New York Times, Thursday, March 31, 2022

My fascination with marginalia began with my childhood love of the book "Fermat's Enigma" by Simon Singh. In the margin of his copy of Diophantus' "Arithmetica," I learned, concerning a vexing conjecture in number theory, the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat wrote: "I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition, which this margin is too narrow to contain."

However, it was some 350 years—and countless mathematical innovations—later that the theorem was demonstrably proved. I hope today's crossword puzzle takes somewhat less time.

Like Fermat, I am a big believer in writing in one's books. I read with a pencil tucked behind my ear, eager to engage with, augment, question, and emphasize the text in the margins. I imagine many crossword solvers feel the same way because there you are, after all, writing in your newspaper! (Or, I suppose, on your device.) What communal joy, too, to find the scribbled annotations of previous readers in a used book.

The ANNOTATION and MARGINALIA required to complete this puzzle are rather literal—spelling, well, MARGIN on either side—and they certainly don't expound on any deep results in number theory. But even they, I hope, engage with, and augment the puzzle within the grid, completing and emphasizing its answers. Here's to scribbling.

Oh, and HI MOM!

I have a truly marvelous explanation of this theme which the margin is too narrow to contain!

I'm glad it's been almost a year since the last outside the grid puzzle — spacing them out helps keep the concept fresh. There are so many now that we've put together yet another puzzle page. Because our home page isn't enough of a link salad yet.

I'm engrossed in Ollie's new book, Seven Games, so kicking off the grid with (M)ATED tickled me. So many other fun touches, too, like ATARI not clued as the video game company, but the Go reference.

There's a trick to constructing a grid like this: instead of starting with a 15x16 grid (note that it's 16 tall, to accommodate perfect spacing of M A R G I N), start with a 17x16. Put M A R G I N in columns 1 and 7, then black out all the remaining squares in those columns. Proceed to fill as usual.

Because ANNOTATION and MARGINALIA are the only real themers, there's a ton of filling flexibility. I appreciated that Oliver took advantage of this to make some of his theme answers sing — ART TEACHER, PGA TOUR, DRY MARTINI — and squeeze a ton of color into the long fill. It almost has a themeless feel, with so much DR TEETH, B PICTURE, HOME TEAM, OPEN MRIS.

Because we've seen so many "write outside the grid" themes by now, it did feel thin in theme density. I'd also have liked something more playful, since MARGINALIA pointing to two M A R G I Ns in the margins felt repetitive. I'd have loved some riff on Pascal's note, or perhaps an extra layer, like MARGINALLY hinting at F R I E N D and P A I S A N in the margins.

However, there was a lot of fill to enjoy, including a devious 1-Across clue that fit perfectly with both MATED and MATE, the latter of which I confidently dropped in. And I can't recommend Ollie's book highly enough! If you thought that checkers was a silly kids' game, Ollie's piece about the world's greatest checkers player was a page turner.