New York Times, Saturday, May 30, 2015

BRAD: The ambition and versatility of Sam's work intrigued me from his very earliest appearances. He can deliver fresh, well-turned themes and also notably elegant themeless puzzles. He did lots of the heavy lifting here; I contributed the starter and the last corner, but he set me up very nicely. We've done others together since then in which the collaborative process itself might warrant a bit more discussion. Nice to have some longer entries feeding into the center from the border — no islands in the design. Quite a good number of our favorite clues made the cut, too.

SAM: I enjoy Brad's puzzles because they always teach me something new. The process for solving his puzzles usually goes something like this: (1) tentatively write one answer after another; (2) finish the grid feeling uncertain about four or five squares; (3) look up the answers where those mystery squares cross; (4) change 90% of the uncertain squares to the correct answer; and (5) vow to brush up on opera, literature, and other elements of the humanities.

Constructing with Brad is a similar process: (1) receive a partially completed grid; (2) look up three or four of the answers; (3) realize they are real words (and, in fact, darn good ones); and (4) try to contribute something of equal value. It's great fun to work with him. Brad mentioned our success in getting some clues to stick; specifically, 32 of our clues (47%) were left as is, 14 (21%) were polished but retained their original concepts, and the remaining 22 (32%) were completely overhauled, nearly always for the better. (Our original clue for 40-Down referenced the quarterback of my favorite NFL team, but I guess philosophers are a little more high-brow.)

A fun solve from two of my favorite people in crosswordland. Typically themelesses contain slots for 12-16 long entries (eight letters or more), as it's too difficult to work in more than that without generating compromises in fill.

Not today! An amazing 20 long slots. It took me some study to figure out the engineering behind this one. It all starts from the upper left and lower right regions, which "turn the corner" into L-shapes — so daunting to fill. A total of 12 long slots in just those two corners alone!

With so many long slots, the conversion ratio (assets to total long entries) doesn't have to be as high as usual. Heck, if you put neutral words in eight of the slots, you still end up with 12 nice entries.

So how do they do? I love entries like KIDS MEAL, TIME SAVER, SMELL TEST, DIXIECRAT, IM UP FOR IT — all colorful and/or vivid chunks of language. Others like SNARLS AT, LISTENED, ADORATION, LETTUCES aren't as nice, as they provide filler for everyday conversation. And the ACE AWARD seems to me nearly a liability, given the clue which further emphasizes how outdated it is.

Overall, I'd say about 11-12 of the entries are excellent; a decent number of assets — more than enough to balance out the just a few liabilities like ASST and ENL (maybe SNERT too, although I always had a soft spot for him). Solid puzzle.

The coup de grace was the clue [Noted employee of Slate]. Surely that had to be someone working at the online zine Slate? No, it was Mr. Slate, Fred Flintstone's employer at the quarry. Such a clever misdirection.