Kyra Wilson author page

WEATHER FRONT is a solid example of the tried-and-true theme type, "revealer pointing to first words." It's a broad category, with many variations, such as BEGINNING OF FALL (words that can precede FALL), FRESH START (synonyms of FRESH), and OPENING DAY (themers starting with days of the week).

I enjoyed the fresh phrases Kyra chose, CLOUD STORAGE a modern term. THUNDERBIRDS is fun, and seeing LIGHTNING BUGS is always a highlight of visiting my in-laws in Indiana.

I wondered if CLOUD, THUNDER, and LIGHTNING were apt WEATHER terms, though. The WEATHER forecast calling for rain or snow, yes, but THUNDER (not thunderstorms?)? A lonely CLOUD? These sky phenomena do fall into the WEATHER category, but it felt loosey-goosey.

Loved so many of the bonuses! EONS AGO sings. MORONIC is a word I (and others) use to describe myself. DRAGONs are fun. Even BOTOX and PRISM spruce things up.

Three potentially tougher terms to mention:

I love the word KVETCH (Yiddish, for complain). Several friends of mine were baffled by a Yiddish puzzle I co-constructed, though, so that's given me more pause about putting it in early-week puzzles. Lest the kvetching feedback continues.

DMING is not D-Ming, the Democrat from Mongo. (DM-ing, or direct messaging — social media shorthand.)

As a finance guy, I'm more tolerant than others to terms like ETAIL and IBANK, because they're common finance lingo. I wouldn't trust any online bank that calls itself an EBANK, though.

I would have loved more grid flow out of the NW corner, perhaps by moving the three black squares above DMING to the right. That would have opened up a juicy long slot in DMING's place, too.

All in all, a fairly smooth Monday solving experience, if not that sharp an a-ha moment. Wish I had caught the progression — reading Kyra's thought process did help elevate my impression.

This is such a useful themeless layout, allowing for a balance of decent solving grid flow, and potential sectioning for constructors. Once you figure out something that seems workable in the center region, you can work independently on each of the four corners. It's always easier to break down a problem into smaller chunks, so going from one giant 15x15 grid to four 8x3s makes construction so much simpler.

Sophia and Kyra did a fantastic job of squeezing every drop out of those precious long slots. ICE DANCE / MALLRATS / PLAYTEST = three colorful, multi-word phrases. AEROSMITH and CLEOPATRA aren't multi-worders (editors tend to favor these over single-worders, since they tend to be more interesting) but what great clues. AEROSMITH and Disney? An odd pair, that! And [Last of the Ptolemys] felt like it had to be some sort of RAMSES II or THUTMOSE I. Nope, a neat piece of trivia about the one-time Queen of Egypt.

ZOOM-BOMB hopefully will be something we can all look back and laugh at down the road. It's a fresh, topical term. Though I always wonder, how is it possible? No one's ever ZOOM-BOMBed in when Jim and I are chatting. Not that anyone would want to listen to Jim erupting with laughter as he takes in my peculiar observations …

I hadn't heard of MOMFRIEND. To me, it implied a parent who's trying too hard to be a friend to their kid, all the while failing at their momming job. But no, it's the friend in the group always acting like an overprotective mom. Now I'm curious what a DADFRIEND would be. (Do yourself a favor and don't Google it, at least not without a porn filter on.)

A couple of clues nearly went over my head, incredibly tricky for a Friday:

• PDAS: does anyone remember the Palm Pilot these days? Using "Palms" is tricksy, indeed.
• There's a Ford INDY car? I figured it had to do with the INDY 500; Ford sponsors cars for that. After Jim's cackling subsided, he explained it was a movie vehicle, for Indiana "INDY" Jones. I knew that.
• "Roll player" is a great repurposing of "role player" — I didn't even notice the spelling change. I wasn't sure what a PIANOLA was, but after looking it up, I appreciated that of course, a player piano would play a (paper music) roll.

I was so confused — and then utterly delighted — the first time I ran across a doubled-word rebus. I was barely familiar with the idea of two letters in a single square, and doubling them to form ZOOM ZOOM was so cool.

Doubling has been played on many times over the years, including one doubling perimeter answers and also a neat (DOUBLE O) 7 visual. As if I weren't seeing double enough, one earlier this year double-doubled!

It turns out this theme style goes a long way back, including a 1995 by Fred Piscop.

I appreciated that Kyra and Sophia added in DOUBLED DOWN, a perfect way to explain what's going on (DATES is really (DOUBLE) DATES, OVER is (DOUBLE) OVER, etc.). That adds a lot of meat to their puzzle.

Also great to be treated to fun entries like AY CARAMBA and IDIOMATIC.

I would have liked more out of the themers, though, as ARRAIGNS, REEMERGE, ESSENE, ADDS don't add much pizzazz. I also worry that the AY CARAMBA / PAYA crossing could be rough — AY CAROMBA / POYA might look fine. Even as a lover of curry (the spicier, the better!), I had to look up PAYA.

DOGGO similarly confused Jim Horne, who's not nearly as cool as we young hipsters watching YouTube videos about doggos. Huh? Nobody watches YouTube anymore? Bah. I'll stick with it as long as there are doggos and OTTERMANS.

(That DOGGO / LOGIA crossing might dog you, and I'd sympathize.)

I wasn't sure if I'd seen ECO-SAVVY in use, but there are tons of products and companies touting how ECO-SAVVY they are.

There's a construction trick you can use for a theme like this, where you start with a grid that's two columns wider than usual. It takes away some of the magic if I explain it fully, but those of you who want to pull back the curtain will likely be able to figure it out.

Sophia is one of my favorite up-and-coming constructors because she's a great listener, internalizes feedback, and works hard to improve. She had asked me for feedback on a draft of this grid a while back. It wasn't subpar, but it wasn't outstanding, either, using a bunch of entries that editors call out on their specs sheets. To her credit, she tore the thing down to the studs, keeping only the skeleton and the NW corner. Such tremendous improvement — A JOB WELL DONE is right!

I didn't know IN THE HEIGHTS, and Jim Horne said it's not as good as "Hamilton," but it's fascinating to watch Lin Manuel Miranda's development. It's easy enough to imagine what it might be about. (Washington Heights in NYC.)

LEDERHOSEN and DEATH STARE resonated more strongly with me, although it might not do as much for people who don't appreciate poor Üter Zörker.

Fun use of shorter fill, FUTZED such an amusing word. Crossing that with GEN-Z might slow some solvers down, but FUTXED or FUTYED couldn't possibly right.

I appreciated the cluing touches, too. BALLET literally keeping you on your toes, MGM as a grand opening for a casino (the MGM Grand), BIRTH as a special delivery — those add so much to a themeless solving experience.

I'd still like to see less STET ACTE and especially ORT, since the bar for themelesses is so incredibly high (acceptance rate is about 3%), and also since this is the easiest of themeless tasks, a 72-worder. Big points for improvement, though.

It's incredibly rare for two women to collaborater on a puzzle — the slice of the pie chart is so small that it's barely visible — and I'd love to see more. There's something so neat about two people coming together to create a synergistic 2+2 = 5.