New York Times, Monday, August 12, 2019

The idea of this puzzle came from a common bit of crosswordese — the Japanese sash called the OBI. Once in a while I try to take an aspect of crossword construction that is frowned upon and direct it toward something that might be interesting or amusing. Although using theme phrases that begin with the letters in OBI might have been sufficient, I realized that finding phrases that begin with the sound of OBI might be much more fun.

I'm glad that I managed to discover five of them, and I'm particularly happy with the entry that begins with OB-GYN, since the accepted pronunciation requires saying the name of each letter individually. Thus, this puzzle starts from what is seen as a negative in the crossword world — crosswordese — and, I think, turns it into something positive. I hope solvers agree.

My fastest time ever at "Guess That Theme"! As soon as I had OBIE ___, I skipped to the next themer and plunked down the wise one himself.

I wonder if a juvenile-minded writer on George Lucas's staff slipped one by. OBI WANKEN OBI sounds so naughty.

I did pause at OB GYN … what is necessary to complete that? Oh, of course, it's OB GYN DOCTORS, because you do want to distinguish the sub-profession from OB GYN CARPENTERS and OB GYN MODERNIST PAINTERS (Georgia O'Keeffe?).

OH, BEHAVE, I was only kidding. Of course, DOCTORS was tacked on to appease Crucivera's demands for a crossacrifice. It's a shame, as that phrase was the only one that felt contrived.

Not the smoothest Monday grid, but not the gluiest, either — an average result, given the tough constraint of five longish themers. Oddly, the one bit I objected to most didn't come as a result of theme constraints. AABA, ELEC, OCOME are understandable since they cross multiple themers. They're also figure-out-able.

I can see some GAPES from newb solvers upon hitting CAPON. If you've never seen that word before, it might look plain wrong. Reworking that corner would have been my one revision request.

I'll admit, my first reaction to this theme was to wonder, why? I mulled it over, and came around to Jim's first reaction, that it is interesting to find five different ways to spell the OB sounds — all at the starts of words, to boot.

Using OBS as a revealer would have upgraded the puzzle, though. That would have eliminated the oddball OB GYN ___ offering to Crucivera, as well as made for fewer constraints and thus, a smoother grid.