New York Times, Saturday, March 26, 2016

I wanted to make a very low word count puzzle, and I picked this grid because it seemed like the most doable option. The four big clusters of black squares really help the constructor. They are like low word count "training wheels."

I started this puzzle in the northeast with MOMJEANS and then spiraled counterclockwise finishing in the middle. The last 20% of the puzzle took me about ten times as long to finish as the first 80%. The strain is evident with the EAPOE, SATANS, RATINE stack, but overall I can live with it (and E.A. Poe is much more widely used than I first thought).

The lynchpin in the whole thing is MEMORYHOLE, which, to my knowledge, is making its crossword debut. I had MEMORY???? for the longest time and kept cycling through various options (e.g., MEMORYCARD, MEMORYLANE), but couldn't get anything to work right. Then one night I was working on the puzzle listening to Dan Savage's "Savage Lovecast," and a woman called Dan saying she had a one-off affair, asking if she should tell her husband about it. Dan told her that if she thought she would never do it again then she should not tell him and instead she should slide it down her "memory hole." How serendipitous! Who knew marital infidelities could aid the construction of crossword puzzles?

Truth be told, I don't love the super staircase layout of this grid, but as a changeup to the typical long-stack themeless grid I think it works pretty well. Plus, it's got LETHERCRY in it, so I just gave everybody between the ages of 35 and 45 a Hootie and the Blowfish earworm for the day. You're welcome.

Cool-looking pattern of black squares! I don't personally like seeing too many black squares in a themeless, which triggers my constructor's brain into realizing how much easier any extras (cheaters) make a grid to fill, but Damon strikes a nice balance. The SW to NE diagonal lines are aesthetically pleasing.

My constructor's brain also triggers when it notices long stairsteps of 6-letter entries — that's so tough to do well. It was a pleasant surprise to see the upper half, what with TEX MEX, MEDUSA, LO MEIN, MATHIS all worked in. Yes, it required a STER and the I'm-not-quite-sure-that's-legit TILERS, but those are minor prices for all the great material.

The opposite section didn't come out quite as nicely, what with the DOTERS / SAVERS combination. I don't mind the latter much, since it's perfectly fine as [Life ___], but there aren't many ways you can clue that. In conjunction with TILERS, the trio stands out to me. And check out all the Ss and Es along the diagonal (end of DOTERS, COVENS, RATINE, etc.). That is fine, just not super exciting.

I really like what Damon did with the long answers, even more so given that they're weaved right into these difficult stairsteps of 6s. Great answers in WILLA CATHER (author of "O, Pioneers!") crossing TOTAL IDIOT, and Orwell's MEMORY HOLE concept crossing SATIN SHEETS. All four of them are fantastic.

It's also very tough to "turn the corner" with triple-stacked answers, so Damon does really well with MEANS IT / MOM JEANS / MARMADUKE intersecting SAUCE PANS / INKSTONE / TSETSES. That last one isn't great — usually I hear it as "tsetse flies" — but five out of six is darn good in this arrangement.

And on the other side, LETHER CRY looked bizarre. Took me forever to figure out the parsing, LET HER CRY! Along with IN CAHOOTS, that corner wasn't too shabby.

Two clues you might have missed:

• [Produces heat?] is a clever way of hinting at DRAWS, "heat" being slang for guns.
• [Guards on the gridiron] made me think of a noun, i.e. OFFENSIVE LINE or something. Love the misdirect from a lineman to a cornerback, the clue actually getting at the verb, COVERS.