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★ PLAY WITHIN A PLAY deserves a standing O; such an evocative phrase. There's so much you can do with the cluing, too. I'm not familiar with The Murder of Gonzago, but I enjoyed learning about it — there's something so meta about Shakespeare writing a play about a play. You could also go in the wordplay-related-cleverness direction, since the phrase is so recognizable. Maybe use language about actors acting an act? Or reenactments? It's a perfect seed.

I dig mini-themes, and the wackiness of the consonant pileups in KRYZYZEWSKI / KYRGYZSTAN delighted me. There's a reason they call him "Coach K"! I have a feeling that this could alienate some solvers, especially non bball-fans, but I loved it. Even knowing Coach K well, all I could drop in was the K and the SKI. It was so amusing to work out the actual sequence of letters in a name that I've heard a hundred times. I'm so glad that Adam and Paolo made each and every crossing fair!

So many delightful clues, too. My favorites:

• DNA SAMPLE so aptly fits "spit take." That's brilliant!
• HSN hidden in "television shopping"; neat bit of trivia.
• FUR as [Stole something?], as in a FUR stole — grammatically it's not quite right, but it stole my heart.
• I had to think about SPA as a [Facial joint]? Ah, a joint, as in a place to get a facial! I love it when a clue makes negative sense but then suddenly snaps into focus.

I have a feeling that some solvers won't connect to this puzzle because they don't know (or care) who Coach K is, but this admirer of one of basketball's most storied coaches loved it. The entertaining mini-theme, the sizzling PLAY WITHIN A PLAY, so many smile-inducing clever clues? Definitely my POW!

I could see how yesterday's would be other solvers' POW!, though. So much about themelesses is one's personal connection to the feature entries.

PS. Congratulations to Paolo Pasco for winning this year's Boswords Crossword Tournament!

– puzzle by Adam Aaronson and Paolo Pasco

In all the times I've tried to explain to my daughter why FOMO drives us to do funny things, I've never noticed how funny it is to parse it FEAR OF MISSIN' GOUT. That's a winner! QUALIFYIN' GROUND isn't that amusing in its own right, but the clue did such a great job of making me smile. The visual of a sea captain saying "Here's the thing about dry land …" is so entertaining.

The other transformations didn't do much for me, as I've seen ROOM → GROOM, LOVE → GLOVE, RAIN → GRAIN many times in crosswords, but all in all, the theme works. It reminded me of a more innovative one from a few years back, playing on a similar conceit.

For a straight-over-the-plate puzzle, bonuses in the fill can be so important. I loved NERD ALERT!, ZEBRAFISH, LEGAL AID, PHONE SEX, even JIGGLES and OUCHIES. That can all help keep a solver's attention.

Smoothness is important, too, though. What do these have in common: SNERT, ENDE, MEADE, EPEES, ENTO, NEY, ENNUIS, YSER? Not only are they common crosswordese, but they heavily feature the free "Wheel of Fortune" letters, RSTLN E. That's not a terrible thing, since some of these can give longtime solvers toeholds into the puzzle, but cutting the quantity of crossword glue in half or more would have been better.

I generally strongly disagree with the philosophy of going under 140 words. Most of the time, a 140-word puzzle can be both more sparkly and smoother than a 136-word one.

I did enjoy quite a few clever clues. MATINEE as [Something never seen at night] is brilliant. George SOROS as "The Palindrome" makes me long to get a cool nickname. And SIRENS as [Rock singers?] is so clever.

I like Sunday puzzles to be more ground-breaking than a g-round breaker, but there's a place for these among certain solving segments — especially those who aren't as crossword-obsessed as me.

– puzzle by David Levinson Wilk

★ The unabashed physics dork in me loved JUST A PHASE as a punny way of summing up SOLID, LIQUID, GAS, PLASMA. The father in me also loved it, but for a different reason. One day, far, far, away, there will come a time when I don't have to yell at my kids that GASes and LIQUIDs are fine, but they have to flush the toilet after depositing SOLIDs.

It's been a long phase.

I've seen many a crossword including SOLID, LIQUID, and GAS, but PLASMA is a great bonus. Well, at least for those of us who delight in teaching our 5-year-olds about force diagrams and the concepts required to predict projectile motion.

No wonder my kids throw so many things at me.

I'd love an ordering, with PLASMA to GAS to LIQUID to SOLID, but I'm okay with mixing them up so LIQUID ASSET could be featured. What a great entry! I (unsurprisingly) spent an hour coming up with a couple of ways to get the themers in order, but (surprisingly), I didn't like them as much as what we see today. PLASMA SCREEN TVS is so much more solid (groan) than PLASMA SCREENS, which would have balanced out ITS JUST A PHASE nicely.

And what fine gridwork, in a debut! I'd usually recommend newbs to avoid long acrosses, but ALARM BELLS and DAISY CHAIN are well worth a bit of AMT and SSE. Elsewhere, I appreciated that Eric stuck to lesser offenders like OTRO.

There's something amusing about the doubles inside OHHI and NAAN next to each other, too. HA HA!

All in all, an entertaining Monday puzzle that might appeal to my dork friends more than the general solving population, but I appreciate that it's still accessible to most.

– puzzle by Eric Bornstein

Neat find, that there are so many words that can fit in between FOR and SAKE. There's another one that I use much more than PETE'S, CHRIST'S, GOD'S, and HEAVEN'S. It starts with F.

I enjoyed the clever FORSAKE -> FOR ___ SAKE revealer. I did wonder if PETE referred to St. Peter, which might have made for some heavenly consistency, but the origins are unknown.

I'm usually a big fan of Jacob's gridwork, but today's product felt a touch on the old side. There's nothing wrong with skewing older, as with THEDA Bara, since she was a big star in her day. It's more old-school crossword glue that bugs me. EPEE appears all the time, for instance, and to -IST and pluralize it doesn't feel great. Work in Brian ENO in, CYTE … it's not that much, but when the themers all have an old-timey feel already, it emphasizes that tone.

I did enjoy some PHOTOGENIC RHINOCEROS bonuses, though. Add in TWEEZE and a couple of Js, and that all helps.

And I did admire the consistency of finding all phrases using possessives — I wouldn't have thought that possible. Although, I sure would have appreciated a few upgrades to the themers to make them feel less stodgy. Maybe GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN or HEAVENS YES!

Heavens yes, even this anal analyst wouldn't care that that last one doesn't contain an apostrophe, because the phrase is so colorful!

– puzzle by Jacob Stulberg

I have an unfortunate quality (here's where the smart-asses (accurately) ask, just one?): I'm unable to forget prior art. Upon uncovering ONION and SESAME, my mind flew to Andrea Carla Michaels. Hadn't she done a puzzle similar to this a few years ago? Turns out, it was almost a decade ago!

Imagine what I could achieve if my brain used its memory units more wisely.

I enjoyed the gridwork, goodies like CLOWN CAR and GANYMEDE tickling me. I admire the audacity, too, taking on a lower-word count challenge, accomplishing it well, with only a bit of PREV. Impressive result, done with such care. The west and east regions are particularly difficult; no surprise that that's where PREV showed up.

The mismatch of easy theme and tougher grid created a dissonance, though. It's like writing a kids' picture book about three-dimensional Newtonian motion. You struggle to understand the vectors and units associated with gravity and translational/rotational movement … only to find out that Jack and Jill rolled down the hill. It's a lot of work to plug through, with not as much payoff as you deserve.

There's nothing wrong with doing a similar theme, especially almost a decade later, but I'd have enjoyed this more if the grid had been dialed back, and the puzzle run on a Monday. Still, I did enjoy the colorful theme phrases — hard to argue with OPEN SESAME, and I'm a big Roald Dahl / VERUCA SALT fan — and the lovely bonus entries.

– puzzle by Michael Paleos

I met Derek a few years ago at an ACPT and enjoyed talking with him. He's got an easy demeanor and is so relaxing to be around. His reviews over at Crossword Fiend are some of my favorites since he always manages to keep things positive, making his essays a joy to read.

When he expressed interest in doing something together, it was a no-brainer. It took a while to find something we both thought was interesting — some of my first ideas were terrible, especially the concept of appropriately mixing yellow and black.

I enjoy being irreverent, but I had a feeling my ancestors would rise up and kung fu my ass for that.

– puzzle by Derek Allen and Jeff Chen

I'm always on the lookout for devilish wordplay, and it usually comes in the form of "take a common phrase and repurpose it creatively." I got a delightful twist on that today, with the simple [Sent]. My first reaction was to roll my eyes. That could be anything! Delivered, mailed, postmarked, … oh! "Sent" as in the "elated" sense = ON CLOUD NINE! Such a devious trick, the sudden flip from annoyance to delight so memorable.

I also appreciated how Tom tweaked my perception of "add-a-preposition" phrases being generally neutral to dull. SCOOCH OVER is so much fun, as is DOGGED IT. Even SKATE BY has its merits. And don't get me started on SPIT IT OUT, which I often have to force myself to say to my three-year-old. (Both literally and metaphorically, sadly. Who drinks water out of a muddy kiddie pool? My son, apparently.)

Although most every entry was fair, several crossings felt treacherous. My wife, Jill, uses HARISSA often, and I'm a big fanboy of Zeno of ELEA. Don't get me started on Arthurian legends, so UTHER Pendragon gets a squee!!! from me, and I love Hitchcock's work, so Tippi HEDREN is great. I like KIR cocktails, and I've done enough crosswords to know that KOLN is something German.

Jim Horne navigated successfully through all three of those pitfalls! Yet he failed … at the Z of TMZ / ZAGNUT. He did grow up in Canadia, where the immortal ZAGNUT never thrived, and TMZ is the Jeff-Chen-level-of-lowbrow that mystifies decent people.

I politely nodded, sympathizing at Jim's plight (while posting to T-M-Zed about it).

As much as I adore "Ocean's 11" and phrases like BODY SHOT, ROLE PLAY, CRONUTS, I had to say THAT'S A SHAME about the booby-trapped crossings. I'd sympathize with solvers who finished with a wrong square or two.

– puzzle by Tom Pepper

I loved 95% of this puzzle and was all set to make it my POW! Amazing gridwork, with so many colorful HUMDINGERs. Congrats to both relatively new constructors, such top-notch craftsmanship!

Then, I finished at MODEL MINORITY.

Sid and I had a thoughtful exchange as I struggled to come to terms with how depressed this entry made me. I hate being reminded of something that has plagued me my entire life. I turn to crosswords to escape the realities of the world, and these days, I need escapes more than ever. In Stella Zawistowski's words, "The whole point of a crossword, or any puzzle, is to surprise and delight people."

It sucked to have delight taken away today.

Additionally, the MODEL MINORITY stereotype can't be summarized in a pithy crossword clue — any short sentence is likely to do it serious injustice, or worse. I wonder how African-American solvers will react, since one could argue that Asian-Americans aren't the ones hurt most by this "myth."

Sid believes that it's imperative to force these discussions. I don't agree. Rarely do Americans like being forced to learn, especially when it's about politics, race, or religion. I fear that Sid's philosophy — to which I devoutly subscribed when I was younger — will achieve more harmful backlash than good.

So how do you influence people? I don't have a great answer, but as more gray enters my beard, I've come to believe that more subtle, less in-your-face approaches are better for achieving long-term results. If you feel the need to use crosswords to teach, instead of blaringly headlining MODEL MINORITY, why not tuck MODEL into the fill, clued as [___ minority (damaging racial stereotype)]? That might have more quietly but more effectively sparked people to go read up on it, maybe even with an open mind.

I'm hopeful that if more big thinkers like Sid focus their efforts on devising creatively subtle approaches that reach people in a way that they're open to listening, the world will slowly morph into a less angrily divided place.

– puzzle by Brooke Husic and Sid Sivakumar

Did you catch wind (ha) of the title's cleverness? CRAFT SHOW is a fun phrase, and when you repurpose it to mean a (boat-like) CRAFT that's SHOWn in an illustration, that's genius. If there were a wordplay America's Cup, today's title would be a front-runner!

We've had a lot of "connect-the-dots" puzzles, Liz Gorski the queen. We've also had some step-by-step drawing concepts, as well as pictures of boats, both from impressionist and realistic artists.

Today's concept was a bit too much of a mish-mash of previous ideas, but bonus points for the apt SHIPSHAPE revealer. Perhaps if all the instructions had been ship-related—STORY ARC clued to Ahab hunting Moby Dick, perhaps—the overall effect would have felt more fresh.

Placing some fixed letters might not seem hard, but it constrains the gridwork tremendously. Great to get bonuses like CALL IN SICK, FISH MARKET, BEER HAT, although there were prices to pay in INRI, ITSA, NSEW, OHI, and the neutral-to-negative ANALYSE, AREOLA.

Elevating the theme concept with an extra layer, and one more revision on the gridwork would have been great. Still, a nice picture in the end, and oh, that wickedly clever title.

– puzzle by Ruth Bloomfield Margolin

It's a joy to get stumped on my "Name That Theme" game on a Monday, if I slap my head at the end, knowing I should have gotten it. Organ KEYS, the Florida KEYS, KEYS in an Atlas, lock and KEY. D'oh! Masterfully done, baffling me until the last grid entry.

"What simple concept ties these things together?" themes are some of my favorite. This one inspired me to brainstorm what else would have worked. There's the KEY on a basketball court, but that could have gotten lost on non-sports fans. (It's the painted floor area around a hoop.)

What else? A cryptography KEY, but that could have also gone over solvers' heads, especially newer ones.

The only other one I could imagine was an answer KEY, although that would have been tough to work in. Perhaps with a TEACHERS GUIDE?

No, Lynn did a masterful job of picking ones that displayed a wide variety of KEY meanings, while making each obviously accessible to a broad solving audience. Well done!

The fill had an older feel to it, though. Once you start with ATLAS ROCKET (from the 1950's), include GARRETS (a term for attics), BABY BONNET, and PRAY DO, you end up with a quaint sort of feel. The FLORIDA ROOM apparently is "retro" now, so that sort of helped? Maybe hurt as well? Not sure.

The clue for KEYS felt off-pitch (that's my terrible pun for you ORGAN players out there). I get what it's going for, riffing on the issue that KEYS seem to eternally walk away, but these KEYS aren't "lost" in the entries, moreso hinted at. A more straightforward clue would have worked better.

Solid concept overall. I especially appreciated that ORGAN DONOR innocently misled away from the musical instrument, adding to my bafflement and thus heightening my a-ha when the light finally snapped on.

– puzzle by Lynn Lempel

About a year ago, I had this brilliant idea. Brilliant, I say! What if I could find phrases that had exactly five vowels, in E I E I O order? Was that even possible?

The coding wasn't straightforward — a wild card search like *E*I*E*I*O* would turn up lots of false positives with extra vowels — but eventually I figured it out. I came up with a limited set, making for a tight theme, and most of them were great:

• BEST INTENTIONS
• CELINE DION
• LEIF ERICSON
• VERMICELLI BOWL
• VESTING PERIOD
• DERRINGER PISTOL
• BELIEF IN GOD
• PERIHELION
• THE TIME IS NOW

What a disappointment when I turned up Peter Collins' puzzle from 2010. A variant, too. Ah well, it happens. I moved on.

I wish I hadn't been so hasty. Even knowing about Pete's puzzle and my findings, I still enjoyed today's solve. It's a shame that REWRITES HISTORY includes the Y as a vowel, because the others have that incredibly impressive feature of there being only five vowels, E I E I and O. Even after having discovered all I did, it still boggles my mind that there is a set of phrases that works.

I had a miserable time down in the lower left corner. I know UVEA because I worked in ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, but that's a toughie. Crossing it with EVE clued as the rapper, and ARS seeming more like [Captains' cries] than AYS, and I had a BEVY of wrong guesses in there. I'm all for modern references, but in this case, the solving experience would have been so much smoother with a Biblical EVE reference.

Thankfully, there were some strong bonuses, BATH TOWELS clued to the old joke about getting wetter as they dry, WHEREFORES a curious word, WINS BIG. Helped to balance out some of the stuff that might make newer solvers feel unwelcome, like NIHIL and ROLLO.

Great theme, with an unfortunate ding for the Y in REWRITES HISTORY. I enjoyed the discoveries so much, it made me wish I had stuck with my construction efforts. A puzzle from a decade ago shouldn't disqualify a remake.

ADDED NOTE: A friend pointed out another one from the WSJ — with an apt byline!

– puzzle by Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau

Ade! Back when I was going to the ACPT (in the pre-kid era), I always looked forward to hanging out with Ade. So much fun to be around, always with a big smile on his face. Great guy, and super interesting. He's interviewed a lot of sports celebs, and his crossword reviews at Crossword Fiend are among my favorite. He always ends them with a "Sports Will Make You Smarter" segment, and indeed, it consistently does!

Knowing him made today's (debut!) solve extra fun. I didn't know the OHIO PLAYERS, but what a perfect revealer to explain the theme: Cincinnati BENGAL, Cleveland BROWN, Cincinnati RED, Cleveland INDIAN, covering most of the major OHIO sports teams. It's not complete without the Cavs, but something like CAVALIER ATTITUDE could have sounded contrived and possibly given away the game.

There's BLUE JACKET and CREW, but I bet even sports fans wouldn't know these NHL and MLS teams as readily as the ones Ade included.

It's not a perfect grid, with some AMAIN, O SOLE, ITE, SHA, SRS, DSL, but there was nothing keeping me from a victorious solve. I'd have liked more bonuses, too, perhaps by opening up a corner — perhaps taking out the black square between ALIAS and EEL.

I did appreciate some nice touches, like the fun Electric SLIDE, cluing SHAFT to the classic movie, and a funny NACHO ("not your") cheese dad joke. And gridsmanship comes with time and practice. Practice?

I'm hoping that Ade will continue to make us smarter with future crossword offerings!

– puzzle by Adesina O. Koiki

ALL for ONE and ONE for ALL! I've seen plenty of crosswords play on this famous motto, including a similar interpretation and a rebus version, but I enjoyed this fresh take. It's easy to find phrases that contain both ONE and ALL, using a search string of *ONE*ALL* and then *ALL*ONE*, and there are plenty of options for both. It's clever to present a mix of them, though, so that solvers still have to figure out what goes where.

Jon did a great job of selecting colorful themers, too. FALLING ROCK ZONE is great. The RHONE VALLEY is gorgeous. And my favorite, SLY STONE. Er, SLY STALLONE. That's a beaut! Jim Horne animated the switching below; I find it oddly mesmerizing.

I wasn't quite as taken by the gridwork. Splitting a grid in half with a 9-letter central answer (PHONE CALL) often makes for a challenge. Jon did work in some great entries into the big corners, like SAFARIS, PRO SHOP, FANTASY, APOSTLE, DOLPHIN — more winners than not! — but there were prices to pay. I couldn't make myself believe that ONLAY was a thing, for example, and especially not crossing ON ALERT. I don't mind short duplications, but crossing them feels inelegant.

There wasn't any outrageous crossword glue, but some pairings like AMOI / OLA, SPYS / TMEN, ENE / ESE, and then the tough SORBO and NOMO … it's nothing to be a CROWER about. Breaking up those big corners, going up to a 74 or even 76 word puzzle, would have helped a ton.

One of the best aspects of blogging is forcing myself to go back and understand clues that made no sense. PRO SHOP has a problem if it's out of the woods? Wha … ?

Ah! Out of the woods, as in irons, woods, drivers. It's a bit tortured grammatically, but it's awesome.

And of course, you know what the three golf pros recommended everyone to use off the tee?

ONE wood for ALL!

(rimshot)

ADDED NOTE: The NYT app requires you to enter the "kooky" version of the answers, i.e. FONEING ROCK ZALL, in order to get counted as correct.

– puzzle by Jon Olsen

Nam Jin and I have been kicking around a few themes over the years, but nothing has landed yet. Glad to see him gain success in a themeless! They're so competitive — excess supply, little demand — that I steer newer constructors away from them. Impressive to see a debut in this maker-unfavorable arena.

Such a smooth product, too, with hardly any gloopy bits. The only nit I could point out (after a second, careful look), was the NEYO / PELL crossing. It's hard to assess how well-known either entry is, but it does seem mostly fair, especially considering Friday solvers will likely have seen both crossword-friendly entries many times before.

A couple of beautiful feature entries, with KAMA SUTRA headlining. The satisfying FLAT WHITE coffee. LIFES WORK, EYE OPENER, GROUP CHAT, LAWYER UP.

And that incredible clue for DRUMBEAT! "Hit after hit" for a rock band, indeed.

Ooh! The ATLAS clue struck me as well. I've seen plenty of takes on ATLAS of Greek mythology. [One for the road?] is a brilliant way to play on the reference guide that some of us still keep in our cars.

There wasn't any one entry that I'll remember tomorrow, but plenty of solid to well above-average ones. Along with his outstanding gridsmanship, I'll be keener than ever to work with Nam Jin to finally hit upon a crossworthy theme.

– puzzle by Nam Jin Yoon

LIQUOR LICENSE is a sizzling central entry. Give it an innocent misdirection, [Bar requirement] nudging toward the legal bar exam, and it's even better. Toss in the fact that Joe has owned bars with tricksy names, and it's perfect in every way!

After that, I was thinking about bars and ordering a cold one when coronavirus quarantine is finally over, so what a devilish trick to use "order" in a different way, in the clue for SECRET SOCIETY. Got me!

And that quote from SAMUEL BECKETT! I'm one of those who remain mad as a hatter, especially in this day and age. In our weekly Zoom chat, I meekly admitted to Jim Horne that I wasn't entirely sure who Beckett was.

"Beckett?" he said in shock. "Waiting for Godot? You haven't seen it?"

He's still waiting for my answer.

The central entries make for a brilliant trifecta. At least, for those more cultured than me.

I wasn't as enamored with the two other marquee answers, AD CLICK RATE and OPEN A NEW TAB. They sound like something I was supposed to study in one of my internet marketing MBA classes. Good thing I pooh-poohed the internet as a passing phase back then (2002)!

Saturday puzzles are supposed to be hard, and it's tough to find the right middle ground. Too easy, and people will complain. Too hard, and people will complain. People are the worst! I found today's too hard (complain complain), odd choices to acknowledge the existence of the awful ITS / PAT, clue SIDE A as a "finer cut" (as in a finer piece of music than side B), test my weak foreign language skills with "Ich liebe dich" for TE AMO. Wow, did I struggle in the NW and SE corners.

Thankfully, Joe gave me a lot of delight to make up for that. CACTI as things hard to handle — literally. SOOT found in stacks? Ah, smokestacks! I put in ME DAY for [Time spent close to home]. What a delight to figure out it was AT BAT and home plate. And an ARCHER taking a bow, that's fantastic!

I tend to feel more relief than joy when finishing a head-buster like this one, but it sure made for a great mental workout. I could use that drink now, Joe!

– puzzle by Joe DiPietro

★ Brilliant finds. After decades of brainstorming thousands of ideas, I'm kicking myself that I've never noticed how perfectly THE AFRICAN QUEEN describes Cleopatra. I've even seen THE AFRICAN QUEEN three times!

Same goes for "The Dirty Dozen," one of my favorite old-timey classics. TWELVE ANGRY MEN is so apt. Frankenstein as DOCTOR STRANGE, too. "Titanic" as WATERSHIP DOWN? Amazing link!

I usually enjoy Sunday NYTs less than weekday ones, since it's tough to retain solver interest through a full 21x21 grid. This one achieved saw me through with full marks. Such a genius set of finds, an absolute WITT (Wish I'd Thought of That).

It'd have been a slam-dunk POW! choice, except for some needle-scratching moments throughout the fill; a surprise given that Francis is one of the top-notchiest of top-notch constructors. There were so many answers I'd never (or rarely) encountered before: ARRANT, which the dictionary says is archaic, UNEEDA, VARESE, SANRIO?

Just because I haven't heard of something doesn't mean it's off-limits, but more than one of these in a single puzzle risks alienating solvers. Worse, crossing VARESE with TEVA strikes me as setting up solvers for failure. SMEE crossing MATSUI feels less unfair, but it's still a toughie because it's easy to confuse SMEE and SNEE.

However, the theme was so smile-inducing, and there were so many delightful clues — ANKLE SOCK go above a tongue, vey cheeky!, SHARON as a [Stone to cast], EAR with the hilarious [Hear here!]. And my favorite, [Lengths for rulers]. INCHES fits in perfectly, but it's royal rulers' REIGNS.

All in all, I found it easy to overlook the potholes and still call it a solid POW!

– puzzle by Francis Heaney

MC: It's time to play … Name That Theme!

MC: WAVES HELLO …

MC: SURF THE NET …

Ooh, ooh! Surfing terms!

MC: Seriously? You think "surfing terms" would include the word SURF? SHELLS OUT CASH …

A SHELL is a type of rowing boat! Things that you see on the water!

MC: Terrible guess. PALMS CARDS …

(crickets)

things that Gilligan used in inept attempts to get off the Island?

MC: Talk about inept. How are you so atrocious at this game? No! The answer is BEACHFRONT.

(crickets)

Wha … ? Each word can be preceded by BEACH? Ah! Like BEACH WAVES. That's a thing. Isn't it?

MC: No.

Then how does it work?

(crickets)

MC: Let's go to commercial break.

The theme is "things seen at a beach," but the revealer didn't work well for me. I'd have preferred simply BEACH. Maybe GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. What can I say, I'm a sucker for SHELL-based technology.

I did appreciate the imagery Alan and Acme spurred into my head. In a time where the closest I can get to PALMS is people's Hawaiian Zoom backgrounds, I loved being transported to a tropical Eden. Helped make up for the revealer being flat, and the partialish feel of several grid entries, like IS DUE, ONE ARM, and PET TRICKS.

– puzzle by Alan Massengill and Andrea Carla Michaels

One hundredth anniversary of the 19^th Amendment! That's truly an occasion to commemorate. It's hard to believe that only a century ago, more than half the country had no voice in choosing their government representatives.

Neat to see the feminine flourishes, too. Starting with RAMONA, ending with ANNE of Green Gables, and filled in between with VASSAR, OLAN of "The Good Earth," LUNA, Lucy LIU. Great bonuses for this theme.

I didn't love the choppiness of the presentation, though. Starting with CONSTITUTION felt odd. When you automatically have to begin by referencing the last themer, why not place the subject front and center? Boldly lead off with AMENDMENT XIX!

It was also a bit odd to see it as AMENDMENT XIX rather than the more common 19TH AMENDMENT. It's rare to have numbers in an early-week grid, risking confusing solvers, but I think this would have been a better approach.

And as neat as it was to see ALICE PAUL in the grid, what about LUCY BURNS? She got burned today!

Stacking themers — AMENDMENT XIX over TENNESSEE — usually creates problems, too. See ADEE and MNOP. Short letter runs are undesirable fill, and four-letter ones are even worse.

Although there were grid execution issues, I enjoyed getting the reminder that it's only been 100 years since women got the right to vote. I also appreciated being spurred on to think about voting in general, knowing that our country still has a long way to go before we can truly say that every citizen has an equal opportunity to vote.

– puzzle by Olivia Mitra Framke

Ever notice that the CYCLE of LIFE and LIFE CYCLE mean the same thing? Meta!

I enjoyed this one much more than I thought I was going to. Kicking off a puzzle with a cross-reference — followed shortly by another one — is usually a surefire way to make me cranky. I can't drop into the solving flow; you're forcing me to jump around in ways I don't want to? Bah!

I ended up admiring the concept, though, a LIFE CYCLE starting with LIFE and ending with LIFE. It's rare to see a repeated entry in a crossword, so I appreciated that Brandon came up with a great way to justify it.

I did wonder about CYCLE being in the middle of the puzzle. And if CYCLE of LIFE (yet another cross-reference) should have created an infinite CYCLE, instead of having the chain end in the center of the puzzle. Since when does a circle have an end?

Then, my mind wandered, wondering what other implementations might have worked. Will Shortz typically doesn't like "corner blacks" in perimeter puzzles (like in the SW and NE corners) … ooh! How about LIFE and CYCLE intersecting at the E, in the lower right corner!

Kind of strange to start/end the sequence in the lower right, though, since that would mean solvers would generally start working the puzzle in the upper left, at what would be the middle of the chain.

All that wondering is usually a sign that the puzzle is doing something well. Spurring me on to think and brainstorm is an uncommon occurrence. And in the end, I concluded that I liked Brandon's approach more than anything that I could come up with. Even rarer!

Great gridwork, too. Perimeter puzzles are notoriously difficult, especially when it comes to knitting everything together in the middle. To weave in so much great material like EMAIL BLAST, BOSTON ACCENT, AMBIENT NOISE, while requiring only some ANOS, NEHI, plural CARLAS — that's a cause to yell WAHOO, indeed.

This puzzle grew on me, a thing of beauty whose elegance unfolded with careful study. It's one I'll remember.

– puzzle by Brandon Koppy

There's such a memorable picture in A WRINKLE IN TIME, illustrating how a tesseract works. Grab a piece of cloth at two points far away, and bring them together. Voila, you have a shortcut, with the material in the middle all bunched up! Grant did a great job of mimicking the tesseract today.

If you haven't quite figured out how the themers work yet — it took me a while to see — check out SENTENTALVALUE. That's supposed to be SENTIMENTAL VALUE, so some Thursday solvers are going to try to write the first T as a (TIME) rebus. Not so! Note that there's an I above that first T, an M to the right, and then an E when you move back down. Think of it as a TIME worm inching forward, and it might make more sense.

I love when "hidden words" are in tricksy places, so across WHA(T I ME)ANT WAS is perfect. It's a shame there aren't more phrases that work this way — is there a famous TIM E.? (No.) Will Shortz is generally picky about "hidden words" spanning across all words of a themer, since MOUSE in MORTIMER MOUSE is filler, and I'm with him. In today's case, the trick is so apt to the book that I gave it a pass.

I have fond memories of the book, and the perfect wordplay connection to the tesseract put this puzzle into POW! consideration. Ultimately though, only having one themer where TIME spanned across all words, and too much LOC IES WAL LEU ASEAT, all pretty ugly, knocked it out of contention.

As much as I enjoyed SPROCKET, HOLE SAWS, PH SCALE, PLANET X, fewer goodies in exchange for a smoother product would have elevated this one to POW! status. 71-word (ultra-low) themed puzzles are so hard to execute on with both color and cleanliness.

– puzzle by Grant Thackray

I loved Alex's PANDA grid art, and today's imagery is strong as well. I wasn't familiar with SAINT / BASILS CATHEDRAL, or what shape I should be expecting, but compare the grid below with the pic to the right. A great facsimile; not an easy task when you're working with big pixels.

It's a fantastic construction, too. It's tough to stay at 72 words (qualifying for a themeless), while working with 5 + 15 + 9 + 9 = 38 theme squares. Plus, a grid visual! Alex still managed to treat us to DESDEMONA, TAQUERIAS, QUE PASA, BREAK EVEN, GOT REAL.

Plus, JETLAGGED has such a great clue. I hated it at first, feeling like the only point to use high-falutin' medical jargon is to make laypeople feel dumb. But wait! Once I read the word desynchronosis … de-synch-ronosis … of course, it has to be JET LAGGED!

KITCHEN isn't an exciting entry in itself, but oh, that delicious clue: [Island locale]. So innocent! I was fooled, and my family eats around our KITCHEN island every meal.

So why didn't I enjoy it as much as I should have? Because on Friday, I want a themeless. I like a smart, subtle mini-theme, but today's had to be overt. When you have to Wikipedia-style clue so many entries to make solvers understand they're thematic — SAINT, BASILS CATHEDRAL, RED SQUARE, ONION DOME — you're giving up so much clever cluing potential.

Beautiful artwork. If it had been run on a Wednesday, with a less ambitious grid, and maybe one more themer — it's supposed to look like a BONFIRE rising to the sky, for example — it would have gotten POW! consideration.

– puzzle by Alex Eaton-Salners

Excellent gridwork, and I'm so glad Trenton didn't go hog wild on rare Scrabble letters today, as is his usual wont. So many IN YOUR FACE feature entries, KEEBLER ELF, PAWN PROMOTION, IT'S A SECRET / CHEAPSKATE, BOOM TOWNS, and the UNION JACK as a [British flyer].

I'm still trying to cram in ROYAL AIR FORCE.

Similarly, some solvers will shrug off the dissonance between SASSIER and [Flipper], figuring it must be right but not stopping to think why. It's genius, flipper not like a dolphin's flipper, but as in "more flip." I know, it's groanworthy, but in a delightfully punny way.

I've only watched some of "How I Met Your Mother," so BARNEY STINSON didn't do much for me. And as much as I admired the craftsmanship, the tone of the puzzle left me unsettled. From what I know of BARNEY STINSON, he's a smarmy bar frequenter, so getting GOES ON A BENDER, OPIUM DEN, IN YOUR FACE, FIXATED ON made me lean toward the PANIC BAR.

Solid "stair stack" construction with high technical marks, but a bit too testosterone-laden for my taste.

– puzzle by Trenton Charlson

I enjoy working with new constructors, helping to bring their seed ideas into fruition, and DO RE MI concepts are some of the most common theme proposals. These days, I usually gently nudge people away from them, because they've become so overdone. Thus, I was predisposed to dislike today's puzzle as soon as I read the title and was able to fill in the circles with DO RE MI right off the bat. The three-letter SOL confirmed my hunch 100%, so what was left to solve?

Turns out Barbara found some neat transformations! I loved the GRACE to DOG RACE and SCARCE to SCARFACE changes, DONATION to DOMINATION felt dominant, and FOSTER to FORESTER also delighted me. I love neat wordplay, and these all qualified with high marks.

What a perfect title, too. MUSICAL INTERLUDE aptly hints at the DO RE MI notes interupting normal phrases. That alone was worth the price of admission.

I often don't laugh at "kooky" themes, but there's something so hilarious about ORGAN DOMINATION, the organist letting out all the stops to blow everyone away. An army of soldiers sporting PARASOLs instead of guns? If only the world could be so lucky! GLARE AT GRANDMA isn't funny in itself, but juxtaposing GRANDMA and "stink eye" got a chortle from me.

Barbara's weekday (15x15) gridwork has impressed me, exhibiting both color and cleanliness. Going to a 21x21 140-word puzzle ups the level of difficulty by a factor of about five or ten, though, so I shouldn't be surprised that there was an ENORM of MATIC EROO NUTRI ARMEE EDATE. Those five-letter gloopy bits are so much more noticeable than the shorter stuff like CTR LTD MRE TOR UAR.

Even the most promising new constructors have to learn the ropes. I have a feeling that Barbara will quickly find her way through these types of potholes more quickly than others, given how strong she already is with 15x15s.

It'd have been great not to have the circled letters, which gave away the game way too quickly, but the concept did exceed my fatigued DO RE MI expectations. Several wonderful wordplay discoveries.

– puzzle by Barbara Lin

I frequently solve puzzles with a theme that feels oh so familiar. You'd think that would sour me on the puzzle. Sometimes it does, but it often makes me feel smart, able to complete it in ultra-short order.

And after all, isn't that the constructor's ultimate job, to create a moment that uplifts and gives joy to solvers?

Occasionally, I'll even marvel at the newer puzzle's refinement. At first glance, I thought Priscilla's and my puzzle used more interesting EX- words, but upon second look, I appreciated David's focusing each on a former lover. That layer of "tightness" — all themers so closely relating — lends elegance to a concept.

Newb-friendly gridwork, too. I did hitch on REUNE since many non-crossword-insiders will rightfully look at that askance, but there's only a bit of ANON DEO ONS otherwise.

Some constructors pooh-pooh going to the maximum allowable 78 words, thinking that it's no challenge, but that's a flawed perspective. Most important on a Monday is to deliver a satisfying, victorious moment to the solving masses. Bonuses like ANTONIO, BASS DRUM, SCULPTURE, SARCASTIC aren't amazing, but they do add to the experience.

Most weeks, this would have been a POW! winner.

– puzzle by David Alfred Bywaters

I love the image of these Shakespearean characters hanging out at a backyard BBQ, scheming to cook a steak. Sort of a "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble" with A-1, hot sauce, and ketchup. The Bard and the backyard; such different walks of life; I'd have never thought of juxtaposing the two. Clever!

I'm no Shakespeare aficionado — I read roughly five pages of every assigned play in school and said a lot of "prithees" and "portents" to get by on tests — so the THE in THE POUND OF FLESH confused me. Isn't it A POUND OF FLESH? Apparently not!

I also hitched at the Shylock reference, since there are so many negative connotations, but the entry is a direct quote from that character. Hard to avoid the reference.

As much as the imagery amused me, I would have loved it even more if all the quotes had related to a steak. Shylock presenting it, Hamlet seasoning it, Lady Macbeth calling it done. Surely there has to be a fourth meat-sounding quote from all of Shakespeare?

I knew there was a reason why I should have done the assigned reading.

Such solid gridwork, and in a debut, too! It's so rare that a new constructor comes out of the gate with only a bit of CPU EEG, and those are minor. I'd challenge Dave to next time open up his grid more, allowing for a few bonuses, perhaps taking out the square between RANT and EEL, or maybe even between EGRET and WAVE.

I'm still giggling about these larger-than-life figures with barbeque sauce smeared into their waxed mustaches. Such a fun debut.

– puzzle by Dave Bardolph

Friends sometimes approach me when they hear I've helped others with financial planning. They're usually hesitant because it seems like a big ask to help structure their savings and investment strategies.

Twenty hours later, they're trying to chew off a leg to escape as I gleefully spout off on asset allocation, market timing, management fees ...

The financial sector loves making things seem complicated, because if people realized how (relatively) simple it all boils down, how would they charge fees? I hate seeing i-banks drain people's funds, so I take great pleasure in helping people cut through all the crap.

Thus, it's no surprise that this puzzle appealed to me. I wouldn't say these themers are COMEDY GOLD, but it's fun to think about a person buying a safer investment in a chemical company like Dow — let's call it an IONIC BOND. Or going riskier, allocating funds into McDonald's BEEF STOCK.

WORK PORTFOLIO was a valiant effort to tie everything together, but it didn't quite work for me. I understand that PORTFOLIO means both an array of accomplishments for an interview and an assortment of investments. I wouldn't hire a crossword writer based on this pun being in his/her WORK PORTFOLIO, though, as those two definitions are too similar to create an a-ha.

I did enjoy the crossing of COCKTAILS and WEAK TEA, and the cheekiness of STICK ON sticking on IONIC BOND. However, as much as I like great bonuses such as TOOK A VOW, ITS ALIVE, OLIVE OIL, TRAGIC END, I don't think that's worth the price of RANDR (never spelled out like this in real life), ANE, ANON, TELS, and especially STLO. Turning down the audacity knob would have been great.

The finance junkie in me loved the direction of this concept, but the execution didn't quite tickle my crossword brain.

– puzzle by Carl Larson

The best rebuses have a beautiful raison d'etre, something that perfectly explains why the solver should shove a bunch of letters into a single box. CHATTERBOX is as good as any, although the BOX notion is becoming overdone. It's a common rebus rationale, HAT BOX coming to mind immediately.

As a huge NINJA WARRIOR fanboy — I think I could get about 12 rungs up the Super Salmon ladder — seeing that entry tickled me.

And how meta was it to get GAB within TALKING ABOUT! I usually don't care for "add-a-preposition" phrases, but the self-referentialism here was worthwhile.

I usually love casual, conversational phrases, so WHADDYA KNOW should be my favorite of the three themers. I paused, though, as it strikes me as potentially unfair to plunk a rebus square in the middle of a phrase that can be spelled in many ways.

I have to disagree with Will on CACHINNATE. It's such a bizarre word (and spelling) that I couldn't believe it was correct, even knowing all the crossings were so easy that it had to be. The best crosswords generate a victorious fist-pumping moment for solvers, and this did the opposite, leaving me a bit puzzled and feeling stupid.

I begrudgingly admit that it's beneficial to learn new things, but don't force me to learn when I don't want to.

Similarly, I got stuck in the lower right, in a corner that felt hard for hardness's sake. LOGE is tough enough, MOTES staying so maddeningly generic with the clue, and even as a beer drinker, [Cream ___] = ALE wasn't anywhere the top of mind.

Overall, a reasonable rebus concept and strong technical execution — no junky short entries at all! — but ultimately, the subjective constructing and editorial decisions made for a less-than-ideal solving experience.

– puzzle by Nancy Stark and Will Nediger