New York Times, Friday, September 12, 2014

I constructed this puzzle in March of 2013 and it was accepted in June. Fifteen months later it was published. My first NYT puzzle took 20 months from acceptance to publication.

I've been told that my puzzle has 13 unique entries. Whenever I see or think of an expression I like that might not have appeared in a published puzzle I add it to my word list, scored such that it floats to the top in Crossword Compiler when I'm constructing.

[Out of gear?] is one of my favorite clues in quite a while, repurposing a familiar phrase to a completely different use. NAKED = out of "gear" indeed!

Michael uses a standard-ish layout today, focusing on four triple-stacks in the four corners. I appreciate how wide-open it is, each region flowing smoothly into the next, with few choke points. It's also admirable that he connected the regions with some long words. Check out the NE region for example. Using YTTRIA, GO FIRST, BE NICE TO / CRAYONED, KEPT FIT to join those regions is pretty neat. I'm not entirely convinced that CRAYONED is in regular usage, but in any case, that quintet of long answers is an elegant way to connect up two subsections.

Those triple-stacks of 11-letter entries are so hard. There are usually going to be a few hiccups due to all the constraints, and it's best if those glue bits can be spread out across different categories. I love the triple of STADIUM ROCK / IM OUTTA HERE / TAKES THE RAP — all just beautiful entries — but I'm less a fan of a triplet of esoteric names in the same region. AOKI and MAHRE are perhaps famous-enough people, but I wouldn't expect the general public to have as much familiarity with them as WOODS and MAIER, say. And as much as I loved Michael CERA in Arrested Development and Juno, having him round out the triplet of AOKI / MAHRE / CERA is perhaps less than ideal.

Clean work on the opposite corner, with just RWE sticking out. Even DVD / VCRS turned from neutral to a plus in my book with the elegant crossing. The long answers aren't as nice as in the NW though, with INTERSPERSE being slightly above neutral to me, and DRIVE TO WORK feeling arbitrary. DRIVE TO WORK is a fine clue for COMMUTE, but as an answer it opens up DRIVE A CAR or WALK TO WORK or DRIVE TO THE PARK as equally arbitrary answers.

A lot of strong long fill today, HOW ON EARTH and ITS COOL being exemplary. Even short stuff like EUROPOP and KEPT FIT added to the overall effect. Some glue required to hold everything together (MTS/EHS DIR/ADM, nice try hiding in those corners!) but it made for a flowing Friday solve. Themelesses like this, with few choke points, often make for great Fridays, as they give the solver so many opportunities to break into each region.