New York Times, Saturday, February 24, 2018

When I submitted this puzzle in 2016, MACRON was not the President of France. I'm glad to see that improvement in the clues, as well as several others.

This puzzle was one of my early efforts at dropping the word count and working with the stair-step pattern. Since then I've demoted HORS and ET ALII, tried to make sure that at least two long entries punch into isolated sections, and avoided blocks of 3-letter answers. Still, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, and hope others enjoy!

Beautiful middle stairstack! Delightful to get a mini-theme in BINGE WATCHING and SLIPPERY SLOPE. It's even better when they're located in positions that usually shouldn't allow for mini-theme placement. It's a similar sort of magic to a 15 + 15 letter phrase … stacked atop each other!

We've seen enough "stairstack" middles, that they're becoming easier and easier for me to critique — what's the quality of 1.) middle stairstack, 2.) NW/SE corners, 3.) SW / NE tail?

(On one hand, I like that more and more people are gravitating to this themeless grid type. It allows for a lot of great material, with interesting visual effect. On the other, I worry that it's going to become overused. I like innovation, dagnabit!)

Great work in criterion 1. PAROLE HEARING made for another snazzy entry — three for three winners. And such smoothness in the down answers holding that middle together. Not a fan of RESHIPS, but I do see it in alerts from Amazon.

Solid work in criterion 2. I didn't know we had an estate past the fourth estate (the media), but I can buy the FIFTH ESTATE. Fun to learn the term, anyway, and it didn't hinder my solve. IRA ROLLOVER is pretty dull even for this financial planner ... but RUMORMONGER helped keep up the color in that NW corner.

AVGAS … I'm a mechanical engineer, not an aerospace engineer. I'll grant you that. But AVGAS? I nearly choked because it crossed GIAN, which seemed like it could be GION or GIEN. Thankfully, that GAS part of AVGAS saved me. But even though the crossing ultimately seemed fair, it left me with a sense of inelegance.

Ah, criterion 3. That's where most people fall down. It's so hard to use those two tail sections in the SW / NE, once you've fixed your stairstack into place. Such juicy long slots … and PLODDERS is not the way to use them well. SAD SONG is a little better, and HEADLONG is okay.

If John had worked in a little more juice in these tough-to-fill sections, this could have been POW!-worthy. Pesky criterion 3!

Well crafted, got some POW! consideration from me. Not quite there, though.