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I appreciate Byron's efforts to add extra layers to make his "hidden words" puzzle stand out. (Will Shortz said earlier this year he's taking fewer crosswords within this genre because he has too many on file, and they've become overdone.) Did you notice that not only is REC contained in the theme phrases, but that it's in the exact center? Thus, REC CENTER?

Byron loves working with tough grid arrangements, and this one is no exception. A backbone of four interlocking 15s, with two 9s further rigidifying the grid? Talk about audacious!

He mostly pulled it off, too, escaping with some EMBAR here, GINO TPK LPS there. Note that virtually all the dabs are around or near crossing theme answers — not a coincidence. It's a reasonable set of trade-offs for the innovative themer layout.

I appreciate all the efforts to elevate the puzzle above the boggy "hidden theme" genre. It wasn't enough to pull it free into memorable-level status, though. Even with the constraint of REC having to be exactly centered, it's such a short word, its letters easy to work with, that it's not that exciting.

Congrats on the century mark, Byron! Laudable demonstration of perseverance and hard work.

– puzzle by Byron Walden

Synonyms for "outside layer of FRUIT" found literally on the outsides of theme answers. It's not exciting, but it's a nice representation of SK___IN, PE___EL, ZE___ST, RI___ND.

What was exciting: Will's execution. What a beautiful grid, filled with so many snazzy answers that it could have been a themeless. ZEITGEIST is great, crossing ZEPHYR, then RIGHT THIS SECOND? Thank you, I definitely will have seconds! Toss in some Xs in XFINITY and X GAMES, match THE WAVES with IRISH SEA, and put a curvy black diagonal through the middle of the puzzle = great work.

So smooth, too. Will knows how to walk that fine line between audacious (read: gloopy short fill) and conservative (read: boring).

Ultimately, it was still a "words hidden at the ends of phrases" puzzle, and the fact that the "outside words" were literally things found on FRUIT outsides wasn't enough to excite me. I did appreciate realizing that there are curiously four different words to describe the outside of FRUIT. There's a difference between PEEL, RIND, and ZEST? Who knew?

The puzzle sure got me thinking, though, which is a rare occurrence, wondering what else could you do with this theme. How about a big circle made of black squares in the center of the grid, with the themers running through it — most of each themer, that is, except for the SK/IN outsides, which would sit outside that black circle!

Maybe that specific implementation would be too complicated. Still, something in that vein, hitting both wordplay and visual element notes, would have distinguished this puzzle more from its tried and true "outsides of themers" genre.

– puzzle by Will Nediger

★ I love a clever "two characters combine to form another one" concept. We've seen two Us into a W, Bs split (top/bottom) into D+D atop each other, even some awesome letters combining to create symbols. I'm kicking myself that I've never thought of tossing numbers into the mix.

The genius part of today's notion is that people write numbers in a more homogeneous way than letters. The B into D+D puzzle works great if solvers write in allcaps, but what if they're lowercase users? Or worse yet, what if they're squigglers?

How many ways are there to write a 3, though? It is true that 1s have more variety, whether you use a single stroke vs. incorporating the serifs, but either way, once you slap a 3 to its right, you've unmistakeably got yourself an uppercase B.

And that revealer! UNLUCKY BREAK = B breaking into unlucky 13. That's Stephen-level thinking (both King and Hawking, mind you). I haven't WITTed (wish I'd thought of that) a concept so hard in ages.

Great grid, too. Some of Jake prior grids have been rocky, containing too much crossword glue. Not today's. He worked in enough excellent bonuses — PUN INTENDED, FLASH FREEZE, COUNSEL, BLUNTS (I live mere blocks away from three pot shops) — while forcing himself to keep the short stuff smooth, only a touch of FLA GIA IONA. It's a great balance between color and cleanliness.

Finally , a clever touch, using BIPOLAR as one of the crossing answers. How apt for a puzzle splitting one character into two.

13ravo, Jake!

– puzzle by Jake Halperin

Patti! She's the editor for the Crosswords Club as well as Rich Norris's assistant at the LA Times. How is it possible that this is her NYT debut?

I'd heard the "taking stock" joke before, but I still got fooled. Great way to kick off the puzzle. CATTLE RUSTLER would have been even juicier, but I'll take stock of a CATTLE THIEF at 1-Across any day.

I also enjoyed the initially mystifying NUMBER TEN. Number ten makes it sound like the British P.M. is "The Prisoner". Apparently the Brits call 10 Downing Street NUMBER TEN for short? Along with the secret-society-feeling AQUA VITAE, that's a delightful pairing for Anglophiles.

I had to look up a couple of entries — Donald FAGEN / GRETA GERWIG ... I GOT A NAME indeed. Proper names can be tricky entries. On one hand, you potentially alienate solvers who finish with F A G E N and say no, that can't be right. On the other, someone like GRETA GERWIG, who directed the wildly successful "Little Women," ought to have her day in the crossword sun. Seeing her will also elate her fans.

Some fantastic clues helped prop up my solving experience, SANTA going through the roof in December, and what better to bear repeating than a MANTRA?

There weren't enough entries that resonated with me to give this puzzle POW! consideration, but I love seeing two of my favorite crossworld peeps on a byline. (Shameless plug: Doug and I have a crossword book coming out soon.)

– puzzle by Patti Varol and Doug Peterson

Often, BEQ is too indie and hip for me, so I brace myself for an unfamiliar TAKE THE L or UGLY CRY or SAD KEANU. How apt is that trio, all describing how I usually feel when trying to uncover one of them?

Not today, though — I breezed through, enjoying that almost every answer was easily recognizable, even to this tragically squarest of squares. I've eaten SLIM JIMs, scanned my fair share of QR CODES, laughed at the ridiculous direct-to-consumer LUNESTA ads, and I even got QUARTER RESTS without any crossings. Felt great to drop those all in!

I even entered MURDER HORNET with barely any help. For those unaware of the entry, it's self-explanatory, isn't it? And they're right in my backyard. I have a feeling solvers who have more distance from these horrifying creatures might enjoy seeing MURDER HORNET in their grid more than I did.

The only entry I didn't recognize was GEORGE SMILEY. Some research shows he's the main character in a wildly successful series of books, along with some blockbuster movies. I tried to watch "Tinker, Tailor, some other professions" but couldn't get through it, so it's no surprise that this spy guy didn't stick with me.

As I've said many times about proper names, unless the person is known by a huge majority of people in the world, including them in a themeless can present problems. If a solver doesn't know who it is, it'll elicit at best an "I suppose that looks like a name" response.

I appreciate that BEQ didn't dip into the well of "things that make unhip people feel bad" today. In your sad face, Keanu!

– puzzle by Brendan Emmett Quigley

By all accounts, I should have disliked this puzzle. It's too simple a theme concept. There are hundreds of theme options, as Tony mentioned, making it too loosey-goosey. I didn't recognize one base phrase (PRIDE OF PLACE). The grid sports only a few bonus entries and a large dose of ugly short bits.

Yet I enjoyed it. For the life of me, I can't figure out why. Tony has somehow broken so many of my mantras about what makes a Sunday NYT puzzle enjoyable.

Perhaps it's the number of themers that hit? I didn't laugh at any, but almost all of them amused. Two archaeologists in a dispute over fossils as a BONE CONTENTION. COMEDY ERRORS as a stand-ups flubs. =] !

Or how so many of the themers flipped word meanings so well? Reading a RITE PASSAGE, from the Torah, during a RITE of PASSAGE. STROKE GENIUS as a swim coach, that's a STROKE of GENIUS.

Was it how easily the puzzle breezed by? Since the theme concept was kindergarten-level basic, I was able to drop in most themers with zero thought. I'm far from a speed solver, and completing a Sunday NYT in about 10 minutes — far less than my average — made me feel brilliant.

I usually complain about 21x21 grids not having enough bonus fill (like DEAR SANTA and MIND BLOWN), but having so much short stuff that I could fly straight through helped make my record time possible. Puzzles should leave solvers with a glow, and this one did.

It's not a perfect solving experience by any means, and not even one I'd give to newer solvers. Aside from all the AGFA AIT (!) BCE DEPT stuff, should general solvers be expected to know ISTRIA? LEKS? R.U.R.? My reaction falls somewhere between LEERY and ICKY.

Still, it's a rare Sunday when an old-old-old theme type amuses me so much. I give Will Shortz a lot of heck these days for not innovating nearly enough in 21x21s, but this one is a checkmark for him. There's something to be said for a simple Sunday puzzle that can make a huge swath of solvers feel great.

– puzzle by Tony Orbach

In Britain, when a crossword — cryptic, of course — setter makes a poor puzzle, they get the boot. As in, they get thrown into the trunk of someone's car. Those old chaps take their crosswords — sorry, crosswourds -- seriously!

I'll show myself into the boot.

I've seen a ton of Britishism crosswords, but this implementation still felt interesting. Regular ol' Yankee phrases, interpreted with an across-the-pond feel ... I like it. I can imagine a Brit asking the elevator operator, CAN I GET A LIFT? Then the American tourist snickering, calling the Brit "old bean" or something. Then the American getting punched in his old bean.

I appreciate how Barbara used four solid phrases, each incorporating a word well-known to have different meanings between the losers of the American Revolution and the winners. (Yeah, I know, it was all a long-con ploy to divest unwanted assets, you got us.) TUBE = the London Underground, LIFT = elevator, TORCH = flashlight, CHIPS = fries.

I've been impressed with Barbara's later-week gridwork, generally featuring colorful bonuses. That was the case again today, with the lovely MENNONITE, TAX RELIEF, OUGHTA, always controversial OCTOPI, POST OP. Solid.

Mondays can be so tricky, though, much less tolerant of crossword esotery that might turn off newbs. If you do crosswords, you have to know your EPEE, you see. OBI aussi? OSSO also? If you've never watched This Is Us, Chrissy METZ would be tough. Toss in plural XIS, and that could be a rough go for a tiro. Er, tyro. Tyrou?

Still, the theme worked well enough to give Barbara a "pip pip," if not a curtsey to the queen.

– puzzle by Barbara Lin

Enrique! I worked with him on a puzzle earlier this year; enjoyable back and forth. Nice to see him nab his NYT debut. POLAR OPPOSITES is demonstrated in six paired locations, for example, WET in the Northwest (quit it with the it-always-rains-in-Seattle jokes already) and DRY in the SE. Great touch in the oppositional clues, WET as [Like Seattleites who refuse to carry umbrellas even in downpours because it's the principle of the matter] and DRY as [Never like Seattleites ...]

Hey, quit that!

Perimeter puzzles are well-trodden enough that Will Shortz's standards for them are high. Putting a black square in the very NW corner would make Enrique's job much easier since he wouldn't have to find overlapping answers such as WET / WORK. There is a huge universe of antonyms with the same number of letters, but this constraint — in all four corners — adds a huge amount of difficulty.

Typically, it's frowned upon to section off a piece of the grid, so there's only one answer in or out. If you can't figure out KCUP, for example, that bottleneck could mess you up. It does make construction tremendously easier, though, which is especially important in a perimeter puzzle — having WET and WORK cemented into place is a tough constraint. As much as I dislike sectioned corners, I'm okay swallowing that if it means smooth fill, which Enrique mostly delivered.

The other rough aspect of perimeter puzzles is that even if you can get all four corners filled out cleanly, you still have to knit them together in the middle, where your revealer lies. A constructor's nightmare! I like what Enrique did up top, everything clean, and even working in colorful SO TO SPEAK.

Not as much in the south. STELAE might be tough even for a late-week puzzle; crossing it with MOLESKINE could be a killer. Thankfully, I knew the former from crosswords, the latter because I've bought Moleskines for snooty writer friends. (Admit it already, Snooty McSnootfaces.)

All in all, a fine crossword of its genre, exhibiting reasonable trade-offs.

– puzzle by Enrique Henestroza Anguiano

SET THE BAR LOW? UNDERACHIEVE? Wow, this sounded like a terrible, or at least terribly pessimistic, puzzle. Glad that I didn't skim over Owen's email. The concept tickled me, Owen coming up with in-the-language phrases that perfectly described the LIMBO steps.

He proposed STAND TALL as a final themer, but that's not how you do the LIMBO. The correct answer is FALL FLAT. At least, the way I do it. Followed by CALL THE DOCTOR.

It would have been great to make a LIMBO stick out of black squares toward the bottom of the puzzle, with a person LIMBOing underneath, but it was not to be. I did enjoy working with Owen to weave in some subconscious LIMBOesque fill, like TONED IT DOWN and SAGGIER. And of course, BEMOAN the fact that attempting to do the LIMBO makes this old chap's GLUTEI AROAR.

Why does the proximity of GLUTEI and RECTOR make me laugh?

Talk about setting the bar low.

P.S. I worked in MATTHEW and RHEA intentionally. Now, I expect their firstborn ... unless they can guess my name! Bwa ha ha! What, they guessed it's Jeff? Darn it.

– puzzle by Owen Travis and Jeff Chen

★ A while back, a friend asked me for feedback on a theme, with Aground = Ag round = SILVER BULLET. There are some periodic table haters out there, but I'm definitely not one — I loved the find, so impressively apt. I told him if he could find three others that worked so perfectly (elemental symbol + exact synonym = regular word), he'd almost definitely be on his way to an acceptance.

Jordan racing Jack reminded me of Edison jockeying with Tesla; Jack winning this War of the Crosswords. Sorry Jordan! Ah well. It's a great concept, even if you both came up with it in the same time frame.

I'm glad Will Shortz pushed back on COPPERTONE since it's not nearly as strong as something like ration = SUPPLY. Maybe if you bent over, squinted, and hummed "la la la!" while standing on one foot, you could make the case that ring = tone ... nah. Going the extra mile paid huge dividends — the final product is much better than the original set.

I was just as impressed with Jack's gridwork, lovely job with his adjacent downs, YOGI BERRA / SMELL TEST delightful entries, with no glue necessary to hold the region together. That's not difficult since both long downs run through only one themer, but so many constructors get impatient and call it good enough. The cleanliness of the entire grid shows Jack's attention to detail.

A year ago, I complained to Will that Thursdays were going downhill, with a slew of non-tricksy puzzles that were only hard for hardness's sake, tough in non-entertaining ways that didn't have a strong payoff. He disagreed, but when I gathered and presented five years of Thursday data, he didn't argue. With three consecutive Thursday POW!s now, I'm applauding Will's efforts in this area. Kudos to both Will and Jack!

– puzzle by Jack Murtagh

Friday themelesses often bring me the rawest pleasure of any puzzle of the week because I love love love clever clues. Early-week puzzles can't run many since the wordplay risks going over newer solvers' heads. Saturdays often eschew clever clues, pooh-poohing them as too easy to figure out, turning instead to obscure dictionary definitions for toughness, or entries that in themselves are so difficult (words few people use, or quasi-famous people) that they need an overt clue to give solvers any chance whatsoever. Friday is a sweet spot.

Give me a single devilishly inventive clue, and I'll forgive a lot of infelicities. Give me a half a dozen, and I'll hardly say ABOO about ATRA DEO ERN ESTE. Seriously, it takes a fantastic set of delightful clues to make me look past a pile-up like that in a 68-word puzzle, but I did today. The award winners from the nine (!) outstanding wordplay clue nominations today:

Best Clue, Children: Will Shortz has a soft spot for butts. Wait, that came out wrong. I mean, he uses a ton of "full moon" and "drop trou" references. [Crack jokes?] = POTTY HUMOR? Think about butt cracks. Such juvenile humor might be taking things too far … who am I kidding? Apparently, I'm still ten years old at heart, because I loved it.

Best Clue, Adults: As an engineer, I love assembling things. Last night, I spent 45 minutes putting together a LEGO car that my 4-year old had happily dismantled to its component atoms, insisting that dad could fix it. Just as fun (yes, I loved those 45 minutes!) was the misdirect that a QUORUM "requires some assembly" — assembly of people, that is.

Best Appropriation of a Regular Phrase, Question Mark: "Twenty-something" literally interpreted, that's a SCORE = 20.

Best Appropriation of a Regular Phrase, No Question Mark: Taking turns is a skill my kids are forever working on. Thankfully, no driving-style taking turns are involved, yet. Get off the roads when the day comes.

I put stars by outstanding clues as I go, and today, my piece of paper looked like a Van Gogh painting. Such artful use of the English language.

– puzzle by Ari Richter

There's a great "something for everyone" vibe to this puzzle, drawing from such diverse topics as literature (MUCKRAKING — dang it, that's MEATPACKER) to meteorology (SQUALL LINE) to geography (MAUNA KEA) to finance (BEQUEATH). And that's just the opening corner! It'd be interesting to see what entries came from which contributor, but there's a wide breadth of knowledge represented in any case.

I've never seen a center quite like today's R-L-R-L alternation. That's a neat layout, allowing for four excellent long entries while trying to minimize their overlap. Smart! DNA PROFILE / THAT WAS CLOSE / HOME RUN TROTS, great stuff! I don't know that most solvers will notice or care, but it spurred me on to check out their individual sites.

I rarely have to put down a Saturday puzzle these days, thanks to all the practice my compulsive solving neurosis gives me. I got stuck in the SE corner, though, a frustrating ordeal. Even though I've studied Python (programming), I couldn't pull out TUPLE (which goes to show you how hard I've been studying).

As a former jazz musician, maybe I should have known STOP TIME. Needless to say, I was that trombone player who hid in the corner and played as quietly as a flute.

Even when I did uncover PLEASE RISE, it didn't feel as strong as ALL RISE. TAMENESS is at best a tame answer, and PEACES is probably related to "peace out"? I either felt old or stupid. Maybe both.

I can hear the kids these days peaceing me right now.

This isn't my favorite type of Saturday, with a lot of the difficulty stemming from unfamiliar entries like SQUALL LINE and ET ALIBI, but I appreciated the inventive layout featuring fantastic marquee entries.

– puzzle by Sid Sivakumar and Brooke Husic

Dan got in touch with me more than a year ago, pitching [Dock-u-drama?] = ON THE WATERFRONT. I thought it could be a fun idea if he could find more entries in this vein. I thought it would be better to disguise it as [Docudrama?] so it wouldn't be overt. Either way, it's a pun I've never thought of, and that counts for a lot.

I would not have greenlighted the set Dan turned in today because:

1. There's no consistency — some clues are real movie types (PG, road, family), some are homophones (Indy, not Indie), and one is a full spelling change (Dock-u-drama).
2. It's too easy to figure out what's going on.
3. There are way too many examples of movies for each themer, making the entire thing feel loosey-goosey.
4. The most recent movie is from 25 years ago, potentially alienating younger solvers.

It would have been interesting to work with Dan to tear the concept down to the studs and rebuild.

I liked Dan's gridwork better than the theme, thankfully. Not award-nominated, but when you can escape a 21x21 140-word puzzle with an average number of gluey bits (I counted 15), that's reasonable. More importantly, most of it was of the minor-offender-variety; things that solvers can easily figure out, like ATA, EES, ONOR, OSAY, RTES.

Throw in some bonuses like UTTER ROT and AGE LIMIT, along with a couple of clever clues — STETSON as "ranch dressing" and "Wear off?" as DISROBE — and it's a workable construction job.

It's a shame that this theme didn't get more pushback for further brainstorming. I'd love to see Will Shortz develop a better Sunday process, connecting people who have raw seed ideas with a specialized group of Sunday constructors.

– puzzle by Dan Margolis

WOMEN OF LETTERS is a great revealer, perfectly tying together ELLE MACPHERSON, SANDRA OH, SAMANTHA BEE, and KAY HAGAN. A long memory for crosswords hurt my initial impression since a fantastic C.C. Burnikel puzzle and a FOURTH OF JULY theme immediately made me wonder what L O B K stood for.

I'm curious — what it would be like, to be a person who doesn't feel it necessary to spend two hours Googling LOBK and all 24 permutations of those letters?

I'm also curious how many unenlightened boors didn't know KAY HAGAN. Shame on us! I mean, ewe! Aw, GGGG!

Love the inclusion of SHE/HER as fill. Along with MADAM President, AURORA/EOS, I liked the celebration. A shame that this didn't run on March 1^st.

Five themers bookended by two 14s usually means trouble. The five phrases can only get one row of spacing from each other, and that squishing-in constraint forces so many down answers to cross multiple themers. It all starts with the central 28-Down, which often creates an unfillable letter pattern. Thankfully, Jessie and Ross had some flexibility, and S?T?N has several fine options.

Bonus fill is then the next issue since long downs will have to run through three themers, having to fit inflexible letter patterns. Great results in GATORADE, SPY NOVEL, and TANGENTS.

Trying to choose great long fill while simultaneously avoiding gloopy short fill is a further challenge. It's near impossible to escape a layout like this without some ALEE SHA (and BRULEE ASSAM could be off-putting for newbs), but that's fairly minor.

Careful, meticulous work, with an outstanding result; excellent debut. I applaud Ross's efforts to help new constructors publish their voices. If I hadn't been tapped out on letter homophones, this could have been in the POW! running.

– puzzle by Jessie Bullock and Ross Trudeau

Today's theme sounds like a joke my kids would tell: a Boston cabbie picks up a reporter and asks, "Where to?" The person replies, "Circle the block a few times! I need to go AROUND THE GLOBE!"

Then the cabbie bangs his head against the dining room table as his cackling kids demand that their father laugh because it's hilarious, so why aren't you laughing?

Seriously, though, the first themer was perfect. There's something neat about the dual description of reporters being found AROUND THE GLOBE (the HQ of the Globe) and also having to travel AROUND THE GLOBE.

The second didn't work as well. A Baltimore news reader's desk can be found UNDER THE SUN? Baltimoreans haul their desks out to the sidewalk so they can read their papers? Better would have been something funny, maybe referring to the basement of the Sun building.

The lack of parallel structure hurt the last themer. When you start with two out of three positional "… can be found" clues and the last entry is BEHIND THE TIMES, it's bizarre not to complete the pattern. Make them all the same or all different.

At only 39 theme squares, the theme felt thin, but I couldn't come up with a fourth possibility, either. Although three themers is unusually low these days, taking up less real estate can make room for bonuses in the fill. I appreciate that Adam wove in so much UNCLE SAM, AEGEAN SEA, TEA GARDEN, OIL BARON, with careful avoidance of glue, only minor ASI and CRO. That helped shore up the solving experience.

ZEBU, not so much. (Crossword insiders have a crude term that starts with "Scrabble" for forcing the rare letters JQXZ into a grid.) I enjoy AP CALC and the Z, but ZEBU might trigger that "I have to know trivia to do crosswords?" unease that we badly want to avoid.

A lot of potential with this theme. With some massaging of the clues, perhaps writing a little story about them — a reporter circling the building, searching the basement, then finding his source hiding in the back alley? — it could have been more memorable.

– puzzle by Adam Vincent

Third day in a row we've had a debut! It's always fun to see a family collaboration.

As a finance guy, I can talk for hours about GOVERNMENT BONDS. As a crossword person, don't get me started on T NOTES and T BILLS, or I'll never stop! How do GOVERNMENT BONDS relate to this theme, though ...

A-ha! I like it when a revealer doesn't totally make sense on its own, but its clue finishes the job. Each of the phrase components is "joined" by a government agency, i.e., AIRCRAFT and CARRIER are "bonded" by FTC (Federal Trade Commission). That's a clever way to elevate what might normally be dismissed as an ordinary "hidden words" theme.

Also clever: Ed and Alex's use of low-word count gridsmanship. Many constructors shoot for this tough territory, thinking that if they push their envelopes and strive for a 72-word themed puzzle, they'll deliver solvers an extra-colorful experience without too many compromises. The results rarely reflect that, but today, Ed and Alex achieved liftoff.

Take the NW corner, for instance. Typical layouts would break 1- and/or 2-Down in half, making the region much easier to fill. Solid results, with TRACHEA and PERSISTS as bonuses not seen in crosswords nearly as much as the usual 3-5 letter stuff.

I also liked how Ed and Alex kept the middle fairly open. Many constructors would put a black square at the E of SCALE, restricting the middle, making their job a snap. Given Alex's impressive gridding skills, it's not a surprise that the difficult center is so smooth. Nothing snazzy, but everything so rock-solid: RESERVE, REVOLT, CRACKER, SAINTS.

Will Shortz is taking fewer "hidden word" themes these days, but today's puzzle demonstrates that there's absolutely still room for ones that elevate through a clever extra element.

– puzzle by Ed Salners and Alex Eaton-Salners

Fourth debut in a row! The ominous sequence representing FATE, the group of four tones that is the hand of God, the strike of the Grim Reaper's scythe. Dum dum dum DUUUUM!

It's time to have a word with XWord Info's dumb symphony blogger.

I appreciated the visual presentation of G G G EFLAT, appearing as it would in a score, with G a few rows higher than EFLAT. Perfect that the Gs are short, and the EFLAT stretches out like it does when played!

Also interesting were the FATE and DEAF touches in the puzzle. I didn't remember that bit about the sequence representing FATE, but what other short musical sequence does that better?

It's a shame that this tribute comes so quickly after the last one, especially since E FLAT was incorporated into the same entry. Talk about leaving solvers DEFLATED. There's not much else you can hide EFLAT in, though, since BONNEVILLE FLATS doesn't disguise FLAT at all.

There are several execution problems with today's version, like RIGI a head-scratcher, C MINOR not placed symmetrically with LUDWIG, FATE and DEAF not matching positions either, and the odd mini-themed feel of ASGARD and LOKI. However, the visual of G G G EFLAT mimicking the musical score is so neat that I could maybe overlook the issues, especially given that it's a debut.

I doubt Will Shortz, looking back in hindsight, would make the same decisions to accept both puzzles. I can imagine his situation, though. You've already said yes to David's puzzle, and this one comes across your desk. You can't de-accept a puzzle … so maybe take this neat visual one, too, and spread them out?

At the time, it could have seemed like a passable idea. A shame that Will ran Kathryn's second, though, taking away from a debut constructor's impact.

– puzzle by Kathryn Ladner

The infamous tic-tac-toe themeless layout. I'll tell you all about it after I uncurl from a post-traumatic fetal position.

Okay, I'm back. The "tic-tac-toe" name comes from the positions of the themer intersections — 9 (!) of them. It's not that hard to get six 15-letter answers to weave together, but to get six great ones is a different story. Extremely well done in this regard, BECAUSE ITS THERE a sizzler, along with five other solid marquees.

Once you lock in your skeleton, the question becomes, how do you work in more long entries? There has to be more juice above and beyond the six entries, so you need a couple of 8-10 letter entries. It's so difficult to do, though, since any place you stick a long entry, it's going to intersect two of the marquee grid-spanners. It might also have to stack with one of them, like SCRUB NURSE below SHIVER ME TIMBERS.

Even if you manage to work your way to that point, the hardest part is yet to come. Filling around two intersecting long answers is tricky. Doing that around 9 intersections puts you smack dab in construction hell, forcing you to make trade-off after trade-off, some even affecting previous sections, causing total restarts. I like Damon's result, how he spread out his dabs of glue and head-scratchers, YSER isolated in the lower right, arbitrary EXMET in the east, toughies SABAN in the north and ASHLAR in the NE.

The one area that nearly got me was unfortunately the starting corner. ENC and EDT are minor offenders. Toss in VOCE and that's a tough way to kick off someone's solving experience.

All in all, though, an exemplary tic-tac-toe themeless. They don't get much better than this.

– puzzle by Damon Gulczynski

★ Two of my favorite themeless constructors teaming up; how could I resist giving this a POW!? Cool middle, with TREASURE TROVES / MAIN THEME / ABOUT THE AUTHOR stacked, and ELIZABETH WARREN persisting through them all.

Not only are the Across marquee entries fantastic, but they can all take clever or interesting clues. I was so befuddled by ABOUT THE AUTHOR, thinking at first about a denim jacket (I swear, they'll come back in style one day), then a record jacket, and finally a book jacket.

Sad performance from an *ahem* author.

I wonder if ELIZABETH WARREN will prove divisive as a crossword entry. There's no doubt she's famous enough, having made a serious Presidential run earlier this year, but Will usually tries to stay away from politics, as one might at a dinner party. I imagine she'll evoke both cheers and jeers, depending on the political stance of the solver.

While it may be true that the NYT solvership skews left, it is a widely diverse audience. I bet there's a reasonable number of solvers who would prefer seeing IVANKA TRUMP in their grid, for instance, and I would at least have to listen to their grievances.

Caitlin and Andrew did especially well with their mid-length material, so often blah. Most editors prize two-word phrases for their potential to sing, and TO ORDER, ILL BITE, AL DENTE, HOT TAKE all strengthen that perspective. Wonderful work, making such good use of those corners.

I did get stuck in the lower right, worried that I wouldn't be able to finish. Thankfully, I remembered Constructor's Rule #7: if you're filling a big region, you'll usually have to lean on common letters (RSTLN E) — as a solver, if you're stuck in such a wide-open area, try penciling in a random E or T or S and see if that triggers anything. I still couldn't tell you anything about ORESTES, but the name looked familiar enough when I eventually stumbled upon ?RE?TES.

Meticulous craftsmanship, great sizzle in the long entries, and some wickedly sharp clues. I'd love to see more synergistic constructor pairings like this.

– puzzle by Caitlin Reid and Andrew J. Ries

Toys in crosswordland! Some interesting trivia tidbits about an assortment of toys. Appropriate theme for the holiday season.

I wasn't expecting much, sensing that this might be a trivia puzzle, but I was genuinely impressed by some of the factoids. Astronauts bring SILLY PUTTY into space, MR POTATO HEAD trailblazing the way for the TV toy advertising movement, the ETCH A SKETCH starting its life as "L'Ecran Magique." Can't you imagine kids yelling, "Please, I have to have L'Ecran Magique or I'll MORTE!"

Maybe not.

Although I knew the RUBIKS CUBE clue, it reminded me of Netflix's fantastic documentary, "The Speed Cubers." I'm a 2-minute solver, so I was hoping to get tips on how to break 30 seconds, and I got so much more from this movie. It's not as much about cubing as an unlikely friendship that develops between two cubers. Highly recommended.

I wasn't as wild about some random-feeling toy choices. Why include TAMAGOTCHI, especially since its clue didn't point to anything significant? What is the COZY COUPE (although outselling the Honda Accord feels impressive!)? TICKLE ME ELMO was two decades ago, with dozens more hot-new-item toys causing frenzies.

I've been harsh on Randy's Sunday work in the past because he pushes himself to do too much while leaving solvers with loads of gunk to wade through. I give his grid today a thumbs-up, though, since it contains an average amount of glue (about a dozen dabs). Smart to hold at 140 words this time; I hope this will become more of his norm.

There was some oddity in IODATE, BROCAS, and not much bonus material besides the themers, but the solve was smooth and mostly pleasant, with not much sticking out. Even though the theme didn't fully speak to me, it was still an overall pleasant fifteen minutes of diversion because the grid didn't feel like it was trying too hard.

– puzzle by Randolph Ross

A puzzle filled with malarkey? This one's for you, Mr. President!

Funny-sounding words get tapped for crosswords all the time — a quick search turned up this BEQ puzzle from long ago — but that doesn't mean there isn't room for another. As a "The A-Team" fanboy, JIBBER JABBER made me incredibly happy. MUMBO JUMBO, GOBBLEDYGOOK, and BALDERDASH are fun, too.

I didn't notice that BLATHER was part of the theme until Jim Horne casually pointed it out (and I pretended that I already knew). Huh! It does balance SAY WHAT?, although I wasn't sold on that as a revealer. Why SAY WHAT? and not something simpler, like HUH?

I like the attempt to go the extra mile, but BEQ's puzzle worked fine without a revealer, which would have been reasonable here.

The biggest problem with SAY WHAT / BLATHER is the compromises they force. You don't want a newer solver to run into BAHA and LRON five seconds in. ARCHIVAL (interesting that it's just a letter different from ARCHRIVAL!) is an odd duck for a Monday. LEM is an outdated term. By the time a solver gets out of the starting gate, they've already sloshed around in enough muck that they might veer off for other entertainment. Putting SAY WHAT in the center of the puzzle could have produced better results.

Fun concept that I'd be happy to see again in another decade or two, although I'd want an extra layer to elevate it. Such a shame that this wasn't created with Jan 20, 2021, in mind — JOE BIDEN and MALARKEY are both eight letters long!

– puzzle by Sarah Keller and Derek Bowman

I often tell new constructors that it takes maybe 20 ideas before you arrive at one that's a worthy crossword seed. Even then, it might take several iterations to turn it into something interesting. Most newbs give up well before this point, but not Amy. I enjoyed going back and forth with her on several concepts, and even after we landed on this one, the finished product looked nothing like what we first envisioned.

Hopefully, no one will fall out of CLOUD 9 because of the total lack of symmetry — that peskily asymmetric number 9. We experimented with different arrangements that allowed for some grid symmetry (around the perimeter), but this one lent itself to best fill. We figured if you're going to go asymmetric, why not go whole hog (heaven)?

The first time filling a grid can be overwhelming, the learning curve steep. I like that Amy jumped right in, trying to fill it by hand, on graph paper. With giant regions, that's nearly impossible to do, so I segmented the grid into smaller, more doable regions, and she sharpened her pencil and got to work. I was impressed by how much iterating she performed, as evidenced by the amount of eraser dust I saw in her pictures!

I appreciate working with open-minded people who listen to feedback and think about solvers over themselves. Amy hit all those marks. The theme felt so appropriate for such an enjoyable collaboration.

– puzzle by Amy Yanni and Jeff Chen

I'm embarrassed to say I finished with a wrong letter — one that I couldn't figure out, even after knowing it was wrong. RTES probably meet in Montreal. And being a pop culture idiot, QTEEN could be a drag show term I didn't know, for a young contestant?

Well, it should be!

(Is it offensive for a non-drag queen to call a participant a QUEEN, by the way? My brother laughs when I call him a banana, but I doubt he'd laugh if a non-Asian person did.)

I enjoyed uncovering the rebuses in today's debut. WEATHER BALLOON makes for a nice visual, with the rebused words inside balloon-like circles. I was slightly confused because I uncovered ICE first — since when does ICE qualify as WEATHER? — but the rest fit perfectly.

I didn't notice at first that the four balloons exhibit crossword symmetry. There's a debate among constructors whether rebus symmetry is an asset or a liability. On the one hand, it lends elegance to the presentation, mimicking crossword symmetry. It also makes the solve much easier, which is important when running a rebus puzzle on a Wednesday. Some folks who top out at Wednesday difficulty may never have run into a rebus before, so assistance could be most welcome.

However, symmetry creates unwelcome construction constraints, forcing trade-offs. The most unfortunate ones involve the quality of themers. TEAR ASUNDER is a nice entry, but it doesn't split SUN across two words, like E PLURIBUS UNUM or MONKEYS UNCLE does.

Similarly, I bet that without the symmetry requirement, ICE could have turned into the more weather-like SNOW, in ITS NO W ONDER crossing GOES NOWHERE.

I appreciated some of the bonus touches; HOTEL BAR a highlight. RECLINER is comforting, too, and even IN A SENSE could qualify as snazzy ... okay, maybe in a sense. Helped balance out some inelegant entries like ANAG, YOO, PEES, LAN, SEN. ANAG(ram) is the only one that badly stuck out — or should I say, that sock tutu?

Fun debut, with an apt visual element. Four rebus squares, with a grid-spanning revealer, is a difficult way to debut, but Juliana did well.

– puzzle by Juliana Tringali Golden

Billy did so many things well in his debut. Drilling down:

Great revealer. CAN'T FIND THE TIME is a snappy phrase, and it describes the theme concept well. It's not perfect since TIME isn't as much "misplaced" as "lost" or "canceled," but it does the job.

Variety. Note how Billy picked three positions for his lost TIME. Middle of LET THE GOOD TIME ROLL, beginning of TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE, and TAKES ONES SWEET TIME. A bit of everything not only helps keep the idea fresh, but it makes for a less predictable, more fun challenge.

Humor in results. Bowling ball avalanche, a bored server, and a date. It's not Cedric the Entertainer, but it does entertain.

Quality of fill. Billy starts behind the eight-ball, using Matt Ginsberg's list as his master. I love Matt's comprehensive database and use it all the time, but only for specific searches, not for grid-level testing. It contains everything under the sun — including a whole lot of junk — so many new constructors who use this as their master show me unpublishable work. Billy's is far from that, some nice bonuses in HAT TRICK, STOICISM and PREDATOR, with little glue. All in a 72-word grid — few experienced constructors could do that!

I did hitch on a few minor points, like RIDDANCE running through GOOD, which threw me off. Will Shortz doesn't care about duplicating grid entries in clues, and I usually don't either, but GOOD crossing RIDDANCE (with "good" in the clue) felt confusingly thematic.

If the theme had tickled my desire for a Thursday trick — and that's not everyone's preference, as Will has rightfully pointed out in the past — this could have been in POW! territory. Excellent debut.

– puzzle by Billy Ouska

GRETA THUNBERG, an audacious way to seed a themeless. Her direct manner of speaking to world leaders caused all sorts of debate, some even claiming she was doing more harm than good, her approach furthering the divisions of our fractured political landscape. No matter what you think of her, a Time Person of the Year is crossworthy.

She could spark debate in the crossworld, as well. As much as I admire her efforts to change the world, I don't necessarily want my crossword to be world-changing. I much more appreciate the diversions, the humor, the sparks of joy coming from a clue like [Toy associated with France] — a toy POODLE, that is.

I'd just as soon had the fun-to-say NOT BAD AT ALL headline the puzzle, with GRETA or THUNBERG somewhere else in the grid.

I'd seen a few of the clues before — [Labor leader?] for DOULA, and [Perfect score … or half of one] for TEN — but their wordplay still made me smile. I especially like the latter, with its dual riff on the word "score."

There was enough to enjoy in this grid, some rarely-seen entries like ONE BEDROOM and LEASE TO OWN, along with snazzy JUICE BAR and GAME TIME. GRETA THUNBERG's unfortunate length — 13 letter entries force all sorts of gridding constraints right off the bat — makes it difficult to incorporate a lot of other strong, long material, though.

Still, solid debut. And it was fun to see a few Agardian touches, like his love for the WNBA seen in the clue for Rebecca LOBO.

– puzzle by Erik Agard and Wendy L. Brandes

★ SELF DRIVING CAR, now that's a marquee entry! Awesome phrase, and it can take all sorts of clever clues. I laughed at John's "auto correction" wordplay, but I also admired Will Shortz's crack about a (car) dealer yelling, "Hands off!"

ELDER STATESMAN is excellent, too, although it's harder to integrate wordplay into its clue. [Respected figure] generates Saturday-level difficulty from how general it is. That sort of difficulty isn't nearly as much fun for me. What could it have been?

(Two hours and 56 internet rabbit holes later)

How about [Old sage still in high demand?]? Maybe something about "Old Rough and Ready," Zachary Taylor?

Seriously, that was the best you could do, Jeff?

Off to rabbit hole 57 …

When a themeless features "awkward length" marquees — 12-14 letter phrases force black square placements right off the bat, cutting into precious flexibility — the rest of the long slots tend to suffer. That's especially the case if you try to "quad-stack," like John did in the lower left corner. Great results, though, OPED PAGE and RING TRUE ringing true, hardly having to TAKE A HIT with ony (super minor) APTS.

The opposite corner suffered a little more, requiring PICOT to hold that stack together, flowing over to OID. The latter is an odd suffix, but at least figure-out-able. PICOT was a head-scratcher. (Embroiderers, feel free to knit me a rebuttal.)

A friend asked me recently what distinguishes Friday and Saturday puzzles. Often, it's the presence of entries that might be considered niche. Don't take that as a reason to aim for esoteric words, though! While odd duck entries can be wildly elating for those in the know, they can turn off a lot of people.

I did almost call it quits in the lower right, unable to recall FAUX AMIS. That's another distinguishing factor — a Friday puzzle might have hinted at the direct translation, "false friends." Today's clue does give enough so you can work at "deceptive" leading to FAUX, though. Whew!

All in all, it is an excellent job minimizing trade-offs, offering up so much to love in the grid. Along with some delights in wordplay — NOAH organizing a "couples cruise," ha! — a well-deserved POW! for John.

– puzzle by John Guzzetta

When you give me a laugh like I got from [Booty call?] = BUTT DIAL, it doesn't matter what the rest of the puzzle does. Worth the price of admission right there!

I liked today's theme. I had a hard time categorizing it — somewhere between definitional and kooky interpretation or regular phrases? — but it mostly worked. Take a phrase that contains the word "partners," and find a "X AND Y" phrase that sort of describes it. [Partners in crime] = BREAKING and ENTERING are two parts of a notable crime. Check!

The question in my mind was, should each of the theme clues have a question mark at the end to tell you that something kooky is going on? The a-ha moment wasn't sharp enough for my taste, as I kept wondering how I would describe this theme to someone:

"You see, ROOM and BOARD are elements of living, and living can be described by the word 'domestic,' so they're 'domestic partners.' But not exactly, so that should be 'domestic partners?', probably. Right? The aha moment is sort of a balancing act of … what? You stopped listening ten minutes ago."

A-ha.

Impressive gridwork for a Sunday debut. I loved getting bonuses like BIG POPPA, GRENACHE, the RIDDLER, BEER PONG, GOON SQUAD, TEST PILOT, making things a whole lot GLITZIER. Unheard of from a Sunday debut!

I still would have liked a 140-word grid, though (this one is at 138). When you have to lean on ABOIL, OGEES, MOA, NTHS, along with the usual suspects of ETD HAPS ISSO, etc., it's best to dial down the difficulty level. I'd easily sacrifice a couple of sparkly bonuses to get rid of the worst of these offenders.

The theme didn't wow me — maybe if someone can give me a quick elevator pitch-style description that makes clear sense? — but it worked. Along with well-above-average gridwork, I enjoyed the solve.

– puzzle by Daniel Grinberg