fit.

SO MANY great entries! Damon starts with 14 long slots (8+ letters), and converts most into sizzling material. Love GO-GO BOOTS, and in my previous career, the ACTs OF GOD clauses in legal contracts were always good for a laugh. HOT DATES, SMEAR TACTIC, SPY STORY ... everywhere I looked, great material packed in tight.

My daughter has a weird fascination with HELLO KITTY. Sigh, so much pink. Still, a great entry.

SETTLE IN and TOTAL BASES didn't do much for me (I'm plus/minus on baseball), but Damon's slugging percentage (or whatever metaphor you baseball fans like to use) in converting long slots to great entries is very high.

Excellent use of mid-length entries, too. I grew up idolizing THE FONZ, a virtual MESSIAH to me. AFROPOP too? OMIGOSH! Constructors tend to overlook the potential of these mid-length slots, but Damon does so well with them.

GRAMMAR NAZI … I chuckled at this one in the end, but I uncovered the NAZI end of it first. Never pleasant to see NAZI in a crossword. GRAMMAR NAZI sure is a colorful term, though.

There was something non-themeless feeling to this puzzle, and it took me a while to figure out what. During my solve, I felt like I stopped and started dozens of times. Took me a while to figure out that the number of three-letter words was most of the root cause.

Now, most people won't care how many three-letter words there are in a themeless. But so many shorties leads to so much starting and stopping. Typically, themelesses don't have more than 12 three-letter entries, for good reason.

And entering ERG, then DAN, RIA, TEA, OHS, across the middle … that row of shorties takes away from the themeless feel to the layout.

But overall, a fairly smooth solve (aside from what Damon mentioned plus TE AMO, ERG, and OFT) and a huge number of great entries gave me a very nice solving experience.