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P | I | N | A | T | A | R | E | B | A | E | O | N | ||
U | N | C | L | I | P | J | E | O | P | A | R | D | Y | |
A | L | E | S | S | O | A | P | B | O | X | ||||
A | L | E | X | T | R | E | B | E | K | T | I | N | E | |
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E | S | L | C | O | I | N | G | A | S | |||||
W | H | E | E | L | O | F | F | O | R | T | U | N | E | |
F | A | N | F | A | D | E | G | E | D | |||||
S | T | R | I | P | Q | U | I | P | S | L | A | G | ||
A | R | A | L | V | A | N | N | A | W | H | I | T | E | |
W | E | G | E | T | I | T | T | R | I | O | ||||
P | A | T | S | A | J | A | K | E | S | P | I | E | S | |
I | T | O | L | A | R | A | N | E | P | A | L | I | ||
T | S | P | L | Y | I | N | T | R | E | M | O | R |
Whoever runs NBC's schedule has to be a crossword person. Has to! How else can you explain how tidily the following lengths match up:
JEOPARDY 8
ALEX TREBEK 10
WHEEL OF / FORTUNE 7
VANNA WHITE 10
PAT SAJAK 8
A complete set of titles + major players = crossword gold. I love it!
Mike did a nice job with his grid, too. PAPER MOON and GODPARENT are solid feature bonuses. AP TEST, QATARI, SOAPBOX further enhanced my solve.
A couple of dings in SNO KAN ARAL, but I think the trade-offs here are very good.
The lone sticking point for me was the ERLE / ESL crossing. I think most solvers ought to be able to get it. But I wonder if there are going to be some newbies who'll struggle in coming up with English as a Second Language, and I don't blame others for not being familiar with ERLE Stanley Gardner. Hopefully, the overlap in the Venn diagram isn't big.
An amazing theme find today. Neither JEOPARDY nor WHEEL OF / FORTUNE could have made for a puzzle of their own, but paired — as they are on many stations — they synergize to make such a neatly complete puzzle. I liked it enough to give it POW! consideration, but there's one coming up this week that really stood out for me.
S | A | W | I | I | E | C | H | O | V | A | N | S | ||
P | L | A | N | T | D | A | M | P | O | B | I | E | ||
E | L | V | I | S | A | N | D | M | E | R | U | L | E | |
W | I | E | O | J | A | Y | R | I | T | T | E | R | ||
S | E | D | A | K | A | M | A | C | E | |||||
O | A | X | A | C | A | M | E | X | I | C | O | |||
S | P | I | N | Y | D | R | Y | A | D | T | A | Z | ||
P | A | N | E | D | E | I | O | N | G | E | T | Z | ||
U | P | N | W | A | X | E | R | C | O | N | E | Y | ||
D | I | S | C | O | V | E | R | S | I | O | N | |||
E | R | I | C | T | O | G | A | E | D | |||||
U | N | J | A | M | S | B | A | C | K | U | V | A | ||
C | O | O | S | C | A | R | D | H | O | L | D | E | R | |
L | I | N | E | U | T | A | H | F | A | I | N | T | ||
A | R | I | D | P | E | N | D | F | O | O | T | S |
★ Now, these are the kinds of "hidden word" finds I like! It seems a little miraculous that something as long as DISCOVER could span two words of a normal phrase. AMEX is shorter and thus easier to work with, but that X ratchets up the difficulty. And even VISA's VI or VIS is no joke. Three great discoveries made for a great theme, CARDHOLDER a perfect revealer. Delightful!
Made me wonder what other possible themers were out there. VIS A VIS is the obvious one, but that doesn't hold a candle to the awesome ELVIS AND ME. There's NOVI SAD, the Serbian city, but that seems hardly crossworthy — not novice friendly, in any case.
And such a wealth of rare letters in the fill, (mostly) worked in so smoothly! Two Js, three Xs, two Zs, that's way more than a usual puzzle contains. ITEN was a price to pay for the two Zs in OZZY, but I was okay with that trade-off.
The only hesitation I had before giving this the POW! … two crossings that I worried might trip up newer solvers:
So the J in AJAX is the one rare letter that I didn't think was worth it, leading to a tough crossing that might trip up newer solvers.
But overall, I loved the theme DISCOVERies (I did wonder about MASTERCARD to get the full set, but what are you gonna do?) and 95% of the grid execution.
S | A | L | A | F | E | D | U | P | J | P | E | G | ||
E | M | I | T | I | L | O | S | E | O | A | S | T | ||
R | O | B | E | V | I | T | A | E | H | Y | P | O | ||
U | L | Y | S | S | E | S | S | G | R | A | N | T | ||
M | E | A | T | Y | E | S | Q | O | N | E | ||||
S | N | E | A | K | U | N | P | I | N | |||||
P | R | S | E | L | G | I | N | B | A | Y | L | O | R | |
H | O | H | O | S | I | N | A | I | C | A | B | O | ||
A | D | A | M | S | A | N | D | L | E | R | Y | E | N | |
S | I | D | E | A | S | A | L | A | D | |||||
E | N | O | B | I | T | V | E | I | L | S | ||||
W | O | O | D | R | O | W | W | I | L | S | O | N | ||
D | E | B | I | E | A | T | E | R | M | O | P | E | ||
E | N | O | L | A | C | T | I | I | A | L | E | E | ||
W | A | X | Y | S | K | O | R | T | R | A | Z | R |
One of those eye-opening themes, a Wish-I-Thought-of-That (WITT). I'm in agreement with Will, it would have been just about a perfect theme if Michael could have found even just three examples where the three letters were consecutive. I'm not a big fan of random circled letters, so the consecutive trios were particularly pleasing to my eye. Bravo for uncovering this theme, Michael, very fun.
I never used to pay attention to my 1-across, but I've come to realize that consciously or subconsciously, solvers' perceptions tend to be affected right away in that NW corner. And to start off with a relatively esoteric Spanish word crossing A MOLE ... not a great first impression for me. I think it affected my perception of the puzzle, especially upon seeing PRS, ENOL (with a crazy clue), ALEE, et al. as I went.
I did really like some of the long fill, SHADOWBOX and PAY TO PLAY adding a lot of body to the puzzle. But my constructor's brain just couldn't help wondering why with only four themers, two long downs, and a 78-word puzzle, there seemed to be quite a few compromises. I can understand why someone would include SABO (MLB or Reds fans — glad to hear Michael's thinking on that), but ENOL is pretty easy to replace with something much nicer. Same goes for SALA/AMOLE/ATESTS in that isolated NW corner.
Perhaps some solvers (and chemists) will argue that they like the crosswordese ENOL, because it helps them get a toehold as a freebie. But I strongly feel that this sort of thinking turns off newer solvers, as well as a more recent generation, and constructors should avoid this rationale whenever possible. As Will says in his submission guidelines: "Keep crosswordese to a minimum."
And I can understand Will's editorial philosophy of "let the constructor's fill stand unless there's something that REALLY needs to be fixed." There is a certain beauty in that, as the constructor is allowed to present his/her work as he/she intended. I don't think it's the philosophy I'd take if I were editor, but I respect Will's belief. So given that, I would ask any constructors reading this post to keep Will's above criteria always in mind. Totally fine if a challenging construction requires a weird little entry or two, but if at all possible, why not strive for perfection?
Overall, a very nice theme which I felt could have been made golden by upping the quality of some fill, notably the SW and NW corners. I'm not as rabid/fanatical about "The War on Fill" as others, but I do think that as with every evolving, competitive market, the NYT must continually work to maintain its reputation as the gold standard in daily crosswords.
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E | R | I | Q | A | S | E | A | R | N | I | N | G | ||
A | D | I | E | U | T | A | M | I | N | O | M | |||
R | A | J | P | E | R | I | O | D | I | C | ||||
W | R | I | G | L | E | Y | A | N | D | C | O | O | R | S |
A | E | R | O | S | T | A | R | S | I | N | ||||
I | N | A | S | R | T | A | C | A | B | I | N | |||
F | E | E | L | B | A | D | R | E | L | A | N | Y | ||
L | I | M | A | O | R | L | E | N | T | I | L | |||
M | Y | B | A | D | R | B | I | S | O | H | T | O | ||
B | E | A | M | E | M | O | V | E | R | E | I | N | ||
A | W | M | A | N | S | E | E | S | A | D | O | S |
J | A | M | B | P | O | N | T | E | M | U | S | T | ||
O | M | A | R | O | D | O | R | S | S | T | E | W | ||
S | P | E | E | D | L | I | M | I | T | N | O | V | A | |
M | A | K | E | A | B | E | T | P | E | N | ||||
F | A | D | E | R | D | E | E | R | X | I | N | G | ||
O | P | E | N | E | N | D | A | M | A | S | S | |||
R | E | C | D | I | E | T | S | O | D | A | ||||
E | X | I | T | K | E | I | T | H | S | T | O | P | ||
E | V | E | P | L | U | M | B | E | P | A | ||||
S | T | A | R | E | B | Y | A | H | A | I | R | |||
H | O | S | P | I | T | A | L | B | A | K | E | R | ||
O | R | T | L | O | N | E | S | T | A | R | ||||
A | Q | U | A | M | E | N | W | O | R | K | I | N | G | |
L | U | T | E | E | A | T | A | T | E | Z | R | A | ||
S | E | E | R | I | R | O | N | S | D | E | A | D |
C | B | E | R | B | A | B | A | S | P | O | X | |||
H | A | R | A | O | X | I | D | E | P | O | U | R | ||
E | D | I | T | N | O | K | I | A | I | O | T | A | ||
E | T | C | S | U | N | O | N | M | O | N | D | A | Y | |
T | H | I | G | H | S | S | V | E | L | T | E | |||
O | R | D | E | R | J | O | G | A | R | E | E | D | ||
S | O | L | E | D | E | T | A | I | L | |||||
W | E | D | O | N | T | H | U | R | S | D | A | Y | ||
L | A | T | E | N | S | J | E | E | P | |||||
A | N | T | E | D | A | R | T | F | E | R | A | L | ||
S | E | A | M | E | N | F | E | D | O | R | A | |||
S | A | T | O | N | F | R | I | D | A | Y | B | L | Y | |
I | L | E | T | L | A | Z | A | R | B | I | O | S | ||
S | O | R | E | E | C | O | L | E | A | C | N | E | ||
I | N | S | R | E | D | I | D | S | S | G | T |