Hal Moore author page

Rumors are swirling about the NBA bringing back the Seattle SUPERSONICs as an expansion team. Along with ESPN clued to its "Fantasy" page and a shout-out to my hometown Golden State Warriors CURRYing FAVOR, there's a ton for this bball nut to enjoy.

Amazing MOZAMBIQUE clue, too. Great piece of party trivia to tuck away, that it's the only one-word country to utilize all five vowels. (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, North Macedonia, and of course the United States of America are multi-word supervocalics.)

Even better was the clue for ARSENIC. This chem nerd had no solution to seeing the chemical symbol As cleverly hidden at the start of [As seen in chemistry class?]. Hardly elementary-level wordplay.

I did pause on a few words. Not an INNUMERATE number, and I won't be DOGMATAic about it. Encountering one or two of these isn't so bad if I can logic them out through etymology.

It's not as easy to figure out unfamiliar names since you can't always fall back on etymology. One of the most frequent complaints I hear about puzzles is when they're too name-heavy; solvers grumbling that it becomes a trivia contest instead of a word game. There's something to be said about a balance — having zero names in a puzzle might make it feel drab — but I sympathize with those who do crosswords because they don't rely on proper names as much as "Jeopardy!" does. Over 20% of today's entries are propers.

Fun to get so many rare letters, though, especially the GONZO packing of Zs in that lower right corner.

★ Themelesses featuring grid-spanning 15-letter marquees can be tough to pull off since these long entries take up a lot of real estate. Often, the rest of the grid isn't juicy enough. Not today! Fourteen long answers (8+ letters) is about average for a themeless, so hitting the norm while featuring great REQUIRED READING and PENCIL SHARPENER is an excellent result.

Standout clue for PENCIL SHARPENER, too — making good points in the classroom, heh. I love these types of themeless entries because not only are they colorful, but they lend themselves to such delightful wordplay.

The marquee entries were solid, but Hal hooked me at TAQUERIA crossing QUESADILLA. The former mystified me until I remembered how much I love mole sauces, and the latter made me crack up, remembering Marshawn Lynch's cameo on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."

AND a QQQ staircase, with the Q of IRAQ / QUEST? I love it even more, considering how well QQQ has treated investors over the past two decades.

I worried about wastage when I encountered ISOTONIC and NEAR SIDE, but everything else was thumbs-up. I've jumped to work in EUROZONE in some of my constructions, only to realize that it's boring because it's hard to riff on. Wish I had thought to play on "tender union."

I also enjoyed the freshness of HI TOP FADES. I attempted to give my neighbor's two-year-old a HI-TOP FADE last year, to disastrous results. Good thing hair grows back quickly.

Icing on the cake was RUMOR MILL, a great entry made even better by its amusing clue. I didn't know what a dirt farm was, but that didn't stop me from loving the wordplay.

OPEN AND SHUT CASE ... seems like the theme should be easy to figure out. Some might even say open and shut. Yet Jim Horne and I spent five minutes on the phone, discussing why a CASE to CAS/E to CA/SE to CAS/E to CASE progression would mean "open and shut." It felt more like a deck of cards being riffled to me. And why the stack pairs of themers? Was that supposed to elicit a suitcase-esque image?

In any case (sorry), the progression worked, and I appreciated that each themer fit exactly one pattern. For instance, CATCH PHRASE could have fit either CA/SE or C/ASE. I don't know how many solvers would have noticed that (or cared), but I enjoy those types of touches.

Mike Shenk at the WSJ doesn't like mirror symmetry unless the theme or grid absolutely calls for it. It was perfect for Monday's puzzle, but it felt out of place for today's. Placing OPEN AND SHUT CASE in the middle row would have allowed for normal symmetry, although it would give away the game quicker.

OPEN AND SHUT CASE is a great phrase to play on. This isn't the most a-ha-inducing execution, but it's a different take on the "word progressions" genre.

ANTHONY BOURDAIN was a legend in food writing. Jill and I tried one episode of his "Parts Unknown" series, but it didn't resonate enough for us to continue. Instead, we got instantly hooked on Jon Favreau's "The Chef Show" — highly recommended!

Some of the other marquee answers spoke to me more strongly. There's something awesome about the spelling of NONSEQUITUR — how many other words end in TUR? (Imprimatur, Stephen Decatur … is that all?)

SCOUT'S HONOR not only is a great entry, but that clue! Though I've seen plays on [Swear words?] before, this one was spot on. Crossing it with PIANO TEACHER, with another glee-inducing clue about coaching "bench players" — piano bench, that is — almost won this puzzle the POW! right then and there.

Some other lovely material, too. ANYHOO made me smile, HUMANOID played to this uber-dork, and it's smart to leave solvers with I'M IN HEAVEN.

Did you figure out the "insider" part of the ATARI clue? Yes, it is a breakout console — I vividly remember when my dad brought ours home; what a mind-blowing experience — but playing that brick ping-pong game, Breakout, was so much (aggravating) fun.

What with the bar always rising for Friday themelesseses — I tell most budding constructors to stay away from this area since the competition is dog eat dog — it's hard to stand out. As much as I loved so many feature entries, it's too easy to pick out the AMOCO AMOR ASST ORNO ORO bits.

Might have been different if I connected with ANTHONY BOURDAIN more. I bet some of his fans will adore — shall we say, eat up? — today's offering.

YETI YACHTIE … there has to be some sort of a crossword theme there!

I enjoyed kicking things off with FOLK WISDOM. There's something so … folksy about that phrase.

And I call myself a writer.

I also appreciated encountering couple of rare letters today, the Xs of YAKETY SAX, KICKBOXING, KLEENEX, and TAX HAVENS delightful. I know I shouldn't be as amused by the "Benny Hill" theme song now that I'm 48 (going on 13), but what can you do.

YACHTIE was mysterious to this non-boater who grumbles every time any of the 62 bridges in Seattle goes up and I have to wait for Benny Hill to make his zany way through in his luxury liner. Surprisingly, YETI was an enigma, too. Why is YETI an appropriate name for a cooler, asked the perpetual overthinker? Is the YETI known for his layers of insulation? Are the coolers in question fuzzy and white?

I knew I had to stop, YET I persisted.

Two standout clues made me smile:

• These days, [Losing effort] is defined as "attempting to stop the kids from driving me crazy." Clever way to get at a DIET.
• [Calculating sort, in brief] is clearly Tess or Jake doing the mental arithmetic to determine the threshold of how bizarrely they can act without making me cry. And then roaring past it. Future CPAs, indeed.

There weren't as many colorful long answers as I want out of themeless—entries like ATMOSPHERE and NOONDAY SUN and TURNED TO feel like space-fillers rather than assets—and not knowing ROSE ROYCE didn't help. Then, toss in some ARE SO OPA RAH SEN within a 72-word construction …

Overall though, there were a couple of strong entries and great clues to distract me from the Groundhog Day that is quarantine, and I'll gladly take what I can get!

★ LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP is exactly 21 letters? Apparently the crossword gods had no HATE, only LOVE! Great puzzle idea + solid execution = POW!

Oh, you poor pen / pencil solvers out there, you have my sympathies. How in heck are you supposed to write LOVE and HATE in the same little box all at the same time? Cramming in eight letters — yikes!

Actually, not easy for e-solvers, either. Hopefully, the picture below is worth a thousand words. More like two thousand, given the duality of those squares.

Apparently the NYT web app can accept all these as correct answers: H, L, HATE rebus, LOVE rebus, L/H, H/L, LOVE/HATE, HATE/LOVE. Something for everyone!

Setting those qualms aside, I loved the way Hal interpreted that LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP into the rebus squares. Sort of Schrödinger, but not really, a bit of LOVE and a bit of HATE. Spot on.

And some great theme phrases. In particular, ROL(LOVE)R IRA / WORDS TO T(HAT E)FFECT used such nice, long entries. S(LOVE)NIA wasn't as fantastic, but W(HAT E)LSE IS NEW was awesome.

Check that — I almost fell into a devious trap, putting in SOFIA for [Neighbor of Hungary]. I know, SOFIA isn't a country, it's a city. (Okay, maybe I didn't know that! Bah!) Finally sussing out S(LOVE)NIA made for a great click.

Not a ton of special squares — Hal could have worked in one or two more, perhaps — but that did allow him to weave in a ton of great long fill. Man oh man, TOTAL RECALL, MAO SUIT (Blofeld wearing one = great clue!), HUNTER GATHERER, THE FAR SIDE with the cows declaring that THEY'RE JUST EATING GRASS! So much goodness. And not that much short glue, either.

It all played out for me like a best of all worlds: an idea worthy of a Sunday-size palette, plus so much themeless-like goodness. POW!

Even after finishing my solve, it took me a while to figure out the notepad's meaning. 25 consecutive things? At first, I thought it was alphabetical order, with BCE as #2 and CDS as #3? But #1 was … SCAB? Huh. I'm not sure I would have given it more thought if I was a typical solver, which would have been a shame because it's an interesting concept: each of the numbered entries contains two consecutive letters of the alphabet, covering all 25 pairs. SCAB, BCE, CDS, etc.

I probably should have figured it out from BMW X SERIES. What a cool entry, with its five consonants in a row! There aren't many *WX* entries to choose from, and even though I'm no car aficionado, I thought this was fun. JK ROWLING is a great way to get the *JK* sequence, too.

Given that there needed to be 25 theme answers, it's no surprise that there was quite a bit of crossword glue holding the grid together. Sure, there's a lot of flexibility given that AB has tons of choices, as does DE, GH, etc., but anytime you need to shove in 25 themers, it ain't going to be easy. That constructor's viewpoint made it a little easier to stomach AFORE, ENOL, INIS, KMS, LYS, SSRS, ROI, OF GOD, etc.

But just a little.

Many nice thematic entries in this grid, like POP QUIZ, BBQ RIBS, SWAYZE. But as a solver, it didn't have much impact for me — not enough to make up for the necessary compromises.

Perhaps if there had been a better visual element? Even highlighting the letter doublets? It would have been cool if all the doublets connected, snaking their way through the puzzle. Likely impossible to do, but fun to think about.

Some great feature entries, IGUANODON my favorite. Not only do I have a fascination with dinosaurs, but what a fantastic clue — this Godzilla junkie was delighted to learn that specific dinosaurs inspired Godzilla! HALTER TOP, THE X FILES (although I admit, it was too creepy for me), SHETLAND PONY, TIME TRAVEL = quite an EXTRAVAGANZA.

I'd guess that some solvers will complain about WU TANG CLAN at 1-Across — I hear a lot of complaints about excessive rap appearances in the NYT crossword — but I think it's 100% fair. Not only is the WU TANG CLAN one of the most influential rap groups of all time, all the crossings for WU TANG are easily gettable. And maybe you don't know rap, but you know kung-fu? (insert Keanu Reeves joke here)

Some solvers may have just a neutral reaction to a music group they don't know, but I don't think complaints of unfairness would be justified.

I like it when themelesses have a little something for everyone. I have to imagine that the intersection of WU TANG CLAN and TRINI LOPEZ fans is not big.

I only know TRINI LOPEZ from crosswords, but he does seem like he was popular in his time? He sure is constructor-friendly, what with the easy consonant-vowel alternation. Didn't do much for me personally, not like the WU TANG CLAN did. But just as long as the crossings are fair ...

Hold on. LIA Fail = tough crossword glue. For those younger solvers who haven't heard of TRINI LOPEZ, could there be an equally reasonable letter for the L? MOPEZ? TOPEZ?

Nah. So it does seem like if you finished with an error at that spot, that's on you. But I would be sympathetic.

Overall, I would have liked a few more sparkly feature entries, as ANTICIPATE, ARE WE ALONE (another constructor-friendly pattern of vowels and consonants) took up valuable real estate. Still, enough good stuff to keep me entertained, and not much crossword glue overall.

Debut! Loved the rationale of A LITTLE BIRDIE leading to rebusized birds. I also liked that Hal picked four birds, each with four letters — something satisfying about the symmetry.

I got IN (CROW)D / (CROW)N ROYAL quickly — great corner. Not only were both rebusized phrases strong, but the bird was an easily recognizable one. And the rest of the corner was executed nice and smoothly. If you can fill a rebus corner and with only a TRE as a minor ding, that's an excellent result.

I found the other three corners to be really hard, especially since they played like three separate mini-puzzles. The layout is constructor-friendly — note that there are only two words that let you get in/out of the NW, for example. This makes it SO much easier to section off and fill a grid piece by piece … but it also leads to solvers possibly getting dead-ended in small places. Not very satisfying.

That NW ... although I'm an avid comic book fan, I couldn't place the name ULTRON. And having tried HERB and NAME for [Rosemary, e.g.], the gears ground to a halt for five unsettling minutes. Thankfully the SAPPHO I (was supposed to have) read in college finally broke things open.

Then the SW ... the TE in T. E. LAWRENCE ( the inspiration for "Lawrence of Arabia") also made me sweat. After having been frustratingly stuck for another five minutes in this tiny space, I waffled on P?S. Maybe I follow basketball too closely and count Personal Fouls. Point Guards are on scoreboards too!

Oh, I wish TERN hadn't been the last bird. To me, it's one of those TERN / ERNE / ERN birds I learned from crosswords; a bit too insidery for my taste. A DODO or a SWAN would have been my preference. ASWAN DAM, anyone?

Overall, though, some nice gridwork, especially considering it's a debut. And loved the intersection of HELLENIC / AGAMEMNON, LOOPHOLE — excellent choices for bonus fill. With just a bit of IZE, THO, PTS, it's clear that Hal put some time and iteration into this grid.