Alex Bajcz author page

I love pinball. Ever since first seeing those flashing lights and the BUMPERS fired by high-powered solenoids, I can't walk by a pinball machine without inserting a quarter. A crossword built around PINBALL makes this wizard happy.

Even better was the quality of cluing. Right from the get-go, I was baffled by [One inclined to go in and out]. This former cat owner knew it had to be some sort of pet term, but what? Nope, that's a RAMP that's literally inclined so you can enter or exit a parking garage! Groanworthily brilliant.

Shortly after, [Pretty trim] bogged me down. This rock climber likes to think he's pretty trim, but it's more appropriate to my daughter's earsplitting squees over all things fancy. LACING is indeed pretty trim that she tapes onto everything.

And SHEET as something that's "kept undercover"? Slow clap, Alex and Will Shortz, slow clap.

Such a smooth grid, too, at least until the very bottom. Peter Gordon tortured Roman numeral math clue for CXX ... some people love 'em, but not me. Thankfully the clue for IXNAY made up for it, and more. I LOLed, trying to make sense of "igpay atinlay." Constructors who reuse or even copy clues: this is a perfect example of what I mean when I ask you to freshen your clues in an interesting way.

I so badly wanted a mirror sym layout, with bumpers formed out of black squares — heck, those black square chunks in the SW/NE are bumperish enough already! — and I found it odd that the pinball somehow skipped over the bumper in the top right. Even though the visual didn't do anything for me, I still enjoyed the homage to my golden days of spending hours trying not to get TILTed.

Sometimes a title is so perfect that I have to tip my hat. Playing off "For Pete's Sake," using "four-peat" (think "threepeat" plus one) is brilliant. Kudos!

Repeated sets of letters is a well-trodden theme trope, so you have to do something wonderful to get over the bar. Repeating four letters is better than three, but I liked Tracy's execution better. Shading the 4x2 set of 8 squares today produces more of a "huh" moment, especially when the title gives away exactly what's going on.

A co-constructor and I have a puzzle waiting in the queue with the same basic idea — different presentation, though — also using NO MAN IS AN ISLAND. Hopefully, Will spaces it out from this one. I wouldn't mind even waiting a year, so recency doesn't reduce the impact.

I was plus/minus on a couple of the themers, especially those that felt like they were stretched, so this could run on a Sunday. (My co-constructor and I held to a 15x15 because there weren't enough great options to do a 21x21.) I'd have pushed back on BAHAMA MAMA MIX and ROMA TOMATO SAUCE hard, maintaining that if there weren't enough great long ones (there aren't), it wouldn't work for a 21x21. Trouble is, it's not interesting enough in this presentation for a 15x15.

Solid gridwork from Alex. Not a ton of bonuses, but not much short glop, either. When a theme isn't that interesting, I usually prefer that a constructor pushes to incorporate more long bonuses to keep solvers' interest. Although, I can certainly see that if the Sunday puzzle isn't exciting, it should be painless.

The title is fantastic, so it's a shame the puzzle didn't live up to that initial bang. This theme might have been interesting back in 2015, but the NYT has to push harder, figuring out better ways of soliciting stronger Sunday offerings.

"Both words can precede X" themes largely fell by the wayside about three years ago, not long after Will called a moratorium on simpler "words that can precede X" ones. All established theme types go through this life cycle — they start with a bang, grow mature, wane in popularity, feel overdone, and die out. However, it's nice to see a throwback to the past every once in a while.

DOUBLEDAY is as reasonable a rationale as any. While it's not exciting — there are a ton of words that can precede DAY, so there should be an ample number of possible themers — it does the trick. HOLYFIELD = holy day, field day, etc.

I did hitch on VETERANS MEMORIAL — it's no surprise that this is a debut phrase. It Googles well, pointing to dozens of different memorials honoring vets. It's not something I'd strive to use in another crossword as fill, though, since it feels too general of a term. VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL evokes much more vivid and specific imagery, for example.

As a constructor, I often hear the siren song of long across bonuses, particularly where ABILITIES and OUR SAVIOR are today. Usually, you'd have a black square at the S of OUR SAVIOR, but you can sometimes do without it, thus adding in more pizzazz. Why not? Let's do it!

When it forces something rough like XIE XIE crossing XFL and EXO, though … it's not quite a FELONY, but you're usually better off putting that black square back in.

Among crossword makers, variant entries are one of the most hated types of crossword glue. ANTEED looks so horrible, so desperate, that there's no way I'd let it through. It's a tough call, though — it is something solvers can reason out, much less so than XIE XIE. Does it look better or worse than HOBS or GYRE? Hard to say.

I enjoyed reviewing some crossword history today. Although this theme type doesn't (and shouldn't) show up much, an exemplary instance once every few years can be fine.

I often wish Jim would comment with me a la Siskel and Ebert. We happened to meet up and chat about this week's puzzles, and I found my opinions shifting as we talked.

My first impression of this one was confusion, as I nearly missed the fact that the cities were anagrammed to form the kooky theme phrases. After I finally figured out that DIAGNOSE was SAN DIEGO scrambled, I wanted some revealer to help direct me to that conclusion. (Not that I could think of a good one! CITY MIX UP isn't a real thing, unfortunately.)

Jim had a different take. It also took him a bit to figure out the notion (shorter than me, I'm sure), but the fact that he had to work hard to figure it out enhanced his feeling of accomplishment.

Sure, some solvers won't grok the theme, and that's unfortunate. But those who do might appreciate not being spoon-fed.

I'm agreed with Alex; there were some parts of the grid I'd have asked to rework — there's way too much ASI ETTE ESTA ARTE NEBR STS etc. for this to be considered an elegant product. I'd have suggested adding a cheater square at the R of NEBR, and probably also breaking up BLACK SEA at the C. BLACK SEA and NESTLE UP aren't as awesome to me as ARCHENEMY, USED CAR LOT, CHEESECAKE — great stuff there! — so you'd gain a lot of grid flexibility with these suggestions, without losing much.

"Horne and Chen, At the Puzzles"! Any marketing folks have a better name? I appreciate having my opinions and positions challenged, forcing me to hone and tune my general philosophy on puzzles.

I stared at the title for a long time before staring the puzzle. How neat, that PREPOSITION and PROPOSITION are the same except for that third letter. I didn't quite figure out how it applied to the theme — prepositions joined up to produce kooky themers — but I suppose you could call a theme a "proposition," as in a "plan of action."

I enjoyed most of the themers. STAND-IN LINE as a delivery from an understudy felt clever. PULLUP STAKES as the wager for an exercise bet, too. PUT-ON NOTICE as a [Scam alert], too! I was surprised at how different these common phrases became with just that slight hyphen/space change. Amusing theme.

I was glad to read Alex's note, as that NE corner stuck out to me, too. Here's a case where going to 142 words could have been a good option. I do like PINCH RAN and ANTI RIOT a lot, but breaking those up into two words apiece would have allowed for some cleanup on aisle APEAK. Probably would have allowed Alex to upgrade TOSSES TO into something more sizzly, too.

I thought Alex did a nice job with his fill, except for all those prepositional fillers. For a theme based on prepositions, where you're already going to have some UP / IN / ON / TO dupes, having more of the SHAKE UP / UP ONE / PUSH IN / OD ON / FLIES TO / TOSSES TO is less than ideal. That kind of fill is neutral at best in average puzzles. But here, not only do they muddy up the theme a bit, but there's just such a huge quantity of prepositions floating around.

And GOOK. Yes, it's clued as GO OK, but come on. Seriously? NO NO!

But I enjoyed the theme, those seemingly innocent hyphen changes creating huge and entertaining shifts in meaning. A sharp theme can almost always overcome a couple of infelicities in grid execution.

Sound change / letter substitution, ST going to D. Some funny results in FALSE DART and my favorite, BLUEGRASS DATE. There are a ton of words that start with ST, so it was nice to see Alex incorporate six themers.

Aha, you might have missed themers five and six! They're tucked in the upper left and lower right--NOSE DUD and ICE DORM. Unusual locations. At first I wondered if a NOSE DUD was something the kids these days were piercing / inserting / snorting. And ICE DORM … maybe that's some sort of Icelandic thing? Even though it's kind of neat that pairs of themers intersect, I would have liked those short 7s to stand out better--perhaps at 1-Across and the last across position.

Alex uses a lot of long slots, although some of those felt like they left untapped potential, ANNOTATE, MASSAGER, IN STORES, ETHERNET all feeling more neutral than assets. But I really liked POWERED ON, looking curiously like POWER DON (Mafia bigwig). I also liked PROTÉGÉ, I AGREE, GUNSHY, and OIL TYCOON was my favorite. It was neat to get T BOONE crossing it — I like fortuitous crosses like that.

I wasn't sure about T BOONE as an entry itself though. Is that what people call him? I'm so used to the full T. Boone Pickens that just T BOONE by itself feels like a six-letter partial. Any friends of T BOONE want to weigh in?

Also a bit odd was SKYEY. To my surprise, it actually is in the dictionary, as "adjective form of sky." And Updike writes "a sheet of skyey water." I may have to try it out and see if people around me flinch.

As with most straightforward Thursday themes, I was left wanting more trickery, more of an a-ha moment. It is asking for a lot to want a fresh, tricky idea every single week (and Will has gone on record saying that all he wants out of a Thursday is for it to be harder than a Wednesday), but a guy can wish.

Congrats on the NYT debut, Alex! I've had the pleasure corresponding with Alex before and working on some things together (one 21x co-construction in the Crosswords Club). Fun to work with him. Today's theme is a "word that can precede or follow" type, which Will doesn't run very frequently these days. It is nice that Alex picked a word, PICKUP, which forms some great base phrases: PICKUP TRUCK, PICKUP LINE (at a bar), PICKUP GAME (on a basketball court), and PICKUP STICKS. Swizzly stuff.

Some really nice entries today, ICE CREAM TRUCK brings back so many happy memories of when I would chase after the Good Humor van, waving my money overhead. (That may or may not have been yesterday.) CUTS IN LINE is another great one, and SWIZZLE STICKS is my favorite. Nice stuff.

TRIVIA GAME, as Alex mentioned, is a bit wonky. Jeopardy is more a GAME SHOW to me, but perhaps this could have been saved with a clue like referencing TRIVIAL PURSUIT. Of course, the clue can't have the word TRIVIAL or GAME in it though. Maybe [Competition in which players earn pie pieces]? Yikes, tortured. Okay, something like ENDER'S GAME or HOCKEY GAME might have been better.

It is awfully nice that Alex worked in IT IS SAID and AVOWING and BIKINI in that location though. It's so tempting where you're constructing to hold onto a piece of great fill (or in this case, theme piece) in order to preserve a couple entries. Always the trade-offs.

One aspect I admired about Alex while co-constructing with him was that he was always searching for new entries. It's great to fill your puzzle with fresh stuff, PRECALC and PICAYUNE are awfully nice. There are some trade-offs in fill to get said answers though, NEDS and ESS sticks out a bit, as does MGR and YAH. Same goes with the trade of BALLPIT and CAME EASY with the random CLV and ILE (and STYES to a lesser extent) as prices to pay. I admire the stretch to make it a 74-word puzzle — it does come with some minor costs in glue-y entries but does allow for a lot of snappy fill.

Surprisingly, I had the hardest time with TENTHS place, as it just looked crazy. Totally me though, as a quick check made me realize it is indeed called the TENTHS place. Dunno what I was thinking, but the TENS place certainly is not the one to the right of the decimal point.

I liked the revealer as it allowed for some nice themers, but the placement threw me off a bit. I realize it's a subjective opinion, but I find it odd when theme revealers are at a random place in the grid. I've done it myself before, but these days if it's not in the center of the grid, or in a corner at an extreme across or down spot, it feels inelegant. Could just be me.

Anyway, congrats again Alex!