New York Times, Tuesday, April 5, 2016

I submitted this puzzle to the Times in October 2014; in January 2015, before I 'd heard back on the submission, the Times published a puzzle by Susan Gelfand that also used answers based on comedians' last names. While the themes weren't identical (Susan used phrases anchored by one last name, e.g. CAESARSALAD, whereas I used phrases consisting of two last names, e.g. ROCKCANDY), I feared that they had too much in common for my puzzle to make the cut. So it was a pleasant surprise when Will Shortz accepted my version.

From a construction standpoint, I could only come up with four phrases that fit the theme, so I was extremely fortunate that the theme answers plus the revealer broke out symmetrically. I hope solvers enjoy the result.

Neat find, PAIR OF JOKERS describing how each of the themers is made up of two comedians, i.e. CRYSTAL BALL = Billy CRYSTAL and Lucille BALL. I was impressed that Dan was able to find such nice phrases without dipping into the little-known comedians. I had to think for a second about SHORT (Martin) and WINTERS (Jonathan), but they came back quickly.

Is PAIR OF JOKERS a real phrase, used in real life? I intuitively know it refers to the two jokers that usually come in a standard deck of cards, but it doesn't quite flow off the tip of my tongue. It's too bad — if I hadn't hitched at the revealer, I might have given this one the POW! just based on how cool Dan's finds were. SHORT WINTERS feels more neutral than an asset to me, but the rest of them are such strong phrases, made up perfectly of two well-known comics.

Really enjoyed the long fill today, Dan utilizing an unusual arrangement in placing FENG SHUI / WENT WILD horizontally. I wonder if JOKERS so close to WILD was a shout-out to the old "Joker's Wild" game show? If so, I approve!

I'm usually not one to care for duplicated short words, especially things like TO, ON, IN — they're so minor that I barely notice them. LETS NOT crossing LET GO, though … that was pretty tough to overlook. It's too bad — even with five themers and a bunch of nice long fill, Dan manages to the keep the gluey bits to just some minor RIN, LIC, LAA stuff. If it hadn't been for the LET/LET dupe and EFS, which feels more icky to me (when is that ever written out like that?), it would have been such a beautifully smooth solve.

Still, it was pretty good execution overall, with some great theme finds.