New York Times, Saturday, May 1, 2021

This grid came about after some noodling on variations of this stupidly crazy wide open grid pattern I liked (I'm a sucker for open grids). The design is also similar to my Boswords puzzle a few weeks back. With the center of DIRTY RICE, I eventually was able to build out the middle into what you see here. I tried to keep many of the longer entries as common nouns so this grid design would play a bit more nicely. Hope you enjoy!

I also just recently launched my own indie puzzle blog, McGrids! I'm exploring crossword construction in several parallel series, including asymmetrical grids, vowelless, wide-open middles (like today's), and others. If you haven't yet checked out the wealth of indie crossword puzzles out there, I highly recommend it! They've been some of my favorite discoveries during the pandemic.

It's rare to find a crossword niche. It's even rarer to be one of the few people who have mastered said niche. Ryan is not only the creator of this "tilted football" wide-open, low-word-count themeless style, but the one and only master. It's amazing how many fantastic entries are packed into that humongous center — without any dabs of crossword glue!

I'd be happy to work in BALD TIRES, LOVE SEATS, DIRTY RICE, THE OLD VIC, WATER HAZARD, EAR TRUMPET, SCOTCH EGG into a themeless. To do so in the middle of a wide-open center is jaw-dropping. I rarely have the sense of not knowing where I would even begin on a construction, but this is one of those cases.

Not only that, but there are half a dozen brilliant clues. [Popular camp assemblies] had me thinking of sing-alongs. But marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers get assembled into S'MORES all the time.

And part of a diplomatic address had to be referring to an embassy mailing address. What a great a-ha, realizing that MADAM can be a diplomatic way to address someone.

The question mark tipped me off on [Places where things are all tied up?] but that didn't take much away from the humor of boats being tied up at MARINAS.

Even the common ABS got elevated as a focus of "middle management." It's been over a year since I went climbing …

I now better understand Ryan's feats because I've spent hours breaking them down, developing tricks that can help replicate his results. That still doesn't take away from my appreciation for his artistic and technically amazing feats. To pack in so much juice while never allowing yourself to use even a single drop of crossword glue = superstar. In most weeks, this would have easily gotten the POW!, but great themes don't come around very often.

The Seattle Mariners were victims of an unassisted triple play that completely fooled the announcers: