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★ Five fun (animal) + (pace) themers — a fast and furry-ious WITT (Wish I'd Thought of That) moment!

It's also a tight set. Can you think of any other possibilities? I've done a Thanksgiving Day TURKEY TROT 5K, but that duplicates FOX TROT. I spent a dog day wracking my brain for a single other phrase that would fit the pattern, but after mumbling "monkey jog, pig shuffle, puppy scamper," my wife was not a happy camper.

AND all the themers are arranged in order, from fastest pace to slowest?

When people ask me what I mean by "extra layer" — as in the competition is so fierce these days that you need something extra to stand out — look no further. Such smart use of mirror symmetry to achieve this feat.

For the sake of balanced analysis, I'll point out that some SGT ORO AERO AMAN could have been massaged out by adding cheater squares at the second T of TOURIST and the first E of ENDEMIC, but there's a case to be made that these are worthwhile costs for the benefits of TOURIST, SAND ART, CAPRESE. And that Jeff's nitpicking is endemic.

At first, I wanted some revealer to tie it all together neatly. The best I could come up with, though, was ANIMAL STYLE. Not only does that not fit neatly, but animal style fries are the opposite of neat.

Ultimately, the theme stands on its own with no revealer, and with such elegant execution, it's such a standout.

– puzzle by Alina Abidi and Matthew Stock

I loved when Daniel Craig shook up the world of James Bond. Shaken or stirred? Damn straight, Bond shouldn't care about those things!

I appreciate that Aimee used JAMES BOND as a revealer rather than the much dryer MARTINI. Making that mental leap from Bond to his drink of choice is fun.

Anagrams are ultra-common in cryptic crosswords. Shaken and stirred are both used frequently. Before Craig came along, I'd have been confused by this theme since every other Bond requested shaken, not stirred, which doesn't make much cryptic sense. Yet another reason why Craig is my favorite of the Bonds!

At least until the producers sign on Idris Elba or John Cho.

Finding embedded anagram strings isn't as easy as finding fixed strings of letters, but some hacked-up code does the trick. It would have been so Bondesque if the ASTON MARTIN worked, but it doesn't have that second I, and MARTIN hardly disguises the game. The only other pizzazzy possibilities I found were HENRI MATISSE and SPIRIT ANIMAL, but these 12s would make grid construction challenging.

This Seattleite loves the inclusion of beautiful MT RAINIER, anyway.

I wouldn't say I liked the outdated ALERO up top or AMAIN sailing in the east, but working with a central 9 makes gridding tough. I did enjoy Aimee's balancing act, working in freshies like GANJA and ULTIMATE.

Loved the [It's full of beans] clue for BURRITO, too, plus BURRITO / BURRATA feels like the seed of some TOMAYTO TOMAHTO mantra.

Anagrams are a tough sell these days, but the indirect revealer of JAMES BOND sure was fun.

– puzzle by Aimee Lucido

Adding (or subtracting) two letters is commonplace in crosswords, and IT has been done many times. You have to spice things up if you're going to do it again, and Sam did just that by making me imagine him on the classic Britney cover. Stop playing with my heart, Sam!

It's been ten years since Sam lived around the corner from me in Seattle — ah, the good old days. Speaking of old, OOPS I DID IT AGAIN is over 20 years old? UGH!

Speaking of UGH … EFT. I don't mind a bit of ACA AMSO TSO here and there, but some dabs of glue are stickier than others. EFT hearkens back to the bad old days when crossword insiders took pleasure in knowing things that kept noobs away.

Sam often pushes the boundaries, and no doubt the bonuses of EUROZONE, AMERICAN, PROTESTS, XS AND OS, ACID WASH — plus the mid-lengthers of KENOBI and INGOTS — are less GO BUST and more UTOPIA. I prefer a cleaner overall product, though, especially when you have to include the variant KATMANDU. Moving the block above the R in AMERICAN down one row could have helped.

Something is to be said for zazzing up the grid at the cost of some chaos. It is Britney, bitch.

Love Sam's SEA shout-out! I'm not a hockey fan, but it's been fun to experience Jim Horne's Kraken zealotry secondhand.

It's tough to make an "add IT" concept memorable, but Sam's play on the Britney song helped.

– puzzle by Samuel A. Donaldson

Who doesn't love discussing CAPITAL GAINS? Nothing like long-term gains taxed at such a meager rate, not to mention that they're offsetable by long-term capital losses, so if you time your equity sales …

Right, this kind of talk only gains me losses.

CAPITAL GAINS … or CAPITAL LOSSES? Wait, don't leave; I was talking about the puzzle, not the financial concepts! Is it that MOS has gained QUITO to become MOSQUITO, or that MOSQUITO has lost QUITO to become MOS? That's the eternal question for this theme type.

I loved the TIM(BERLIN)ES to TIMES find. I had a vague recollection of seeing BERLIN as a hidden word, but the fact that subtracting it leaves behind a valid five-letter word is a so cool.

I would have appreciated BA(KING STON)E even more, but David beat me and a friend to the punch — we featured this in an upcoming Sunday puzzle. QUASH you, David!

Audacious choice to stack MOS(QUITO) / (RIGA)TONI and (PARIS)HES / L(OS LO)BOS. (LBOS = leveraged buyouts. I would happily blather on for hours about LBOS, and then you'd be TO(O SLO)W to TOW me away.) David had some flexibility, able to mix and match the four entries, but the fact that there are 24 possibilities (4x3x2x1 = 24) hardly means that any one of them will produce silky-smooth results. HOB ENO STS sogs things up, but SOG ONI is a reasonable result.

I used to want to challenge solvers to the brink of frustration — people should earn their victories! — but these days, I much prefer erring the other way. Although starring the six clues would have made it (too?) obvious what was going on, it would have increased the proportion of solvers achieving a fist-pumping a-ha moment.

– puzzle by David J. Kahn

Whoa, a tough 66-worder on a Friday! It's relatively rare to have quad-stacked entries in two corners and even more rare to have them in all four. When we do see them, they're almost always on Saturdays, because they can be so difficult to break into — few short gimmes to provide toeholds.

Quad-stacks can often suffer from lack of color, so I love what Jacob did with cheater squares in the upper-left and lower-right corners. Some editors don't like this aesthetic, but I don't mind them much. Although there's something to be said for a more stark approach, with huge swaths of white space, I'd much rather take the cheater square hit if it allows for four entries as strong as PLOT HOLES over EASY READ and DR SEUSS, a combination that gets my PULSE RATE up!

Opposite corner came out well, too. HASHTAG / TALL TALE / FAN LETTER / IT SUPPORT sounds like a story my neighbor might tell (he reports directly to Elon Musk). We here in the Northwest would have accepted [Galloping ___ (nickname for the Tacoma-Narrows bridge)], but the dinosaur faintly rang a bell.

The other corners didn't ROCKIT as much. I'm not enough of a skier to speak to MINI-SKI, nor is my tennis to the level where I could ace ON SERVE. ONE SOCK doesn't aggravate me quite as much as the lone socks my kids are spawning.

4x7 chunks are a challenge to fill with both color and cleanliness, and when you fix a long entry like WISECRACKS in place, it's even harder.

Excellent gridsmanship, but with entries like AKELA / AESIR and difficult clues, this would have been difficult even for a Saturday. Huge relief to finally finish, after having to put down the puzzle twice.

– puzzle by Jacob McDermott

CAROLINA REAPERS / ACTION ADVENTURE / THE NERVE / CRUSADE — reminds me of the "Hot Ones" episode where Pedro Pascal cries from his head!

It's been over a year since we've had two full triple-stacks. There used to be nearly one per month back in Martin Ashwood-Smith's heyday, but they oversaturated the market. These days, I enjoy solving one every now and again, especially when they're anchored by exciting entries like SOPHOMORE SLUMPS and CAROLINA REAPERS. Great clue for the latter, too, the "scythelike" reference helping people unfamiliar with the devilishly hot cultivars.

Full-grid triple-stacks often suffer in their crossings, some truth or dab required to hold everything together. Carter took such care with all of his crossers; so smooth. Maybe soccer and electronics-haters will point to MLS (Major League Soccer) or OHMAGE, but both are reasonable entries. We should all pay ohmage to the top-notch quality.

I wasn't wowed by the modest A MODEST PROPOSAL from almost 300 years ago, or the outdated REEL TO REEL TAPES, reely? The latter also has a high concentration of constructor-friendly letters that make it feel cheap.

Solid work overall, though, a quality example of the well-established genre.

– puzzle by Carter Cobb

I love Greek mythology. I enjoy thought experiments. I even like a word ladder every now and again. So I enjoyed today's exploration, replacing SHIP letter by letter and building it back into another SHIP. Creative combination of duplication themes and word ladders.

It would have been great to have a themer that shared zero letters with SHIP, breaking the Argo into nothingness before building it back up.

Then I second-guessed myself. Is a total teardown of SHIP in the spirit of the SHIP OF THESEUS? Wouldn't it be better if at least some part of it remained at all times?

Yet more evidence that I'm a SHI* philosopher.

I'm glad that Will pointed out OTIOSITY — such useful letters, indeed. The ones that stood out even more to me were UPPISH, NULLITY, and NOSILLY. In a noselike fashion — seriously, Will? And if you're going to use such otiosities—

Ah. No, silly Jeff racks up another SLOW SLIP.

Like most thought experiments, this one forced me to exercise some brain cells, but also like most thought experiments, it wasn't necessarily fun. I might have enjoyed plays on THESEUS more, perhaps replacing two letters at a time? Or using embedded strings, like TIS THE SEASON? TO SAY THE LEAST, I wanted more excitement.

I can see the counterpoint, though. Jim Horne, the yin to my boorish yang, gave it a SLOW CLAP.

– puzzle by Will Nediger

I often resent photographers telling me to SAY CHEESE, so I sometimes mutter "cheese" through a forced frown, but seeing all those smiles in today's grid was infectious.

Beautiful gridwork, especially considering that this is Cathy's debut. Will Shortz has reservations about "geometric shape" themes, because they often force gluey fill around those shapes. Even with today's relatively open smile patterns, you still have those pesky diagonal edge letters fixed in place.

Vowel-consonant alternation is generally a good thing for constructors — many short fill entries follow this pattern to some extent — which means that even though having a long Down like RAISES HELL run through SWISS, it doesn't raise hell as much as it could, since the S-W and S-S ends can both take a vowel in the corners between them.

Not a surprise that the opposite side has the least elegant spot — OTT (yikes, that's a toughie for some newer solvers) and NAE — considering that the ends of FETA crumble chances of friendly vowel-consonant alternation.

Words like EDEN show up all the time in crosswords, so writing a clue that won't bore regular solvers is a challenge. The observation about "Eve's garden" is cool!

Crosswords typically draw much of their color from long theme entries, so building one on the backs of short, neutralish answers can be tricky. I would have liked a touch more GROUP HUG, FACETIMED, CARRY ON pizzazz, but some DIET POP, ELM TREE, ENTREATY keep things AFLOAT. Working in even one extra pair of long bonuses is a risky proposition, anyway.

Appropriate that Cathy's debut brought a smile to my face.

– puzzle by Catherine Cetta

★ I love crosswords that do something different. I love mirror symmetry — especially when the grid is smiling at me. Smiling's my favorite!

I'm well aware of two fingers representing BUNNY EARS, as my kids think it's hilarious. It Bugs me. And while I remember the PEACE SIGN and V FOR VICTORY, combining all of these with TWO, PLEASE to make a crossword theme, is such a creative connection. Using emoji for the two fingers gives it all a modern touch.

Such a clever idea to try for themer interlock up top. It's often impossible to make happen, and even when the great goddess Cruciverba shines her love down upon you, sometimes it forces difficult trade-offs. Today, it's not only impressive, but it's incredibly useful for both the construction and the solving experience.

Let's look at the alternative. Given that the themer lengths scream for mirror symmetry, if there were no possible interlock among the triplet of 9s, you'd have to lay out those three all vertically. Then, technical reasons demand that you build a triple-stack around the middle 9, like in this puzzle from last year.

While this can make for some juicy surrounding long fill, it's so hard to create a triple-stack of 9s with both cleanliness and color. Today's arrangement is so much more conducive to engineering an early-week, newb-friendly experience. That black square under the second E of PEACE sign makes it so much easier to pick short fill that's uber-accessible to newer solvers. There's nothing at all wrong with EDIFY, but EBOOK is so much less a pain in the annus to remember.

Doing something fresh and different, like with the peace sign emoji, is fantastic. What gets Maggie my POW! though, is her superb execution.

– puzzle by Margaret Seikel

SHOOTING STARS is so apt for Sagittarius (the archer) and Orion (the hunter). Such creativity, coming up with in-the-language base phrases that punnily describe constellations.

NIGHT CRAWLERS also works well, as Scorpio (the scorpion) and Cancer (the crab) are crawlers that only come out in the night sky.

I love the Pegasus myths, but I wasn't aware that he was immortalized in a constellation. I need to look at the night sky more often because it's relatively well-known.

It's a shame that OVERBEARS kicked off the theme, as it was the weakest. My kids call me overbearing at times — I'm an Asian parent, so sue me — would they ever say that my vigilance over their homework OVERBEARS? Additionally, OVERBEARS sounds like there's something over the bears, not that the bears are overhead.

BEARS UP was used before, with a punny clue hinting at Ursa Major. (Also as a different puzzle's title.) BEARS UP is only seven letters long, though, and themers want to be longer to help them stand out.

My inner engineering business nerd wanted SCALES UP for Libra.

Working with 13-letter themers can be challenging — check out those two black squares at the end of NIGHTCRAWLERS. Because there are only two, you have a tough decision: do you run a long Down through the S of NIGHTCRAWLERS, or do you create a Utah block by blacking out the IRS of ELIXIRS?

Please don't audit me; that was an honest(ish) coincidence!

Another option I often try: shifting NIGHTCRAWLERS one square to the right, so you have a black square on either side. Looks cleaner, with a lot of gridding flexibility.

Fresh and creative idea. If only the fourth themer had been stronger.

– puzzle by Victor Barocas

The last time this theme was done, I was outraged. E doesn't equal MC—it equals MC SQUARED, so the five squares should be E / MC or at least E / MCC! Are we shouting "Fake news!" at laws of physics now?

Sadly, that feels like it's coming shortly.

Thankfully, I learn (albeit slowly), so I already appreciated that the MC was "squared," as in put into a single square. Neat how Sheldon crossed the central entries through one of those special squares, EINSTEINIAN and EEQUALSMCSQUARED. We've inserted a slash into the five squares below, to help you visualize what's happening.

FOR SOLVERS WHO DESPERATELY NEED TO KEEP THEIR STREAK OF PERFECTION ALIVE: enter either E or MC and it should be marked as correct. Other options that are supposed to also work: E/MC and MC/E.

Almost as confusing as relativity itself.

Rebus puzzles ideally want their special squares placed inside long themers. Although BENCHMARK isn't that snazzy of an answer, it's a lot more interesting than IDLEST, for example. It would have added a touch of elegance to have DREAM CAR be longer than ELEGANCE — my inner word nerd would have swooned at ROMZOMCOM.

How do you go about creating a grid with such weirdly-acting squares? Best approach is to start with the more difficult constraint — your four long *MC* entries — since "must contain the letter E in a certain position" is hardly rocket science. After that, there are some construction tricks you can employ. I won't get into them because time would slow to a crawl for non-nerds.

For those folks lucky enough to encounter the concept for the first time, enjoy!

– puzzle by Sheldon Polonsky

CASCADING MENU is such an evocative term, making for a great marquee for the central stair stack. ALL-TIME GREATS is great too, and although it's been ages since I've read any ISABEL ALLENDE, I've enjoyed her work.

Interesting twist on a stair stack pattern — I appreciate the innovation, especially given how common the middle stair stack has become. It's rare to see four Across entries stacked atop each other like IS THAT IT, WIRELESS, OPERETTA, and SPIN SERVE, and to do with when there's already a middle stair stack is audacious. Connecting it all with yet another long entry like TETE-A-TETE is shooting for the stars!

One of the risks of this type of layout is that it's difficult to fill each of those long slots with something amazing. Perhaps Bluetooth-connected singers could argue that WIRELESS and OPERETTA are indeed amazing, but we'd still have to have a tete-a-tete about how many times TETE-A-TETE has been used through the decades because of its common letters and perfect vowel-consonant symmetry. BEERAMID and NEST EGGS shine things up in the opposite corner, though.

Given that it's a 70-word construction, I'd prefer to have less CSA EDT ENE IST. (Some folks will immediately recognize a community supported agriculture box, but if you've never heard the term before, there's no way to figure it out through etymology.)

Solid stair stack construction overall, though, especially given that additional constraint of stacking so many long Across entries above each other in the lower-left and upper-right corrners.

– puzzle by Enrique Henestroza Anguiano

1-Across can be so important for drawing a solver into your puzzle. This rock climber was elated to write in CRIMP! I used to hate crimps, but I've come to appreciate the challenges they provide.

A lot of strong material, the SPACE TIME / PROMO CODE / ART CENTER star stack anchoring things well. I enjoyed the throwback clue to the arcade cabinet in PLAYER ONE's clue, the spicy SRIRACHA, and I do my fair share of HEADDESKs.

I draw a circled C every time I run across a clever clue, and today's puzzle had more than the seven seas. [Bit of tea, to Brits] is usually SPOT. Even when I got the crossings to fill in RUMOUR, it didn't make sense — until I figured out the tea was in the sense of "spill the tea."

I might have dissected that HUMOR until it died. (Fantastic quote by E.B. White!)

[Game with a lot of instructions] reminded me of when Jill and I played Betrayal at House on the Hill with another couple recently. Two hours later, we still hadn't gotten to the betrayal phase, what with all the complicated directions! Much simpler instructions in SIMON SAYS.

The telltale question mark often gives away too much, but [A little bit of company?] was fun. A single share of STOCK in a company is indeed a little bit.

If you haven't heard of ENBIES, think of NBs, as in "non-binaries." Clever phonetic usage.

Even going down to 68 words, Spencer kept their grid clean and elegant. Maybe a nit-picker could argue over NSFW, but I've seen the Not Safe For Work tag many times by now.

If I could only unsee the contents of those forwards.

– puzzle by Spencer Leach

I spent an hour trying to figure out what was going on, and then another hour coming up with ways to deflect all the incoming questions. ZIPPER MERGES gets at two Down entries heading into one of the five merge spots, at which point, a third Down entry alternates the ends of the first two.

So much for that hour.

Let's try a visual example:

The ends of HOWCANTHATBE and SILVERMEDAL zipper together to form HEADTABLE.

I tried to think of some other way of using visual cues to help this explanation, but the guy in my head kept honking at every idea I had.

Jim Horne and I discussed ways of helping people figure out what was going on, and we landed on the Krakenization seen below. I'm not much of an ice hockey fan, but you gotta love the team making its first playoff and going deep! [The Seahawks, Mariners, Sounders, and Kraken all sport the same color scheme.]

How can you even find pairs that work this way? Well, arrays and dictionary coding constructs allow you to—

HOOOOOONK

I used to love this sort of brain-busting construction — Patrick Berry's simpler implementation blew me away when I first started. I've had so many solvers throw pencils at me over the years, though, that these days, I ease up to be more solver-friendly. I'm ecstatic for those gritty folks who gritted through this one and earned their fantastic a-ha moment — and I'm also sympathetic to those who got too frustrated or even stymied.

Since the Sunday Magazine can employ color, Krakenizing could have been spectacular. Although it would make the concept too simple for some, it would make it much more accessible to a broader audience.

– puzzle by Sid Sivakumar

I don't drink much these days, as even a single pint affects my sleep. I've downgraded to schooners, then tasters, and I'm now considering the cup for fifteen cents approach. If only I could find a MICROBREWERY that offered literal micro brews. I'll bring my own pipet, even.

SMALL WORLD was my favorite themer, as it twisted a colloquial phrase with fun wordplay. LITTLE LEAGUE wasn't as amusing, since both "little" and "league" were no-nonsense translations, but it might be more direct for some Monday solvers. I wonder how many newbs are looking up Tatooine right now …

At the risk of confusing some newer solvers, it would have been great to use [Three nautical miles?] in tiny print.

I enjoy it when constructors mess around with clue fonts and spacing. Tom McCoy did it incredibly well years ago, where it was impossible to miss what was going on. Upon test-solving today's, I missed the theme — I have to squint at everything these days.

Great job working in long Down bonuses. Note that Tomas could have made his life easier by going up to 78 words — breaking up COLD FEET at the F, or LIONSGATE at the S — but when you're working with four moderate-length themers, you can almost always achieve both color and cleanliness and still work in six long Downs. Even if some solvers miss the theme, they still get treated to SNACK FOOD, SKYLINES, PARASITE. WHY YES, I did think Tomas's execution HAULed ASS!

It would have been great if the clues had been made more noticeable somehow — making them even tinier, or featuring literal small worlds, like Lilliput? Still, a nice change of pace for a Monday.

– puzzle by Tomas Spiers

★ Hopefully finding "39-Across" left you COMBOBULATED. Secret additional Across entries like "60-Across" are not easily BEKNOWNST to newbs!

I've seen many plays on "not-a-word words," but employing this secret Across trick makes this theme shine. For the second day in a row, Tom McCoy shows us the ropes. It might seem like child's play to get the five special black squares placed, but when working with a theme set like Katherine and Adam's, you have to be DOLENT to ensure everything behaves. Constant vigilance is required since every time you shift your grid skeleton around for better fill potential, you have to keep close watch over those five black squares.

The special constraints make things difficult from the get-go. Usually, you wouldn't want to create so many three-letter entries in the upper left corner since editors grimace when you hit about 22 of them. Not only that, but look what it does to the north region, with stacked 7s. That often forces trade-offs, especially when working with an early-week theme and grid. SOCIALS and CELLI are slightly odd plurals, and LECTOR / TETONS might be tricky for some newbs.

I've known a few Ignacios over the years and never connected the name to NACHOS. Fun clue.

Although some of the fill borders on mid- or even late-week difficulty — THANOS crossing SHUE, POSNER crossing ERNESTO, etc. — I loved all the ICEMAKER / SONICARE and especially BE HONEST / I CANT LIE bonuses. Solid theme, with that secret additional Across trick putting this one over the top.

– puzzle by Katherine Baicker and Adam Wagner

The "words that can precede X" genre is on its last legs, so you have to do something special to get one accepted. Today is a perfect example of exactly that, Parker employing not one but two additional levels to make his puzzle stand out.

The first, obvious one is that ___ SPLIT phrases are represented literally: SEVEN / TEN split, BAN / ANA split, STO / CK split, and LICK / ETY split. (Non-investors might not be familiar with stock splits, but they're ultra-common in finance.) Neat find in ETYMOLOGY to make that pesky ETY beginning work.

I would have guessed that there were a few dozen phrases following the form of ___ SPLIT — I was amazed that you can count them on one hand. Besides the quartet Parker used, what else is there? You could go deep into finance with a REVERSE split or into bowling with a BABY split or DODO split, but those are much weaker options. Such top-notch tightness — not being able to find a single other possible themer — lends so much elegance to the theme.

Puzzles featuring splits often come with filling difficulties, especially when so many of the themer ends/starts are constrained. Since you want to obfuscate SEVEN, only a few entries like MAKES EVEN or BREAKS EVEN work. ??BAN could only be CUBAN or URBAN, so all the inflexibility makes it unsurprising to get some EBRO crossing SER in that region. Incorporating the IONIAN SEA does help make up for it, though.

There have been a lot of splits puzzles and a whole lot of "words that can precede X" ones. Combining the two resulted in a solid effort today.

– puzzle by Parker Higgins

I, for one, remember some fun [I, for one] clues.

A few weeks ago, I was stumped by a Matt Gaffney Weekly Crossword Contest, week 1 of 4. Week 1! As the former owner of a streak of 150+ successful MGWCC solves, I thought Matt must be pulling a fast one on us. I almost needed the 411 from my MGWCC solving buddy, but the clever for one = 4/1 didn't April Fool me in the end.

Figuring out today's theme involved much consternation, yelling at my computer that LENGTH is not SEVEN LETTERS!

Ah, but "example" is.

Well, then, an ELECTRICAL FAULT is not a scientific definition! It's an engineering term, not a …

Oh, a short is an ELECTRICAL FAULT.

Who does it shame if you fool me seven times?

I enjoy seeing the NYT not dance around AREOLA but use clever wordplay. "Nipple ring," indeed.

Lots of clues to explain:

• MALL is a "chain letter" in that it lets, or leases, its space to chain stores.
• I haven't stepped into a bank in months, much less a sandal. Er, SANDL. What's the difference between a bank and an S&L? I'm still unsure, but I bet the answer is D&Y.
• "Tickets" is a tough way to clue SLATES. Think about political party slates / tickets.

I prefer clever cluing that dodos like me can snap up immediately. "Opposite of a heads up?" cluing TAILS is just that.

I hadn't realized how many ", for ___" conventions there are in crosswords. Once I figured out what was going on, it wasn't quite an a-ha moment, but I appreciated the creativity in coming up with an engaging, Thursday-worthy theme.

– puzzle by Kiran Pandey

Oh no you didn't, David! My kids have been singing BABY SHARK off and on for years now, and I would usually pay through the nose to knock it out of my head AT ANY COST, POST HASTE. Although, as with everything else, Ted Lasso has provided the answer, Jamie Tartt repurposing the song in such a ridiculous way that it now makes me smile.

The term YANKEE SWAP isn't quite as colorful as white elephant exchange, but it still evokes all sorts of imagery. I'm hopeful that our Mariners somehow can steal Jose Trevino from the Bronx Bombers.

What I'm even more hopeful for: one day having a Dirty Santa party.

Don't (Aaron) Judge me.

Most constructors focus their clever cluing on their feature entries, but it's just as effective in helping regular ol' boring short fill stand out. Usually, you use entries like DYE, HAW, DATE, MILK because they do their job: they don't make a solver hitch. DYE pulls so much weight, though, with a beautiful [What might address a gray area] clue. And I wouldn't hem or HAW about a HAW being found near a hem.

For those unaware of various matchmaking apps that require swiping right and left, a side-swipe might get you a DATE. Finally, I don't have to give a spoiler alert here since there's already one of sorts on MILK cartons — the "best by" DATE!

These four short answers could have been simply fine, but with such brilliant clues, they inject freshness and fun into the solving experience.

Well-constructed themeless, with some strong debut entries and outstanding work in clever cluing.

– puzzle by David Distenfeld

So many debut entries today! DATA CENTERS was my favorite because of its innocent clue. I attended many networking events in my previous startup life. These days, I might enjoy much more nerdy networking parties involving not human, but computer servers.

The pandemic might have made me just a tad antisocial.

I love that Erica didn't stick to a standard "stair stack" of DANCE AROUND / MEME ACCOUNT / SYNESTHESIA, but wove a second one through it. With WILLA CATHER / LOOSE CHANGE / DATA CENTERS, six long marquee entries anchors an impressive center.

Was it just me who saw ME! ME! ACCOUNT as something overzealous people put together?

This is why I stay off social media these days.

What a great clue for VILEST! It's an entry that sounds slightly off — I would likely say "most vile" instead — but a memorable Oscar Wilde quote more than saves it.

I had a rough go with SKORTS / CARLO, weighing SKIRTS / CARLI for ages, especially since CARLI Lloyd is such a famous soccer star. Do golfers not wear SKIRTS anymore? Thankfully, I avoided the I/O error.

There was less ambiguity with SEA-GOAT / SYNESTHESIA. I was 95% sure that intersection had to be an S, but being a Capricorn and never having heard the term SEA-GOAT, I had a tough time seeing it as correct. It is definitely legit, as it turns out.

As much as I used to love LOLCATs, are they still mews-worthy?

Impressively wide-open center in this 66-worder.

– puzzle by Erica Hsiung Wojcik

I wouldn't have imagined that there were so many creative ways to play on IN to IN' phrases. Although most of the first words don't change meaning much, it's so apt to describe speech bubbles as TALKIN' CIRCLES, a copy editor's station as a CHECKIN' DESK, and bigamy as a PARTNERIN' CRIME.

Neat change of pace to include RESPONDIN' KIND, which changes the last part of the phrase much more than the others. Shifting from RESPOND IN KIND to someone likely to answer your questions is a creative leap.

I gained appreciation as I studied these results. We've had so many elision puzzles over the years that I was tempted to stop solving after completing PARTNERIN' CRIME. Glad I didn't, as there were no ENDIN' TEARS for me. Such a surprising level of novelty based on a genre that turns out to be only mostly dead.

Impressive gridwork for a relative newcomer. Robert's first grid was already much cleaner than that of most experienced Sunday constructors, and this one takes things up a notch more. I appreciated the TO THE MAX approach, entries like YES AND NO, IDITAROD, BLANK CDS, FOSTER DAD adding sparkle. I'm not wild about the plural DANAS, or the minor ESTA, LIRA, or MER, but capping your glue to just these shows so much care in craftsmanship.

It's not the most impressive or memorable theme, but it shows that a well-worn genre can still prove fruitful if given the right spin.

– puzzle by Robert Ryan

A close friend of mine has a vast range of interests, although she loves the learning curve much more than the depth. Her husband calls her an ASNF (all start, no finish), pronounced: "ass-sniff." Her response is often NSFW. They're both All-Stars, even if he's sometimes Not Funny.

Initialisms are an incredibly tough sell these days since they've been done to death, so it takes something extraordinary to lift one out of the slush pile. AS SEEN ON TV is a great way to do this, parsing the phrase into A.S. (who's) SEEN ON TV. I love ANDY SAMBERG as Jake Peralta — he influenced our choice of name for our son, Jake! — and ADAM SAVAGE is an old-time favorite of mine. Mythbusters! A shame that he and Jamie Hyneman had bad blood.

I don't think of AMY SCHUMER (she's so talented on so many platforms) or AL SHARPTON as primarily TV personalities, not in the same way as I do the other two. They do appear on TV, though, so that works. In contrast, look at the tightness and sharp aha exhibited by DC COMICS — four famous comedians, all with the initials DC.

Great clue for SAUNA. Some newbs might not have seen the "-ers trick," so think of "sweaters" as in "people who sweat."

Fun debut; creative interpretation of a fantastic revealer phrase. I'm so impressed when a person whose first language is not English can compose such a high-quality product!

– puzzle by Đặng Quang Thắng

Anyone for some number crunching? Fun finds, especially the marquee NEWS EVENT = NEWT with a SEVEN inside. I bet, as a constructor, Lee yelled IT WORKED!

Letter string replacements are easy, but "both chunks are real entries" is a whole 'nother story. The code to algorithmically search for these types of finds is straightforward(ish), but it still requires some basic knowledge of coding, and getting up the learning curve can be daunting.

The puzzle's four corners might look equally challenging to fill, but there's a world of difference. The upper left and lower right are nicely (quasi)sectioned off from the rest of the puzzle, making them much easier to fill. Beautiful material in TABASCO / ERASERS / APRICOT. ARP and OST could be challenging for newer solvers, but they're passable.

The other two corners are so much tougher. With BONINESS inflexibly linked into NEWSEVENT, and two mid-length Acrosses running through, this is a challenge. LICHENS is a bit of an odd plural, and while BIOTIC is a word in the dictionary, it's not one I'd strive to use in an early-week puzzle. Neat to see Luipta NYONG'O though — she was amazing in the latest "Black Panther" movie.

I enjoy these types of finds, though having a sharp revealer can bring the concept to life. Looking at the clue [Poets + 10 = Serves drinks] ... that does get at BAR/DS + TEN = BARTENDS, yes. Without some riff on "number-crunching" or "do a number on," it's more of a curiosity than a fist pump for me as a solver.

– puzzle by Lee Taylor

★ WAKA WAKA WAKA!

Wait, that's something else. For this child of the 1980s, though, Fozzie Bear and PACMAN are equally pleasing.

Some might wonder, why now for this puzzle? PACMAN was from so many decades ago. Aha! Ready Player One features an "extra life" token that the protagonist wins by playing a perfect game of PACMAN. (I'm curious if Billy Mitchell's parents are proud or if they're sobbing.)

What, the book was from over a decade ago? Aha, what about the recent movie? Yes … the one that both sucked and cut out the perfect PACMAN game that was integral to Wade's journey. Never mind.

I failed so badly at "Name That Theme," even after feeling sure that PELLET, GHOST, FRUIT must be related, since I couldn't figure out how WAKA FLOCKA FLAME might fit in. I bow my head to Kavin and Nijah for obfuscating things so well.

Such elegant gridwork, nearly as perfect as Wade's perfect PACMAN game. Usually, you'd think about putting a long Down where LOL and BOSE are. Running long Downs through three themers instead makes your life so much harder — especially tough when one of them has to end in an F! ASTROTURF is an evocative entry, and EIGHTBALL is even better.

Although there's a fair bit of ACA ASIN FAA HORS, it's all well worth the BEST CASE SAFE WORDs.

Thank goodness Tina FEY is uber-famous, as her crossing HANYU would have left me a GONER otherwise. Impressive to read about Yuzuru HANYU's crossworthy achievements.

This puzzle isn't going to do anything for people who have never played PACMAN or aren't familiar with the game, but it hit all my sweet spots, bringing this kid-at-heart right back my idyllic days of hanging out in arcades.

– puzzle by Kavin Pawittranon and Nijah Morris

A few years back, a friend and I were exploring SPLIT PEAS, and while it was neat to find PHILLIPINES = PHILIP PINES, every other discovery was so short, splitting 4 / 4. Building around a central 6 / 5 was such a pain. Mirror symmetry worked, running all the themers vertically, but the entire thing felt tenuous, especially since it's rare for editors to take themes using short entries.

Therefore, I convinced Sam to change to what I thought was more interesting … which Will Shortz rejected.

As is often the case, it shows what I know.

There ought to be a word for "enough symmetry to fool people into thinking there's symmetry." If you don't pay close attention (or if your anal brain refuses to let you ignore asymmetrical aspects, no matter how small), the grid might look perfectly fine. Those black square chunks in the center play some mind games!

I can see why Andrew and Garrett wanted to run their themers horizontally — it can be trickier for solvers to read vertical themers, since so many of us are used to reading left to right, not up to down. They could have used up/down symmetry to do this, but Will has said several times that he thinks up/down symmetry looks weird.

Asymmetry is like nails scratching down the chalkboard of my eyes, but there's something vaguely pleasing to this execution. Along with a reasonable find (that I dismissed, telling Sam that it wasn't a big enough change) in POWERSUPPLY to POWERS UP / PLY, it all made for a solid solve.

Never listen to anything I say if you haven't already figured it out.

– puzzle by Andrew Kingsley and Garrett Chalfin

Hemant got game! Those crossings he mentioned are so full of personality. Don't forget POSER, NOISE MUSIC, and MERCY RULE interlocking with PLAYER HATERS, too. That vibe might create some haters today, but those old Chappelle sketches are hilarious.

Is PLAYER HATERS still in current use? Been a long time since I've heard anyone say it. Along with the controversies around some of Chappelle's sets, I didn't enjoy the atmosphere of that region as much as I would have ten years ago.

Clever cluing is a tricky business. [Nonmelodic genre] might have been aiming for something creative (one of my kids is entirely tone-deaf), but I was too busy trying to figure out what NOISE MUSIC was.

On the other hand, PROM DRESSES could have been such a great source of cluing pizzazz. Something as simple as [Wear for a queen] would have injected so much fun. The dictionary-ish [Some formal attire] doesn't drag things down to prom fail level, but it takes away all the sparkly sequins.

So much to love about the grid if the specific vibes hit you right. With some extra work to add more VERY CLEVER cluing, it could have been the prom queen.

– puzzle by Hemant Mehta

Debuting with a 64-worder, audacious! Giant centers like today's are not for the faint of heart. It's one thing to intersect two stair-stack triplets and an entirely different ballgame when you widen things to a triplet crossing a quintuplet. PEAK TIMES / BEAN PLANT / SWEET DEAL / NARROW GAP / PARTY BOSS is solid work for such complex constraints.

My disdain for all things TOTES ADORBS is well documented, though I've resigned myself over the years to the fact that such cutesy language is part of modern life. Squee.

I like Sam's decision to keep the corners as open as possible. He could have made his life so much easier by chopping LAB WASTE at the W, which would have let him optimize that corner nearly independently of the rest of the puzzle. There's a bit too much repetition in YES YES echoing ONE ONE and HA HA HA, but overall, it's a worthwhile price to get the freshness in LAB WASTE and DAD JOKES.

I get flack from some solvers and editors about trying too hard with my mid-length fill. There's quite a bit of GINS UP EARN IT LINE A SAVE US EAT OUT THE USA NEED ME — feels like a secondary actor trying to upstage the leads. Great material like MOB FRONT wasn't BESTED, thankfully.

I love to see people debut with something different than a standard 70- or 72-word themeless. I'll be curious to see what Sam has on tap next.

– puzzle by Samuel Smalley