New York Times, Saturday, May 16, 2015

A couple of clue edits caught my eye. For 1-Down (DRUG CZAR), I had [Coke head?]. I would have gone with [Pot head?] but for 1-Across. As such, the clue felt a little crass to me. I love the edited version, which works the same kind of joke in a much subtler fashion. (Jeff: [Highest officer in his field, ironically]; "Highest" — get it?)

For 8-Down, I had the somewhat rococo [Teddy Roosevelt's third-party endorsement?]. It interests me that my version made the first part of the entry easier to find, where the edited version gives a big hint for getting the end of the clue. It might be an easier clue that makes the puzzle harder, since the top of the entry is one of only two ways into the NE section. Fortunately, the baseball trivia at 20-Across is well-known to many, and easily findable for anyone else who gets really stuck getting into that corner.

What intimidation the amazingly wide-open grid presents! From a constructor's standpoint, I cringed at the thought of trying to fill such wide swaths, especially the NW and SE corners.

As a solver, I found it nearly impossible to get a toehold anywhere. Byron mentioned to me at the ACPT that he avoids three-letter entries like the plague, since they've been done to death. I depend on those little guys to give me a place to start, though! This one only had six of them, so it was an extremely solve difficult. Daunting when your first pass through the clues turns up only Douglas ADAMS.

Byron has a unique constructing style. At the ACPT, a bunch of us were joking around that some of his entries need a tennis line judge to make a determination on whether it's a real thing or not. There's a huge amount of great fill in this puzzle — RED DIAPER BABIES, BULLY FOR HIM, HINDU GOD, DRUG CZAR — all super solid and zippy.

But I cocked my head a few times, at ECONOCAR (economy car?), LIT THE TORCH (lit the fuse?), DRIP POT (drip coffee or just coffee maker?), and BONESMAN (Skull and Bones member?). As the line judge, I think I'd call the first three just slightly out. However, BONESMAN turns out to be a recognized term for a Skull and Bones member. That's a keeper, IMO.

Typically a grid as open as this will depend on gluey words and RE- / -ER crutches, so it's amazing how little Byron needs. As RE- words go, RELEARN isn't bad, and NARIS apparently is the medical term for a nostril. The PENNI was in circulation until fairly recently, so it's not that bad either.

Overall, an impressive piece of work, Byron weaving creative answers throughout the grid in order to knit the entire thing together.