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★ I am officially cool enough to love this puzzle! See, all you young ‘uns, I never stopped being hip. Let's dab and dap and crunk and—

Hey, where are you going? I thought we might go twerk together?

Great theme, OPPOSITES at the ends of solid base phrases. These findings would have been enough to impress me, but I love a punchline. So many OPPOSITES repelling, amirite? Yeah boy!

What? Why are you rolling your eyes at me?

Erik injected so many debut terms into his fill, which gave the puzzle a fresh feeling. It could easily be too fresh for some, entries like AFRO PUFF, ZENDAYA, BEYHIVE lending recency that not many NYT puzzles exhibit. I liked AFRO PUFF best, since even if you don't know the term, you've likely seen an AFRO PUFF before, and it's such a descriptive term.

It's true that if you don't know ZENDAYA, you're a little screwed; a bizarre set of letters that might look so wrong in your finished puzzle. Ah well.

BEYHIVE is somewhere in between. Beyonce is a must-know, and one could argue that an NYT solver ought to be able to figure out the wordplay.

I knew all three of these! Not everyone can Bey as cool as me.

Overall, even if this smooth and well-crafted puzzle doesn't produce that strong of a victory moment for some solvers — people staring at their finished grid, wondering if it could possibly be right — all the crossings are fair enough. Maybe it is too bleeding-edge, but I like that the NYT occasionally errs on that side. It's a great way to attract younger solvers into the fold.

– puzzle by Erik Agard

Before you email me, complaining that this puzzle makes no sense, let me explain why GHI are in a single square. Look at the revealer, GANDHI.

Get it, G AND HI?

As in G & HI = GHI crammed in?

Well, okay, I don't get the rationale for rebusizing them into one square either, but sometimes you just gotta have a little faith.

I loved the Indian flair of the puzzle, not just playing on GANDHI but adding entries like DELHI and BRAHMA. Even ROTI, which I'd usually avoid since it's a toughie, is perfect for today.

I even wondered if BINDS should have been BINDI, with TSAR becoming TIER (and MATA to META). Why not go whole hog? Oh wait, lots of Indians are vegetarian. Go whole … cauliflower?

That should be a thing.

Mangesh asked me to help him with the grid (his first draft was more like a rough, rough idea of a draft), but he decided to go it alone when he realized that would mean sharing a byline. He made the right decision, producing a fine grid on his own. It's not audacious — most rebus puzzles have more (often far more) rebus squares than this — but it's a fair balance between theme density and clean gridwork.

GHI is also a tough sequence of letters to work with; not that many ways of hiding it. In some of Mangesh's early correspondence, he had stretched for things like HUG HIM, EGFHIJ, and LONG HIDDEN. I thought he was kidding at first! I do think there's more than enough possible material for a fourth rebus square, which would have felt much meatier — er, cauliflowerier? — but construction is all about trade-offs.

Overall, a solid nod to a great man. Much more enjoyable than the usual tribute puzzle.

– puzzle by Mangesh Ghogre

Mirror, mirror, in the grid, is there another smarter than I, god forbid?

(My mirror took the fifth.)

Four ___ MIRROR phrases, given a literal interpretation. The concept reminded me of that VAMPIRE puzzle by David Kwong that was sheer genius, as well as another by Tom McCoy playing on the mirror symmetry certain letters exhibit.

Ricky managed to find four ___ MIRROR phrases that were both recognizable, and that paired up in lengths for crossword symmetry — well done! I did hesitate at the first one, as the DAILY MIRROR is buried somewhere deep in the recesses of my brain, but I ended up liking that. If VANITY MIRROR had been the first themer, it might have given away the game too quickly.

ONE-WAY MIRROR did seem a bit off. You don't see a reflection in a ONE-WAY MIRROR, right? I'd have loved if solvers had been lulled into this theme pattern, and then given the jolt of ONE-WAY (without a reflection) ending the puzzle.

Interesting choice of fill in ABIERTO. Given that my daughter goes to a Spanish immersion school and that I've traveled throughout Central and South America, I should have plunked it in without a single cross. At least I didn't need all seven crossing answers to get it!

(Fine, it was six.)

I ended up liking Ricky's decision to use it — DULCE de leche, too. I enjoy when a constructor lends some of their background to a puzzle, as Mangesh did yesterday. Although bonuses like BIRDS NEST and RANSACK are more accessible (and potentially juicier) to a wider crowd, there are pluses to including constructor-specific terminology, too.

Plaudits for the gridwork. With four themers, Ricky could have gone platanos and worked in a couple more long bonuses, but for a debut, I like the decision to err on the side of keeping the final product clean. Just a bit of AIRE and ETDS made for a smooth solve.

Overall, a well-crafted debut, if not as audacious as I like my Thursday puzzles to be.

– puzzle by Ricky Cruz

Third day in a row where a bit of the constructor shines through! Matt is a professor, so I smiled, seeing the god of wisdom ERUDITE (rhymes with Aphrodite).

Ha, ha, of course, it's pronounced like "bite," as in a "crudite" platter, containing little food bites. Duh!

This is why I should never use the word ERUDITE in one of my puzzles. Seems appropriate that it crosses (the fantastic) I RUE THE DAY.

Brilliant clue for ESCAPE ROOM. The term has been in many crosswords by now, but playing on "outgoing people" is sheer erudité.

I enjoy themelesses that feature most of the flashy answers going in the across direction. That's not easy to accomplish — most themelesses have about half their feature entries across and half down, for ease of construction — but it makes them so much more pleasant to read as a solver. Getting HELLION, GREEN LIGHT, NON FACTORS, HETERONYMS, and PIEROGI all horizontally, made the puzzle feel more jam-packed with goodness than usual.

I got a little worried when uncovering GDR / OED / ACA right off the bat. These are decent entries, but having three initialisms bunched together isn't elegant. GDR, in particular, is a toughie — my sad geography knowledge had me wondering … Great … Democratic … Republic?

HA I GOT THE LAST TWO WORDS RIGHT, SUCKA!

Okay, maybe GDR (German Democratic Republic, another name for East Germany), isn't such a decent entry. Will Shortz is particular about initialisms that aren't universally known (think USA), since if you don't know them, there's no way to figure it out without the crosses.

Nor is OSA, a bit of crosswordese Will is trying to stamp out. These little 4x3 chunks (from OSA to the right) seem like they should be the easiest part of a triple-stack to fill, but they're often the most problematic. If one of them had been expanded into a 4-letter word, that would have given a lot more flexibility.

Overall, though, a lot to love in this one. I appreciate when constructors use difficult grid patterns in an attempt to make the solving experience more pleasurable.

– puzzle by Matthew Sewell

I wondered where all the rare letters (JQXZ) were — could it be that Trenton decided to do stray from his usual leanings?

Nah. Fun diagonal of Qs and a J in the center of the puzzle. Tucking them under a line of black squares is a great way to incorporate rare letters since so many Qs and Js come at beginnings of words. It reminded me of another puzzle utilizing this concept — I loved that one's impenetrable line of Qs, whereas today's lone J stuck out a bit.

Great entries coming off those rare letters. QUIDDITCH always makes me laugh, thinking about college kids riding around on brooms. ANTIQUARK is beautiful, as is COME QUICK! Certainly no QUAGMIRES of crossword glue, either, smoothly filled throughout.

I like that Trenton snuck in another rare letter, a Z, near QB SNEAK. Working it into the fantastic BYZANTINE EMPIRE is magnificent.

I wasn't a fan of the sectioned feel of the solve, though. The middle swath fell quickly, given my smugness, knowing Trenton's construction preferences. But after that, I got stuck in both the NW and SE, without any rare letters to help me get toeholds. Given that I had trouble recalling the exact spellings of IGER, OREM, and HORUS, the west region came together only shakily.

It'd have been much better to have more connectivity in the grid. The NW corner is so closed off, tied to the rest of the puzzle by just three answers (TAKE NO PRISONERS, ANTIQUARK, COME QUICK). Even if the bottom exit point had been jiggered to be more like the top one, that would have done wonders.

Easier said than done, though. Sectioning is so constructor-friendly, making it possible to divide and conquer. I doubt the middle swath, chock full of rare letters, would have been doable with a more open grid.

As with most every Charlson themeless; so solid, so meaty. I enjoy knowing about Trenton's proclivity toward rare letters — these relatively easy Saturday solves make me feel smurt.

– puzzle by Trenton Charlson

Initialisms, well-known(ish) trigrams mirroring famous people's initials. Some interesting finds — with as much ARTHUR C CLARKE as I've read, I've never thought about his monogram matching the Atlantic Coast Conference.

I appreciated how Howard and Victor kept perfectly consistent, always choosing people who are known by their First, Middle Initial, and Last names. Jim and I did have a conversation about STEPHEN A DOUGLAS, which both of us hitched on, knowing him more without the middle initial. Some Googling shows that the A is fine, though.

This is a case where less might have been more. Putting ACC next to ARTHUR C CLARKE = smashing the theme over my head with a hammer. It also emphasized the initialism-nature of the puzzle, which is a bad thing, given that initialisms are generally overdone and boring. It would have been much more playful to integrate the trigrams into the clues, i.e. [Sci-fi author who's a member of the ACC?]

This would have allowed for more bonuses in the fill, as well as super smooth overall product. I did like what Howard and Victor achieved — some great bonuses in AP PHYSICS, A ROSE IS A ROSE, ITS GREEK TO ME, REACTION TIME, SILENT SPRING, along with an average amount of crossword glue.

But just think what these two solid constructors could have done without the constraint of the six trigrams fixed into place. Having maybe four more great bonuses and maybe six less of BSA GRO GRP OBES RUHR STKS could have done so much towards delivering an even snazzier and smoother solving experience.

In general, I advise newer constructors to avoid initialism themes, because editors seem to be slowing down their acceptance of these, given their overexposure. However, even the most done-to-death theme types still might be feasible, if not exciting, if they contain a clever twist, some wordplay, something to help raise them out of the muck.

– puzzle by Howard Barkin and Victor Barocas

One of the great joys in my life is taking on a Herculean construction task and seeing it through to a finished product. The exhilaration of finally cracking a seemingly impossible challenge is 75% of why I keep on constructing.

(The other 25% is stupidity.)

Requiring certain theme entries to be at fixed numbers is right up there with the toughest of trials. It's easy to get the first two or three into place, but trying to massage everything in is like solving a Rubik's cube — that operates under its own internal laws of physics. Thought you had a way to get all the reds and blues lined up? Bwa ha ha, I now operate in n-dimensional space, you sad little 3-dimensional being!

A great construction challenge doesn't necessarily lead to a great solving experience, though. Once I saw the gimmick and put in ONE, I quickly wrote in TWO through SEVEN at the appropriate spots, and the puzzle was effectively over.

Now, thanks to Keiran's careful craftsmanship, I did get a lot of pleasure from such long extras as FOREST FLOOR, SOLILOQUY, VIOLINIST, THOREAU. Talk about FINESSE — classing up the joint!

And better yet, the grid is so Monday-friendly. No major offenders, only minors such as ARR, FTS, SGT, TUE — stuff that's called out on editors' spec sheets as undesirable, but all easy entries for newer solvers to figure out.

There is something to be said about lobbing up a softball once in a while. I bet a lot of newer solvers will feel great about finally being able to finish a NYT crossword.

Although the solver in me shrugged and didn't get a lot out of the puzzle, the constructor in me was awed by the audacity of the task. I'm not sure I would have taken it on, seeming like the constructor's equivalent of building a perpetual motion machine.

– puzzle by Keiran King

If you've never seen curling in the Olympics, you need to experience it. At first glance, it may look ridiculous. And at second glance. Probably third, too.

But upon your eighth viewing, you'll be hooked! There's so much strategy involved in determining what graceful curving trajectory you'll aim for, and how your shot will move in real life.

Likewise, there's so much strategy in creating curving crossword answers. To best achieve an elegant and eye-catching arc, a little math comes in handy. SEE, LOOK! I TOLD YOU GEOMETRY, TRIG AND CALC ARE IMPORTANT AND HAVE ACTUAL REAL LIFE APPLCIATIONS! NOW WHO'S LAUGHING, HUH?

Okay, maybe it's more an art than a science, but it is tough to create the illusion of curvature inside a square grid. JUST AS IT IS IN CALC WHEN YOU'RE APPROXIMATING A CURVE WITH SEGMENTS!

Ahem. Sorry.

Long story short, the EMERALD and the DIAMOND are so pretty. The SAPPHIRE and AMETHYST, not so much. Given that CURLING STONES doesn't define what type of curve should be created, I'd have preferred giving up the circularity in favor for an exponential or sine curve or something easier to approximate in a square grid.

Novice constructors tend to tackle these tough grid constructions by erring on the side of gluey bits called out in editors' specs sheets, while more experienced folks lean more on esoteric vocab. SAPOR is a toughie for an early-week puzzle, for instance. I don't like either SAPOR or AM SO, but I'd much rather use the latter these days. You want to leave open near-zero possibilities for early-week solvers to say "that's weird." Overall though, it's a solid product, given the hard-to-incoporate four curved answers.

This puzzle could be confusing to the (many?) solvers unfamiliar with CURLING STONES, but as a snooty sort who can say he's actually curled before (I wasn't bad, if I don't say so myself), I appreciated the visual, the EMERALD and DIAMOND in particular.

– puzzle by Ross Trudeau

When Jill and I first started dating (almost ten years ago!), I quickly learned that she enjoyed crosswords and Scrabble. So when she went back to Indiana for Christmas that year, I planned a little surprise while I schlepped her to the airport through two feet of snow. As I let her off at curbside, I slipped a present into her luggage.

The next day, I sent her a cryptic message: MIX TACKIEST COUPLES

Her response: ???

Me: STIR TOE TUSK IPECAC

Her: ?????

Third time's a charm, maybe?: ALTER CACTUS SPIKE TOE

Her: if this is someone who's stolen Jeff's phone, I'm calling the police

Me: no, wait! It's a puzzle! A fun one! I swear!

Her: TELL ME ALREADY OR I WILL REACH INTO THE PHONE AND THROTTLE YOU

Me: I put some of your favorite chocolate bars in your SUITCASE POCKET

Her: … … … aww! Sorry I threatened you with bodily injury.

Long story short, I imagine Alan had as much fun as I did making up the state anagrams. I'm not sure how many solvers will care to go back and solve them, unfortunately. I wouldn't have, if my OCD didn't compel me to list them out: WASHINGTON, NEBRASKA, WISCONSIN, TENNESSEE, DELAWARE, CALIFORNIA.

Along with the plethora of tough proper names: ARAMIS, DE SICA, MERSEY, ELBE (one foreign river per puzzle, please), even my beloved ASTERIX, I can relate to how Jill felt over that set of messages.

– puzzle by Alan Arbesfeld

When Jeb approached me with the WATCH YOUR STEP revealer Tracy mentioned, I was underwhelmed. Isn't WATCH YOUR STEP too general, covering everything from potholes to stones to curbs to dog poop? I had a similar issue today, although I like Tracy's interpretation better. WATCH YOUR STEP has a much stronger link to holes than to snakes.

I usually get a ton of questions on these "sticking up" or "sticking down" puzzles — Tracy's last one, unfortunately from just a few weeks ago, was a prime example — so we now err on the side of highlighting in bright colors (see grid below). Hopefully, that makes the HOLE, DITCH, PIT, and GAP stand out.

I enjoyed the themers where the drop-down word spanned the words of the phrase, i.e., CREDIT CHECK. Usually, Will Shortz tells constructors to avoid ones like NO CHOLESTEROL and HOSPITAL STAY because the other words (NO and STAY) come across as superfluous. I used to think this was bunk, but I've come to see the wisdom in that opinion.

These "drop down" puzzles are so hard to build because every themer must be expressed in a T shape. Filling around each intersection is often a bear, and when you have four of them, you're bound to run into severe trade-offs. Toss in a long central revealer — crossing one of the themers! — and stuff like ACEH, AOKI, NEBS, ETAT, ICI are gonna be prices to pay.

I enjoyed a lot of the extras, though, DEMO CREWS, FANNIE MAE, BAD RAP, BEER BONGS, SPOT OF TEA helping to make up for some of the rough patches. Strong work in the two big corners.

Overall, a solid Thursday idea that's a little different than usual "drop down" themes. I'd have liked MIND THE GAP as the revealer, though — spot on for this concept — and one fewer themer, with more smoothness, would have been ideal.

(Publishing this in early 2020 would have been nice, too, considering how close it is to both Jeb's puzzle, as well as to Tracy's last similar one.)

– puzzle by Tracy Gray

Beautiful feature entry in WHO ASKED YOU, a phrase I used to employ frequently. These days, I simply nod a lot and give people a deep look when they offer unsolicited advice. Makes them go away much quicker.

Fantastic combination, WHO ASKED YOU, WHISKEY RING, and TAINTED LOVE. I didn't know the middle one, but what a colorful term. Thankfully, it's two recognizable words, so even if you're a history boor like me, it shouldn't interfere with a successful solve.

And EROTIC ART running through those? Andy, so edgy today! Did anyone else get a Georgia O'Keeffe vibe? No? Well, WHO ASKED YOU?

Oh, I did? Wise guy.

At first, I wondered if EMILY POST, PREWAR, and WHISKEY RING gave the puzzle a dated feel, potentially alienating the younger crowd. I've been working with a younger constructor who asked me the other day, "What the heck does ‘turnabout is fair play' mean?"

Wow, did I feel old.

But it's important to remember that the NYT has a wide and varied solving base, with older folks being a huge market segment. I doubt any of them would remember WHISKEY RING from personal experience, but EMILY POST, sure. With EMILY POST and DWAYNE Johnson representing ends of the spectrum, Andy did well in giving something for everyone.

I'd bet $20 on EMILY POST in a cage match vs. the Rock. She'd etiquette him to death.

A fantastic clue for GUIDE DOG — appropriating "lab assistant" is brilliant.

Well-crafted stair stack themeless; not much gloop holding together this 68-worder. A tad too many entries that didn't resonate with me, though — as with EMMYLOU vs. EMILY POST, BIG GUY and MOO COW did a lot more for me than MULETA and ENCINO. That's a potential danger of "something for everyone," especially when names are involved.

– puzzle by Andy Kravis

★ Brilliant puzzle; my favorite of all of Andrew's stair stacks. A quad of greatness in NO PRESSURE / SECRET CODE / DEGREE MILL / SIERRA CLUB, every single one of them colorful in its own right, and better yet, every single one has the potential for clever cluing. [Green giant] is indeed delightful wordplay for SIERRA CLUB, no telltale question mark required to give away the game.

And almost zero wastage throughout the crossing down entries! It's all too common to need a bunch of neutral entries to hold together a stair-stack. SCARCEST doesn't do much, but SERENA SLAM, TV PRODUCER, LUGE TEAM = a cornucopia of color.

There's yet more? Andrew did such a smart job of quasi-sectioning the SW and NE corners, keeping good solving flow while making his filling job easier. When you can work on a corner independently, it's much easier to optimize for greatness like ADVIL PM, LENS FILTER, DATE NUT, ICE SAWS. Now that's the way to squeeze out every last drop of potential.

Best compliment I can give is that I wish I'd constructed this grid. Andrew's prodigious efforts and hard work in the stair-stack space have clearly paid off.

– puzzle by Andrew J. Ries

Strong idea to combine two areas that most people wouldn't connect: professions and famous movie lines. Delightful way to start the puzzle, a SOFTBALL PLAYER saying "There's no place like home" (plate). It's usually best to put your strongest themer in the upper left, to entice solvers to continue on. Worked like a charm on this solver.

I also appreciated that Erik picked SOFTBALL instead of BASEBALL. I wouldn't have given a second thought to the latter, yet what a nice hat tip to the women out there who get so much less recognition than their male counterparts.

The other themers were hit and miss, with two issues: either the movie quote didn't seem uberfamous, or the connection to the profession was tenuous.

I'm curious; if we polled 100 solvers, how many would accurately identify the movies that originated "Get to the chopper!" and "Is this your king?!" ("Predator" and "Black Panther. I went 0 for 2, even though I've seen both.)

And "I wish I knew how to quit you" for an IT SPECIALIST? My problem is usually that my computer quits on me, not that it won't quit. "Get to the chopper" is dicey in its relation to ORTHODONTIST, too, since teeth are described as "choppers" in the plural.

In theory, a low word count makes a puzzle more challenging, giving fewer small toeholds for solvers, and creating a bigger, more colorful payoff that you feel like you've earned, in spades. In reality, this almost never happens, constructors needing splorches of crossword Elmer's everywhere, along with horrible trade-offs.

But today, it worked exactly as it's supposed to. Erik is so strong a constructor that I'd happily issue him a license to sub-140. With such bonuses as ENTRANCE MUSIC, HOUSE CAT, PRIMROSE / HYACINTH, MENORAH, OTTOMAN, and only minor dabs of short glue, it exhibits everything a sub-140 word puzzle should do. I worked hard to earn my victory today, and that felt great.

(But attention, 99% of other constructors: don't get ideas. Stick to 140. For God's sake, stick to 140, I beg of you!)

Overall, an above-average Sunday NYT. If two or three more themers had hit with a stronger punch, it'd have gotten POW! consideration.

– puzzle by Erik Agard

Serviceable Monday concept — (cut a) RUG, (cut the) MUSTARD, (cut the) CORD, (cut the) DECK — easy(ish) to understand, even for newer solvers. Some nice extras, too: ETERNAL / STATURE, BLATHER, CAPE COD / HIRSUTE. That's a ton of great mid-length fill.

What could make it a cut above, though?

• More consistency. Do you see why 1.) RUG, CHECK, DEAL, or 2.) MUSTARD, CORD, DECK would have worked better? Having a set where all the themers imply "THE" — except one — is inelegant.
• More consistency, part 2. RUG, MUSTARD and CORD are much better than DECK, because the first three form colorful, colloquial phrases. CUT the DECK is the only literal phrase; again, an odd man out.
• Smoother fill that's more accessible for newer solvers. AMAH, CFC, AGIN shouldn't be let through. Even an entry like VESTRY is questionable. It is a real, dictionary-supported word, but how many newer solvers are going to look at it with the stink-eye?

What would have been better? RUG, DEAL, MUSTARD, CORD would have given two implied "A"s and two "THE"s. It's not perfectly consistent, but having a mix is better than risking a "this one is not like the others" moment.

I'd have also made one of the themers seven letters, to facilitate gridding — a central seven doesn't force big, hard-to-fill corners, the way a central nine does. Probably SHAG RUG.

I enjoy puzzles that feature the kooky creativity of the English language. But Monday puzzles need to contain much fewer irregularities than the English language does.

– puzzle by Gary Cee

Go forth and procreate! SHEEP, you and KOALA shall make a SHEEKALA! To keep things interesting, let's toss two YETIS into the mix. Ooh la la, that's one kinky menage a quatre!

Sadly, this ain't that type of puzzle.

Or is it? I'm just sayin', two ASSes hanging out together …

Maybe I should just stop right there.

The above is a long way of saying that I wondered if all the extra animals throughout the ARK — the NEWT, BISON, SONIC the Hedgehog, ROE, SHREW, CAMEL and AKELA snuggling up tight — made the puzzle less elegant or more interesting.

Tough call. Ultimately, the veritable zoo will help the puzzle stick inside my head, and memorable is usually a good thing. However, the Biblical flood of glue required to make it all happen — AGENA, ST MALO crossing UMAMI, ELL, OVI, LIS … DIO, YECH! — will also stick in my head as an asterisk.

– puzzle by Julie Bérubé

When I make a paper crane for my kids, they think it's incredible. A magic trick. A disruption of the laws of physics.

When I make a paper crane for any adult, they give me a look of pity and openly wonder whether euthanasia would be the kind option.

For the crane, not me!

Okay, me too.

Quip puzzles are like this. First time you do a quip puzzle, it's entertaining. A crossword that has a sense of humor, zinging me with a witty one-liner? Yes, please!

The next 6,723 times, not so much.

Today's is a decent quip, although the creases aren't sharp and the folds slightly off-kilter. If you asked a comedian to write a one-liner using FOLDED and INCREASING, he/she might come up with "I heard the origami club folded, but interest in it is increasing." Now that's pretty good!

So what's with the "we" start? This is a pairs-comedian act? And "in fact"? What kind of comedian says "in fact"? (Okay, fine, Jerry Seinfeld, among dozens of others.) Why all the weirdisms?

Crucivera (the god of crossword symmetry) is a cruel mistress.

The good thing is that Pete is a professional, knowing that if you're going to make a standard quip puzzle, the rest of the puzzle needs to dang well be smoother and snazzier than usual, so people who hate quip puzzles have something to do.

• Smooth? Pretty much, with only minor offenders: DIAS ICI SEN STN. (LENI might be tough, but she's crossworthy.)
• Snazzy? DEATH STAR, ELECTRONS, HEAD GAME, REPLAY and INCUBI. I'll take it.

And TACOS, something people make a stand for. Heh, good one.

Quip puzzles are tough. You have to make them absolutely perfect, or perhaps branch out from standard cranes, folding a shape no one's ever seen before — a Schrodinger element helped a previous one stand out, for example. Even if it's not perfect, it'll certainly be different.

– puzzle by Peter A. Collins

Randy had such nice consistency in his themers, always using exactly one overlapping letter in the clue. WILDER + RAYBURN = WILDERAYBURN -> two Genes put together, or SPLICED GENES. Get it?

What, you don't know who Gene Rayburn was?

Huh. That makes it harder to figure out.

I vaguely recalled his name from my youth, watching hours of afternoon TV as a latchkey kid. It didn't matter how bad a show was; it was better than not watching TV at all. That says a lot about "The Match Game" (and me, too, sadly).

It's not the tightest theme since there are so many synonyms for "joined." ASSOCIATED PRESS, MARRIED MEN, JOINED HANDS, etc. could have all worked. Not every theme needs to be tight — a set of four examples is perfectly fine — but tightness does add elegance.

A 68-word grid like today's destroys elegance. There's no doubt that it makes for a harder solve (which is what Will wants above all else in a Thursday puzzle), but no one likes to run into A FUSS of DESTE, ENOTE, UNARM (disarm), KTS, RFD (when you have to say "outdated" in the clue …), SRTA, TSE, and on it goes.

I did love getting GAL GADOT, who looks awesomely bizarre as GALGA DOT, as well as LEAD FOOT, SIDEBURNS, even CONSULATE. That's a good amount of colorful bonus material designed to elevate the quality of a solve. However, you can do still do that and a also achieve a much, much, much smoother grid, by sticking to a more traditional layout. Even going to a 72-worder (without stacking themers), could have been fruitful.

Now, the puzzle does have many entries that aren't seen every day — the mid-length slots in particular — so one might think it would lend a feeling of freshness. It's so hard to fill big swaths of white space with sizzle, though. It's not worth putting solvers through such a rough experience when all you have to offer them are neutral words like ADDUCE, and iffy ones like MOSHER.

Will Shortz and I have a fundamental difference about what makes for an entertaining low-word-count themed puzzle. I'd have sent this one back for a redo.

I did appreciate exchanging emails with Randy about this topic. It's good to hear that he's constantly struggling to find the right balance between his needs and those of solvers.

– puzzle by Randolph Ross

I appreciate it when constructors attempt to push themeless boundaries. Recently, I've noticed an emerging trend of themelesses aiming to place most, if not all, their feature entries in the across direction. This might seem like a negligible asset, but it increases my solving pleasure. Like most Americans, I like reading left-to-right. Who cares if the Chinese are millennia wiser than we are? Their up-to-down writing style is bizarre!

No, I'm not Chinese-American. I'm TAIWANESE-American, thank you very much.

What? Writing in Taiwan is up-to-down, too?

Grumble grumble.

Ten snazzy long entries today, all ten oriented horizontally. I feel for poor suckers who have never heard the story of OUROBOROS eating its own tail, inspiring Kekule to envision the shape of the benzene ring. I'd feel even worse if those folks had to see:

O
U
R
O
B
O
R
O
S

Looks more like a fish blooping air bubbles than a proper name.

EVERY VOTE COUNTS, and so does every long slot. I hitched on ON THE DOLE. Hmm. An offensive term? I wasn't sure, but there are plenty of web pages denouncing the phrase as such. I'd have avoided it if I were building this puzzle.

I'd have also tried hard to avoid AMO, ITEN, UDE, ELREY. It's tough, though — when you orient so many long answers in the across direction, it's nearly inevitable to need some ugly bits to hold them together. As much as I love ILLITERATI, stacking it with TURNSTILE JUMPER / CANADA DAY / ON THE DOLE causes so many simultaneous constraints.

Overall, it didn't work as well as the last mostly-across themeless, but it did do a great job of squeezing a ton of color into the across feature entries.

– puzzle by Jamey Smith

Appropriate that the black squares form a yin-yang-ish pattern. For every EARWORM, there was an UMBRIEL (dark indeed!) CELESTA balanced by a STRIVER. THE LEFT countered by PAT HAND (a poker term for a hand you'd stand pat on.)

Construction is all about trade-offs.

This is even more the case for themelesses, and low-word-count themelesses take this to the nth degree. Too many long slots were neutral (OVER AGAIN, NONE TOO, GONE ALONG), and too many short slots ugly (TYRE, ORAMA, ONE D) to make this an exciting solve. Still, there's something to be said about giving the best solvers an incredible challenge every once in a while, one with virtually no toeholds anywhere.

If only someone could make a 64-word puzzle exciting, but that's like asking to make a treadmill fun.

Strenuous exercise is good for your health. You might not enjoy it during the workout, but you'll be better off for it in the long run.

– puzzle by Byron Walden

★ YES! Finally, the NYT takes advantage of the Magazine's ability to do something that virtually no other crossword venue can: print in color. What better way to flaunt the fact that not only is print media not dead, but it can be better than e-formats? Yay for all the great old-timey things, said this Luddite!

This Luddite, who is happily using his computer to type this post … huh.

Great theme concept, too, playing on OPERATION's body-part-removal mechanism, interpreting phrases as if those parts were gone. (How anyone could successfully remove those friggin' little pieces without that horrible BZZT! Is beyond me, though.) I loved the ones that surprise, like how SPIT (SHIN)ED becomes SPITED. It'd be even better if SHIN had spanned the two words of the phrase, but that's asking for a lot.

It's not as interesting when a single word becomes another single word, i.e., DE(LIVER)ED to DEED. Slightly better is something like AL(ARM)IST to A-LIST, but it's still not as strong as SPIT (SHINED).

The one outlier: S(HAND)ONG. Since the base phrases aren't clued, they must be easily recognizable in order to generate a strong a-ha moment. Perhaps as a good Taiwanese boy, I should have known the province of SHANDONG, China, but considering I got kicked out of Chinese school as a kid, what do you expect?

I'd have gone with Garry S(HAND)LING or better yet, AX (HAND)LE. Five minutes of coding can do wonders!

It's rare these days that a Sunday puzzle will hold my attention — great fill like SKELETON KEY, BATARANGS, GOOD ONE, DEADPOOL helped tip the scales. Some aspects could have been improved, but overall, an amusing wordplay-based idea that entertained.

– puzzle by Natan Last

Beautiful gridwork. I always get worried when I see a long across like GOGO DANCER in a Monday puzzle since this pushes the construction into themeless-esque territory. If a constructor chooses to go wild like this — usually there would be a black square at the D of DANCER — it means trouble, unless that person has extensive experience in filling themelesses.

Good thing Joe does! He might only have two NYT themelesses published, but considering that the acceptance rate is minuscule (around 5% or less) for Fri / Sat puzzles, that's a huge accomplishment.

Such a smooth and invigorating solving experience. Just an ANON as a minor sticking point, plus the bonuses of GOGO DANCER, TURKEY TROT, HANGS TEN, TAN LINES, NEW DADS, POKEMON? Heck yeah, I'd give this to a newb!

I'm not excited by themes that can be easily searched for — a simple query will define the solution space in a few seconds. However, it is neat that there aren't many other options than the ones Joe used. That tightness lends a touch of elegance.

I wondered how KNOWS ONE'S ONIONS would strike American solvers. I enjoy Britishisms, but perhaps MONEY MONEY MONEY or BONE OF CONTENTION would have served the general NYT solving population better. It's a shame that MOON COLONIZATION is just a bit too long!

Not the most exciting of themes, but I'd much rather have a newb-friendly Monday than a mind-blowing one that potentially stymies folks.

– puzzle by Joe Deeney

Constructors have been improving by leaps and bounds over the years. I love experiencing a debut this smooth and well-crafted. I used to cringe when seeing a new byline, knowing that the person would have a long way to climb up that steep, steep learning curve. I'm more optimistic these days, seeing more new constructors emerge with strong gridwork right off the bat.

A middle 9-letter entry — ROSA PARKS — usually causes all sorts of problems for rookie constructors, because it forces four big corners. Not only that, each of those four big corners has to be filled with 7-letter answers, which can be a sneakily tough length to work with. It's so difficult to pick colorful 7-letter entries while keeping the shorter surrounding fill clean.

Well, it's not difficult as much as it's incredibly time-consuming. Most constructors aren't willing to iterate dozens of times until they find solutions as strong as ABSCOND / EREADER / SEA LEGS, with only minor bits like CALS and NEG holding it all together. That's an excellent result.

I've seen so many "celebs whose last names are X" themes that it's tough to get excited about today's. It is impressive, though, that Saul was so consistent, picking A-listers whose last names are all verbs ending in S. It's not as tight as I'd like — BRITNEY SPEARS, BEN FOLDS, WESLEY SNIPES, BROOKE SHIELDS, ROBIN QUIVERS, TOM WAITS, ED BURNS, JOHN WATERS, ALICIA KEYS, and on and on — but there's no rule that all themes must be tight.

Overall, not a memorable theme, but a memorably well-crafted debut.

– puzzle by Saul Pink

What a great story, PLINY THE ELDER looking up at erupting MOUNT VESUVIUS, saying FORTUNE / FAVORS / THE BOLD.

That didn't end well.

Or did it? Is it better to be dead, or remembered? PtE will stick in my head from here on out, wondering where the line between bravery and foolishness lies.

The puzzle felt thin, although upon second look, 13 + 13 + 7 + 6 + 7 = 46 theme squares isn't terrible. It's on the low side, but passable.

It might seem that this low theme density would allow Jennifer to inject a lava flow of bonuses into her grid, but having to break up FORTUNE / FAVORS / THE BOLD makes it a tougher task. See how FORTUNE interacts with MOUNT, and THE BOLD with THE ELDER? Those sorts of constraints cut down the potential for added bonuses. Still, with ANIMATRONS, TUNA BURGER, ERASERHEAD, it's a decent result.

AFORE was the only nail sticking out. A shame, since the rest of the puzzle was solid. I bet compressing FORTUNE / FAVORS / THE BOLD — putting them in rows 7, 8, 9 — would have helped smooth things out. This would also have given the quote a better feeling of connectivity, each piece touching the next.

I enjoyed this one much more than typical quote or memorial puzzle (it's the 1940^th anniversary of PtE's death?). I've always been interested in myths, tales, the more ancient the better. If there had been more of a full story told — like Jennifer hinted at, dying in a noble attempt to save his friend! — I'd have given this some POW! consideration.

– puzzle by Jennifer Nutt

About ten years ago, I struggled mightily with a puzzle that ended up blowing my mind. No matter how hard I struggled with that one, I couldn't fill in its lower-left corner. But when it all clicked, it clicked in a big way. It's now fixed in my memory as one of the ground-breakers I tell non-crossword people about (as they roll their eyes and pretend they have somewhere else to be).

Today's plays in a similar vein, with NOTHING appended instead of SECRET — let's call it "secret lite." It works, literally NOTHING there, with NOTHING prefixing BUT THE BEST, TO SNEEZE AT, etc. (NOTHING) UP MY SLEEVE was the best themer; such a snazzy phrase, and perfect for this theme.

I wanted much more out of the puzzle, though. Once I figured out the first themer, the rest of the solve was like listening to my daughter tell the same knock-knock joke over and over. (Dishes who? Dishes the police, open up!) The theme would have had more punch if it had been limited to just the four long entries, instead of a full ten dishes-the-police repeats.

There is something to be said about (NOTHING) BUT NET, though, as one of Matt Ginsberg's companies (funded by Mark Cuban!) is investigating a camera / software system that might be able to predict if a basketball shot is likely to go in. I always look forward to chatting with Matt; he's always got several somethings up his sleeve.

Overall, too easy for a Thursday puzzle. Will Shortz doesn't like it when solvers have to leave squares blank, but I wonder if a central 7 that had to be filled with literally nothing (the down answers would skip those seven letters, similar to the SECRET puzzle) would have been more memorable.

– puzzle by Matt Ginsberg

★ I've had the pleasure of working on a couple of crosswords with John Guzzetta — we seem to be on similar wavelengths. His comment above made me laugh — about ten years ago, I pulled a prank on a friend, playing Darth Vader's Imperial March (on cello) as she walked down the aisle. During the rehearsal, not the actual ceremony!

I solve so many themelesses that they all tend to run together in a mish-mash of interesting phrases. One rarely stands out, so I appreciate it when I can hang on to something, anything that makes it feel distinctive.

Jill and I have French friends who like to poke fun of their Frenchness — it's delightful to hear Romain say he doesn't care about something "because I'm French" in an exaggerated accent. So many phrases today reminded me of that shrugging attitude: WHO CAN SAY, IT DEPENDS, WHAT GIVES.

I also enjoyed knowing "1-up" for EXTRA LIFE right off the bat, bringing me back to the old days when I'd hang out at the local arcade, a bunch of kids crowded around a "Donkey Kong" machine, our quarters lined up along the top.

Great cluing, too, making short, usually neutral entries stand out. [Some nerve?] elevated OPTIC. The wordplay for RUNE's clue was genius — it may be set in stone, literally!

A couple of minor dings here and there — MAZY and UNHIT are oddballs, and AREOLA is one of those entries we snooty constructors roll our eyes at since it gets used way too much because of its friendly vowels — but overall, a delightful solving experience.

– puzzle by John Guzzetta

Sam Trabucco and I had a fun exchange over his recent themeless riffing on this pattern, as well as his first one. It looks so difficult to fill, but it's not nearly as difficult as it seems — that is, until you reach the very final stages of gridwork. I learned from my own experimentation that if you're willing to put in a ridiculous amount of time iterating, this general shape can be a gold mine. (Maybe a silver mine.)

My reaction to this one mirrored my reactions to Sam's previous ones. I loved LEOPARD PRINT, BREAK DANCERS, ASTRAL PLANES, METRIC SYSTEM. I side-eyed ACHATES, TMS, IBI, ANGE. These types of trade-offs are inevitable when working with such giant corners, four long answers stacked together. Either you push toward more color or more cleanliness. It's rare that you can ever achieve a high degree of both.

Sam pressed toward the side of color, with such great entries in a single corner as SAKE CUP, IT'S A GIRL, and even BE AT EASE. It must have killed him to have to swallow IBI. I do like the overall trade-off, but IBI sure is a stinker.

When I worked my second and third times with this pattern years ago, I remember weighing 20+ different versions of every single corner, tearing my hair out as I was deciding what dings would take away from solving pleasure the least.

Not many people push the envelope of the crossworld, but Sam is one of them — he let me know that his experimentation with this shape is done; he's moving on to new frontiers. I'm looking forward to seeing what he has in store.

– puzzle by Sam Trabucco

Neat visual, CANDY STRIPEs throughout the puzzle. I hope the NYT prints the background of the theme squares in red — the Sunday Magazine has such potential to employ color.

I liked that Michael

1. arranged his themers so neatly, and
2. chose candies that can be clued in non-candy ways (try that with M&Ms or ALMOND JOY).

Solid gridwork, too. Filling around six grid-spanning themers is hard enough, but when you break them up, forcing black square placements right off the bat, it becomes even harder. I didn't care for the aggregation of ERI LAE NEU ACI — too much of one type of gluey bit becomes noticeable — but overall, the result was better than I imagined. Ending with about an average amount of crossword glue for a NYT Sunday is an accomplishment when the constraints are stringent.

Hard-core solvers like myself might find it to be a boring solve, but sometimes we have to suck it up and recognize that occasionally the wider solving audience could use a softball; a "hey, I finished the Sunday NYT!" victory dance. I challenged myself to solve the themers without the benefit of a single cross, which turned out to be a fun experience.

– puzzle by Michael Paleos