New York Times, Saturday, July 25, 2020

On the first iteration of this puzzle I received feedback that the editorial team liked the top half, but not the bottom. Sadly, this meant redoing the entire puzzle, as any three of the eight interlocking 15 letter entries lock in a good chunk of the remaining five.

These low-word count, unusual grid designs seem to often get mixed reviews. I personally enjoy them from a solver's perspective, as I find the odds of a rough cross decrease — the less desirable bits of crossword glue holding these grids together tend to cross the long spanners that are (hopefully!) known to most.

In this case, I'm not proud of ARY, ILEA or ENES — but happy with the crosses on all three. AGNI and ST VITUS are tough, but I think both fair and worth knowing.

This was my first puzzle to be accepted by the NYT mid last year. Looking back, I would have swapped RIPA for RIPE (and TESS to TESH) to reduce the proper name count in the north east, and insisted that at least 1 of the long 15s was an obviously modern phrase/term. And, being picky, the fact that IN A appears twice in the spanners is also a bit of a detractor.

That all said, I enjoyed making it in the wonderful company of Yvo and Marzena, and am quite pleased with how it came out. Hope everyone enjoys!

Triple-stacks! In our usual weekly shelter-in-place call, Jim Horne and I noted that it's been a while since we've seen grid-spanning triple-stacks; refreshing to experience one after a break. VICTORIAS SECRET hiring its first transgender model is a great way to anchor a puzzle, and SEALED ENVELOPES shines too.

Not only that, but a pair of vertical grid-spanners connecting the stacks? I marveled at the grid pattern for several seconds when opening it up; a rare occurrence for me. There's something almost regal about it, with that cross in the center. If you squint, the entire picture looks a bit like a crown.

Squint harder!

A couple of great clues, too. VINE as a "tree-hugger." Hens that BROODED on their eggshells. NFL having a lot of "down time" … Jim pointed out that this might be doubly clever, as there's the "first down" kind of time, but the potential down time related to coronavirus. I'm curious to see what socially distanced football looks like. Gives players even more incentive to not be tackled.

Royce did well to leave himself flexibility in the starts / ends of 4- and 12-Down, TAL / PER and CLO / STS flexible letter combinations. A solidly executed puzzle, not an easy task with such tough constraints, with only some ARY and KEATONS.

I could have used a bit more of a challenge, perhaps making the clues for the long entries more deviously clever? Surely ONCE IN A LIFETIME could be made even better by playing on ... reincarnation?

I didn't get quite enough snazz to give this one the POW! — ALL ALONG THE LINE and much of the mid-length material feeling more neutral than assets — but big bonus points for (socially distanced) tackling such a dauntingly regal grid pattern.