New York Times, Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Although I'm happy to be back in the NYT, I can't say I'm too proud of my work this time around. Ideally, a puzzle featuring wacky phrases would have all of them land well, but my thoughts on some of these themers have changed since the puzzle was accepted. Perhaps some of the fill might help improve the solve, but with some overly familiar short stuff, my hopes aren't too high.

Shortly after I started constructing, I wanted to do a theme focusing on the elements, just to practice filling a grid. The idea transformed into adding IUM to the ends of phrases after I saw the "add some letters" trope appear in various crossword outlets when I first started solving. As a rookie constructor, I struggled with the fill and shelved the concept. Later I revisited the idea, but instead, tried inserting IUM in the middle of familiar phrases. I developed a set of themers, filled a grid around them, and sent in the puzzle.

Based on rejections of my previous submissions that I thought were better than this one, I didn't expect a positive response. But to my surprise, the concept was appealing enough to get a conditional acceptance, so what do I know? Not much, apparently. However, the grid needed some revisions and theme entry changes before getting the nod. Thanks to the editing team for their suggestions that helped push this one across the finish line. I'm pleased my clue at 65A survived.

Christopher is being too hard on himself. It's true that an abundance of "add letters for kooky results" themes makes it difficult to pass Will Shortz's barium, ha ha, but there are a number of factors that helped me enjoy this one.

• How easy is it to discover the transformations? Using our Replacement Finder would seem to show that IUM to (blank) is easy. If you look closely at the results, though, most of them involve elements — boooring! The RAD to RADIUM transformation is hardly what I'd call rad.
• How cool are the transformations? I like that each pairing changes pronunciation. Each one shifts from a short vowel to a long one, too!
• How funny are the resulting theme phrases? Humor is so subjective, as exemplified by my near-zero acceptance rate with Will when it comes to puns. I didn't vibe with many of the results, but linking CRANIUM APPLE to William Tell was clever. And if you ask Tess and Jake, they'll tell you just how many TEDIUM TALKs I've given them.

Smooth gridwork helped the solve pass by quickly. I enjoyed some interesting fill, too, EPIDERMIS and DECOMPILE not words I cross every day.

The clue for LUCIAN did confuse me — this former wannabe Pokemon trainer would say Lucian is far from notable. But [Crime of great interest] more than made up for that. Fantastic wordplay to describe the loan-sharking crime of USURY.