New York Times, Thursday, March 28, 2019

The phrase GOON STRIKE ("Result of a labor dispute between a mob boss and their enforcers?") came to me one day, and I thought it was kinda funny. I set out to make a puzzle around it but couldn't quite get a tight set of theme answers, so I set it aside. When I came back to it, I decided to switch the roles of the theme clues and answers, and this puzzle is the result.

For the revealer, I wanted I NEED SOME SPACE, but at only 14 letters it would have required me to pinch the theme answers closer or add a little strip of cheater squares in the last column (to avoid an impermissible two-letter entry), and I liked those options less than tweaking the revealer.

My favorite theme clue is "Often" — I just like the conversion to "Of ten." My favorite non-theme entry is BEEFCAKE because it reminds me of me.

I'll have a goat parsing wordplay any day!

Er, a go at.

Damon so innocently takes out four spaces in his clues, Often -> Of ten a highlight. I was all set to point out the "mistake" to Will — I caught a pre-production error a couple of weeks ago, just my second in five years — when I realized that something fishy was going on.

Thankfully, I didn't make a goof of that email!

Er, go of.

Notable -> not able was another not able themer.

Darn it, notable!

Not()able was my favorite of the four since the meaning almost flipped. Not quite, but it gave me a serious pause, thinking that not only was this clue incorrect, but it was wrong in the worst of ways. Great moment of realization.

FROM WHERE I STAND was the weakest tome — @#$!! — to me, since it's not a juicy phrase I'd use in a themeless or as fill. But it worked fine, if sounding like legalese.

It's tough to work with a central 9-letter themer. A bit too much crossword glue for my taste, leaving the grid with a sere-ness. Thankfully, Damon did a nice job of spreading it out. But I bet adding some black cheater squares — perhaps at the S of STET, E of BSIDE, or Y of OPRY — would have left the puzzle feeling more elegantly crafted.

This is a matter of philosophy. There's a camp of constructors who eschew cheater squares, preferring a more streamlined look to their grids. I don't agree with this outlook, but it does have validity. Well, there is the fact that Patrick Berry, considered by many as the best constructor on earth, is squarely in the cheater square camp. Cheat-ers, cheat-ers!

Overall though, clever idea to insert the parsing changes into the clues, rather than into the entries, where they're usually seen. Made for a solid a-ha moment.