New York Times, Friday, May 3, 2019

This one takes me quite a ways back! Although this is my sixth themeless puzzle in the Times, it was the second one I constructed, over two years ago—I enjoyed working with the layout of my first themeless and decided to try another similar one. I started in the upper-right with IZOMBIE, as I had just watched the first two seasons (and fittingly, its fifth season premiered yesterday!) I remember being quite pleased with how that corner turned out, and it still stands out to me now—I especially like how the J, X, and Z are each at the intersection of two 7- or 8-letter entries.

I think the rest of the puzzle still looks pretty good; it's perhaps not my flashiest puzzle ever, but I think it's solid all around, and filled with some nice entries that are accessible to a wide range of solvers. And what's not to like about the three instances of ‘AO' in down entries in the lower-right section?

Some of the clues of mine I'm particularly fond of in this one are those for 18-Across, 30-Across, 7-Down, 36-Down, 38-Down, and 40-Down. That said, I'd like to give a special mention to my clue for 22-Across, which I am delighted to see in the final version of the puzzle. Not only is "The Bottle Imp" one of my all-time favorite short stories, there's also a devilishly diabolical trick-taking card game of the same name that somehow manages to capture the feel and tension of Stevenson's story perfectly. Both are highly recommended!

Trenton is one of the few constructors I'd trust with a themeless grid featuring a lot of 7-letter answers. One of his previous ones was a standout, demonstrating his ability to carefully pick colorful answers for those mid-length slots, which are all too easy to fill with neutral material.

Some standouts today in that 7-letter territory: ALI BABA, CODE RED, DOG BITE, IN A HAZE, KUNG PAO, LOST ART, MOON PIE, PARADOX, RADIO DJ, SAFARIS … okay, I'm basically listing out all of his 7-letter entries!

Well, not quite all. TRIMSPA is outdated.

AREOLAE isn't great in the singular AREOLA, much less the plural AREOLAS. Er, AREOLAE. Especially when you already have AORTAE in the grid.

ACCRUAL won't win many awards, except for in the finance community, perhaps.

But overall, most themelesses featuring 7-letter entries have way under 50% of these mid-length slots filled with color. To have about 85% of your slots packed with snazz is fantastic work.

That percentage is high enough that I seriously considered this as a POW! contender. If Trenton's earlier puzzle hadn't came to mind immediately — and there had been one less of AREOLAE / AORTAE and ETTORE — perhaps I would have given this one the nod.