Dan Caprera author page

Ten years ago, I was convinced there was a conspiracy. Was I the only one who didn't know that alien abductions involved cows? I'm thankful that I did my research then, because with all that legwork, today's puzzle made me beam.

(The MOTHER SHIP says that they'll serve Jeff for that last pun. Not a coincidence that the last Across entry is STEWS.)

The technical challenges in this grid design! Many tend to think, what's the big deal, having a couple of letters hanging off theme entries? COW, CAR, and MAN push everything up though, forcing FLYING SAUCER to levitate one row higher than you'd usually want. There's no way to avoid that, unless you somehow tuck COW to the left, or intersect it into another themer. Incorporating the abductees into SCOW, BARCAR, and MAGIC MAN is excellent work.

I don't mind a bit of ETO and AAR to make something this audacious work, but crossing AAR with ASANA feels unfair. Dan's already pushed the boundaries, though — extra cheaters where possible in rows 1 and 15. Given that it's a 16x15 grid, I might have tried going up to 82 words, trying to section that north off more. Tough to figure out exactly how.

[Diesel found in street racers?] … how apt a name is VIN Diesel for the "Fast & Furious" star? BALE is typically a dull entry at best, but the wordplay involved with [It's bound to be eaten by livestock]! A BALE is literally bound, by a hay baler … out of this world!

There's bound to be few SMILERS at the glue required to hold something this spacious together, but I appreciated the great bonuses like CHEAT SHEETS and CAPSICUM. Hot stuff! (That the aliens now are shaking onto my head …)

A NINE … hit!

N TWO … Bingo!

You sunk my battleship?

My gaming PLOT arc is all bent out of shape.

Using the coordinate system (shown in the grid below), N TWO = column N / row TWO. That square is occupied by the letter P. Following the process with A NINE, D ONE, and K SEVEN, you get P L O T.

P + L + O + T = the PLOT thickens!

PLOT is appropriate because the four letters are indeed PLOTted out on the coordinate plane. I would have loved some additional layer of depth, though — something like PLOT POINTS would have contributed to a stronger a-ha moment.

Great find in STUNTWOMAN, an excellent headliner for this theme. Note how NTWO breaks across STUNT and WOMAN, making it much more interesting than a one-worder like NETWORKING. Editors stress the importance of multi-word themers since they're more colorful as a whole than single-worders.

It would have been great to swap out either CANINE TEETH (Will Shortz would point out that TEETH doesn't contribute to the theme) or INDONESIANS (one-worders). There are many options with TEN, like JET ENGINE, and multi-word options with ONE, like PABLO NERUDA or LEMON EXTRACT.

Not all multi-worders are fantastic, though. One could easily argue that INDONESIANS is way better than the misery of HELL ON EARTH.

The "hidden words" genre is overdone these days, so an extra layer is always appreciated. Although today's didn't grab me as strongly as if there had been something more than simply PLOT at the end, I appreciated the novelty.

Every day, I bring home three books from the library to read to my kids. I search for as many pirate ones as possible — even if the book is groan-worthy, at least I can practice my pirate accent. Arr!

More than ten budding constructors have approached me with ideas similar to this one, and why not? The idea of integrating a treasure map into a grid --and maybe even having the solver find real treasure? — is appealing. Dan's concept works — following a path from the skull, pacing east, south, west, to end at the lone X. X marks the spot!

I loved the inclusion of the skull (see grid below). There's huge potential in visuals like this, aspects emphatically declaring that the print edition of newspapers still has advantages most e-solving can't replicate. (I am curious to see what the NYT xw digital team does with this. I've been impressed by how much they've improved the e-solving process at their website.)

Interesting decision to include long fill in the across direction, COMMANDO adding spice to the pirate theme. They're not directly related — and maybe there are such things as INTRANET pirates? sure, why not! — but I did enjoy it.

Heavy price to pay, though. Four grid-spanning themers are difficult to work with. If you don't space them properly — look how close together START AT THE SKULL and EAST TWELVE PACES are — you're bound to have trouble. Even for a mid-week puzzle, where some crossword glue is passable for regular solvers, there's way too much of it. A more traditional layout, with the second and third themers moved one row toward the middle, would have been better.

I would have loved some way of digging for the treasure — over the years, contructors have suggested a rebus of GEMS, Schrödinger of X / BOOTY, and much more — but fun concept overall. The colorful piratic clues were great.