New York Times, Thursday, July 27, 2023

I got the idea for this puzzle when I was walking on the street and saw a Land Rover Discovery, I thought... "Hmm... I can break the word into DISCO and VERY". As these are two words that have nothing to do with the original one, it could be something I can use for a puzzle... After thinking a bit more about it, I came up with the format seen in the puzzle: Answer 1 + Answer 2 = Answer 3, giving no extra hints about the third one.

When I submitted it, I thought it could be used as a fun Tuesday, but had no idea they would accept it as a Thursday.

Some info about myself: I'm a full-time crossword constructor that lives in Brazil. I create puzzles in Portuguese, Spanish and English for books, apps, websites, magazines and newspapers.

I'm with Guilherme — curious choice to place this on a Thursday. Some nice finds, though, along with a fun way to execute on the "parsing" genre:

EPIC + ENTER = EPICENTER (CORE)

LIME + RICK = LIMERICK (VERSE)

DISCO + VERY = DISCOVERY (FIND)

CONS + TRAIN = CONSTRAIN (BIND)

Parsing themes — ones involving a space addition, deletion, or shift — are so common that IT'S A NO is often the answer. In the past year alone, we've already had one Sunday then another, less than two months afterward. I'm glad that Guilherme went with a different angle, chunking up his DISCO VERYs in a way that features the FINDs so well.

Fantastic UPC CODE clue. It's an amusing entry in the first place, since "Universal Product Code code" is weird (this concept was featured in a variety puzzle), and I was so confused by [Bars for checking people out]. Although I've seen takes on lines at a store and even checkout lines, this one misdirects so wickedly.

Solid gridwork. Four cut-up themers turns out to be harder that four unbroken grid-spanners, since each themer forces two black square placements apiece. Guilherme wisely made sure that each of his triplets spanned from the left edge to the right, avoiding any other forced black square placements along the sides.

Guilherme made top-notch use of his mid-length slots, packing them with LACTASE, CANASTA, SET FREE, GERMANY, BRAILLE. Tons of added color.

Given how many parsing puzzles we've seen recently — here's yet another — it's tough to get excited about the genre. However, I appreciated Guilherme's fresh presentation that would have made for a killer Wednesday or even Tuesday puzzle.