Brooke Husic author page

Ah, TU ES BELLE. I remember doing C.C.'s puzzle, my Spidey-sense going haywire when I filled in the mystifying TUESBELLE. I took five years of high school French, yet I somehow convinced myself that it was probably TUES BEL, LE.

Needless to say, I didn't get a 5 on the AP exam.

Part of me enjoyed the smugness of being able to identify the theme so quickly this time around. The other part braced for the coming onslaught of "what's the theme?!" questions. Seven entries are starred, but it's not simple to figure out that each of those answers with SUN MON TUE(S) WED THU FRI SAT.

It's too bad that TUES is the only one that can be a four-letter abbreviation, but what else would work? TUEBIGEN would raise some "Ach!"s, and TUEBROOK has a ways to go before its population of 14,000 gets it into the realm of crossworthiness. So, smart choice to reuse TU ES BELLE, and it's likely that only the analest of the anal will know about C.C.'s prior art.

Lots of strong fill helped to keep up my interest. Even the most constrained bonus slots stood out, with the fun NOURISH running through SUNNI, not to mention a auspicious crossing of KWANZAA through SATAN.

Given that there was no revealer like in C.C.'s, it would have been great to have seven long themers rather than five plus two shorties. That's an incredibly difficult feat, as some of them would need to be squinched tightly together, but Brooke and Brian are constructors who can deliver a SUNdance-level solve even with SATurnine constraints.

Messes up Jell-O-lover's cling film periodical? You know … ANAGRAMS AGAR MAN'S SARAN MAG?

Count your blessings that I stay away from anagrams these days.

I appreciate the smooth connections within these themers, not one herky-jerky or grammatically tortured. There are a TIN HOST (anagram that) of five-letter sequences with multiple anagrams, but so many would give nails-on-chalkboard-screeches when linked.

Take AELST, which has six possible anagrams: LEAST SLATE STALE STEAL TALES TEALS. Trying to pass off something like TEALS STEAL SLATE as [Robber ducks pull building material heist?] would get you the LEAST stars possible, and people might even tell TALES of your STALEness.

AIDES IDEAS ASIDE, on the other hand, is something that I could imaging Cinda Canning saying in "Only Murders in the Building." EARLY RELAY LAYER could easily describe a team triathlon wetsuit. And while NOTES SET ON STONE so badly wants to be NOTES SET IN STONE for the [Engravings?] clue, it works.

With four grid-spanning themers, you can almost always incorporate four long Down bonuses, and Olivia and Brooke delivered. The RED BARON brought back memories shared with Snoopy over a root beer, and material like IT'S A TRAP and ON AND OFF BOLSTERS the quality.

It's difficult for me to see almost any anagram puzzle as memorable, so all the additional touches were much appreciated. I'll never give RANTER'S SNOT to great wordplay like [Nonstarters?] for BTEAM.

Today would have been perfect for one of Dick Dastardly's trademark "Double drat!" outbursts. I loved his chuckle-wheezing sidekick, Muttley, as a kid. As an adult, I now wonder if all that kooky snickering was because he was a POTHEAD. Muttley, you're such a Loo / Loo.

I use the word CRAPSHOOT all the time in talking about risk/reward profiles. The fact that I never noticed that both halves mean "Drat!" makes me shout something much stronger than that. Wish I'd thought of that.

RIBROAST is also strong. I don't eat much meat these days, but realizing that both halves mean "tease" was another solid a-ha.

Not as hot on DROP KICK since I didn't as immediately make the connection between DROP, KICK, and "quit." It works, but I had to ponder this for a beat longer than I wanted.

Same goes for both GOT and CAUGHT for "heard." CAUGHT wind of something, sure. GOT … huh. I didn't totally GOT that.

Congrats to Brooke on her big night at the Orcas! Both she and Adam are stars with long bonus fill. Stacking CRAPSHOOT with ROSA PARKS and GOT CAUGHT with GOING ONCE is so money. Maybe it verges on too many multi-word mid-lengthers that seem to irritate some solvers — YOU WHAT?! / IN GEAR / PC HELP / HITS AT — but those folks can hit the RAGE ROOMS later.

Recently, a crossword editor asked me to avoid LYRE, since it wouldn't be that familiar for that publication's solvers. Totally different target audience, but I can only imagine what that editor would say about ERHU. I think I might have heard one when I was in Taiwan last—nice to put a name to the instrument.

I GOTTA SAY that there were some excellent debuts: PRAYER MAT, APOLOGY ACCEPTED, DON'T GET UP, and even T-Swizzle TAY-TAY (fine, I admit that I can't shake off Shake It Off).

Although SUPERNOVA has been in the NYT crossword since 1966, there's been no more impressive clue than [Huge pop star?]. On a Friday, I appreciated that telltale question mark, tipping me off that if Tayla Swiff couldn't be involved, at least I'd get some stellar (sorry) wordplay.

POP UP SHOP is a fresher entry, though wow, what a Saturday clue. [Store for a short time] — without a question mark — pushes so strongly toward storage rental units. It's absolutely fair and Saturday-worthy clever, but I didn't get the same elation as I did with SUPERNOVA and its clue.

Brooke's latest New Yorker puzzle garnered some "hardest puzzle of the year" chatter, so I tried it. And failed. Miserably. Today's was thankfully much more in my realm of possibility, though there were a lot of toughies:

• LOOFA as a [Natural rubber]? If there had been a question mark, I'd buy "rubber" as a "thing that rubs."
• [Root] has eight major categories of definitions in Merriam-Webster—and that's only in nouns. It took ages get to the BOTTOM of the clue …
• [Stand for a shot] ... I gave up golf decades ago because this hack couldn't hack it, but calling an opening drive a "shot" (not a TEE shot) deserves a question mark.
• [It's right on a map] obfuscated things as much as today's politicians. I get that RED STATEs lean right. Again though, no question mark?
• Ōdī et amō.

Neat gridwork — did you notice the diagonal symmetry along the SW to NE axis? — and I might have loved this solving experience on a Saturday.

Erik has given me a lot of great book recs over the years, so seeing FANTASY SERIES made me a smile. That clue was equally fantastic, "invented language" making me think of Klingon dictionaries. Qapla'!

The symmetrical entry jumped off the page, too, DREAM SEQUENCE is so evocative. I wish it didn't get such a dictionary definition, though. Specialized or freshly coined terms need this treatment, but for such a common term, I'd have loved to see what these two wordplay superstars could have come up with. Qagh Sopbe'!

I'm not sure why it's rare to have a 16x15 themeless — I'd love to see more variety in layouts. One extra column may seem trifling, but it carries so much potential. Any small variance can help distinguish a themeless from the sea of same-old, same-old layout patterns.

Here, it opens up the possibility for an even number of letters for the middle entry. WISH LIST is pretty good, and that "present perfect indicative" cluing makes for a gleeful unwrapping.

(I hadn't noticed the mini-theme of FANTASY, WISH, DREAM, but that's fun.)

I would have loved a greater quantity of long (8+ letters) entries — that extra column could allow for maybe two extra feature entries. I like that Brooke and Erik took full advantage of their 13 long slots, but pushing that to 15 would have added extra sizzle.

I wasn't familiar with SMOKEY EYE, but it's easy enough to infer. Not as easy to figure out why it's not "smoky eye."

Although this one didn't stand out as much as I hoped, given these two powerhouse constructors teaming up, I loved so many of the clues. I'll never say NO THANK YOU to brilliant reinterpretations. Passwords to "pass words?" … such wonderful wordplay makes me never pass up my Friday themeless solve.

Even with the Rafaelian masterpiece yesterday, today's puzzle had serious POW! buzz. Although there are only 12 long slots (themelesses average roughly 14) there's so much juice squeezed out of each — a super-fresh entry in NEARLYWEDS, too! I hadn't heard the term, but that kind of inferable coinage gives me a smile.

I often find Brooke's cluing a factor of 2.718 too challenging for me. Today, after girding my Saturday loins (I'm still recovering from hernia repair surgery, bear with me), I was ready to tackle the brain-busting wordplay.

And was there some busting! I hit a dead stop along the entire left side of the puzzle. [One of several in a trend, perhaps] ... even though I suspected it had nothing to do with fashion trends, coming up with DATA POINTS was a struggle.

Same goes with [Reach]. That has so many different meanings, and not one that I could recall was the noun form getting at "full extent." That's okay, though — some Saturday defeats are inevitable.

I thought I was on my way to another plotzing with [World capital whose name means "new flower"], but my brain ran the GAMUT of crosswords it's clung onto, and it recalled the Patrick Berry usage from a decade ago. Fist pump, UH, YEAH!

There were a HOST of great clues that delivered similar fist-pumping moments. I thought Brooke would defeat me once again when I couldn't figure out what Santa's HOH OHO in Canada might be. What a brilliant way to deliver joy for an otherwise neutral entry in POSTAL CODE.

Brooke and Yacob did such a great job of setting me up for a hard-fought win.

With only 120 entries, Brooke and Will set a record for fewest answers in a Sunday 21x21, edging out the old record-holders, Frank Longo and Byron Walden.

[UPDATE: Sam Ezersky beat this record in 2013.]

From a construction standpoint, it's a jaw-dropping achievement. A regular 140-word 21x21 is difficult enough since you have to fill themeless-esque expanses of white space. A 130-word themeless is maybe a factor of two harder — although it's more real estate to fill, you don't have to deal with any pesky themers.

Dropping down from there has an exponential effect. Difficulty level might double again cutting to 126 words. Then double again to 124. Pushing to 120 words is like a moonshot.

Clever use of cheater squares, Brooke and Will nibbling away at the grid's four corners. That makes filling those regions much more possible. Not a bad visual effect, either.

The middle of the puzzle … I wouldn't even attempt something like this, a feat even more difficult than Ryan McCarty's trademark themelesses featuring gigantic middles. The fact that they filled this, period, is astonishing. To do it with some awesome entries like FACE TATTOOS, GAY PRIDE PARADE, and HULA DANCERS is even more impressive.

All that said, the solver in me enjoyed some of the other Sunday themelesses more. There was so much neutral material taking up valuable long slots, like PREPARATIVE, CONCURRENCE, NOT OCCUPIED, DEDICATE. I'd rather break up some of these, clawing back the ability to jazz up other long entries like DETENTIONS, ERRONEOUS, TOTALED UP, REFUSALS. I enjoyed Will's recent Universal Sunday themeless more than this one.

A couple of fantastic clues, like a HAT TREE giving a bowler (hat) a "hook," and GAY PRIDE PARADE was made even better with the wordplay in walk out.

Experimentation is rarely the wrong thing to do. I hope the NYT will continue running occasional themeless Sundays.

Two of the best new wave themeless specialists, working together! I love all the collaboration that's happened in the crossworld over the past couple of years; nothing like a little 1 + 1 = 3.

So many solid entries spread throughout the grid, linking ROMAN A CLEF to BOOTY CALL to TCHOTCHKE to PLAY HOOKY to WEIRDS OUT to CRUSH HARD (what kids these days say to describe strong infatuation). There's no one amazing debut entry, like in a recent SOLO PARENTING / WHO AM I KIDDING puzzle, but that can be the nature of themelesses mostly featuring 10s and 9s.

There's some gold-medal wordplay in the clues, too. It stinks that Brooke and Nam Jin got scooped on BOOTY CALL, but [Summons before congress?] is brain-bustingly incredible. Government might work more smoothly if there were more congress in Congress.

Several clues took me a hot minute to figure out, even after figuring out the grid entry. [Orchestral instrument that doesn't make a sound]? It turns out a conductor's BATON is technically an instrument? [Was appealing?] was appealing wordplay, but only after a few minutes of trying to make sense of its link to PLED, i.e. in making an appeal. HORSE RACES are a series of stakes ... how? Think about events like the Preakness Stakes.

I gave this one strong POW! consideration. My expectations are so high when I see a Nam Jin or Brooke byline, though, that the puzzle has to be even more amazing than I anticipate. A drop-everything-and-go-tweet-about-it debut entry, or cluing that was more Friday-delightful than Ken-Jennings-knows-more-than-you-do Saturday, and it'd have ticked over that sky-high bar for sure.

Impressive set of marquee entries. I love how so many delightful long entries weave through each other, from north to south, from West Coast to East: ON TIPPY TOE through ON THE BACKBURNER through I CAN RELATE, STARTER KIT, and WANNA TRADE. Everywhere I looked, there was fantastic material.

Editors tend to favor multi-word entries for their colorful potential, so DISAPPEAR usually wouldn't get a plus. However, mixing DISAPPEAR / BEST CHANCE / ONE AT A TIME has a fun carnival magic ACT feel to it. I sure will step right up!

I enjoyed much of the cluing. As the nefarious one between me and my identical twin brother, I approve of the EVIL clue. CROSS PRODUCTS also gave me a big smile, since I'm in the middle of teaching my kids about statistics and probabilities. We definitely do not use PENS — lots of erasing required!

And the gold medal-winner: [Garden variety?] What sly usage of a garden-variety phrase to point at an HERB. Now that's tasty!

I could have used more clues that gave me Friday-level joy, though. In some cases, I figured out what the answer must be, but the clue took a long while to click:

• [Clear indication?] as I SEE … ironically, I didn't see. It is clever in hindsight, but the grammar is too warped for my taste.
• I appreciated the wile in [Exchange words] misdirecting to "have an argument." That is wickedly devious. For Friday fun, though, a telltale question mark would have amped up the a-ha moment.

An enjoyable Friday solve overall. NO SLOUCH, indeed.

I love the "Wallace and Gromit" shorts, "The Wrong Trousers" capturing this mechanical engineer's imagination decades ago. I haven't seen Aardman's longer features, but I look forward to watching them with my kids some day — "The Curse of the WERE-RABBIT" sounds delightful.

TAKES FOR GRANTED is apt today, solvers likely to take for granted how far triple-stacks have come over the years. Ten years ago, most of them had to be held together with paper-clips-and-bubble-gum short fill. Today's is beautifully clean, every cross and surrounding entry immaculate. Love it; how times have changed.

I did find TAKES FOR GRANTED a bit dull, though, especially since its clue was so straightforward; no playfulness at all. Thanks to the pre-Shortzian project, we can see that this entry debuted way back in 1969! I can only imagine what a triple-stack built around it would have looked like.

PROPELLER BEANIE made me smile. I've never seen one in real life, but I wouldn't put it past some Seattle hipster doofus to wear one. And make me want one.

Jim Horne and I debated how strong STARBUCKS ORDERS felt. Is MCDONALDS ORDERS equally valid? Would we enjoy seeing IHOP BREAKFAST in a themeless? Ultimately, Jim convinced me that Starbucks has made a cultural statement about tall, grande, venti, and I did enjoy the misdirection in the clue, making me think about Ariana Grande. Excellent use of the "hidden capital" trick.

Some great cluing today, Facebook offering 50 different choices for GENDERS? Maybe they're not all bad! (Only 99.7%.) And what a great way to make a shortie like EMU stand out. Won't defecate for 50+ days during egg incubation? So many questions …

Grid-spanning triple-stacks can be so amazing when all three entries feel like fist-pumpers. This one didn't get there, but much of the other material added zing — STORE BRAND, I OWE YOU ONE, MERCEDES BENZ, ON BROADWAY.

Haters call these A E I O U themes "vowel movements," but I enjoyed having this old friend stop by after a long absence. As Andrea Carla Michaels has said, there's a poetic quality to vowel progressions, a sing-song lilt. It's fitting that they end with a long "ooh" sound.

Wait. Shouldn't that be a "you" sound? Like this one ought to end with LIEU? That's what I used to think, but vowel progressions have developed their own "standards" over the years, and most all of them end with "ooh."

Another "rule" they typically have followed is that all five words are either stand-alone, or all five sounds are integrated into a single word. Here, LACKS and LEXINGTON aren't consistent. However, a mixture of two stand-alones (LACKS, LICKS), two integrations (LEXINGTON, LUXEMBOURG), and a quasi-parsing (LOCKSMITH, the S shifts away from SMITH) is a reasonable solution.

I appreciate that this one flaunts another aspect of the vowel progression canon, that vowel progressions must use long vowel sounds. There's no hard-and-fast reason for that. It's elegant that every theme answer today incorporates a short sound.

(Although, my French friends down the street are preparing to storm the Bastille, pronouncing the last one "loohks-em-bourg." Ooh, ooh!)

Some tough vocab, with not only AMORS but RECTO and OVULE perhaps tricky for early-week solvers. That is completely subjective, but there is a lot of short fill that's called out on editors' specs sheets, i.e. partial OR IN, RE- addition in RESEEK, the AHL, etc. I might have tried to break up the big NW/SE corners to make the solve friendlier and smoother, but I can see the benefits of working in the delightful INTRICACY and snazzy FOOT MODEL.

And I appreciate Brooke looking back on her own work with a humble eye. That's a quality all great constructors possess.

Brooke's point on GO BALD is well-taken. It's funny when I say "chrome dome" about myself. I hesitate to say it to other guys, though. My (identical twin) brother is still attempting the combover. I try to be sympathetic, but ...

Nice addition to the genre; I enjoyed the change of pace of all short vowel sounds.

I played in jazz bands for twenty years growing up; never heard of the JAZZ AMBASSADORS, though. Interesting concept — I can imagine a bunch of state department wonks sitting around a conference room table in the 1950s, asking who could help spread the gospel of America's superiority. Jazz was huge back then (as was my beloved contract bridge; I clearly was born in the wrong day and age). Why not send Diz along with Benny Goodman to show how of course, there is no racial inequity in the good ol' US of A?

Not surprisingly, Dave Brubeck and others were critical.

The rare letters make JAZZ AMBASSADORS a great themeless marquee, and the controversy sure is compelling. Not as fun or entertaining as listening to Duke's big band, but that's okay.

Super fun to uncover HARD ASS. It's not a NYT debut, but it's still entertaining to wonder ... wait … could it possibly be … yup! Talk about NEW ERAS for the Times.

Fantastically innocent clue in [It's a blessing] — GESUNDHEIT! Trying to figure out what could possibly contain the letter sequence NDH reminded me of a puzzle from history I loved.

Not far behind that was [Window you might want to close quickly]. This jumpy Seattleite went straight to murder hornets and wildfire smoke, but thankfully it was a POP-UP AD.

I had a hard time spelling Megan RAPINOE, because I often forget if it's STOMA or STEMA. You know, because it's part of a plant? (Anybody? Bueller?) But I fondly remember watching World Cup soccer with a former NCAA Division I soccer-star friend, and appreciating her detailed descriptions of what RAPINOE and the others were doing. I forgot that RAPINOE was SI's Sportsperson of the Year! That is quite the honor; seriously crossworthy.

Speaking of STOMA, I asked a biologist friend to describe it. She asked how many hours I had, and I had to frantically make excuses to leave. Similarly, I asked an earth sciences friend if he knew what LOESS was. His eyebrows retracted into his forehead with disbelief. When I first started doing crosswords, these types of entries seemed bizarre — bizarre sure is in the eye of the beholder, though.

Off to go watch the JAZZ AMBASSADORS and learn more! Great way to gently pique my interest.

Six fantastic marquee entries, that's REALLY SOMETHING! I paused when I finally uncovered that one, wondering if it felt arbitrary or I liked it. Didn't take long to decide that I loved it.

With only four more long entries in the entire puzzle, you have to take full advantage of them, and Brooke and Ada did a reasonable job with that. I enjoyed both FIBONACCI and STEEL DRUM, especially with that curious "instrument played by a pannist" clue. That's a great way to generate an a-ha moment, turning a "how the #$@!? should I know what a pannist is?" feeling into a delightful head-slap. DIVING INTO, though ... add-preposition phrases are tough to make stand out.

I finished with an error, putting in CHIMA as the rapper with NIME as the daughter of Styx. I guessed CHIMA ... as in chime? Because she's a singer? Get it?

Fine, I didn't either.

I would have had a much more positive first impression of CHIKA if the NIKE clue had been eased up, allowing me to achieve a victorious solve. I'm big into Greek myths, my kids having listened to D'Aulaires book on audio roughly eight thousand times in the car, but NIKE's lineage escaped me, and NIME sounded familiar. It's a shame, because "Can't Explain It" is catchy!

INNU treated me much better. I didn't know the word — neither did XWI's resident Canuck, Jim Horne — but with unambiguous crossings, each one given a softball clue, I had a much friendlier first contact experience.

Entertaining to get a throwback LINsanity clue. He had his five minutes, played overseas, and is now trying to make another NBA run with the Warriors' G-League affiliate.

A peppering of great clues, with [Puts on the line, say] a standout — clever repurposing of a common phrase. I could have used more of these, though, since there wasn't as much juice in the grid's long entries as there typically is with themelesses featuring 14-16 long entries.

Beautiful set of six marquees. Next time, I'd love to see what Brooke can do with long marquees laid out with her trademark diagonal symmetry. Editors tend to adhere to their old ways, and I'd love to see them experiment more, allowing all sorts of different themeless layouts for variety's sake.

★ It warms my heart that at least one younger person remembers HE'S DEAD JIM. I can't describe how ecstatic I'd be if some Millennial or generation Alpha constructor used REDSHIRT, clued as [Poor sap destined to die in a "Star Trek" away mission].

I loved, loved, loved the summery vibe, with BOSTON POPS playing its annual July 4^th concert, SPARKLERs eliciting I'M AMAZED, pounding in TENTPEGs at a campsite, eating MACARONI salad at a picnic. I enjoy mini-themes in my themelesses, but most of them are simply two related entries. I'd love to see more like this, with so many connected elements!

Other fun entries in PLAY DIRTY, JURY RIG — been watching too much "Money Heist" and "Imposters," Brooke and Brian? — and even mid-length entries like CITADEL and ASTERIX elevated my solve.

ROBYN FENTY was a complete mystery, so I was relieved that every single crossing was unambiguous. I'm curious how many Rihanna fans could correctly spell (or even name) her birth name.

The PRESS BOX clue … it's getting at the press corps covering the field (of sporting action). I like the intent, but it wasn't as satisfying as [One with a train, maybe]. Once you uncover BRIDE, it's not hard to make the connection to the train some brides trail behind them.

What a fantastic way to clue TIL! I have some N.K. Jemisin on my TBR (to be read) list, but "How Long Til Black Future Month?" is such a provocative title that it's now at the top of my queue.

For a 70-word themeless, the bar is so high that I'd usually balk at even the minimal ATA DIA STD TELE, but there was more than enough color to offset these minor blips.

I imagine plenty of people will think this grid is asymmetrical, but it exhibits a rare diagonal symmetry. I love it when people shift crossword norms. If you tilt your head 45 to the right, notice that the grid now looks like it has mirror symmetry. Cool!

(Note: Will Shortz has put the kibosh on two of my up-down symmetry submissions, based purely on aesthetic reasons, so I'd advise against it.)

It's not simply novel, but diagonal symmetry opens up new possibilities, like two marquee answers crossing (OUT OF LEFT FIELD and INSIDE BASEBALL) while allowing easy separation of stacks (PALO ALTO / PROUDEST / SITTERS and BACARDI / BANK LOAN / AGUILERA).

One drawback is that there's the potential for a single hard-to-fill corner, like the southwest. Most editors ixnay 6-letter partials like AS PURE, so it didn't shine as much as the rest of the puzzle.

So much cluing wordplay shined through. TOQUES are literally over (the chef's) head in restaurants. A BANK LOAN as something "of interest." "Running apparel" had me confused, but what a great a-ha moment when I realized it referred to HOSE that gets runs after snags.

Brooke is a big proponent for more diverse representation in crosswords, and I appreciated the touches that made me interested without feeling like I was being forced to learn. I don't know MARI Copeny, but it was easy enough to fill in from the crosses, and the "Little Miss Flint" reference made me curious to read up on her. A great teacher creates a situation where you want to learn, and Brooke did that so well.

There was a bit of ESSE, INAT, CFC (chlorofluorocarbon), ROES (strange in plural), but nothing egregious. CADENT made this musician pause, but it is a word in the dictionary.

I appreciate that this isn't the standard Friday offering. It wasn't only the diagonal symmetry that made it feel fresh, but some of the entries and especially the thoughtful cluing.

There's a great "something for everyone" vibe to this puzzle, drawing from such diverse topics as literature (MUCKRAKING — dang it, that's MEATPACKER) to meteorology (SQUALL LINE) to geography (MAUNA KEA) to finance (BEQUEATH). And that's just the opening corner! It'd be interesting to see what entries came from which contributor, but there's a wide breadth of knowledge represented in any case.

I've never seen a center quite like today's R-L-R-L alternation. That's a neat layout, allowing for four excellent long entries while trying to minimize their overlap. Smart! DNA PROFILE / THAT WAS CLOSE / HOME RUN TROTS, great stuff! I don't know that most solvers will notice or care, but it spurred me on to check out their individual sites.

I rarely have to put down a Saturday puzzle these days, thanks to all the practice my compulsive solving neurosis gives me. I got stuck in the SE corner, though, a frustrating ordeal. Even though I've studied Python (programming), I couldn't pull out TUPLE (which goes to show you how hard I've been studying).

As a former jazz musician, maybe I should have known STOP TIME. Needless to say, I was that trombone player who hid in the corner and played as quietly as a flute.

Even when I did uncover PLEASE RISE, it didn't feel as strong as ALL RISE. TAMENESS is at best a tame answer, and PEACES is probably related to "peace out"? I either felt old or stupid. Maybe both.

I can hear the kids these days peaceing me right now.

This isn't my favorite type of Saturday, with a lot of the difficulty stemming from unfamiliar entries like SQUALL LINE and ET ALIBI, but I appreciated the inventive layout featuring fantastic marquee entries.

I loved 95% of this puzzle and was all set to make it my POW! Amazing gridwork, with so many colorful HUMDINGERs. Congrats to both relatively new constructors, such top-notch craftsmanship!

Then, I finished at MODEL MINORITY.

Sid and I had a thoughtful exchange as I struggled to come to terms with how depressed this entry made me. I hate being reminded of something that has plagued me my entire life. I turn to crosswords to escape the realities of the world, and these days, I need escapes more than ever. In Stella Zawistowski's words, "The whole point of a crossword, or any puzzle, is to surprise and delight people."

It sucked to have delight taken away today.

Additionally, the MODEL MINORITY stereotype can't be summarized in a pithy crossword clue — any short sentence is likely to do it serious injustice, or worse. I wonder how African-American solvers will react, since one could argue that Asian-Americans aren't the ones hurt most by this "myth."

Sid believes that it's imperative to force these discussions. I don't agree. Rarely do Americans like being forced to learn, especially when it's about politics, race, or religion. I fear that Sid's philosophy — to which I devoutly subscribed when I was younger — will achieve more harmful backlash than good.

So how do you influence people? I don't have a great answer, but as more gray enters my beard, I've come to believe that more subtle, less in-your-face approaches are better for achieving long-term results. If you feel the need to use crosswords to teach, instead of blaringly headlining MODEL MINORITY, why not tuck MODEL into the fill, clued as [___ minority (damaging racial stereotype)]? That might have more quietly but more effectively sparked people to go read up on it, maybe even with an open mind.

I'm hopeful that if more big thinkers like Sid focus their efforts on devising creatively subtle approaches that reach people in a way that they're open to listening, the world will slowly morph into a less angrily divided place.