New York Times, Tuesday, September 6, 2016

My hope is that the punch line lands with solvers. The progression I was going for is a person with a stiff upper lip stoically spouting obnoxious cliché after obnoxious cliché while his world crumbles around him, before he's finally had enough, drops the act and blows his stack in an ill-conceived bout of self-destruction (a real specialty of mine).

In terms of the grid and fill there's not too much to say. For aesthetic and flow considerations, I made sure not to break up the 9s at 3- and 37-Down, and held the line at 76 words.

The SW corner was the trickiest spot to fill: At the last minute I replaced RHEE / TOE with RHEA / TO A (although there's a really good chance Will would have made that change himself). RHEE is never an asset, let alone early in the week; Jeff in fact commented on his aversion to it a few months ago. Plus, with KOREA in the grid, the clue might have to be cross-referenced, which can be annoying, particularly when the theme itself includes cross-references. Things get muddled. Eliminating all that baggage was worth a short partial.

The final cliché was a choice between THATS LIFE or CEST LA VIE, and since nobody but the redoubtable Joel Fagliano can successfully fill a Q?C?? pattern, THATS LIFE it had to be.

The good news is, I've dealt with my anger issues. Doctor gave me a relaxation cassette. When my blood pressure gets too high, the man on the tape tells me what to say.

A collection of phrases meaning [sigh]. Kind of a downer to focus so heavily on resignation, but Tim found some wonderfully colorful phrases. THEMS THE BREAKS, AND SO IT GOES, WIN SOME LOSE SOME, QUE SERA SERA, THAT'S LIFE are all phrases I'd happily count as an asset in a themeless puzzle. I also liked how the last one broke the pattern, as a literal phrase of resignation — I QUIT! Fun to lull the solver into a pattern and then hit them with a sort of punchline.

Really nice gridwork; I wouldn't expect anything else from Tim. Even with so many long themers — including ones forcing black square placement (between THATS LIFE / I QUIT), reducing flexibility tremendously — Tim navigates his grid well. Working in two long downs is tough with this theme set, but BORE FRUIT and DEERSKINS are both nice. There's even a little HYBRID, some GHOSTS, OTTERS, and a PRELIM to jazz things up further.

Smooth results, too, with just the lower left giving me a tiny pause. It's tough to work a little corner like that when it's constrained by two themers — one starting with a Q — so to end with an AHL (American Hockey League) and TOA is pretty minor. There are a few other things like EBRO (minor-ish rivers are an inside joke to constructors, as they can be so useful but so head-scratching to newer solvers) and the odd-sounding EXSTAR, but as a whole, the puzzle flowed so well.

A lot of really strong theme phrases, but overall, the idea got repetitive for my taste. With Tim's flair for the innovative, I was hoping to get something new with how THEMS / THE BREAKS *literally* broke in two. Alas, no. I did really like that final rimshot of I QUIT breaking the pattern though; a literal line of resignation.