New York Times, Friday, February 7, 2014

These are my first notes, so by way of introduction: my wife Carla and I live cozily on a small cove in midcoast Maine, and, having lived in far too many places before this, we're not going anywhere.

Confession: I got the idea for this puzzle from Paula Gamache's puzzle of 1/9/2009 — one of my favorites ever in the Times. Inspired by her bottom stack of three rhyming "couplets" (CULTURE VULTURES, GEORGIE PORGIE, GREEN SCREEN), I decided to go for a series of triplets, which worked fine for 12-, 14-, and 34-Across, but that's where it stopped. I would've loved to have used TRIPLE BOGEY(ED) to extend the threeness, but couldn't work it, so had to settle for just two over par. One minor concern I had: once solvers saw a kind of subtheme with repeating words, would these three answers all become GIMMEs? Maybe.

BEGS THE QUESTION has been used twice before (drat the luck!) but I still wanted it because of its widespread misuse. Digging into it, I never came across "petitio principii," so thanks to Will for cluing it this way and making 57-Across a real monster to solve (without cheating).

Like some of the puzzles Will has accepted, this one went through some revisions. My first submission split 34-Across into two entries with a block in the middle, the entries weren't so interesting, and though he liked the top and bottom stacks the puzzle was at risk because of some ho-hum fill. I repaired the grid by removing the center block, found USA USA USA to be a perfect fit, which also created an opportunity for HO GAUGE at 25-Down, really my favorite entry here. It's the only time I've removed a block to improve the fill.

This is (at last) my 10th Times puzzle, and I've seen my construction style shifting away from attempts at virtuosity toward having more fun.

Themeless puzzles typically don't incorporate a lot of 11's 12's, 13's, or 14's, because they cause problems. 10's are fairly easy to triple-stack, and 15's can get placed without wasting a black square, but those in-between lengths can be murder. This particular arrangement is one of the few more common ones that allows constructors to take advantage of those great 11's and 13's waiting to be debuted. (singing) DOO BE DOO BE debut...

Hey, no throwing eggs!

This type of stack is very similar to a triple-stack, but with a slightly smaller degree of difficulty given that the corners are easier to fill than a full triple-stack. In the outer edges you only have one letter constraining you — much easier in that regard. Not surprisingly, most of the crunchier crossings come in places where three letters are fixed: MDI, EHLE, and TYE. Perhaps Jennifer EHLE will become a superstar one day, which would be awesome for us constructors given the friendly letters. (shaking fist at Craig EHLO for not becoming an NBA superstar)

There seems to be a sort of mini-theme, which I typically like. It's pretty fun to have a subtle nod to the solver a bit of a "You see what I did there?" The replication within phrases was kind of neat, but the fact that there wasn't one of these in the south half left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. It was nice to read Ned's note and see that's exactly what he tried. I'm glad he didn't jam it in there and live with icky crossings. Good choice!

I'll finish off with an interesting word and a great clue. VIRAGOS: I didn't know it, so looked it up. One definition described it as a woman with a violent temperament, another as a woman with exemplary and heroic qualities. A word with two definitions that somewhat contradict each other — I can see why Ned placed it in there; very cool, bizarre and fun! And OMERTA (which describes the code of silence often referring to the mob), had a brilliant clue, using "singers" as in "one who spill their guts". Spilling their guts when they sing... and again later when they get offed!