New York Times, Friday, August 21, 2020

I sometimes wonder if crossword editors deliberately foreshadow difficult or unusual words, definitions, or trivia. For example, before a hard word appears in an early-week puzzle or as part of a difficult crossing, do editors try to use that word in the preceding weeks to semantically prime solvers to succeed?

If so, could that also apply to grid art?

Earlier this month, ONION DOMES made its NYT debut with the verbose clue [*Colorful architectural features of Moscow's St. Basil Cathedral]. It seems an odd choice to foreshadow the grid art, theme, and marquee entry of a puzzle running a couple of weeks later unless the intention was to prime solvers for success. Though if the foreshadowing was deliberate, I wonder why the editors used the less-common "Basil" instead of "Basil's" in the clue. The other two times the cathedral has been referenced in the Shortz era (in 2013 and 2009), the more common "Basil's" was preferred. Since today's puzzle also uses "Basil's," were the editors trying to amp up the difficulty by tempting solvers to try the "Basil" variant, which doesn't fit since it's one letter too short?

Today's puzzle has been on file since January of 2018, so Will & crew had plenty of time to curate their publication schedule to achieve such a foreshadowing. Or perhaps it was the other way around — the editors were subconsciously influenced to publish today's puzzle after seeing ONION DOMES in the earlier grid. Perhaps we'll never know.

I loved Alex's PANDA grid art, and today's imagery is strong as well. I wasn't familiar with SAINT / BASILS CATHEDRAL, or what shape I should be expecting, but compare the grid below with the pic to the right. A great facsimile; not an easy task when you're working with big pixels.

It's a fantastic construction, too. It's tough to stay at 72 words (qualifying for a themeless), while working with 5 + 15 + 9 + 9 = 38 theme squares. Plus, a grid visual! Alex still managed to treat us to DESDEMONA, TAQUERIAS, QUE PASA, BREAK EVEN, GOT REAL.

Plus, JETLAGGED has such a great clue. I hated it at first, feeling like the only point to use high-falutin' medical jargon is to make laypeople feel dumb. But wait! Once I read the word desynchronosis … de-synch-ronosis … of course, it has to be JET LAGGED!

KITCHEN isn't an exciting entry in itself, but oh, that delicious clue: [Island locale]. So innocent! I was fooled, and my family eats around our KITCHEN island every meal.

So why didn't I enjoy it as much as I should have? Because on Friday, I want a themeless. I like a smart, subtle mini-theme, but today's had to be overt. When you have to Wikipedia-style clue so many entries to make solvers understand they're thematic — SAINT, BASILS CATHEDRAL, RED SQUARE, ONION DOME — you're giving up so much clever cluing potential.

Beautiful artwork. If it had been run on a Wednesday, with a less ambitious grid, and maybe one more themer — it's supposed to look like a BONFIRE rising to the sky, for example — it would have gotten POW! consideration.