MaryEllen Uthlaut author page

Standard letter removal theme — I bet some cryptic crossword solvers figured out the notion from the title, FINAL OFFER parsed as FINAL OFF ER, i.e., remove the ER from ends of phrases. I'm terrible with cryptics, and even after uncovering ABSOLUTE POW, I had no idea where MaryEllen was going. Not-so-subconscious play for this week's POW! award, hmm?

Oh right, it's from ABSOLUTE POWER. I knew that.

For such a simple concept, it's important to have dynamite themers, with hilarious results. I did laugh out loud at AMEN BROTH, the Campbell's offering for monks. I'm imagining the hilarious commercial, the monks silently miming "Mm mm good."

BRAIN TEAS, too. Maybe Campbell's and Lipton will do a joint venture.

Stuff like RECYCLING CENT, CELLPHONE NUMB, NO LAUGHING MATT, not so much.

It's also important to use your grid to elevate the solving experience when the theme might not sparkle. I did like entries such as GENESIS, UTOPIA, OLD HAT, PAGODA, but I wanted many more bonuses to help keep my interest. I'm not a fan of entries like FENESTRA, or even the fine-but-neutral NOMINATES, ASSOCIATE, EVACUATE that take up valuable long slots.

Even a single pair of sizzling long downs — maybe take out the black square between ANY and REGION for a juicy 10-letter slot — would go a long way.

This puzzle will likely appeal to casual solvers whose aim is to simply finish the puzzle — or even just to fill in a few entries — but I like more oomph in my Sunday solve.

★ A fun theme, a great reason for a "word hidden within phrases" type puzzle. This theme type gets done often, so to have a fun addition like these "eerie encounters" was really enjoyable. I would have LOVED to see the UFOs "land," but I personally found that nearly impossible to pull off (as I'll explain in the final paragraph).

A nice construction today, one with few glue entries. I really appreciate that on Mondays, where I feel it's so important to be friendly to a novice NYT crossword-solving audience. It's nice to get in good long fill like SCALENE, PAGE LAYOUT, FOGHORN, but even nicer to only have a few bits of A DIME, IS IN. Welcoming to a newer solver. It's clear that MaryEllen took care in filling her grid, and the extra effort is much appreciated.

I used to think MITRE and OCULI "aren't Monday words," but my philosophy has shifted over time. Being the crossword for an educated NYT audience, I believe it's acceptable to have semi-esoteric words if the crossings are all fair. And some would argue that the MITRE (the Pope's hat, for example) is something the NYT audience ought to know.

OCULI is tougher — if you don't know Mauna LOA, you might be in trouble. I think this is the one problematic spot of the puzzle. Note how OCULI crosses three themers? Nothing else can fit the O?U?I pattern. So I'd prefer to see the four themers spread out more, which would allow for more black squares separating them, and thus more flexibility in filling. It would likely mean that the long across fill (PAGE LAYOUT and CONFINED TO) would need to be broken up, but I don't mind that, since I found it to be inelegant for those answers to be almost as long as the themers.

Finally, I'm sure friends will ask me if it bothers me that I had a very similar theme in the LAT back in late 2011. (Answers at C.C.'s Crossword Corner site.) The answer is no. Two constructors come up with similar or even identical ideas all the time. The cruciverb.com database is great for checking to make sure your theme hasn't been done before in non-NYT outlets, but it usually lags a few months behind, so I bet MaryEllen wouldn't have found my themers in a search when she was constructing hers. Additionally, there is some overlap between NYT and LAT solvers, but they're largely different audiences.

The truth is out there!