New York Times, Saturday, July 1, 2023

This puzzle started with the oversized groups of black squares in the corners because I liked the look of those big pools of ink. How the crossword looks before you solve it is part of the experience! (I think it's like the plating of a dish at a restaurant, in an awkward metaphor I've tried to force before.) With this many black squares, I could afford a pretty low word count, and I'm pleasantly surprised at the quality of fill I could get. (ENIGMATOLOGY, most famous as the invented major of a young Will Shortz, was a happy accident, not an attempt to curry favor!)

Glad to make a Times debut and that they went with a somewhat odd puzzle. Tremendous thanks to the many resources out there that greatly reduce the barrier to crossword construction: in my case, the many helpful users and hardworking admins of the Crosscord discord server, free wordlists including Peter Broda's and Spread The Wordlist, and the Phil web app originally developed by Keiran King. I am always down if any puzzlers want support, feedback, to collaborate, or just to chat about puzzles; find me online or wandering about Cambridge, Massachusetts.

More notes are online.

We've seen plenty of pyramid blocks in themeless puzzles, but Ben gives us the Great Pyramid(s)! A full 10 black squares apiece, they sure do draw my eye. (And draw down my printer's toner.) Distinctive look.

The usual pyramid shapes ease the filling process tremendously, and I imagine that these big boys amp that factor by an order of magnitude. Usually, you'd have to worry about intersecting three horizontal 15s with 3 vertical 8s, so not just nibbling but chomping away at all those crossings is so useful. A stack like SO I GATHERED / DANCE ROUTINE / LETTER TO SANTA is something to write Santa about. Ben's on the nice list!

The naughty side is that you take away precious long slots (8+ letters), thus reducing your ability to spice up a solve. There's nothing wrong with THRU / CHEER / LLOYDS, but none of them will get you a checkmark in an editor's scoresheet.

ENIGMATOLOGY, ha! Will Shortz has said that he would never feature his name in a crossword, but featuring his undergraduate degree is something different. Although it's insidery, it's a fun kind of crossword-specific terminology that appeals to the inner circles.

Fantastic cluing all over; impressive to see a new constructor take so much time and care in this area. My favorite category is wordplay that doesn't require a telltale question mark, so DEALER holding all the cards and [Bat signal] as SONAR stood out.

Although there wasn't as much pizzazz within the grid as I expect in a themeless, I appreciated the novel grid design, and Ben made up for a lot of the lack of long slots by making his cluing shine.