New York Times, Saturday, September 7, 2019

I started this puzzle off with RAPUNZEL, which I thought might make a good second-row entry. Of course, being me, I saw the presence of ‘UN' as an invitation to place ‘QU' above it. That got me to J.V. SQUADS, which stacked well on top of RAPUNZEL, with the exception of the JR combination. I then came up with the idea of using JR. PAC-MAN, creating two intersecting stacks of 8-letter entries, which I would say seemed just crazy enough to work, but to be honest, it just seemed crazy. I was pleasantly surprised when that corner somehow ended up coming together (and pretty nicely, to boot—go figure).

PIXY STIX was the first entry I placed in the lower-right, and I was glad to be able to incorporate NOT QUITE and SPHINXES crossing it without too much difficulty. The upper-right and lower-left, however, were different stories. It's very challenging to connect a section that large to the rest of the puzzle, especially when you have to work around a long entry like 19-Across that runs straight through it, and already has four letters locked in. Overall, though, I thought those sections turned out pretty well (after much iteration), anchored by nice long answers in PRICKLY PEAR and especially IMPROV CLASS — which might be my favorite entry here — and I'm glad my clue for it survived.

Though the tough grid layout meant I had to make a few compromises, this puzzle still looks pretty good to me, with some interesting entries, fun, unique letter combinations, and more than a few rare letters (although it's NOT QUITE a pangram, despite a bit of eFFort …) Hope you enjoyed it!

Trenton loves himself some rare letters. His last one was jam-packed with JQXZs, and this one's in the same mold. Knowing his tendencies, JV SQUADS and AZIMUTH came easily.

[Candy sold ...] — stop, that's all I need! It has to be PIXY STIX, because Trenton wanted Xs! Bwa ha ha, I'm a genius!

That insider knowledge makes me feel smug. Jeff likes to feel smug.

I did wonder how many solvers would recognize AZIMUTH. What, you're a Saturday solver and you don't know AZIMUTH? It's obvious! It's that angle … at which the height … star parallax … I DON'T NEED TO EXPLAIN MYSELF, SO THERE.

Fine, it's a tough term even for us engineering geeks. Even for those of us who did an astronomy internship at NASA's Ames Center. Ahem.

It's a shame that SNELL'S law couldn't have been invoked. Along with AZIMUTH, that would have been quite the pairing for us smugineers.

Editors prize multi-word themeless entries for their color, but today brings us many examples of how one-worders can shine. SPHINXES are mysterious. STINKERS is no stinker. And RAPUNZEL with a hair-raising escape, that's hilarious!

A 70-word themeless has to be both jazzy and pristine for me to perk up. The abundance of rare letters helped, but a couple of clues felt off. Does anyone call a vice-president a VICE? And isn't it paper-thin, not TISSUE-thin?

Along with a couple of words that might get the weirdometer clicking — SNELLS, SHIRRS, SAPID, SPILLAGE, singular ALGA — there were more trade-offs than I like. I can imagine solvers asking themselves, "What the snell?"

Solid Saturday workout, though — nearly mind-breaking as I tried to pull ITASCA, ANIMAS, GAMETE from memory. Sometimes it's arbitrary as to whether a puzzle runs on a Friday or a Saturday, but this one was a Saturday through and through.