New York Times, Monday, September 26, 2016

Today's revealer was originally going to be GET STUFFED ... good thing I checked out Urban Dictionary and Wiktionary first. Research is your friend.

Speaking of stuffing, that SNAX / EX-STAR crossing is decidedly not a product of unscrupulous high-value Scrabble packing. By sheer coincidence, I've used EX-STAR (not great) twice in the last few weeks, in both cases thinking its inclusion led to the best fill otherwise.

Imputing a motive for the scheduling of this puzzle is baseless projection, but I'd like to believe it's a message to one of two the participants (hint: the David Duke-endorsed one) in the travesty of debate I'm terrified will unfold tonight at Hofstra University. Jeff might hammer me for AGITA's inclusion, but if you've been walking with the same ever-present, ever-growing gnawing in the pit of your stomach that I've been for past several months, horrified that we're on the verge of doing something irrevocably, irredeemably and unforgivably stupid—and you weren't sure know what to call it—AGITA is the word you're looking for.

Of course, saying you're scared out of your f*cking mind works equally well. Better, even. Tougher to work in as fill, though.

Happy solving!

Talk about STUFFing IT! Tim appropriately stuffs seven themers into his grid, a very challenging task. Nice work in intersecting OLIVE BRANCH / TURKEY TROT and ANIMAL HOUSE / PILLOW TALK. It's tough to make seven themers work in a single puzzle, but this sort of intersecting arrangement is one of the best ways of doing so. If you can find two fortuitous crossings, two of your themers effectively go in the slots where long down filler entries usually would go.

So you'd think that the fill would be pretty blah, what with those two long down slots taken up by themers, yeah? But this is Tim we're talking about. He's so good with his fill that it wasn't a surprise to get such goodies as ROLODEX, BAD EGGS, MY LOVE — that's no BUSHWA! Okay, that last one I learned through crosswords, but I love using it. (Perhaps because of the head-scratching it generates.)

Speaking of head-scratching, AGITA (Tim knows me well!) and ETOILE are pretty tough words. Not that they're not legit, but I don't like seeing entries in Monday puzzles that might turn off novice solvers. There is a lot that can fall into the category of "I have to know THAT if I want to do crosswords?!" and some of it I think is absolutely fair game. Having both of these though … I wonder if that would make less-experienced solvers agitacious.

Generally, I think Tim did a very good job given the high theme density, though — might have been just about right for a Tuesday, where I think more esoteric words can play better.

One of my favorite theme types is "how do these disparate elements relate?" I still fondly remember one in particular. Today's puzzle goes toward that idea, but it kind of also sports a "words that can follow X" feel. It is neat that you can have a stuffed animal or a stuffed olive — fairly different — but when you stuff peppers, olives, turkeys, and then pillows, animals, and stockings, they're not diverse enough for my taste.