Adam Vincent author page

A couple of months ago, a friend pinged me with a "hidden synonyms" concept, featuring entries like BOUNCE, ROLL, JET, PEEL, SPLIT.

Umm … is the theme … my six-year-old's electronic toy, because I had to peel back the sticker to access the screws and split the casing open, after he jet-rolled and bounced it into the wall?

There was more than a DASH of laughter from my friend.

Great set of finds, phrases where the first word is a food and the second is a synonym for "dash (away)" that you would definitely know if you were only as hip as me. Amazing that there's a workable set, and it's even more incredible that everything matches symmetrically. I tried to come up with even one more possibility, but all I could unearth was DESSERT DESERT, which has nothing to do with anything. As is my usual wont.

Wild layout! Counterintuitively, stacking themers often makes gridwork easier, but only when you have just a few letters of overlap. It also opens up possibilities for great Across fill like MESS TENT and REPARTEE.

It's a whole 'nother story when you have 8 (!) overlapping letters. Fantastic result, with such a smooth solve throughout the north and south.

Oddly, the middle was where I paused, with ESPO and MONDE. (I'm sure both came quickly to Jim Horne, our resident Canadian hockey fanatic.) Adam could have smoothed things out by putting a black square at the ending S of SITARS, but that would have choked off grid flow, so I like his decision.

I'm curious to see how many people I can roll my eyes at today when I drop the term ROLL, as in PEEL, as in SCRAMBLE.

Fine, I'll cut the crop (gold medal clue for REAP!) and split.

I spent much of a my 20s sleeping with the TV on, needing distractions from the 80+ hour work weeks. The inane 3 a.m. infomercials somehow soothed me, so now I have fond memories of spiralizing fruit-cutters, knives that can cut through both cans and tomatoes, and spray-on hair. I even gave my brother one of these as a gag gift because the pitch was so hilarious.

Turns out that spring-shaped things are more fun to eat!

I might even buy a cherry PITTER if the clue had contained infomercial-style PATTER. Best of the four themers by far; such a clever way of thinking differently about a common phrase.

The others worked, although Adam and Will Shortz sure could use some marketing classes. Throw in some exclamation points! Compel people to act now before they lose the opportunity of a lifetime, because supplies are limited! Come on, not even one mention of "but wait, there's more!"?

Note the placement of the four excellent long bonuses, DNA SAMPLE, DYSTOPIA, IDEALIZE, BLUE STATE — it's a near-ideal layout for many four-themer puzzles. The DNA SAMPLE and BLUE STATE slots are particularly friendly, since they only run through one themer; plenty of freedom to choose whatever you think is snazziest. DYSTOPIA and IDEALIZE are a bit tougher since they must work with two themers, but with friendly crossing letters, there's still much freedom of choice for these slots.

A couple of fantastic clues, ESPN showing a lot of plays but no musicals. BLUE STATE is already a colorful entry, and the misdirection in "leans to the left" makes it even better.

Solid puzzle that could have hit POW! status with some Mad Men-like assistance on the themer clues.

Today's theme sounds like a joke my kids would tell: a Boston cabbie picks up a reporter and asks, "Where to?" The person replies, "Circle the block a few times! I need to go AROUND THE GLOBE!"

Then the cabbie bangs his head against the dining room table as his cackling kids demand that their father laugh because it's hilarious, so why aren't you laughing?

Seriously, though, the first themer was perfect. There's something neat about the dual description of reporters being found AROUND THE GLOBE (the HQ of the Globe) and also having to travel AROUND THE GLOBE.

The second didn't work as well. A Baltimore news reader's desk can be found UNDER THE SUN? Baltimoreans haul their desks out to the sidewalk so they can read their papers? Better would have been something funny, maybe referring to the basement of the Sun building.

The lack of parallel structure hurt the last themer. When you start with two out of three positional "… can be found" clues and the last entry is BEHIND THE TIMES, it's bizarre not to complete the pattern. Make them all the same or all different.

At only 39 theme squares, the theme felt thin, but I couldn't come up with a fourth possibility, either. Although three themers is unusually low these days, taking up less real estate can make room for bonuses in the fill. I appreciate that Adam wove in so much UNCLE SAM, AEGEAN SEA, TEA GARDEN, OIL BARON, with careful avoidance of glue, only minor ASI and CRO. That helped shore up the solving experience.

ZEBU, not so much. (Crossword insiders have a crude term that starts with "Scrabble" for forcing the rare letters JQXZ into a grid.) I enjoy AP CALC and the Z, but ZEBU might trigger that "I have to know trivia to do crosswords?" unease that we badly want to avoid.

A lot of potential with this theme. With some massaging of the clues, perhaps writing a little story about them — a reporter circling the building, searching the basement, then finding his source hiding in the back alley? — it could have been more memorable.