Daniel Larsen author page

Two triple-stacks … connected by a vertical grid-spanner? And another grid-spanner across the middle row? That's some feat of construction!

The top stack is a winner. I haven't read A WALK IN THE WOODS, but CALL ON THE CARPET is a fun idiom, and THE BACHELORETTE sure seems to spur on much Twitter noise.

RUSSIAN ROULETTE is common in themelesses, particularly triple-stacks. It doesn't have perfect vowel-consonant alternation, but there are so many common letters that it's incredibly useful.

SLEEVELESS DRESS is similar. Once Will Shortz commented that entries like STRESS TEST are "kind of cheap" in themelesses, because that plethora of RSTLNE letters isn't much fun for solvers to uncover. I do think SLEEVELESS DRESS is more colorful than STRESS TEST, but Will's comment echoed in my head today. Luckily, CARE TO ELABORATE elevated the bottom stack, a conversational question loaded with meaning.

I enjoyed the solve, but it wasn't a standout. Perhaps it was the flood of RSTLNEs — see SLEEVELESS DRESS, TESSERAE — or the dryness of the cluing. EUCHRE did have a top-notch (and timely!) clue, disguising trump as Trump, pushing solvers toward Trump named in lawsuits, and the like. I wish more were that clever.

I did enjoy hearing Daniel's inner nerd coming through with Jason ISAACS playing Lucius Malfoy and Iron Man's ARC reactor, though, and it no doubt was a feat of technical construction.

Daniel has upped his cluing game in a big way. I'd previously noted his technical excellence but a dullness in his cluing, and it's clear that he's spent a lot of time working on that deficiency. I ticked off eight entertaining clues, more than average for a Friday, and that elevated my solving experience a ton.

CAULKED is a perfect example of fantastic misdirection. [Filled in some gaps] immediately made me think about telling the full story about something. Not needing a telltale question mark makes it so devious! It's referring to a literal process of CAULKING in some gaps.

Repurposed phrases that require a question mark can also be effective. DESERT OASIS as a [Place for a hot date?] and MOAT as [Water under the bridge?] are so fun, using literal interpretations of these phrases. The a-ha isn't as strong because the question mark lets you know right away that something's up, but these two clues are excellent.

Love the clue for SAD FACE, using the emoticon. I wonder when the NYT will start using emoji in crosswords?

INBOX is often clued in a straightforward way. I love the fresh take — even if you don't know "INBOX zero," what an easy introduction to a fun, recent term.

The "erudite words in clue" category can be tricky since you risk making solvers feel dumb. I vaguely know what "provenance" means, but I do know my superheroes! I figured it had to refer to origin stories, thus had to be radiation or mutation. Ah, STAN LEE, the creator of many superheroes! Clever.

Great grid execution, as I've come to expect from Daniel. Such technical skill, filling out this tough 66-worder so cleanly. It's easy to create triple-stacks when you nibble away the corners with black squares, but connecting them with a central spanner (THESIS STATEMENT) ups the difficulty tremendously. I don't mind all the cheaters, not when it allows for such grid-filling flexibility.

If I'd connected more with SERGEANT BILKO or RED OAKS — I bet there will be some folks who love these entries — this would have been my POW! pick for sure.

★ Notoriously difficult themeless layout, featuring 7-letter entries — 36(!) of them. It's not a difficult grid to fill in, but doing so with color is another story. Looking at the whole set of possible 7-letter entries, the ratio of sizzling ones (two-worders like LIP RING or evocative one-worders like GEYSERS) to neutral ones (DISMAYS, LARAMIE) is low — I'd estimate roughly 1 sizzler for every 4 neutrals. It's tough to avoid so much blah filler.

(8+ letter entries have more possibilities in forming multi-word phrases, so you might get 1 sizzler for every 3 neutrals. Much easier to select colorful entries!)

Given these technical issues, an average grid might have only 20% of its 7-letter slots converted to great material. And given the competition in themelesses these days — especially in 72 worders, the easiest of all themeless tasks — I'm not impressed unless that figure is upwards of 40-50%.

That's all a long-winded way of explaining why the constructor in me enjoyed this one so much. BALL HOG, ER NURSE, GET LOST, HASHTAG, HOME GYM, IPAD PRO, the list went on and on. Well over 50% — bravo! All the word list groundwork clearly paid dividends.

The solver in me enjoyed the cluing even more. I've been critical of Daniel's puzzles, some of which have felt drab in their cluing. Much improvement today, for example, OPEN BAR a place for "free spirits." TRIVETS as "Pot supporters," too — neither needing a giveaway question mark! Excellent work.

My one big hesitation before giving this the POW!, though: the AGONIST / ARGOT region. The gridwork isn't the problem, but the cluing made the area near unsolvable. I'd much rather get a dictionary-ish biochem clue for AGONIST (it's a commonplace word in the pharma R&D industry). Given the region's toughness, you have to clue ARGOT in an easier way than [Cant].

I spent so many frustrating minutes feeling like Daniel was my antAGONIST that I initially disqualified this puzzle for POW! consideration. After a day of reflection, though, I decided that was petty.

All in all, careful gridwork selecting for color and a big step up in cluing fun earn Daniel his first POW!

A couple of years ago, a crossword-solving friend of mine who's a "10x engineer" at Google innocently mused that most of crossword-making should be automatable.

"Ah, young padawan," I said in a terrible Yoda accent. "But a theme how about? A novel idea, AI cannot generate, hmm?"

"It can't be that hard," he said. "How about ... KING KONG, PING PONG, DING DONG …" He cleared his throat. "MING MONG? Is TING TONG a thing?"

"SING SONG," I added. "But would you have fun solving such a simple rhyming puzzle?"

Andrew paused. "Maybe it is that hard."

I had one of those Andrew moments today, scoffing. This is easy! How about ... HEIGHT FRIGHT? (Acrophobia?) SPRITE MIGHT? Elves are powerful, after all. DWIGHT BLIGHT, that's so apt for "The Office"!

Okay, maybe it is that hard.

Although rhyming themes mostly don't pass editorial muster these days, this one is fantastically tight (no other possible phrases that work). It's also interesting that Daniel and class found four solid phrases all composed of words from a rhyming set. Not an easy task.

The gridwork is unusual for a Monday. Few constructors would leave such big corners wide-open in the upper-left and lower-right — most would break up long entries like IM NOT HERE and TASTE TEST. This makes more sense when you consider Daniel's heavily themeless-based experience. If you can fill big corners, it can lead to more interesting results.

I favor a more traditional layout of black squares, though. Grid flow isn't great in today's NW and SE corners, and dabs of OLIVA, BREE, DAT, ERG, ESS in a Monday puzzle can be off-putting to newer solvers. Redistributing the black squares — fewer in the center, more toward the perimeter — would result in a smoother product.

There is something to be said about a different approach, though, especially when it enables such goodies like MARDI GRAS, TASTE TEST, BUBBLE TEA. And most importantly, it's wonderful to see Daniel take it upon himself to help shepherd along a new generation of crossword makers.

What a neat DNA pattern in the black squares! I appreciate seeing something fresh in a themeless grid.

The unusual layout is difficult to fill since the southwest and northeast corners contain pairs of long answers crossing each other. It's not as hard as when you're intersecting triple-stacks of long answers into another, but it's still no mean feat. That NE is dynamite, NOT A HOPE echoing EXTREMES, running through CHE GUEVARA and HOME PLANET. Throw in CAT CHOW, and that's a winner.

I liked the SW as well; YOU BET I CAN exhibiting that I DARE SAY daredevil attitude toward eschewing themeless layout norms. I didn't love ONE-SEATERS, though, as I'm not into racing. I bet it did a lot for NASCAR fans, though.

I enjoyed getting some echoes of Anne and Dan's previous work, some of their personal tastes shining through. HOME PLANET and the REBEL clue (about "Star Wars") were obvious enough connections to LAND SPEEDER, and NET NEUTRALITY echoed the social justice lines of YELLOW VESTS.

As I've mentioned before with Dan's puzzles, the gridwork is strong (aside from a couple of oddballs in PETARD ARTE ARGENT), but I'd like to see more time spent in the cluing arena. I didn't have as much fun solving this one as the grid quality might predict, because so much of the cluing was straightforward and even dry. Windflower = ANEMONE, Occident = WEST, Silver = ARGENT … not much life there.

A strong grid is a must to get a themeless acceptance, but it's clever stuff like "pat on the back" for BURP (as in the verb) that makes a themeless solving experience brilliant. I push co-constructors to write at least ten of these wordplay gems in any themeless puzzle, knowing that at least half won't quite make it through the editorial process, so solvers will still be treated to five.

Did [DC figures] fool you, too? Shame on me! First of all, my kids are fascinated by SUPERHEROES, constantly asking me to tie on Superman-style capes. (So what if the capes I fashion look like muu-muus?)

Not only that but DC politics today looks astonishingly like the DC universe. I'll leave it to you to decide who's Lex Luthor.

I'd send a bat-signal into the sky, but with our luck, Ben Affleck would show up.

Finally, this [DC …] clue has outsmarted many times. It got me when it first showed up, and I've fallen for it every time since. Clearly, I'm Gorilla Grodd.

Strong construction, with a center chock-full of sizzlers — although, a slight ding for over-fanboying, SUPERHEROES and LAND SPEEDER making it nerd heaven. I enjoyed the diversity of answers otherwise, DESERT BLOOM and LITTLE ITALY, both phrases evoking colorful images.

I appreciated Daniel's use of his peripheral long slots, too. ZAMBONIS as innocent [Ice machines] earns a round of applause … although I'd seen this exact clue before as well.

The only entries that didn't quite hit for me: FAR NORTH and ANEROID. The former was last used back in 1974, and even our resident Canadian, Jim Horne side-eyed it. That's coming from a Canuck who grew up in the hinterlands! Jim did enjoy ANEROID more than me because he remembered the term from physics classes. Whereas, this mechanical engineer — with a master's degree, no less — grumbled that red-blooded ‘Muricans shouldn't be forced to know this kind of thing. (Read: sour grapes.)

This puzzle had the gridwork of a POW! contender, so why didn't it get any consideration? It took me a long time to figure out that the cluing let it down — glad that Daniel recognizes that this is an area for improvement. While he did include some delights, I'd seen those exact clues before, and so much of the rest was on the dry side.

Daniel has clearly put huge time and effort into developing his gridding skills, and if he can do the same with his cluing, David Steinberg (the current POW! leader) better watch out.

Nerdboy SQUEE! Erwin Schrödinger, Han Solo, and Flash Gordon, all in one puzzle? It might be divisive, some solvers rolling their eyes at the concentration of dorkdom, but I tell you what — Daniel could have built a Sarlacc pit into the middle of the puzzle, and I still would have enjoyed it. THERE IS NO ESCAPE from the Sarlacc!

(Or maybe I would have enjoyed it even more. Sarlacc haters gonna hate.)

Excellent craftsmanship, with a notable exception. ONER is a "remarkable person"? More like remarkable crossword gloop. Tough to avoid, though, given the fixed pairing of HOME PLANET / SPACE OPERA.

If only George Lucas had named a famous droid ONE-R. Come on, Disney, help a constructor out!

Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy getting multiple grid-spanning entries within a themeless. If chosen wisely, they can make the puzzle sizzle. The trick is that they tend to create so many problems in the rest of the grid, either introducing a ton of short globbiness in the fill, or a lack of pizzazz in the remaining long slots. Today's was a great example of how it can be done right.

At least, for those of us who are fifth-order Jedi knights.

It's a shame that crosswords can't play music. If there only were a way to capture that rocking-out feeling you get when Blondie's ONE WAY OR ANOTHER comes on. I'm gonna get ya get ya get ya get ya!

[Somehow] somehow just doesn't compare.

And pairing it with BREAKS OUT IN SONG? That would have been a POW! pairing right there. Come on crosswords, get into the 21^st century!

Themelesses featuring so many grid-spanners usually lack for other color, so I like what Daniel did in the SW and NE corners. I HOPE NOT / CODE NAME and SHOUT OUT / TEN FOURS added a lot to the quality of my solve.

Strong overall execution, too. I was thoroughly impressed by how smooth everything ended up, such a rarity for these types of grid-spanner-featuring themelesses. I wasn't surprised to see a final tally of zero gluey bits (I have a soft spot for OBELI, such a curious Greek word). About as far from a HOT MESS as you can get.

RUSSIAN TROLLS … I had to pause and weigh whether that felt like a solid phrase. I don't watch the news these days, so not a surprise that it didn't register. For the rest of the educated NYT solving base, I imagine the phrase resonated strongly! Albeit with some strongly negative connotations.

Echoing Daniel, I also wanted more out of the grid-spanning entries, since they take up so much real estate. I'd be ecstatic if the NYT's online app team figures out a way to play some Blondie and highlight the two adjacent answers as a reward for a victorious solve. I'm gonna get you, indeed.

Debut themeless from one of the young guns — and his sister! Neat to see them work together. I keep suggesting to my four-year-old that we make a crossword together, so she can smash the record. Her reading/writing vocabulary is impressive already, so if I were a betting man, I'd set the over/under at age ... 10.

Not that I'd place bets on my own daughter! I'd never wager with other fathers on how many times she'd poop in a day or if she'd get across the monkey bars on the first try, no sirree!

(At least I bet ON her, never against her. Results: four, and she didn't.)

There's a lot to love in this 72-worder. Note that I didn't say "standard 72-worder." It's unusual to keep one's corners so wide open, because it's so hard to "turn the corner." ARCADE / COUGAR / TIRADE is a beautiful result coming off that ACT OF GOD / ROID RAGE / CURE ALLS triplet.

There were a couple of toughies, EREBUS, PEALE, and LATH having the potential to throw solvers off, but other than those hiccups, I was impressed by the quality of fill. It did take me 30 frustrating minutes to finish — about 3x as long as usual for a Friday. Perhaps that tough vocab was the culprit?

Puzzles that have such wide-open corners usually can't help but use a couple of neutral entries like EXPERTLY, INTERVAL, RANDALL. Nice clues for the last two, though, INTERVAL having potential for a clever musical clue, and [Tony with an Emmy] wonderfully confusing.

Speaking of wonderfully confusing, WTF does [Hear "here!" here] mean? It took me a few readings to realize how brilliantly that hinted at ROLL CALL.

I liked the modern touch of YELLOW VESTS (the recent French protest movement) and FRAPPUCCINO to balance out more tired material like SET SHOTS and ED O'NEILL, especially when the latter is clued to "Married with Children" instead of his more recent (and better) work.

Solid overall. I'd love to see more family duos pairing up.

Was it EASY AS ABC to discover the theme? I was going to boldly highlight the appropriate squares, but it might be more fun if you took another look. Think about the numbers in the clues, ranging from 1 to 26 …

Excellent finds, the alphabet fully represented in strings of letters — inside symmetrical themers! That's neat. I especially liked that Daniel was able to work smoothly around the tougher letters, DJ KHALED and BACKUPQB so innocently hiding JK and PQ.

I did hesitate at the HATHA / KHALED crossing — ripe for mistakes, as HATHI / KHILED or HATHE / KHELED could seem just as right. Also, having two rappers might trigger the solvers who constantly write to me saying DON'T PUT SO MANY DAMN RAPPERS IN YOUR &#$@# PUZZLES!

I'm a fan of MOS DEF, partially because of his music, but more so because he's gotten me out of many a crossword jam.

A tiny part of me enjoys irritating those rapper-complainy solvers, too.

With so much theme material — nine of them to work around! — Daniel did an admirable job of building his grid. Even at 83 words (the max for a 16x15 grid should be roughly 81), I noticed the strain here and there, a SEISMO up in the NE, random AT TWO in the SE, a bit of ODA, ALTI, ON AT daubed on elsewhere. It's not too shabby, given the theme constraint. Don't forget that Daniel necessarily had to make a pangram; rarely an easy construction task.

I appreciated his bonuses, too. OCTAHEDRA and other Platonic solids are always interesting. SAYS WHO? Sez ARISTOTLE!

This one reminds me of a similar concept done in a Sunday grid. I finally put up a note on that one, since at three separate instances, I couldn't figure out what was going on, and then promptly forgot. I like that Daniel found a way to similarly play on the alphabet, but squeezed his into a weekday grid, allowing for a theme-dense feeling.

Debut! Daniel breaks the record for youngest NYT constructor. What was I doing at age 13? Oh yes, still watching ELMER FUDD.

I spent hundreds of hours following the exploits of that wascally wabbit, so this puzzle brought me back. I particularly liked QUACK OF DAWN (from "crack of dawn"), as it hinted at Daffy Duck, another one of Fudd's usual targets. And SWAT MACHINE (from "slot machine") hinted at Wile E. Coyote's crazy contraptions! How cool would it have been if every themer related to Looney Tunes.

Using six themers is no joke, especially for a debut. Such a high theme density will almost always require some dabs of crossword glue to hold everything together. So I appreciated that I noticed very little as I solved. ON OR here, WYE there, some minor ERE, ATO, INS, but that was it. Nice craftsmanship to produce a smooth result.

And the big NE / SW corners! These roughly 6x4 chunks are so tough to fill with interesting and smooth material. I enjoyed that NE, what with MARINE and ESPRIT de corps, with just INS and an outdated SUPRA. The SW was even nicer, with so many evocative answers like SAMSON, SQUASH, AUSSIE, and MANTRA. Well done.

Not many extras in this puzzle; not a surprise because of the high theme density. But I liked AW GO ON, which looks so amusingly like AW, GOON. Seems like that should be a Looney Tunes title.

Love me some Harry Potter, so yay for the OWL clue, referencing Ordinary Wizarding Level exams.

Can't wait to see what my daughter's patronus is, BTW.

This lisp-ish concept has gotten somewhat overdone, and not many of the themers made me laugh. But I liked ELMER FUDD as a revealer, and I thought Dan did a great job executing his gridwork. If only there had been something extra, like all the themers chosen and clued to Looney Tunes, this might have been POW! material for this Road Runner junkie.