New York Times, Saturday, April 10, 2021

Hello again. I've been out of the NYT themeless game for a solid half-decade, but it hasn't been for any lack of trying. I've still been constructing and cluing and submitting as much as ever, but the competition for a weekend spot in the Times has just gotten insanely tough. Considering what fantastic work the Agards and Weintraubs and Waldens and McCartys and Collinses and Pascos of the world are cranking out on a regular basis, it's an honor just to sneak in there with one Saturday puzzle of my own every few years.

I'm really happy with this one. I especially liked DEAD AS A DOORNAIL — it may seem to some like a fairly blah 15-letter entry, but it holds sentimental value for me. My grandfather, the original Evans Clinchy, had an annual tradition of reading "A Christmas Carol" to the family every Christmas Eve. He passed away in 2009, but I still have fond memories of all my relatives gathered around the living room fireplace and my granddad reading that opening sentence: "Old Marley was as dead as a doornail..."

I was playing around a couple of years ago with my favorite 15s, trying to find pairs of them that stacked nicely, and I came across DEAD AS A DOORNAIL and OLD ACQUAINTANCE. Once I had that dynamic duo, the rest of the grid practically constructed itself. I was lucky to have a few fun bonuses like ROCKS OUT and DREAM ON fall into place along the way.

That this grid also includes not one, not two, not three, but four references to delicious, delicious meat is a happy coincidence.

My favorite type of Saturday challenge is one that first appears to be impossible, but there are enough hints of places where you might gain a toehold. It puts up a knock-down slugfest, but ultimately, the constructor has set me up for a win — not just a victory, but one with zero doubts preventing me from double-pumping fists of glory. Evans did such a fantastic job of setting me up today.

It can be so daunting when a themeless has so few 3- or 4-letter words. So much for those ever-present crossword-common entries that are hard to disguise!

Fantastic use of marquee slots, OCTOBER SURPRISE a vivid term. Wherever you are on the political spectrum, that phrase evokes all sorts of stories — be they horror or success.

As a crossword entry, MEAT AND POTATOES is hardly that. Love the phrase. I'd have liked more wordplay or misdirection out of the clue, though: [The bare essentials …] is straightforward.

I did wonder if DEAD AS A DOORNAIL might not be the greatest entry during this coronavirus era, but cluing it to the classical Dickens reference helped me overcome that.

OLD ACQUAINTANCE was my least favorite of the four, but mainly because the clue didn't feel accurate. There's a distinct difference between a friend and an acquaintance, yes?

Best clue of the week in [Matchmaking target?] As someone who recently spent two weeks looking for the match to my favorite red wool sock, I should have gotten this much quicker.

I also appreciated how Evans carefully worked in a J in the west. It's much more common to place a J where it can start both an Across and a Down entry (JONAS / JABS), so to get one in the middle of two fine entries (AU JUS and DYE JOB) is excellent work.

I don't know any guys named TOD — or women named DOT — and TOD usually is referenced to the fox in "The Fox and the Hound." Perhaps a famous TOD will break out one day, and we constructors will rejoice.

Although there wasn't a ton of flashy material in the grid, Evans followed the constructors' first rule so well.