HOOK-UPS

Natan Last, 28, is a founding member of the International Rescue Committee's innovation lab and a researcher and advocate for refugee resettlement and humanitarian aid. A frequent contributor — he sold his first crossword to The Times when he was 16; this is his 29th for the paper — Last says this puzzle's theme germinated while watching people fish in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn.

I like that Natan didn't stick to a standard "words hidden within phrases" theme, but took it a step further. Apt to "hook up" the fish buried in the theme phrases, pulling them all the way up to the top. It still may be boggling people's minds, so here's an example of how it worked:

WORKOUT ROUTINE -> TROUT WORKOU INE

I made a puzzle like this once for the WSJ, where the letters B I R D "flew south," in a similar manner. Some people loved it — I got a lot of fan mail. And some people hated it.

HAAAAAAATED it.

While I didn't receive any death threats, some notes were pretty close. It was just too hard a puzzle, even with the crossing answers dumbed way down.

I learned a lot from that experience. It's easy to go overboard and make a puzzle unenjoyably hard. Themes where a solver must depend on every single crossing answer can be especially frustrating. Think of a quote puzzle, where you have to solve based only on the downs, unable to see what's going on in the quote until the very last minute. That's essentially what we are working with today since it's so difficult to figure out each base phrase until you are close to uncovering the entire entry.

Natan's 136-word grid is well done — a rarity in Sunday puzzles. Big ups for that feat of cruciverbalistic wizardry. But figuring out the theme phrases was tough enough, and having so many long pieces of fill made the solving process even harder.

As much as I enjoyed the great bonuses — A VOTRE SANTE, COLD FISSION, PAUL SIMON, STEAMPUNK, and more — this particular theme was so challenging to uncover that a more standard 140-word grid might have made for a better solving experience.

As for the themers themselves, I'd have liked each of the fish spanning words within themers — the MAGIC and RIDE of MAGIC (CARP)ET RIDE felt superfluous, whereas LA(B ASS)ISTANT felt like a much more interesting discovery. But I can see how some would prefer the relative simplicity of ones like MAGIC (CARP)ET RIDE, given how hard the theme was to suss out.

Overall though, the twist on the tried and true theme type was appreciated.