New York Times, Monday, March 21, 2016

Despite my employment as a librarian, this puzzle's theme did not originate from my day-to-day work. As it was not my intention to perpetuate the shushing librarian stereotype, there is no need to revoke my membership, American Library Association.

Instead, inspiration came on a drive home as my then-first grade daughter listed off all the words she knew that ended with the -SH sound. My brain sprang to action, compiling two-word phrases that contained a SHH string. Once I hit upon the revealer, which is itself a theme entry, I knew my backseat passenger had given me a winning Monday theme.

So if you're reading this, my accidental co-constructor, dinner's on me tonight. Your choice. But keep it HUSH HUSH, just between you and me.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I nearly emailed Mike to ask how HUSH HUSH related to the other themers. How could [Top secret] be descriptive of SMASH HIT, RUSH HOUR, etc.? I noticed the *H H* pattern early on, and thought it had to be some sort of 4-H theme (math isn't my strong suit, apparently). Thunked my forehead when I realized HUSH HUSH hints at SHH, the three-letter string hidden in all the themers. Very cool that HUSH HUSH itself also hides SHH.

Squeaky-clean Monday puzzles are tough to pull off, and Mike does well. I love when a constructor can manage to keep the crossword glue to a small handful of minor stuff. Here, it's just ENV, RET, SLO. Note how those shorties don't stick out much? That's why I score these three-letter gluey bits slightly higher (25 points) than five-letter bits (20 points) in our XWord Info Word List.

It's actually pretty easy to generate a super-smooth Monday crossword, but once you throw in added levels of difficulty: 1.) higher than average theme density and 2.) bonus long fill, it's much more meaty a task. Even though Mike doesn't leave himself much in terms of long (8+ letter) slots, he does very well with his mid-range stuff: PULL TAB, LA FITTE, LOSES IT, PRENUPS, BARISTA, etc.

Mike could have incorporated a lot more 8+ letter fill by reducing his themer count from five to four — that middle entry, TRASH HEAP, really constrains the grid — but I do like having the extra themer today. And given that Mike did so well with his mid-length fill, I think he made good grid choices.

It's such a neat find that SHH is right inside HUSH HUSH. I probably would have given this one the POW! for that reason alone, if the cluing had made it more apparent. Perhaps something like [Very quiet … and a hint to a sound found in …]? That's not quite right either, but something like that could have been more appropriate for a Monday puzzle.