New York Times, Monday, November 9, 2015

Today's version of CUTIES is the 4^th iteration of this puzzle. It started life as a 21x21 puzzle, but I quickly realized two things (after a quick rejection) — first, this theme is more appropriate for an early week puzzle rather than a Sunday puzzle, and second, it is difficult to come up with enough meaningful QT theme entries that are in common usage to accommodate a Sunday puzzle.

There were two 16-letter entries in the larger version that I wanted to salvage for a daily puzzle — QUENTIN TARANTINO and QUIDDITCH TOURNEY. Both of these entries were in the second version (15x16). Will thought QUIDDITCH TOURNEY was a bit contrived, but he did like QUENTIN TARANTINO, so I kept that entry in the third version. However, in reviewing the grid in version 3, there was too much subpar fill necessary to accommodate QUENTIN TARANTINO. In the end, Will/Joel suggested letting go of this theme entry and the net result is what you see today in version 4.

With respect to clues, most of mine (75%) survived — a high percentage for me. The only two I was disappointed to lose were 39A — I originally proposed "Necessary skill for Jeopardy" (QUICK THINKING), but I can understand perhaps not wanting to reference the game show; and 52D — I proposed "With 53-Down, Jethro Tull's best-selling album" (AQUA LUNG), but then I date myself. Undoubtedly too obscure a clue except for us Tull/Zeppelin fans from the 70s!

As always, Will/Joel provided invaluable advice and assistance. Very much appreciated.

A puzzle on the QT: Q T phrases, linked together with the apt CUTIES revealer. Nice choice of themers, QUICK THINKING and QUALITY TIME having real quality. And QUANTUM THEORY is fantastic! Wish I could say I understood the workings of QUANTUM THEORY better, but part of its mystique is its incomprehensibility.

That's what I tell myself, anyway.

QUARTER TONE is an interesting one — I played cello and trombone for decades, but I still had to think about how many semi-tones there were in an octave. Aren't there just seven steps in a C scale? C D E F G A B back to C, right? Yes, but semi-tones are the individual steps in a chromatic scale: C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C. Thought-provoking clue / answer pair.

Qs are notoriously difficult to integrate into crosswords. With four of them, many constructors would place black squares such that all the Qs either started a word or were the second letter (AQUA, EQUAL, etc.). I like how Pawel went big with both SEQUOIA and GIANT SQUID. The latter is an especially colorful answer, made even more so by the Jules Verne-related Nautilus clue. Very nice.

Pawel also chose to go with a 74-word layout, very tough when you already have to wrestle with four Qs. Generally I like the results, with some nice long stuff like GORGONZOLA and EBENEZER, but the north and south regions didn't come out as smooth as I think a Monday puzzle ought to be. "Dies IRAE" was unknown to me before I started doing crosswords, and I had been in orchestras for two decades.

And that ETTE / BOIS / GENET crossing GINNIE / EGESTS … as much as I like EBENEZER down there, I don't think it's worth all that glue. It's tough. Once you place that B of EBENEZER, it makes that already constrained south section even harder to fill.

So, a nice concept with great themer choices, executed with POW-level quality … except in two spots. So close!