New York Times, Tuesday, October 29, 2019

This is a bit of an odd theme, and apparently Will Shortz and company were on the fence about it for quite some time. Of course, I'm glad they gave it the go-ahead in the end! I came up with this theme after doing a fairly run-of-the-mill initialism puzzle in the Times a while back (no offense to whoever's puzzle that was!). I was trying to think of the jazziest possible initialism revealer, and Jay-Z sprung to mind right away. Unfortunately, JACOB ZUMA doesn't exactly make for great crossword fare, and there wasn't much else besides. But it occurred to me that the dash could also be interpreted as "to", as in going from J to Z.

Maybe you'll find it to be a bit of a stretch, but I at least hope you enjoy this rather Scrabbly Tuesday offering. Happy solving!

JAYZ interpreted as people whose full names are bookended by J and Z. My first reaction: shouldn't JAYZ hint toward people whose initials are J Z?

Second: but Jeff, why should that be? Just because so many crosswords use this initialism convention doesn't mean it's the gospel truth.

Third: yeah, but it makes more sense that way. People call me JC. Plenty of folks shorten to initials. BJ. JD. AJ. THAT'S THE WAY IT IS.

Fourth: JC stands for "just criticize" then? ANNOYING!

It's a little odd to have two letters played upon as bookends, but I ultimately enjoyed the novelty. Just as with a Peter Gordon puzzle that used two letters in a non-initialism way, this one pushed the envelope of what's possible. I like pushing.

I don't like early-week grids that can trip up newer solvers, though. JENNIFER LOPEZ and JOAN BAEZ — every NYT solver ought to at least have heard of them. JON LOVITZ ain't no Adam Sandler or Mike Myers, but I'll give him a pass because he was so annoyingly hilarious back in his SNL heyday.

JC CHASEZ? Oof. I learned his name through a crossword, but it was a late-week crossword, and I remember thinking, if this is the kind of thing I'm expected to know to solve a Saturday puzzle, it ain't gonna happen. To throw JC CHASEZ at newer solvers — years after his heyday — isn't fair play.

Nor is crossing REMO / AMANAS. Perhaps educated solvers should have heard at least one of these, but I'd be sympathetic for newbs putting in SAN RENO, SAN REVO, etc.

All in all, I appreciated the different take on two-letter revealers, and to do it with rare letters is admirable. Those Js and Zs sure made for a tough gridwork challenge, though, leading to compromises in the early-week solving experience.