New York Times, Monday, November 11, 2013

A literary theme like this is always appropriate. The Times crossword has more of this flavor than most other puzzles, which is one thing, I think, that sets it apart from others. Among the nontheme entries here, I especially like CREPE PAPER, SPIKE JONES, and FLIPBOOK.

Beautiful puzzle today from the master, Liz Gorski, with quite the upscale feel. HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL is such a great quote to hide within a puzzle, injecting me with an uplifting push after finishing. Not being super familiar with the origin of the quote, I looked it up and felt even more invigorated after doing so. Entertaining and uplifting, exactly what a puzzle ought to do.

Interesting construction challenge, given that ALEXANDER POPE is the dreaded length of 13. It might seem like not that big a deal for a revealer to be 13 letters, but it makes all the difference in the world. Typically, theme answers are best spaced out as much as possible, because more space = more flexibility. There's a reason why most of the time, the first and last theme answers go in rows 3 and 13.

But putting a 13-letter answer into row 13 is no good, because it forms an unsightly column of three black squares (in order to conform to the "no two-letter answers" rule of crosswords). So up the answer goes into row 12. And the challenge doesn't stop there.

Note the big chunks of black squares in the SW and NE corners. These look like "cheater squares", but really aren't, just squares that help deal with the 13-letter answers. Five black squares all clustered like that are a bit inelegant though, in that they visually take up a lot of space. There are ways around this arrangement, but each of them comes with its own challenge.

I like it when a famous quote is hidden inside theme answers. I personally find it more interesting when it catches you by surprise, either by being at the ends of the theme phrases, or by masking the word meanings. For instance, if SPRINGS had been at the end of BOX SPRINGS, that would add a level of camouflage. However, for this particular quote, there aren't many phrases ending in ETERNAL. Can't win 'em all.

Generally I prefer Monday puzzles to be easy enough that I could give them to novice friends to get them hooked, so I paused when I hit things like PAPP and CUPOLA. But the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated that the fill mirrors the tone of the puzzle. And to top it off, having fill like SPIKE JONES and a FLIP BOOK made the puzzle even more fun. Perhaps it's not my ideal Monday puzzle, but I greatly admire the work.