Kate Hawkins author page

HITS A NERVE crossing GO OUTSIDE — Katie somehow knows my kids? My MOONSHOT is for them to stop attempting to hit each other's nerves for a full day. I'd settle for an hour.

Let's CUT TO THE CHASE, some delights in the grid. I love a good BEACH READ, and that clue for LETS SEE SOME ID is GORGEOUS indeed. No telltale question mark needed for [Line at the door of a bar]. That's a spoken line, not a queue. I've found TRUE LOVE with that level of clever wordplay!

Some of the long entries were more neutral, though — BLOTCHED blotched all the potential of that slot. BENEVOLENT is a fine and admirable word, but editors usually ask to steer clear of one-worders in favor of colorful multi-worders like STEER CLEAR. Perhaps with a fantastic clue, it could have stood out.

"Clue echoes" can be witty, especially when the same clue is used with different meanings. [Booty] can be a pirate's plundered HAUL, or it can be the butt of a joke, as in one's SEAT. Awesome lateral thinking! I'm not as impressed with repetitive echoes, like ["Be that as it may …"] for both HOWEVER and EVEN SO.

Janelle MONAE is more than just a singer! I have her book on my bedside table. Amazing range of talent.

What a nice save for AERO (usually clued as a prefix). Although the candy bar is more commonly seen in Britain, the "Irresitibubble" tagline makes it so bubbly.

★ Such JOLLITY today! I love playful themelesses, and Kate ventures into Weintraubian territory, with smile-worthy NO TAKEBACKS, COULD IT BE?, SWITCHEROO, OVER THE TOP. Of course it would GET THE NOD for my POW!

The sheer pleasure didn't end with the entries. My daughter took a historic stand on the way to preschool a few years back, refusing to budge while it snowed on her and my wife. Both of them got bent out of shape — just like the PIPE CLEANERS that somehow spawn endlessly from my daughter's craft boxes.

And [Sound investment] is so innocent. Unlike when my daughter washed the mp3 player I bought for her, after I told her many times about water and electronics not mixing.

Tough love is a sound investment, but it doesn't fix STEREOs.

Coming close to diagonally splitting the grid in half is not ideal. With only two entries connecting the left and right sides — HOLE PUNCH and COULD IT BE — there's a huge danger of wrecking the feng shui of the solving flow. It's no fun to be trapped in one half, unable to break into the other.

However, this layout granted Kate a huge construction advantage: being able to optimize the grid one half at a time. For example, if you land on a great fill for the left side, you can work the right side with HOLE ____ and COULD ___ allowing for alternate starting options: HOLE IN ONE, HOLE CARDS, COULD HAVE, etc.

It's not a perfect 72-worder, especially since it features only 12 long (8+ letter) entries, but the ones Kate incorporated were an A-TEAM of whimsical phrases.

ZIPPER, BUTTON, PIN helped me FIND some CLOSUREs … figuring out the theme was a SNAP!

I had an inkling of the concept after ZIPPER MERGE, and once SNAPDRAGON bloomed, the puzzle felt all but over. Thankfully, FIND CLOSURE is such a fantastic phrase that I still found a reasonable a-ha.

Curious choice to run this one on a Wednesday. The theme is so simple that it might even be too easy for a Monday. There's a lot of tougher fill, though. I recognized the term AFFOGATOS, but if I ordered one, I'd be surprised by anything that the server brought out. The spelling isn't a cinch, either, so I had to think about that AGORA crossing.

I enjoyed all the long bonuses. Although I still have a difficult time figuring out toro vs. otoro, it's fun to pretend I know my way around a SUSHI MENU. STEINBECK made for a nice pairing; those adjacent downs pulled off so smoothly. Many constructors would block out the H of SUSHI MENU so they could achieve color/cleanliness more easily. I'm glad Kate didn't.

I wasn't as hot on the trade-off of EMOTIONAL / WORDPRESS for the prices of ETES and TUN — especially with SSE and SSR already in place.

FIND CLOSURE is the type of fantastic revealer phrase that constructors beg Crucivera, the goddess of crosswords, to gift them. I'd have loved this puzzle if the fill had matched the easiness of the theme, and the whole thing run on a Monday. As is, though, it still (mostly) neatly buttoned things up.

One's personal experiences have such a drastic effect on one's themeless enjoyment level. This one is perfect example. These days, Jim Horne and I tend to agree about puzzles more than ever, but I love it when I get a chance to appreciate our differences.

RADIO SHACK was a dingy, disorganized chain where I could never find the capacitor I needed. Jim, however, was an ardent member of the Free Battery Club in his youth, so it brought back great memories.

I loved POOL SHARKS, as one of my career goals was to be one. (Turns out you have to be good, sadly.) Jim had heard many plays on "English" (pool term for spin put on the cue ball) before, though, so it didn't do much for him. Now, if this had been an ice hockey term …

Jim highlighted FRESH MEAT as a fantastic entry, as it brought back fond memories of The Shawshank Redemption and he wasn't aware of any negative connotations. I also loved that movie, but I've heard FRESH MEAT in a horrible sense too many times, so I cringed.

Apt that the puzzle features EASY-A and OFFAL in opposite spots. Vive la différence!

Delightful thoughts behind Katie's extra clues. STRIKE PAY is a fantastic entry, and playing on "rising up" and "dough" is clever. It doesn't quite work all together, but this is the type of creative wordplay that all themeless constructors ought to be employing.

Fantastic find, upside-down CIRCLE inside MiCHAEL CRICHTON. It's hard enough to discover a five-letter word spanning across parts of a phrase, so a six-letter one is like an order from the great goddess Crucivera to make a puzzle around it.

Something fun about I HAVE NO CLUE being a themer, too. I have no clue … OR DO I?

Wait. It does have a clue. But somehow this feels sort of meta-theme related ... self-referential?

It is true that I usually have no clue.

I did have much more than a clue about the theme, unfortunately about a minute into my solve. [Author of "Jurassic Park"] at 3-Down led me to immediately fill in MICHAEL CRICHTON. I enjoy playing "Name That Theme," so brainstormed for another minute before wondering if the revealer would be SHAPE UP. Felt like the puzzle might be irrelevant.

But no! Glad I continued, because Kate did a fantastic job peppering in spicy entries everywhere. All-Down themer layouts often lack pizzazz, because it's hard to work in long Acrosses without them looking like themers. With those telltale circles though, even this anal technician had zero wonderings if UTAH STATE was thematic. That entry, plus SEA GLASS, Kate's hilarious PLUMPEST musings, and HOT SECOND make for a hot quartet.

Working in CHATTY, VAMPS, STROLLS, SHUT UP makes it far from HUMDRUM. This is a fantastic example of fill elevating a solving experience.

I did find it odd that OVAL didn't break across words — Will Shortz rarely allows this, since the other words in the phrase don't pull any theme weight — but what a colorful entry, FLAVOR OF THE WEEK. It's so fun that I might even prefer it over FILL A VOID, which does adhere to Will's criteria.

It's a shame that none of the other SHAPEs are as long as CIRCLE, since four-letter "hidden words" don't seem nearly as magical. Excellent work overall though, Kate's gridwork giving a huge added lift.

Fantastic southwest corner, colorful SIDE HUSTLE anchoring the triplet, understandable even if you've never heard the term. My kids are big Pokémon fans, so I got a charge (sorry) out of PIKACHU. I also have vivid memories of "The Wiz," so DIANA ROSS brought back many memories. It all hit my wavelength strongly, although poor Jim Horne, the Pokémon muggle, struggled to piece together PIKACHU letter by letter. I could see how someone might think that it's perhaps derived from the paca, so PAKACHU and SCHWANN might look just as correct. Maybe even SCOAL with PACACHU.

Jim and I had a conversation about NIP IN. It's undoubtedly an undesirable entry, as nearly every editor calls out partials. I was surprised to conclude that I'd rather see NIP IN rather than NIP alone. I hate partials as most as most constructors, but at least NIP IN steers solvers completely away from the racial slur.

I could not figure out why GEESE might be getting me down, except that the blasted creatures chase me down the beach, pecking at me as they screech their monstrous cries. I don't have a problem with GEESE, you do!

(You get goose down from geese feathers, d'oh!)

I loved the clue for AUSTRALIAN. It's fun to learn foreign lingo, and if I could pull off saying "no wukkas," I surely would. If you haven't read Cryptonomicon. it's well worth it, even if only for the Qwghlm idioms.

Two clues to explain:

• DBA = "doing business as." Common in the business world.
• I love the word SCRIES, ever since Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. For years, I've left it at the nominal 50 level in our word list, but I've recently downgraded it, based on negative solver feedback. Live and learn.

I wish this 72-worder had a few more zingy long entries, but there was still enough SOUL SEARCH, NOISEMAKER, ONE AT A TIME (lots of subjectivity in terms of what long entries one considers an asset!) to keep me satisfied.

A dose of POTTY MOUTH wordplay today, THRONE, HEAD, JOHN, LOO, disguised at the end of themers. I used to find potty humor so much funnier before the realities of having kids smacked me with its poopy stink. Still, I appreciated how well Kate hid these terms, employing non-bathroom-related meanings.

It's a funny image, Jon Snow sitting on the IRON THRONE, taking care of business...

"Taking care of business" is what I tell my kids when I need to get my book and spend 30 minutes sitting on the—

Oh, you're grossed out already. Right.

I also appreciated that Kate found a fairly tight set. I thought of CAN and LAV, but what else? It's impossible to disguise LAV as anything else, so besides something like CATCH AS CATCH CAN, it'd be tough to add anything else into this theme set.

A central 9 (ELTON JOHN) creates four big corners chock full of 7s, and I generally like what Kate did with those regions. PHONICS / SCEPTER, talk about BONUSES! OCTOPUS / KARAOKE / CLATTER is great too. I typically do everything in my power to avoid SSR since it's a tough initialism, especially for younger generations far away from USSR, but I don't mind OKC UKE SER as much. If we're expected to know ETRE, SER should be fair game.

However, much of this assessment is subjective. These short gluey entries all called out on editors' spec sheets, yes, but which ones are better or worse varies widely from editor to editor.

The thing I liked best about this puzzle is the reminder that I'm out of the potty training phase, and soon, I'll be back to full potty humor enjoyment. Yesterday, I had quite the struggle with a toilet plunger and one of my kids who refuses to eat fiber, but someday, this will all be behind (rimshot) me.

You know that feeling after you drink one (or eight) too many STOUTs? Hey, don't judge me and my drinking buddies, brew crew, alemates, frisky whiskies, IPA I PEE EH?, cannabuds—

I said, don't judge!

Why the question mark in the EEL TRAPs clue? I've set crab traps before, and although I've never seen an EEL TRAP in person, they're definitely real. Huh.

I loved the three themers, UMP SPEECH, RANGE BEDFELLOWS, ICKY NOTES, each of them evoking hilarious images. "Friends, Nationals, countrymen, lend me your batting helmets!" There are so many possible ST-removal themers, though, that this theme feels way too easy. ST/ABS, ST/AGE, ST/AIR, ST/ALE …

Wait a second ...

D'oh! I'm gonna need another round of STOUTs over here.

This is all my reeking-of-booze way of saying that EELTRAP and ALEMATE are too real-feeling and too short, getting lost in the NAPOLEON, AVERSE TO fog. Nice bonuses, but they tend to gray out the theme.

I did love me some HARLEY (clued wittily as a road "hog"), and PROVOLONE was tasty too. Heck, MARMOT is a fun word you don't see every day, and usually, I'd be all over NAPOLEON as great fill.

What a great story about giving this puzzle to her grandmother. I love hearing stories about crosswords bringing joy to people's lives.

Think you're a silly billy because you didn't fully grasp this theme? Join the BILLY CLUB! I was outraged, the NYT calling Billy GRAHAM a CRACKER. Yes, he's got issues, but racist slurs are still wrong, no matter—

Oh, right. Never mind.

The BILLYs. I couldn't name any of Billy OCEAN's songs, but I recognized him. Billy CRYSTAL's Miracle Max has a fond place in my heart, so no problems there.

Billy PORTER … hmm. I blame my children for (everything, plus) me not knowing any pop culture post-2014. Lead Actor Emmy Winner, on Time Magazine's list of Most Influential People 2020 = definitely crossworthy.

But who is the mysterious (BILLY) RAW at 17-Across? Apparently the lead in a new "Fifty Shades"-type series? Who would ever read a series about Billy Bronco and his chiseled abs and marvelous physique WHERE's THE BUY NOW BUTTON?

Oh. RAW SIENNA is simply grid fill? I knew that.

If anyone knows how to get this book mailed to me discreetly, a friend of mine is asking.

All kidding aside, BILLY CLUB is an apt revealer for "four entries that start with a famous BILLY." Sometimes I wonder if I'm too strict about the theme answers needing to be the longest (Across) answers of the puzzle, but today is a good example of how UNBALANCE unbalances things, not making the themers pop as much as they should.

Big NONO at the PINYAN/ESA crossing. Blargh, PINYON/ESO! Yet another reason why a less audacious layout, with OCEAN VIEW in row 3, would have been better.

Thankfully, there was a lot of juicy fill that helped offset my idiocy. Any puzzle that starts with ICARUS is bound to pique my interest, and ROAD RACE, RECLINER, TREASUREs made me near FLIP OUT! Not to mention RAW SIENNA—

Huh? I couldn't have experienced RAW SIENNA if Kate had put OCEAN VIEW in row 3? Bah! Fine, there are always trade-offs.

A tried-and-true theme type has to try to elevate itself somehow. BILLY CLUB as a spot-on revealer hit that mark, and it was neat to see four solid phrases hiding the BILLYs. The pushing-the-envelope layout wasn't as successful.

Playing "Name That Theme" is a great way for experienced solvers to have fun with a Monday. Uncover the first theme answer, PALLBEARER, and see that ENTOMB is atop it. Huh. Is it National Graveyard Day already?

Ignore your ridiculous brain, then jump to the next long slot: ___ GRANT? Even if you don't know ENOL — and why would you? — once you guess PELL GRANT, you're off to the races. It's so satisfying to fill in PILL POLL PULL, bam bam bam, feeling smug as a PILLBUG in a rug.

I did feel HAPLESS, though, trying to complete the theme phrases. POLL … I cycled through POLLSTERS and POLL WORKER (stuffing the last ballot box with ER) before pulling the plug on my smugness.

Hey, PULL THE PLUG! I'd heard of PULL QUOTES before, but it took a while to place exactly what that was (a descriptive term for a giant block of text inside an article that immediately pulls your eye.) Solid entry, but not as smugness-inducing as PULL THE PLUG.

I'm usually against injecting long bonuses into a puzzle because they 1) tend to distract from theme, and 2) cause filling problems. The first issue isn't a problem today since "vowel movements" make it easy to pick out the themers. COCKAPOO doesn't muddy the waters as much as it usually would.

I would have pared back the gridwork audaciousness, though, since COCKAPOO forced ENOL, which was aptly clued using "unstable" — I can imagine ENOL destabilizing newer solvers' confidence.

It's a shame that a single entry can be so jarring, since the rest of the product was aces, with only minor KELPS (weird plural) and ATA, along with the easily accessible and interesting mid-lengthers: GOES APE, RAPPELS, SHOPPER, ST PAUL.

I was going to end with an analysis about consistency, why it's better to avoid having a single plural theme entry (PULL QUOTES), but I realized that 99% of people would say that level of critique is pure cockapoo.

Debut! I'm always impressed by people making their crossword splashdown in the most competitive arena of them all, themelesses. Will recently noted that the acceptance rate for themelesses is about 5% — that's less than the acceptance rate for most colleges! Well done, Kate.

Fantastic central entry. PYRAMID SCHEME is great in its own right, the phrase laden with history and intrigue. The misdirect made it even better, "… likely to collapse" making me think about so many business plans I've reviewed that are so badly flawed. If I had 1% of every business that said: "if we can just get 1% of the target market" ... I'd have nothing.

Interesting decision to run so many vertical feature entries through the central PYRAMID SCHEME. That's a tough task, taking away so much flexibility. Check out the upper left corner, where POLISH UP / SOB STORY has to work through SHOEPRINT, which has to cross TRUE CRIME and TA-NEHISI. It's no surprise that you'd need some LIS, BIP, ISO, TTOPS to hold it all together.

A shame that Will Shortz didn't go with Kate's clue for GOLD TEETH. "Grill bits" playing on "drill bits" made this engineer chuckle.

I did enjoy some of the mid-length fill, like GEL PEN, PET RAT, BASE TEN, but themelesses usually shine in their long entries. With just 11 long slots and ESTROGEN, POLISH UP not doing much, I wanted more juice out of the solve. If you haven't read TA-NEHISI Coates, he'll sadly be a name you don't recognize that's taking up a valuable long slot. Though, if that is the case, do yourself a favor and read Between the World and Me. I hope it becomes assigned reading — it's much more relevant than some of "the classics" these days.

(I did appreciate that Kate kept the name count low so that solvers wouldn't feel barraged by unfamiliar entries.)

Still, a fun debut.