New York Times, Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Jim and Jeff at the Puzzles continues all this week, and today, I get to go first.

One staple of comedy is the character who takes metaphorical phrases literally; think of Hymie the Robot in Get Smart. It's also a rich source of crossword themes. Today, FLOWERY LANGUAGE is, literally, phrases with flowers.

I haven't talked with Jeff Chen about this puzzle, but I can anticipate his objection. Two theme entries are noun phrases, one is a verb phrase, and one is a comparative expression. One and only one is an actual flower, as well as an epithet. Purists like more consistency than that. If the theme phrases are fun, I'm happy leaving the hobgoblins chained in the basement. Don't feed them. You'll enjoy life more without them.

WOE IS I is a fun title for a surprisingly entertaining and useful book. I don't often see GAWP outside of crosswords. OXYMORON gets a straightforward clue, but "original copy" and "open secret" are amusing examples. "Ambulances' hosp. destinations" struck me as an odd clue for ERS since Emergency Rooms aren't typically the destinations for the ambulances themselves, but I get the idea. With an entry as common and as awkward as ERS, it's tough to plow new ground, especially for an early-week puzzle.

ENGLISH ROSE was considered quite a compliment when, say, my grandmother used it. I suspect it's now mostly used ironically. Maybe it's time to resurrect more flowery language.

Ha! Shows what Jim knows. I barely noticed the lack of consistency. I'm no uber-picky perfectionist.

Okay, it was the lack of tightness that bugged me. Puzzles can be perfectly fine if you can choose among dozens or even hundreds of possible themers. But it's so elegant if you can employ a perfect set. Why ROSE and not … um … PANSY?

Why LILY and not … er …

Okay, maybe it was a tight set! Neat realization that so few flowers are used in this metaphorical sense.

Okay, I admit, Jim is right — I would have preferred each themer to be a simile, or each a noun phrase, etc. Consistency is so elegant. But if it's colorful — even flowery — language vs. consistency, I'd take the former any day.

Great gridwork, as I'd expect from Tim. Those big NW / SE corners are executed so well, hardly a weed yearning to be pulled. (TOI, yank!) The themers take up a huge amount of real estate, but Time deployed his black squares so wisely to separate them. And those chunks of black squares almost look like rows of flowers in a garden!

The wide-open spaces create a slight mismatch for an early-week puzzle — easy theme + tough fill creates solving dissonance — but I thought the long bonuses like METADATA over OXYMORON were worth it.