New York Times, Monday, September 2, 2013

This is my second published puzzle in the NYT and represents a return to basics. My cutesy theme ideas had been falling flat, so I went back to a simple theme and tried to make it as clean as possible. I'm not sure how I picked "AYS" as the syllable, but I was spoiled for choice. There were some great names/phrases I could have used (WOODY/GABBY/HELEN HAYES, HOLLANDAISE, LYONNAISE, PURPLE HAZE, WILLIE MAYS, POPINJAYS).

For this type of rhyming theme, each entry should have a different spelling for the syllable in question, but I put a couple other constraints on myself.

1. No plurals (aside from OAKLAND A'S which would be unusual in the singular) and HAPPY DAYS (which is a title). This ruled out some interesting words with different spelling (LEIS, CLICHES, DOSSIERS, CHEVROLETS, PARFAITS, BOUQUETS, MATINEES, as well as the afore-mentioned POPINJAYS).
2. The same three-syllable cadence for each entry. If you say one after the other, you should get a nice, even rhythm. Unless you slather your sandwich with "MAN-AZE" of course! =P

In the end, it came down to the most interesting choices with the right letter counts and which allowed a clean fill. A friend of my wife's says she loves the Monday puzzles because they make her feel smart. Here's to all the smart Monday puzzlers out there!

Excellent Monday puzzle from Jim, who amazingly has only been constructing for about a year. Incredible progress from when he started (we collaborated on a LAT puzzle). Solid theme, fill accessible to a wide range of solvers, interesting cluing. Monday puzzles are so difficult to make, because it's nearly impossible to satisfy the experienced solver (who's likely to be bored) as well as the novice (who could be stumped by anything remotely esoteric or crosswordese-flavored). A very nice balance today.

Note the NW and SE corners. A 5x5 section of white space is usually difficult to fill cleanly, and Jim does an admirable job. It's not ideal to have a partial at 1-across because it doesn't make a very good first impression, but it's certainly acceptable. Typically a maximum of two partials are allowed in a puzzle, because partials (as well as abbreviations, pluralized names, etc.) aren't usually as elegant as real words. Aside from that small hiccup, Jim's fill is clean, even incorporating a V in the SE without making it feel forced.

A comment about "cheater squares", black squares which do not affect a puzzle's word count. Will doesn't like cheaters since their inclusion is a mark of inelegance, and I generally agree. But I think a pair of cheaters in the very NW and SE (making APAIN into PAIN, ALIST into LIST, EDENS into EDEN and TRESS into TRES) would be a net gain. Your mileage may vary.

Finally, I didn't notice that OAKLAND AS and HAPPY DAYS are part of the theme until Jim sent me his write-up. I was all set to make this my POW! until I realized I had completely missed two theme answers (I had originally written that they provided very nice long fill). It's certainly a construction feat to interlock theme answers (HAPPY DAYS intersecting MAYONNAISE, e.g.) but I would have liked all the theme answers to "pop" more strongly, perhaps by starring their clues or by running them all horizontally. Even having five themers (all oriented horizontally) instead of six could be a good solution, since I liked this puzzle very well even when I thought it only had four themers.