New York Times, Thursday, July 27, 2017

The origin of this theme probably duplicates the thought processes of many crossword constructors. A phrase is noticed or comes to mind, and suddenly the crossword section of the brain lights up, and one thinks "That could be a crossword theme!" This nearly involuntary reaction is both a boon and a bane to the constructor's life as one tries for a balance between normal and crossword-based brain function. "Sure," the brain says, "I might be able to find phrases including FORT, and then both figuratively and literally HOLD DOWN that word by placing it vertically within other words." And then the work begins.

There are only a few short or medium-length words that contain FORT (long words would have created problems with placement within the grid), so that put a constraint on the relevant connecting vertical entries. Their ultimate placement also necessitated the added "cheater squares," whose presence I sought to compensate for using the somewhat low word count.

As I look at the clues for this puzzle — as always, a combination of original submissions and clues created by Will — it seems to me that the overall result is a puzzle that is somewhat easier than usual for a New York Times Thursday crossword. I suppose I will see if that evaluation is accurate when solvers' commentaries start appearing on the crossword blogs. In any event, I hope most people enjoy the puzzle.

HOLD DOWN THE FORT interpreted literally, F O R T hanging down within phrases. Such a strange-looking FUNE HUNTER … or is that (FORT)UNE HUNTER? Fine job of disguising those dropped FORTs, in FORTE, FORTH, EFFORTS. Not a lot of ways to work FORT into short fill, indeed — FORTY, Abe FORTAS and FORTRAN the only other short(ish) entries I could think of, right off the bat.

I did wonder if this was a good interpretation of HOLD DOWN — wouldn't "push down" or "drop down" be more appropriate? I guess if you squint and use your imagination, it sort of works …

Love the bonuses of MOB RULE, and EMERALDS with its interesting trivia clue — I had no idea Cleopatra mined them. I also enjoyed [Game animals, for some] misdirecting toward ELK or DEER. Great a-ha, when I realized it was the "sports" meaning of "game," relating to team MASCOTS.

LAND SALES is workable, but not something I'd go out of my way to include as bonus fill.

I would have liked to see a different grid layout at top and bottom. The first row of a themed crossword usually is broken into three words, which makes filling pretty easy. Breaking things up into two words does create opportunities for fun mid-length fill like MASCOTS. But ECTOPIC isn't worth it to me, as that has a lot of negative connotation (ECTOPIC pregnancies). And given the presence of so much RUS, EEN, RECTO, ESTAS, EFTS, HEB, REAIMS, I wanted more smoothness overall.

It's pretty hard to work around this many crossing themers — those FORTs dropping down make construction rough — and going down to 72 words makes it so difficult to produce a quality grid.

Some strong theme phrases, and well-hidden FORTs, though.