New York Times, Friday, May 20, 2022

I built this "backward" — beginning in the SE and wending my way up to the NW. Perhaps because English speakers are used to reading, it can be easier to see a grid taking shape when starting near the upper left corner, but some seed entries work better in other areas, where they have more room to breathe.

Here the seed was 57-Across, an artist I greatly admire. He was difficult to clue for a Friday, so I went with my initial inspiration — my late father, who could happily spend all day in a museum. The 2003 exhibit "The French Taste for Spanish Painting" was one of the last he attended, and the framed poster is still hanging in my childhood home.

Another personal touch is my love of geography, which comes through on the right side with the 10-Down/30-Down pair. I'm thankful my clue for 30-Down made the cut — there are many potential angles, from the fascinating history of Indian Ocean trade and the development of Swahili to the Kalashnikov on its modern flag, but when I encountered this fact, it was a pleasant surprise, and I wanted to share that feeling.

Rumors are swirling about the NBA bringing back the Seattle SUPERSONICs as an expansion team. Along with ESPN clued to its "Fantasy" page and a shout-out to my hometown Golden State Warriors CURRYing FAVOR, there's a ton for this bball nut to enjoy.

Amazing MOZAMBIQUE clue, too. Great piece of party trivia to tuck away, that it's the only one-word country to utilize all five vowels. (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, North Macedonia, and of course the United States of America are multi-word supervocalics.)

Even better was the clue for ARSENIC. This chem nerd had no solution to seeing the chemical symbol As cleverly hidden at the start of [As seen in chemistry class?]. Hardly elementary-level wordplay.

I did pause on a few words. Not an INNUMERATE number, and I won't be DOGMATAic about it. Encountering one or two of these isn't so bad if I can logic them out through etymology.

It's not as easy to figure out unfamiliar names since you can't always fall back on etymology. One of the most frequent complaints I hear about puzzles is when they're too name-heavy; solvers grumbling that it becomes a trivia contest instead of a word game. There's something to be said about a balance — having zero names in a puzzle might make it feel drab — but I sympathize with those who do crosswords because they don't rely on proper names as much as "Jeopardy!" does. Over 20% of today's entries are propers.

Fun to get so many rare letters, though, especially the GONZO packing of Zs in that lower right corner.