New York Times, Wednesday, March 9, 2016

The PRESERVES, JELLY, and MARMALADE themers are pretty much inflexible. So it was annoying that JAM, the one theme entry that had a few options, always seemed to land on an even letter count (TRAFFIC JAM, PEARL JAM, etc). Thus I had to go with a shorter theme entry (SLOW JAM) which introduces some confusion with 22-Across. But hey, the resulting pattern allowed me to focus on long fill. It was only after I finished that I realized it's a 69-worder.

Any resemblance to a space invader or Disney's Reluctant Dragon is purely coincidental.

I clued 41-Across (EPT) as "family planning brand" but I guess that didn't fly.

I liked so much about this puzzle. The theme is nothing to write home about — phrases ending in sweet spreads, i.e. PRESERVES, JELLY, JAM, and MARMALADE — but John hid them pretty well using different(ish) meanings. SLOW JAM was my favorite, and MOON JELLY was fun too.

I enjoy seeing constructors push themselves, and John's employment of a mirror-symmetry, 69-word grid is appreciated. All those long slots allowed John to work in EYETEETH, PILASTERS, BERYLLIUM (I was kicking myself for not being able to remember element number 4!), and the curious VOLTE-FACE. I had never heard of VOLTE-FACE, but it's such an interesting word. Plus, that trap of plunking in ABOUT FACE was fun to extract myself from.

Now, I don't particularly like the sets of three black squares in the SW / SE corners; inelegant visuals. Those could have been eliminated by moving SLOW JAM and LADY MARMALADE up a row, which would have also elegantly put exactly two rows of space between each pair of themers. But I can understand why John did it — having as much space between themers as possible usually makes for more flexibility in filling.

And there were a few bits of crossword glue — APAT, IRATER (more irate, yeah?), EPT — but John's original cluing of EPT to the pregnancy test, makes it much better for me (I wonder if Will felt it wasn't a big enough brand?). EPT, as in the opposite of INEPT … yeesh. I imagine some will find that fun, though.

Finally, the cluing made this such an enjoyable Wednesday solve:

• In business-speak, PIVOTing is code for "having to find a business model once you realize your current one is dog poo."
• BOISE is a place where you'd need an ID — abbr. for Idaho — to get your mail delivered properly.
• In the world of middle grade writing, being ORPHANED is the source of many inside jokes. Kind of macabre and an overused trope, but how better to put your main character in a situation where he/she is forced to play the hero role, unable to rely on mom/dad's assistance?

Overall, such a fun Wednesday puzzle, giving me much more of a workout than usual.