New York Times, Friday, April 8, 2016

Hey, PB's first foray into the "4x black square stairsteps" pattern since 2008! As Damon Gulzynski so accurately described, these stairsteps are like training wheels for themeless constructors — they make grids exponentially easier to fill, especially when it's a grid with wide-open spaces.

PB uses them moderately and wisely, achieving a stunning middle region. Check out that triplet of DUNCAN HINES / TALKING HEAD / GOES ON A DIET with SPANISH MAIN / FAITH NO MORE / TURN SIGNALS running through it — all in a giant swath of white space!

I typically "score" a themeless by starting with a count of assets, subtracting a count of liabilities, and adding in a vague number of points for "coolness factor." If the final score is above 10, I generally find the puzzle to be very strong.

I've never been able to quantify that last aspect very well, but today's puzzle helped me think about it. I was wowed by the puzzle as a whole, but when I went back to count the assets minus liabilities, I ended up with a score of roughly 10. PB puzzles are usually much higher than that — usually around 13 or even higher. So my "coolness factor" addition for this puzzle must be at least 3 points.

Thanks for indulging the annoying engineer in me. Ahem.

As always, PB excels at his cluing. I like how he selects entries not just for their innate color, but for how conducive they are to taking a clever clue. [Lightens up, say] makes GO ON A DIET absolutely sing. Same with [Side lights?] for TURN SIGNALS. Great stuff.

SHIRR is unusual to see in a PB puzzle, but it does appear to be a real word. The dictionary defines it as "gather by means of drawn or elasticized threads in parallel rows." Huh. But it does make that big SE corner work, and the benefits of FIRE UP, ARCANA, X RATED, DEADBEAT well worth it.

As usual, I could give most every PB the POW! But there's one I liked even more this week.