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If you construct long enough, you'll keep having that déjà vu feeling all over again. About ten years ago, I went through a process similar to Damon's:

1. At a bar, after a hard day. Make it a double, please. Hey. HEY! HEYYYYYYY!
2. Down the double, rush home.
3. Search *RUM*RUM* (where the * indicates "any string of letters, any length"). Exactly one (usable) result? HARUM SCARUM? It's absolute perfection when you find a great phrase, and zero other possibilities. That's the epitome of elegance.
4. Search *RYE*RYE*. Exactly one phrase again, and it's a beaut — HEAR YE HEAR YE. The goddess Crucivera is benevolent! These are some Odin-eye-sacrificing type of results, that they are.
5. Search *GIN*GIN*. Hmm. A dozen or so results, many good but nothing fantastic. Still, SLINGING INK (slang for writing) and HANGING IN THERE are nice.
6. Search for one last alcohol that will work. Searching. Searching. Searching.
   {Five months later...)
7. Argue with self. ALE is the only other frickin' possibility. But No One tells a bartender to double an ALE. Swear at Crucivera and forsake her. Screech and duck from the gluey blob bullets she angrily fires at me. Abandon idea and move on.

Looking at this with fresh eyes, I still have the same concern about ALE (and if you nix PORT, you have to nix ALE too, yeah?). It's unusable in this concept. Going down to four total themers — employing something like LOGGING INDUSTRY to balance out MAKE MINE A DOUBLE — would have been thin, but at least passable.

Overall though, the excellent gridwork make this a doubly-friendly Monday offering. Worthy bonuses in NO SIREE BOB, LAKE GENEVA, along with some SVELTE, DELUXE, ATM FEE, LAWFUL, even fun HDTVS atop AEIOU. With barely any DSL OPEL glue, it's top-notch craftsmanship, as I'd expect from a pro like Damon. That's especially appreciated, given how tough it is to work with five longish themers.

– puzzle by Damon Gulczynski

Actors with initials identical to the characters they played. I was a huge "Blues Brothers" fan when I was younger, so JOHN BELUSHI / Jake Blues came easily. Neat realization — how is it that I never before made the connection?

ANTHONY / HOPKINS playing Alfred Hitchcock was another interesting find. I haven't seen the film, but it's on my list, as Hitchcock's vast body of work amazes me.

JAMES STEWART as Mr. (Jefferson) Smith, too. Although, who calls him "James"? His prim and proper grandmother, perhaps?

The others weren't as interesting since the names aren't as recognizable. You ask anyone on the street, what's the last name of the famous director Alfred? Or the last name of Jake and Elwood in "The Blues Brothers"? You'd get a lot more right answers than if you asked for the name of MARK RUFFALO's character in "Spotlight."

Interesting grid layout. I wouldn't have thought to try intersecting JAMES STEWART / ANTHONY and LIZA MINNELLI / HOPKINS.

Why, though? Why not use a more traditional layout, MARK RUFFALO in row 3, LIZA MINNELLI in row 5 or 6, ANTHONY / HOPKINS split in row 8, etc.? It'd be more like a movie poster presentation — appropriate to the theme — and it doesn't separate ANTHONY and HOPKINS in an awkward way, where solvers will likely encounter HOPKINS before ANTHONY.

The unusual layout did make for some rarely-seen opportunities. A lot of great bonuses, BIKER BAR, NORMALCY, TIMELINE, MINGLES, UNWRITTEN standing out. Some were in unexpected places, too, which I like. Good to be surprised every once in a while.

But let's consider the liabilities on the other side of the balance sheet. AS A LARK is a 7-letter partial. BOSSA can only be clued in one way. ESS ESO, SCI, SST? And the solve felt choppy, so it wasn't a surprise to see 26 3-letter words, four more than some editors allow.

It's a unique theme, and I like encountering something I haven't seen before. Not an idea that wowed me, though, and it would have benefitted from more a traditional themer layout.

– puzzle by Peter Gordon

My favorite part of the crossweek is comparing notes with Jim. Our exchange on today's:

JC: What, no THUMB?

JH: Technically, the thumb isn't a finger. It's a digit.

JC: So if I asked you, how many fingers do I have, what would you say?

JH: Eight.

JC: That's probably why almost everyone in the world uses a base 8 counting system, then?

JH: Base 8 is quite logical. Think about computing. Binary operations. 1, 2, 4, 8.

JC: Well, yes, but—

JH: Eight bits in a byte? You use a computer, don't you?

JC: Of course, although—

JH: Would you prefer for your computer to go faster — using base 2 / base 8 — or slower, using base 10?

JC: Slower.

JH: See, I told you … wait, what?

JC: HA HA HA I GOT YOU THERE!

I explored this FINGERS CROSSED theme concept many moons ago, dropping it because I couldn't figure out a way to get every finger crossed into a chain of five (NOT FOUR!) themers. Not within the framework of some form of symmetry, at least.

Interesting to see Evan's execution — I hadn't considered leaving out the THUMB, or throwing caution to the wind and placing themers wherever they'd fit. It's not elegant, but it works. Mostly.

Maybe it works better if you think about people with janky fingers? Rock climbers sometimes break their ring fingers, leaving skewed digits as a result?

Let's go with that.

I did enjoy a lot of the bonuses, fun to encounter LADIES ONLY, LIQUIDATED, PARENTHOOD, the evocative UV EXPOSURE.

So many liabilities, unfortunately. AS FAR and IT'S SO take up so much precious space. ESQS ESTA GEES LEM RETD WEI — none are terrible, but as a whole, it's far from elegant. It's tough — the themer layout dictates the low word count, and there's no simple way to make the construction easier. You can't break up UV EXPOSURE, for instance, since PRICE INDEX would be affected.

I'm 90% positive that a symmetrical layout would be possible if you separate FINGERS / CROSSED into 7 / 7. That would allow for great flexibility in squeezing those two revealer words into whatever symmetrical locations you could find.

Man, Evan made me laugh so hard with his Crucivera joke. She can be a big bully, that she can.

– puzzle by Evan Mahnken

I didn't appreciate this theme until long after I'd solved the puzzle. My first impression: letters that repeat = not so interesting. It wasn't until Jim Horne asked if we ought to highlight the doubled letters for better effect (see grid below) that I realized the elegance of the finds. Let me write them out with spaces:

AIR RAID DRILL

SHORT TERM MEMORY

PAY YOUR RESPECTS

BEST TIME EVER

As a word nerd, I like the finds. As a computing nerd, I like the question it poses: how many phrases are like this? I won't bore you with the details of how I wrote the code to answer this question, but there aren't that many other phrases that fit this pattern. I hadn't appreciated that element of tightness in the theme. Now I do.

I wish the puzzle had shaded the four pairs of squares like we did. It would have given a better hint for solvers to dig deeper into what was going on.

Some problems with the gridwork. With four themers, I expect both a colorful and perfectly clean grid. It's true that SHORTERMEMORY is 13 letters, not easy to work with. But it's not that hard, either.

Assets: HOROSCOPE, LIFESAVER. DUST MOP, TAOISTS. ON A WHIM! ALL PRO. AGUILERA. SPECTRAL! Great stuff.

Liabilities: ENERO is a tough foreign word. ITER is great for smug longtime solvers who want to keep the club closed. SEATO is outdated. No one calls Poe EAP. EENS, SETA, SRAS.

I do appreciate the great bonuses. Way too many liabilities make it a bad trade-off, though. One simple patch would have been adding a couple of cheater black squares. Imagine PRICERS → PRICED, ITER → IDED, ITO → IDO. That would have been a huge start to cleaning things up.

A shame that the essence of the theme wasn't more readily apparent. It's a solid, tight concept seeking a better presentation.

– puzzle by Jim Hilger

★ I almost disqualified this puzzle from POW! contention based on technical flaws. A 70-word crossword (generally an easy themeless construction) shouldn't contain more than a couple of dabs of crossword glue. AEROS, AS FAR, DELED, UNSHY? Add in ASES, ERTE, SYN, TALI? Yikes! It's like seeing a bunch of unsanded welds holding together a bronze sculpture.

What's the most important aspect of a puzzle, though? How much fun and entertainment it provides. Nothing else comes close. I had a blast solving this one, for so many reasons:

Great feature entries. ON SALE NOW / AS IF I CARE / THAT'S A LIE = great triple-stack. FREECYCLE / RETROCOOL / ACROPHOBE, another one! With BAD COP running through it! Heck, most every long slot held something wonderful. AUDIO TAPE was only so-so, but everything else was great to stellar.

Playful clues. DAY TRADER is a fantastic entry, and [One who gives a lot of orders] makes it even better. (Buy / sell orders.) The neutral HULA cleverly plays on "wiggle room." Even the ugly as sin SYN gets rescued by disguising the link between "illustration" and "for example," making me think it was going for some art term.

MORE playful clues! Shouting HIDE at a birthday party. MARS, the subject of "areology"? Ah yes, the Greek war god is Ares — I enjoyed making that link. [Rush home?] needed a telltale question mark, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment. (That's a FRATernity rush, not a mad dash to get home on time.)

Then I put my constructor's hat back on, wondering why Freddie resorted to so much glue. Turns out that there's a reason for it. The four corners may not look any bigger than normal, but note how many mid-length entries link into them. The SE, for example: DAY TRADER, AERIES, DRY MOP running through the stack makes for a tougher constructing challenge than usual.

All in all, this puzzle gave me a feeling of glee. POW! for that.

– puzzle by Freddie Cheng

Jim and I both dropped in PABLO CASALS without a single crossing answer — a rare instance where his knowledge base and mine overlapped. (I played cello for 20 years, Jim is a concert pianist and music arranger.) Good thing PABLO CASALS was a gimme, too, as I'm not sure I would have broken into the middle without him. DECLARATORY, DARLENE LOVE, INA CLAIRE, TIMBERLANDS all sound familiar when I type them now. Not so much when I solved.

I'm likely too old for some of these. Or too young.

Surprising to see POOP EMOJI. I find these disgusting, probably because I'm still in the thick of diapers. (My son's, not my own. Not yet.) With ASSHAT making its debut a few weeks ago, it'll be interesting to see what's the first edgy entry that creates backlash and helps Will draw the new line.

A few months ago, a friend emailed me that LATINX would be a great debut entry. I hadn't heard the term, but I enjoyed learning about it (a gender-neutral term for a person of Latin American descent). I'm not sure I would have finished the SE corner if I hadn't had that experience. AXILLA and SEXTON also fall into the categories of "things I learned from crosswords." That's not a bad thing, but it does make for an insidery feel, a secret handshake among Masons.

Gigantic swaths of white space like today's middle are some of the most daunting challenges in the entire crossworld. Five long answers stair-stacked atop each other, with six more long entries running through them? It's a beautiful result for the level of difficulty — a couple of marquee answers balancing the ones that didn't shine as well. Great craftsmanship there.

Such a tough solving experience; an intense workout that feels great to have completed. There weren't a lot of entries that played to a broad audience; an interesting mix of material that will elate one subset of solvers, and potentially alienate others.

As if I didn't admire Erik enough already. He's easily in my list of top ten favorite puzzlemakers, and the reflection and learning shown in his commentary makes him shine even brighter. I wish all constructors exhibited his constant drive to improve, no matter how good you already are.

– puzzle by Erik Agard

I immediately thought of a previous chess puzzle in the NYT (so did Jim), but that's no knock on today's. Jim and I are hardly your average solver.

I feel bad for electronic solvers today. The experience behind my keyboard was terrible, to the point that I'd have considered not issuing electronic files whatsoever. The print version is SO much better. It still took me a while to figure out what was intended, but in the end, Jack sets up an interesting chess problem whose solution isn't immediately obvious.

(Unless you're Matt Gaffney, who's a chess aficionado. Or ... if you read 25-Across. Huh.)

(For non-chess folks, the knight is confusingly not represented by K — that's the king. The knight is N, perhaps with a nod to the silent K?)

Some nice touches in the execution. Did you notice that the black crossword squares in the middle of the puzzle lie atop only black chessboard squares? (See image below.) I didn't notice that during my (electronic) solve, so I'm glad I took a second look.

I also liked the use of black squares to (sort of) outline the BOARD / CHESS — er, CHESS / BOARD. Those long black bars on all four sides remind me of the peanut gallery, watching a critical chess match from above.

There are a lot of problems in grid execution. It could have used a few more rounds of revision to get rid of stuff like ANASS, ENOTE, EROSE, MATIC, AKU, and about 15 other ugly entries. Not to mention swapping the order of BOARD / CHESS. If you're going to go to a 22x22 grid and 150 words — much higher than usual max — bite the bullet and make it a smooth 156-word puzzle. It's not like longer entries like THE RANGE and LANDED ON will do much for anybody, anyway.

Some of the best things in life come from the mix of two disciplines that aren't immediately connectable. Chess and crosswords? Absolutely! I'd have enjoyed this one more if it had depicted the end of a championship match. Or a famed chess move with a cool name.

Or better yet, a contest puzzle! Send in the answer to something like BLACK'S MOVE, MATE IN THREE. I'd have tried my hand at that, for sure.

– puzzle by Jack Reuter

I was sure I won Guess That Theme, the game that keeps early-week puzzles interesting. PAY GRADE, PUB GAMES interlocked … has to be PG 13!

Drat.

PANDG, the natural result of a PANDA's evolution (PANDA, PANDB, PANDC ...), serves as a dutiful revealer. It's not great in that P&G (Proctor and Gamble) is never written as PANDG except in crosswords, but it does serve to tie the themers together.

Initialism puzzles are so common that it takes a lot for one to stand out. One usual approach is to pack in as many as possible, trying to overwhelm solvers with sheer numbers. This one fits that bill, jam-packing in eight (!) phrases.

As a constructor, color me impressed with the execution. Ned did a top-notch job of executing on his concept, starting with interlocking two pairs of themers, and then overlapping or spacing out the rest. It's a mark of success that I didn't realize how many themers there were — there wasn't nearly as much AABA AGRI MDT stuff as I would have expected in the short fill. Although Ned had a ton of flexibility — there are dozens of PG phrases available — he made wise selections to facilitate ease of construction.

(I did wonder if PARTY GIRLS might offend some. I've rethought my stance on it, now that I have a daughter.)

The one knock: a lot of tough proper names. If you have ILIE in your grid, you ought to strive to reduce other entries that might similarly trip up newb solvers, like CAPP, NIN, ELLY, BAIUL.

Not the most exciting theme and the solver in me didn't get anything out of the ultra-high density. But this constructor gives a thumbs-up to the level of care and consideration Ned put into executing on a challenging grid.

– puzzle by Ned White

I get a lot of theme review requests, and I see a lot of the same ideas popping up over and over. Redundant phrases is in my top ten list, as is its evil twin, paradoxical phrases. So after uncovering just one themer, PAST HISTORY, I knew what was going on, and the rest was, well, history.

However, Jim reminded me a few weeks ago that I'm hardly an average solver. There will be some (many?) newer solvers who have never encountered this theme idea before. Some of them might even be impressed at seeing something new in a phrase they've used over and over, like BUNNY RABBIT. Could be quite the wascally a-ha moment.

I did enjoy so many of the bonuses, as I'd expect out of any Haight puzzle these days. So much packed into those corners — YES OR NO, THINK SO?, TAX SCAM, GRAB BAG, AIR TIME. All of that helped entertain me through the solve.

Today's grid wasn't as strong as Bruce's usual standard of work, though. It is solid — better than average NYT quality — but SEGAR made me pause. Then NOYES. Then ARIE. All of these are fair game, at least considering that the crossings are perfectly gettable. As a whole, though, these have too much potential to leave a newer solver with the sense that the puzzle was weird.

(Whenever my kids say that something is weird, that's the kiss of death.)

After ten years of being friends, Jim continues to surprise me. A few weeks ago, he averred that ASHMAN ought to be fair game, even for early-week puzzles. For today's, he avowed that SEGAR should never be seen in an early-week puzzle. I agree with the latter (and still roll my eyes — in a respectful way of course — at the former.)

In general, if a theme idea is covered by tons of lists out in the intertubes, it's not going to do much for me. But again, newbs could have a different experience, so it's a reasonable puzzle theme. Just as long as it doesn't trigger budding constructors to spam me even more with this kind of thing.

Ha ha!

Seriously, stop.

– puzzle by Bruce Haight

RIP IM PEI, passed away May 16, 2019. A life worth lauding. He designed so many buildings that it's hard to know which would be most appropriate to include within a tribute puzzle. I'd bet that his glass pyramid in front of the Louvre is the first one that comes to most people's minds, so it's appropriate to put that in a featured location.

STARCHITECT is a fun portmanteau. I wondered if it's in common usage? The real question is, what similar portmanteau can we constructors create to self-describe? I hereby declare myself a BEACONSTRUCTOR. Get it, BEACON + CONSTRUCTOR = BEACONSTRUCTOR? A shining guide in the sea of crossed words?

What, you say that it sounds like B-constructor? As in a second-rate hack?

WELL, WHO ASKED YOU?!

I'm not sure why a lot of constructors are so enamored with themer interlock. I did enjoy LOUVRE PYRAMID crossing IM PEI, that's neat. But ROCK AND ROLL (with HALL OF FAME elsewhere) and STARCHITECT crossing, too? Inelegant to have that partial in a featured position, plus it creates gridwork problems. It's akin to IM PEI's firm designing the Hancock Tower, only to find that the reality of physics made that implementation a disaster. ISOLE, AFOR, ASL, IRAE, SKUA, now those are some plywood cover-ups.

I applaud the decision to celebrate one of the best minds in the world of architecture, a person whose work has influenced millions of lives all around the world. I'd have loved something more architectural, though, like a masterpiece dedicated to the Guggenheim … or one to PEI himself!

David couldn't have straight-up copied Liz's brilliant concept, but it'd have been fun to brainstorm other visual implementations of other PEI buildings.

– puzzle by David J. Kahn

We've seen dozens of backwards puzzles, enough for us to compile a list. I can't remember another one where the entry is backward, and the clue is too, so I appreciate Alex's attempt to go above and beyond.

(Shout out to Mike Shenk of the WSJ, who while editing one of my backward puzzles, came up with the idea to flip the print clues such that they looked as they'd appear in a mirror. That was brilliant.)

I'm a big fan of Alex's gridwork. With five themers — three of them shortish — you have a fantastic opportunity to add in sparkling bonuses, while keeping the short fill smooth. Alex did just that, with smart positioning of his long downs. Note how WHEN IN ROME / SWIM CAP / OX TEAM / BLURTS / LETS NOT / CHATTERBAG alternate down up down up down up, for best spacing.

(Not sure why I entered CHATTERBAG instead of the correct answer. It ought to be a thing, I tells ya.)

A lot of constructors try a "parallel downs" structure, like WHEN IN ROME / HUMANITIES. It's not hard to do when you don't have many constraints in the area — there's just GNITSIXE nailed into place. It's more a matter of willingness to put in the time to find a stellar solution. Too many constructors give up around attempt number 20, unwilling to iterate into the hundreds to come up with a winning set as strong as today's.

Huge props for craftsmanship. I'm glad Alex tried to make this concept stand out from the muck of backwardsville, but it wasn't quite enough.

– puzzle by Alex Eaton-Salners

★ My inner nerd dug the heavy sci-fi bent, from STARSHIPS to TELEPORTS to waking up from THE MATRIX and saying WHERE AM I? Perhaps even a nod to Star Trek's most famous android, DATA, in DATA MINER? Loved it all.

I can understand how non-sci-fi DWEEBs might not have enjoyed the quasi-mini-theme as much, though.

"Stair stack" puzzles (describing the middle three rows) are familiar enough now that they have to shine to be noticed. The middle triplet is almost always great, since if you don't have at least that, it's a non-starter for most editors.

Where this one stood out from other stair stacks was in the lower left and upper right corners. These regions too often get filled with neutral or blah material, since they're often highly constrained by the middle stair stack. Not only are both of Evan's SW / NE corners clean and smooth, but WHERE AM I / THE MATRIX are so strong, doubly so when adjacent. NOSE STUDS and IN STEREO are winners, too.

Excellent work in squeezing the most out of all the long entries. I wasn't big on SWEETEN UP — filler more than an asset — but there were no other wasted long slots. That's a fantastic hit rate.

A couple of amusing clues, too. SEVEN was confoundingly self-referencing — clue number 49 divided by SEVEN itself. I had to stop and think about it, and I loved how it gave me an initial DOES NOT COMPUTE that was quickly resolved.

MOP, with its head usually on its bottom? That's the way to make a boring ol' common entry stand out!

In any particular week, Jim and I don't usually agree on which puzzle we liked best. Jim's words expressed my thoughts on today's puzzle so concisely: "Everything a Friday puzzle ought to be."

– puzzle by Evan Kalish

Entertaining solve, N'EST CE PAS?

I shuddered when encountering what seemed like an esoteric pot term with a bizarre middle string of letters, _AUIWO___. Even being in Seattle, where the clouds are now 45% pot smoke and rising, terms like Indica, O.G. Kush, Khola go over my head. And WTF might Fat Banana be? Don't want to know. Thank goodness MAUI WOWIE was gettable; such an amusing rhyming name.

Note the black squares in the middle of the puzzle. They could easily have been a straight diagonal (covering the I of CALI and N of NEAR). Pro tip: kinking it into a zig-zag opens up room for a couple more mid-length slots, which David used so wisely. CHI-TOWN and TAN LINE add a lot to this standard 72-word themeless layout.

As with most all of David's themelesses, excellent execution. Not much wastage in the long slots, with a couple of stellar entry/clue pairs — LIMO RIDE as a [Long car trip?] was my favorite.

For most any other constructor, AGITA and AMPAS would be passable. Not so much for David, given his outstanding body of themeless work.

A lot to love, and it could easily have been someone else's POW! The tone didn't resonate with me, though, given the frat boy feeling I got from the ALPHA MALE, CHUG A LUG, MAUI WOWIE, even PRIME RIB. Not to mention, FRAT clued as [___ boy].

– puzzle by David Steinberg

Caitlin is officially a constructor to watch.

So few people can make a Sunday 140-word grid with so much sparkle and smoothness. Sticking to six themers (average tends closer to seven) is often a smart choice, and Caitlin took advantage of the flexibility it allowed. Along with smart placement of her long down slots, she exhibited so much care and craftsmanship in filling her product.

I was even more awed when I checked the word count — 138! The sub-140 challenge is something few constructors should ever consider. For someone with only four published NYT puzzles to tackle it, and execute on it with sizzle? Outstanding.

She even threw in a touch of razzle-dazzle, stacking parallel downs in PET PROJECT / SHOE RACK and OH GROW UP / ONION ROLLS. That's not easy to do, at least not without making a compromise (needing one of the long entries to be neutral, or having to use gloopy short fill to hold everything together).

I haven't been this impressed with a newer constructor's gridwork in years.

Fun clues, too. Charging for balloons A POP? OUTLETS as [Powerpoints?]? SHOE RACK made even better by its punny clue, [Sole supporter?]? Playful, entertaining, dynamite.

The theme wasn't interesting, since adding a single letter is an overdone theme concept. Additionally, adding a common letter like R is way too easy, and the meanings in TIME / TIMER and PLUNGE / PLUNGER hardly changed.

But the title did amuse me. (Might have been even more fun for "Talk Like a Pirate Day." ARR we finished, me hearties?) And for the average solver, the easily-gettable theme concept plus so many bonuses within a flawless grid could result in a smooth solve that they can brag about.

– puzzle by Caitlin Reid

The "Guess That Theme" game stumped me today. Maybe it has something to do with shaving my head twice a month. Talk about SHORT CUTS!

The theme is almost great. Almost. Allllllmost. I had to think for a long time to figure out what bugged me. It's so maddeningly close to being perfectly tight (you can't possibly think of a single other themer possibility) and consistent (no "this one is not like the others" feel).

At first, PIXIE felt different. Then I realized BOB was the offender. BUZZ cut, PIXIE cut, CREW cut, spot-on. BOB cut, yes ... if you're being pedantic. I've heard lots of people talk about getting a bob, never a "bob cut" though.

That's a long way of saying, Jeff's OCD got in the way of his solving pleasure. Gonna have to do something about that stupid brain of mine one of these days.

Excellent gridwork. Not easy to work around five themers while producing a colorful grid that's also clean enough for newbs. I hesitated upon running into ARIE right off the bat — a toughie for rookie solvers. Thankfully, with so much greatness in FEZZES, OLD SAWS, DOG BEDS, THE MAGI, I easily overlooked it. Big thumbs-up for Ed's gridwork.

The theme works, but not at POW! level. I much appreciated the meticulous craftsmanship, though.

– puzzle by Ed Sessa

I had the pleasure of meeting Patrick Berry a few years ago. For being such a prolific constructor, he keeps a remarkably low profile. I did find out that he lives in a little A-frame house. A-ha moment; I finally understood the name of his website!

I hadn't heard of an A-frame house before then. Fun to picture two of them today.

The overall concept reminded me of another A-featuring puzzle, which was so memorable that it's stuck in my head over the years.

Over the years, I've created several puzzles involving a visual element using a single (or limited set of) letter(s), and for each one, I've tried hard not to include any extras of those letters floating around the grid. People sometimes ask why, saying that they didn't even notice.

But I do, darn it!

Just as long as my rigidity and desire for elegance doesn't affect the quality of the solve, I'm going to go that extra step. If only for the four solvers who do appreciate these sorts of details.

In today's case, it would have been great to avoid As throughout the rest of the grid. We've highlighted the relevant As below to make them pop, but take note of the upper left roof. It's unfortunate to have it extend so far down with additional As, creating an asymmetry.

But having no other As throughout the grid would have driven this away from being a smooth overall product. For an early-week grid, that's a top priority, so I'm okay with the decision.

If the theme didn't grab you, Ross did a great job working in so many treats: ROOF GARDENS, BATTED AND EYE / BATTLE DRESS (don't they feel somehow related?), FACEPLANT. Such solid work with his mid-length slots, too: REGALED, DYNASTY, AD SALES, ANTENNA, AMERICA.

AMERICA! U-S-A!

U-S-AAAAA!

The theme didn't wow me, but Ross's careful gridwork made my solving experience pleasant.

– puzzle by Ross Trudeau

Debut! And in a theme area with huge potential; relatively untapped. DROVE inside LAND ROVER, READ inside PENNY DREADFULS — how appropriate! Themes featuring short words embedded inside long phrases is commonplace. But when there's a meaningful connection between the short and the long in which it sits, that's something special.

Four interesting, clever finds. (I wasn't as hot on the SENT / REPRESENTATIVE connection since that felt looser than the others.)

There was also the issue of having to clue things oddly / without consistency. For instance, DROVE a LAND ROVER requires the "a" while RAN ERRANDS does not, and RAN ERRANDS is a fine phrase in itself while DROVE a LAND ROVER would never be a valid crossword entry. But the four finds were strong enough that I looked the other way.

Off-the-charts gridwork for a debut. So smooth. The themer set isn't difficult to work with, but getting to a finished product that only needs some OTRA SYNE stuff while incorporating assets like RATED G, TEAM USA, EMERALDS, EYE LEVEL, HORATIO, etc.?

Color me impressed!

Ada did all the right things: spacing out themers appropriately, separating them with smartly-placed black squares, being careful about the themer order so that the down answers crossing three themers exhibit friendly letter combinations, etc. These are factors that many experienced constructors still don't get right.

[Something most people lie about?] made no sense at first. Wait … wait … wait for it. Lie about. As in lie? Like lie down? On a BED?

*cue the enjoyable collective groan*

Loved the PHD clue, too. Brian May has a PHD in astrophysics? No wonder he's such a star.

*rimshot*

Speaking of stars, I'm looking forward to seeing more of Ada's work. I'm sensing huge potential.

– puzzle by Ada Nicolle

I've heard from many people that they expect "tricks" on Thursdays (I'm solidly in that camp). A question I constantly struggle with: what makes for a great trick? The best ones are clever. Unique. They fill you with awe-induced shivers, perhaps even a lightning strike a-ha.

Perhaps most importantly, though: solvers have to get it.

A few months ago, I was talking crosswords with a couple of strong solvers at my climbing gym. They brought up a previous parsing puzzle, and one guy said it was so stupid, it made no sense, and he was super annoyed after finishing. I waited for one of the other guys to correct him, but all of them just nodded along.

Huh.

There was some "oh, that's cool!" after I explained the trick. But how many solvers didn't have a friend to spell things out in detail?

My reaction to today's puzzle was that it wasn't tricky enough. I get where Will is coming from, though — erring on the side of "at least people will get it" is a conservative and safer approach.

I did like some of the finds, SOME LIKE I.T. HOT funny. And the consistency was mostly nice, every time a two-letter word changed into an initialism. (You could achieve better consistency by having all the two-letter words in the same place of the phrase --the ending, say — but more important is that the phrases be fun/funny.)

Some great bonuses, JAZZ CLUB made even better by this jazz-lover and cat-lover's appreciation for the [Where cats play?] clue. Toss in IRIS SCAN, ELEMENTS that are B and C but not A, even some ANUBIS, ATM FEE, and VISHNU, and it made for a colorful and enjoyable solve. There were a couple of blips in the awkward-looking APT NO, plus minor ARR SYS TOI, but all in all, solid gridwork.

– puzzle by Matthew Sewell

★ The 68-word themeless construction is a tough task, and Peter is one of the masters at it. It is so hard to produce a 68-word product that shines with brilliant color while not causing hitches due to crossword glue. I advise newer constructors — heck, even experienced constructors — to stick to 70 or even 72-word grids, since the 68-word task almost always requires some trade-off (usually blah answers or a whole bunch of gloop).

Featuring 16 long slots within a 68-worder is usually asking for trouble. Taking up that much real estate, you're bound to leave potential on the table, needing to fill a couple of these slots with neutral entries. But AVERAGE JOE. DATING POOL. DEANS LIST. JUMBOTRON. PORTHOLES. What can you point to as a meh-only entry? Talk about IM ON A ROLL, CANT LOSE!

There could be questions about ALAN HALE. Not for this huge "Gilligan's Island" nerdboy, though.

Okay, you might argue over SKIN GAME. The Skins Game is common in golf lingo, but what is the phrase in the singular? The dictionary defines SKIN GAME as "a rigged gambling game, a swindle." Huh.

Great clues, lifting my already great solving experience to the heavens. ERNIE as the orange half of an iconic duo. (Raise your hand if your first thought went to the Trumps.) AB NEGATIVE misdirecting with [Type least likely to turn up in a hospital]. Not a healthy specimen who hardly gets sick, but the least common blood type.

And having spent a lot of time in the DATING POOL before meeting Jill, [All available options?] made me laugh. Such a great use of the word "available."

No doubt, this was a difficult puzzle, harder than most Fridays. Took me a long time to gain a toehold in the big NW corner. But the fact that I had to work hard to uncover such a slew of great entries only made my successful solve that much sweeter. Easy peasy POW!

– puzzle by Peter Wentz

Playing SETTLERS OF CATAN with friends? AH, THIS IS THE LIFE!

I wondered how many solvers would struggle with the former, only to say "settlers of … wtf?" at the end. I love the game, but if you've never heard of it, those last five letters are random. (Though how apt for the last letter to cross NERDFEST!)

[Ghost buster, of a sort] — I haven't been so pleasantly stumped by a clue in years. I was already struggling with the oddball U SHAPE, so that wasn't helping me break into that corner. Finally grokking PAC MAN as a buster (of a sort) of ghosts = a brilliant a-ha.

I heard a lot of complaints about DANK MEMES, one of those hipster-fresh entries the youngsters introduce. Not fair to judge a puzzle by its oddest entry, but people feel what they feel. I've heard of JANKY — it's a funny term used in our climbing gym all the time — but JANK did make me pause.

Also in the "made me pause" category: HOME CURE, which didn't sound as strong as "home remedy." JOS is part of a menswear brand? HATARI was well before my time. The aforementioned U SHAPE (is O SHAPE or T SHAPE also valid, then?).

It's tough to put much more into your themeless grid when two crossing 15s already take up so much real estate, causing so much inflexibility. Sam did well to pack in a lot of APERITIFS CAT TREATS PHONE CASE SGT PEPPER (what a beautifully bizarre string of letters, SGTP to start!) and much more.

MUCH more, now that I take another look: LONE WOLF, the funny MEGADETH, SLED RIDE, SPAMBOTS, TOP FORTY.

Too bad my solving experience was tinged by a handful of "hmm, that's weird" sensations. A shame, because the sheer volume of long answers — in addition to two 15s! — was impressive.

– puzzle by Sam Trabucco

Jason got in touch with me a year ago about this moon landing tribute. I'm the go-to guy when it comes to puzzles warranting circles. Or curves. Or things that suck.

Historically, I haven't been a fan of space exploration, considering it a waste of resources that could be redirected to the real-life problems all over the globe: infectious disease, poverty, inequalities of all sorts, you name it. Why on Earth (ha) would we spend money on non-Earth purposes?

But when Jason pinged me, I read up on the events leading up to the landing and was reminded of how it brought a nation together. So many folks worked so resiliently through hundreds of failures, never giving up, always regrouping to emerge stronger than before. And during that historic moment, all eyes were glued on the team of brave souls, people from coast to coast witnessing the fact that there was no such thing as impossible.

I'd love to see America united like that once again.

– puzzle by Jason Mueller and Jeff Chen

Impeccable gridwork. Perfect for newbs — smooth as silk, ANAT as the only speed bump, and such a feature-filled solve. The crappy crossword you get in your local newspaper (which might even be computer-generated) would never contain an embarrassment of bonus riches like IDIOT PROOF, POPULATION, DISCERN, VISITOR, BISECT, DOGNAP, EUROPA. While it's true that editors prize multi-word phrases for their color, how often do you see something as interesting as EUROPA as an incidental?

Textbook Monday construction. Space out your themers, alternating them left-right. Use a couple of long downs in opposite corners. Then carefully select mid-length entries, while testing, testing, testing to make sure you can fill the last regions without crossword glue.

As for the theme, most Monday solvers won't remember a previous RUMPELSTILTSKIN puzzle. Heck, neither will most regular solvers.

Double heck, some Monday solvers might not even know that crosswords have themes. Fie on you!

It's a shame that my dang brain immediately lasered in on the previous puzzle, recalling not just the author but some of the theme phrases, roughly when it was published, and the fact that I gave it my POW!

I liked Bruce's interpretation better, RUMP EL STILT SKIN as stand-alone words. Lynn's works too, but it's not as impressive. So many phrases start with RUM, for example, that it feels much easier to do this way.

POW!-level gridwork. POY!-level even. Crème de la crème, exactly how a Monday solving experience should be. A shame that the other puzzle bested it — and a shame that I'm likely one of the three people remembered it (me, Bruce, and that guy who keeps emailing me with snide comments YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE BUDDY BOY OH YEAH YOU BETTER BELIEVE YOU'RE STILL BLOCKED).

– puzzle by Lynn Lempel

JUST THE TWO WOOFUS! Phrases that contain two ARFs, right?

Just joking! I didn't really think that!

(Okay, I did.)

I liked that Kyle stumped me at "Name that Theme." I taxed my brain for almost five minutes before giving up. Ah, two instances of ARF. GRR, I mean, US!

(See what I did there with GRR? No wonder people call me Wonder Boy.)

(Well, they should.)

I appreciated the consistency of the theme — all three themers had two words, with one US contained within each word — but it lacked tightness. If you go to our Finder and put in the search string *US*US* (the *s mean "anything"), you'll find dozens of entries that contain two USs. From our Private word list, I liked CIRCUS MUSIC, SUSHI MENUS, USUAL SUSPECTS.

It's not critical that every crossword theme is tight. This one works fine as is. But it's harder to generate a feeling of elegance without tightness.

Some delightful grid bonuses, KARAOKE with its curious / descriptive clue, "empty orchestra." ICED COFFEE. SOCCER BALL with a hilarious clue — something needed to achieve one's goals, indeed.

A lot of strong cluing work. WAX as [Material for Icarus' wings]. The drama in [Oh. My. God!] for GASP. Gives the puzzle personality.

I wasn't hot on overall execution, though. SEDUM is tough to choke down even for this die-hard solver, so I can't imagine what poor early-weekers would think. Probably something along the lines of I HAVE TO KNOW THE SPANISH WORD FOR BEAR? SRSLY? (That's what the kids say these days. Srsly.) And sadly, ST:TNG is something only old people like me know now. (Picard would kick Kirk's butt, for the record.)

A 14x15 grid sometimes brings the allure, the potential to reach for the stars, to get down to themeless-level word count. This is rarely a good idea for an early-week puzzle. A biggish SE corner + a long down in ICED COFFEE often is a recipe that requires unsavory trade-offs.

Grid concerns aside, it's still a fun, if not elegant, idea.

– puzzle by Kyle Dolan

TO SAY THE LEAST as a task for a monk? That's a quality one-liner. Made me smile.

TO PUT IT MILDLY as a Thai cook toning down the spice … that's close to working. Would I ever say to a chef to "put the spice mildly"? Maybe if his/her spice had lit my brain on fire and I was having trouble stringing words together.

Sadly — or amusingly, depending on if you were me or the observers around me — that's happened before.

TO NAME A FEW is perfect for a task given to the parents of octuplets!

Wait. TO NAME A COUPLE? That's a phrase in usage?

Great theme idea. I'd have loved for Jake to keep brainstorming, letting this one marinate until his brain could turn up one more solid themer. Going with only three themers — none of them grid-spanners — is already dicily thin. Then embiggening one of the three to make the puzzle work is no bueno.

I liked Jake's choices in long downs, four out of four winners. Some solvers not as witty or urbane as moi might not recognize the great Niccolo PAGANINI, you know, that guy who … classical music ...er ... he was a … composer … no wait … conductor?

SHUT UP YOU.

With just three themers, you owe it to NYT solvers to give them a fireworks-quality grid: stunning, full of oohs and aahs. Jake came close with this quartet of long bonuses.

Unfortunate to have some duds, though. ALGAL is hardly AN ACE up anyone's sleeve. I was a big fan of "Futurama" but even I'd have a tough time expecting the broader solving community to know LEELA's name, much less how to spell it.

Toss in some crossword-crutchy NEAP ORANG OPELS, and the grid could have used another round of revision.

Overall, a fine idea that could have used more aging to develop better body, refinement, and distinction.

– puzzle by Jake Halperin

I've reworded my explanation of today's theme seven times now. You know what they say: the eighth time's a charm!

Basketball JUMPERS riffed upon so that a synonym for JUMP break-jumps over an intermediate word. The two entries flanking the intermediate word go together, JUMPing over the middle. Finally, the broken synonym gets placed before the center word.

Maybe it's "the ninth time's a charm"?

Fixing up answers for our database is an issue Jim and I constantly struggle with. We have a general rule that the answers ought to match their clues. So we can't just leave MOBILE with a [iPhone download] clue, right? Do we fix it up to MOBILE APP matching that clue? (Yes.)

And how about [2020, but not 2019 or 2021]? We don't want confused folks wondering four years from now why WILL MADE SUCH AN EGREGIOUS ERROR OF COURSE 2021 IS A YEAR HE'S A MORON! So we ended up changing the entry to the full LEAP YEAR for our database.

Finally, we removed APP completely from this puzzle, since we wouldn't want it to show up in our database with a mysterious clue of [-].

The downside is that when people try dig up an old puzzle, they might remember that this puzzle has the word APP in it. Of course our Finder will turn up this puzzle if you enter APP, right?!

Cue the sad trombone.

I like what Erik and Andy did with their grid. If the trick wasn't interesting or flat-out confusing, ignore it and just enjoy the wealth of themeless-ESQUE material. PET CRATE, AD SALES, DIORAMA, GERMANE, TV MOVIE = a TORRENT of goodness from these ASTUDENTs.

Thursday is often my favorite day of the crossweek, looking forward to what tricksies them crazy constructors might pull. Today's schtick was something I've never quite seen before, but it didn't have as sharp of an a-ha moment as I'd have liked. More of a "how the heck am I going to explain this to confused emailers" one. Thankfully, the fill was colorful and clean, making the solve entertaining.

– puzzle by Erik Agard and Andy Kravis

★ So many rare letters worked in so smoothly! J Q X Z are the crossworld's Big Four, and to have one each of J Q X plus six (!) Zs is fantastic. It doesn't come anywhere close to the record number of Zs — scads of themed and themelesses with more — but Trenton worked them in so beautifully, his grid showing none of the signs of strain that most puzzles on that list exhibit.

Such a wondrous north section, with a string of connected ZQZZZ. That could be a new name brand for a sleep product — ZQZZZQUIL, anyone?

As if that wasn't enough, the clues stood out; so entertaining:

• Doughnut played upon as [Dough nut?] for MISER.
• How charming, CAST A SPELL clue playing on "charming." I always wondered if Prince Charming was secretly a wizard.
• Will knows that Jim's a concert pianist, so I wonder if the clue for PIANOS was a shout-out to him. Their players are often benched indeed — on a piano bench!
• And my favorite, [It comes from Mars]. ETS? Cosmic rays? Men? Nope, the candy bar TWIX. That's MARS, the candy company, not the planet. Beautiful misdirect.

ALL THAT JAZZ and hardly any wastage in his 16 long slots? (Maybe LAST TO LEAVE is a bit dull, but what else?) Sometimes I have to mull over which puzzle strikes me best during any particular week. This was not one of those weeks. Such a tremendous pleasure to do a themeless as enjoyable as this one.

– puzzle by Trenton Charlson

Byron's byline = nervous shudder #1. On a Saturday = nervous shudder #2. With an ultra-low word count grid? Things happen in threes! My streak of completed Saturdays felt in great jeopardy.

Thankfully, I've done so many crosswords that 18-D, "___ Bulba" was a gimme, even though I still don't know what it is. (Historical novella, according to Wikipedia.) Amusing how my opinion of this gluey bit has changed over the years. Inelegant, yes, but I appreciated that it helped me gain a toehold. I might not have cracked this wide-open puzzle without it.

Byron tends to let some squinty entries slide, and that's a near necessity for a 58-word puzzle, anyway. See: SENARY. WELTER. TEEN PEOPLE, folded over ten years ago. AVIARIST.

Aren't ADULT MALES usually called "men"? And a FARM PLOW just a "plow"? Both are passable, but neither would win any CrossAwards.

Thankfully, there was enough great material — CRIME BOSS, BINGE EATER, NOBEL PRIZE with a gonzo Roman numeral clue I still can't decide if I love or hate — to keep up my interest.

Ultimately, I prevailed over the puzzle, attaining the same sort of high I get after completing a triathlon. Exhausted, but dammit, I finished!

– puzzle by Byron Walden