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★ Did you notice the big slash in the middle of the puzzle? What a fantastic way to make PERSONAL / PRONOUNS shine! I love the topical concept, lots of folks discussing whether inclusion of SHE/HER, HE/HIM, THEY/THEM should be standard practice in email signature lines.

It's no surprise that the grid is outstanding, given David's top-notch skills. The huge diagonal of black squares creates all sorts of construction difficulty since it doesn't separate themers as much as you'd usually want.

No problem for the master gridsman; a wealth of bonuses in the fill, with minimal glue needed. When you can achieve MAI TAI, OK THEN, BROUHAHA, LEMON TEA, TRI-TIP, THE WHO, FB POSTS, CHAI LATTE for the price of minor EDS and MSRP — all while working around the big slash in the middle — that's outstanding. Such smart black square placement, breaking up the white spaces just enough to facilitate grid-filling, but not restricting solving flow.

Such a fun set of themers, too. THEY is a tough one to hide, and BUT HEY does the job admirably. HIMALAYANS isn't as strong, since it doesn't disguise HIM well, BUT HEY, what are you gonna do. (HI MOM would have been great, but it is awfully short.)

Topical puzzle presented in a non-preachy way, impressive visual presentation, A+ craftsmanship. Easy POW! pick.

– puzzle by David Steinberg

CATCH PHRASE, ooh, that's such a juicy phrase, eagerly waiting to be mined for crossword wordplay. How about [What's uttered when a detective nabs her quarry?]? Or something that a quarterback yells, to alert his wide receiver?

It took me a few minutes to figure out Margaret's intention because the clue misled me. It's hard enough to follow the sentence fragment "… the opposite of the answer to each starred clue …", and even harder to make the leap that this isn't referring to the full theme answers, only the ends. I was sure that SUMMER FLING was supposed to be the opposite of a CATCHPHRASE somehow.

The basic idea is straightforward: FLING, PASS, PITCH, CHUCK are antonyms of CATCH. What would a more accurate clue be? Perhaps [Popular expression ... or what the opposite of the last words of each answer to each starred clue is?]

Oof, that's hilariously difficult to understand.

What would have generated a sharper a-ha moment, then? Not sure, but since the "opposite" concept feels unrelated to CATCH PHRASE, perhaps NO CATCH [Baseball ump's ruling, and a description of the ends of …] would have been better. That'd have been more of a Monday theme, but that's probably where it belongs.

Solid gridwork, for a debut! I admire Margaret's audacity, intersecting all three themers in a criss-cross pattern. It did necessitate some trade-offs around those intersections. See OVI OPA.

She also worked in more bonuses than the average debut constructor, so much SIMPSON ALICE PAUL PENNILESS WET DISHRAG REMEDIES made possible by the unorthodox themer layout. Again, there were some prices to pay, but only the lower right, with AGA and EES, felt like too much in any one region.

Although the theme concept didn't click strongly, I enjoy it when debut constructors try to twist norms.

ADDED NOTE: A few folks have pointed out that the theme could be construed as opposite = THROW PHRASE, with wacky SUMMER FLING meaning a throw during summertime. That makes more sense!

– puzzle by Margaret Seikel

★ Ha! I caught you all off guard by picking two POW!s in one week. What can I say, I had so much fun solving today's puzzle that I had to do it. I've seen plenty of BACKward puzzles, "repeated string" puzzles, and palindromes, so I should have been predisposed to be tired of today's concept. But it was different enough, with such an apt revealer, that my solve was a delight.

I was interested enough by the concept to write some quick code to see what other themers would have worked. Not many more!

• BOO-BOO BEAR (RAEBOOB sure looks lewd though)
• BURN RUBBER
• FOR-PROFIT BUSINESS
• MY BABY MUST BE A MAGICIAN
• SELFLESS ACTS
• SIDE DISHES
• TASKS AT HAND

It's neat to see a constraint that gives a limited set — that "tightness" lends elegance.

I wondered if the circles could have spelled out something. Would that have been cool … or confusing? The circles in the puzzle didn't feel like a great way to indicate starting points, so perhaps making sure that every start point was under a black square, so you could innocently list the theme clues at their actual start points without adding extra numbers into the grid— ELUSPACE at 26-Across, not 25-Across, for example — would have made this concept even better.

Fantastic gridwork, too, as I've quickly come to expect from Sid. Not a single gloopy short entry, and a whole lot of MAITRE D', ALTIMETERS, GAY RODEO (apparently this is a thing, neat!), SHOT POOL, PANHANDLER. Many constructors would have broken up ALTIMETERS at the M for the sake of gridding ease, and I'm glad that Sid went the extra mile. More bonuses without compromises? Heck, yeah!

Neat to get GODS clued as Rama and Krishna, instead of the usual Greek or Roman god references. That's the kind of subtle influencing that's more effective than the in-your-face approach.

So well done. Interesting concept, top-notch execution, fresh cluing. Sometimes we're blessed with two great puzzles in a week; who am I to deny one of them?

– puzzle by Sid Sivakumar

JEANNETTE RANKIN crossing ROSA PARKS! I didn't know who the former was, but I did enjoy reading up on her — the clue sure enticed me to do so. Two amazing women.

It's not often that so many feature slots are taken up by full names, but IVAN PAVLOV is a fantastic one. He's someone most Friday solvers should have heard of — ring a bell, indeed. Delightful clue!

I'm glad there weren't that many more names in the puzzle. When I added Paul BLART to our word list years ago, I had much internal debate about what score to assign it. Ultimately I decided to leave it at our nominal "probably fine" level, but it was an astoundingly terrible movie. And I'm a Kevin James fan.

Such impeccable technical work, big kudos to Brian for not employing a single dab of crossword glue. Meticulous work in every region. There's no secret to a clean 70-word themeless, it's "just" a matter of hard work, iterating until you get it right. A tiny minority of constructors go to this length, though, most others getting fed up along the way. No "good enough" for Brian!

ELS as letters typed with the right ring finger? That confused me because I thought at first that it meant the letters E, L, and S. Will Shortz must have some incredibly flexible fingers!

Thankfully, some beautiful wordplay clues to offset my confusion/ineptitude. My favorite was for CAT BURGLAR, literally a high-level criminal. Reminded me of the Anne Hathaway Catwoman, prowling up on ledges.

Themelesses featuring names can be divisive. If you're a pagan heathen boor who hadn't heard of JEANNETTE RANKIN, you might not even bother going back to look her up, tossing the puzzle aside, dismissing it as a ho-hum affair. If you know her, though, it might be a standout puzzle for you. No doubt, she had some incredible achievements, in a time when the deck was stacked heavily against her.

– puzzle by Brian Thomas

Excellent "stair-stack," with a dynamite triplet of long entries. My bits of insider knowledge foiled me today — I've had the good fortune to work with John, who's an avid hiker, so I confidently wrote in MOUNTAIN HIKER. Then I frowned. Was that a thing? Thankfully, no! Such a brilliant clue for MOUNTAIN BIKER, "cyclical" ups and downs eliciting a punny groan.

TEASER TRAILER — man, that fooled me! I was thinking a seat-type "spot," or maybe one of those annoying pre-movie ads.

BEDSIDE MANNER is also a beautiful feature phrase, although the clue doesn't elevate it like for the other two. I'd have welcomed some wordplay here, rather than the vague [Doctor's approach]. Maybe something twisting "caregiver" with "care"?

Even more wordplay goodness in GAME OVER and ONE STAR? Yes, please! Maybe non-gamers won't figure out the "get a life" portion of the GAME OVER clue — it refers to getting a (new) life by restarting the game.

And [Amazon deterrent] is the clue of the day. I buy so much merchandise on Amazon these days, and I pay close attention to ONE STAR reviews, yet it had me fooled.

One clue I should explain since both Jim Horne and I didn't understand it: how does [Plates] equal TAGS? Both of us wondered, aren't TAGS the little stickers you put on your plates every year? But "tags" does appear to be slang for "license plates."

Solid execution, although sometimes one entry can so irritatingly stick out. ULA is so comically weird. Suffix to "form"? Give me an ILE or an INTS over it any day.

So much to love in this one. If John had taken another shot at the lower-left corner, I bet he would have reached into POW! territory.

– puzzle by John Guzzetta

I'll admit, I was befuddled by this puzzle. Just four themers? Why not include more? Surely there are tons more "Double ___" phrases to play on ... perhaps even numbering into the double-digits?

Don't worry, I won't quit my day job.

Then I figured, David is the master magician. This has to be a tie-in to his latest show! Ooh, I love crossovers! Okay … waiting … waiting … waiting …

Good thing I'm impatient, giving up after only three seconds of waiting. There were a few clues that made only partial sense as I solved, but I shrugged them off as editorial vagueness designed to increase the difficulty level. I went back and investigated those few clues:

• 11-Across: [Dutch requirements] refers to jumping double dutch, the rope-skipping style.
• 22-Across: [Result, maybe, in brief] is an RBI? I guess. Such an oddly unspecific clue, though.
• 88-Across: Dealers LIE? Huh? Okay ... think about drug dealers. They lie. Still, I thought about sending Will Shortz a pre-production request to edit this clue.

Wait just a second … look at the numbers I listed above. Notice anything? What if I list out the numbers for the four themers?

• 33-Across
• 55-Across
• 77-Across
• 99-Across

David stole my watch without me even noticing! Every doubled-number Across clue requires a leading "double" in front of the clue.

I would never have noticed that 111-Across is included, if David hadn't told me outright. That makes more sense, (TRIPLE) A suggestion for RTE, not just [A suggestion]. Tricky, because it seemed fine without the implied TRIPLE.

I'm still waiting and hoping that this puzzle somehow ties into David's latest magic act, though, since even with that added layer, the solve wasn't terribly satisfying.

Some revealer would have at least helped people realize there was a trick. DOUBLE as the final Across answer would have made everything hit-you-over-the-head clear, but it's better than the alternative. As presented, this puzzle is like saying, "Pick a card, any card," figuring out which one it is, then walking away without telling them which card they picked.

– puzzle by David Kwong

One of the great silver linings of this extended quarantine is my weekly chat with Jim Horne. It's such a pleasure to exchange thoughts on a week's worth of puzzles, our version of "At the Crosswords with Siskel and Ebert" (I call dibs on Ebert). I enjoy it most when we respectfully disagree on what is funny and what is not. Today went something like this:

Jim: ABOUT A FOOT, that's hilarious.

Jeff: Hilarious? Does "hilarious" mean something different in Canadian?

Jim: What's not to laugh at? Barbie is ABOUT A FOOT tall, and these body parts are ABOUT (around) A literal FOOT.

Jeff: Why Barbie, though?

Jim: (extended pause) I have a feeling you're going to dive down a rabbit hole --

Jeff: Is Barbie made to be about a foot tall? Let's see, going to Wikipedia … a-ha! She's "11 and a half inches tall." Surely there's some subversive social commentary behind that.

Jim: Does "surely" mean something different in American?

Jeff: Back to my question, is Barbie known for her feet? Maybe that's the reason she's referenced today?

Jim: Should I call your therapist's emergency hotline for you?

Jeff: Probably.

Anyhoo, ARCH, TOE, HEEL, SOLE were hidden extremely well, inside such colorful theme phrases. Huge bonus points for that.

More bonus points for fill bonuses! Even if you don't know the LA GALAXY, what a neat name. Add in the PARTHENON, SESAME OIL, and spicy SEX TALK on top of LEMON SOLE, you've got yourself quite a meal.

Speaking of LEMON SOLE, though, I had a bone to pick with a flood of non-newb-friendly entries. VIREO would be tough on a Thursday, let alone a Monday, and TALESE OPEL along with some ACS DELA RAH VAVA … I'd have gladly sacrificed many bonuses for a more approachable grid.

Check out the top row — often a 3/6/4 (word length) division is harder to grid around than a more standard 4/5/4, because the 6-width creates a big space to fill, causing ripple effects throughout the rest of this puzzle.

I wish everyone out there could find a Jim Horne to brighten their quarantine days. I enjoyed the cleverly hidden FOOT parts today, but my back and forth with Jim amused me (I'll let Jim speak for himself) even more than today's ABOUT A FOOT revealer.

– puzzle by Gareth Bain

PSY/CHO! It's such a fitting split, the movie poster containing a vertical slash through it.

Wait. The slash on the poster is horizontal, cutting every letter in half, not PSY/CHO into two parts. Never mind.

Okay, I buy Brad's explanation of the split personality issue = PSY / CHO. I did also wonder if this might be offensive to those with mental health issues, though. Mimicking the movie poster with a black horizontal slash across the puzzle might have avoided that issue (explaining that it's art copying art).

And a jagged line of black squares across the middle of the grid could have split the puzzle in half! What can I say, I love it when crosswords break the rules. This would have been a perfect reason to do so.

Kudos to Kevin for finding a symmetric set that so fully describes the movie, and to Brad for polishing it. Neat how PSY and CHO fortuitously intersected other themers.

There's such a high density of thematic material, though — it's no surprise that there's a price to pay. I didn't mind any one entry, but the agglomeration of BRIS SCTV IONA BOFFO POLER APER made me pause. I definitely wouldn't give this puzzle to a newer solver, except if he/she were a huge ALFRED HITCHCOCK fan. Even then, I might pause.

Perhaps a less traditional "here are a bunch of things about X" tribute concept — if not a black slash mimicking the movie poster, perhaps arranging themers to form the famous shower scene? — could have been more memorable.

– puzzle by Kevin Christian and Brad Wilber

What an interesting exercise, taking a large number, and seeing what crossworthy themers relate to it. I wasn't aware of WAYNE GRETZKY playing until he was 99 years old. Wow, that's amazing!

What? That was his uniform number?

I knew that. I was just poking fun at XWord Info's resident Canadian, Jim Horne ... who was once at a bar with The Great One himself! Apparently, he didn't look a day over 98.

A few months ago, a Muslim reader emailed me, strenuously objecting to the inclusion of ALLAH in crosswords. I knew that it was forbidden to display images of ALLAH, but I had no idea that having the name in print could be offensive. I wonder how NAMES OF ALLAH will go over today.

Hopefully, this themer doesn't offend — if any readers are experts in this area, please let me know, and I'll relay info to the editing team.

I remember the old 99 LOVEBALLOONS song fondly — LOVEBALLOONS sounded so lewd to my 14-year old boy imagination. It was a sad day when I found out it was simply LUFTBALLONS, the German word for "air balloons." It might also be a sad day for solvers who stumble at the LUFTBALLONS / KEFIR cross. I'd be in an uproar if I didn't drink and love KEFIR.

I had a fun time brainstorming; what other themers could relate to 99? There's AGENT 99 from "Get Smart," but if you used GET SMART in the grid, the clue would have to be [Show that had Agent 99], and that's not as direct a 99 reference as the others.

Jim Horne suggested BOTTLES OF BEER. Clever! Those Canadians and their Labatt's.

It's kind of a CRAZY IDEA to relate four disparate people/things to a single, large number, and I enjoyed it. I would have enjoyed it even more without some dabs of DEP, DFC (distinguished flying cross), LLCS, NEB (a bird's ... beak?), but those (mostly) get a pass on a Wednesday, especially when they enable entries like COUNT ME IN and FORT KNOX.

Not so much DEATHBED, given the pandemic. Yikes! It'd be great to avoid these types of entries for a while, yeah?

– puzzle by Jakob Weisblat

Jim Horne and I are both musicians, yet we had drastically different reactions to the puzzle. For Jim, it was immediately apparent that the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth are G G G E(flat), so there must be a rebus at work.

It's obvious who's the better musician!

Hopefully you didn't fall into the crazy trap that ensnared me today, with my "correct" finish. I figured it had to be G G G E, and sure enough I got Mr. Happy Pencil telling me I was right. Something didn't feel right, though. How could DEED mean [Released air from, as a balloon]?

I struggled but eventually decided that since this was a Thursday puzzle, Will Shortz chose some archaic definition of DEED. Or maybe Sam Ezersky (Associate Editor) worked in hip slang for DEED that I'm too uncool to know about. The bar for that is low, after all.

Wow, was my face red when I talked to Jim Horne, not even realizing that I'd made a mistake. Or is that a "mistake"? Single-square rebuses are so rare that it never occurred to me to consider that possibility. It felt so wrong that I could get the puzzle "right" but simply stumbled into rightness.

It felt ...

(wait for it)

... off-key.

(groan)

Only three of Beethoven's symphonies have names — EROICA (Third), PASTORAL (Sixth), CHORAL (Ninth), so that works as a theme. SPANISH TUTORIAL as a phrase felt arbitrary, though. And SYMPHONIC instead of SYMPHONY? I get that crossword symmetry must be observed, but why not LUDWIG VAN / BEETHOVEN, and reference "symphony" in the clue?

All in all, it's a fine idea that came out pitchy. It made me think of French horns. Beautiful, shiny, intricate piece of equipment that evokes an old trombonists' symphony joke:

Q: How do you make a trombone sound like a French horn?

A: Shove your hand up the bell and play a lot of wrong notes.

Maybe you had to be there.

– puzzle by David J. Kahn

★ Jim Horne summed up today's wonderful solve perfectly: "They had me at PALM FRONDS." I was so stuck in this corner, unable to figure out if it was fans of Jesus, zealots, fans of Pilates? Nope, manual PALM FROND fans from the Biblical days; so brilliant!

A close second was something "sacrificed at the altar." That's sure laden with imagery of ancient sacrifices to the gods. Talk about Biblical! I laughed upon uncovering the wordplay here, some women "sacrificing" their MAIDEN NAME upon getting married.

Caitlin is a rising star, having recently joined the New Yorker's crack squad of themeless constructors, and Erik perhaps the best clue writer on the planet, so my expectations were already high. Yet, they still wowed me. We get a fun SLEEPYHEAD, the evocative SUCKED FACE, BLACK MAGIC with a wicked [Bad spells clue] that hid the plural. There was about an average number of long slots for a themeless, but they used every single one of them so well.

I wonder how newer themeless solvers feel about clues like [Get out of here!] for ESCAPE ROOM. I hitched when first encountering these directive clues years ago, but now I appreciate them more and more.

The one issue I had was the difficulty level of the lower-left corner, which felt ten times harder than the rest of the puzzle. It's a dirty trick to clue RAH as a crowd roar when every solver will auto-fill in OLE. (Have you ever heard a crowd roar RAH?). Along with barely knowing a thing about "Coco" and being unable to identify AC/DC as the singers of "Rock or Bust," even though I'm a fan of the group, my solve nearly ground to a halt.

Even with that corner, though, the entire solving experience was exactly what I want out of a Friday themeless: a load of great long entries, a ton of witty clues, and an elegantly constructed puzzle. Ticks all the boxes.

– puzzle by Caitlin Reid and Erik Agard

Ryan is making a name for himself with these incredibly wide-open middles. This puzzle clocks in at an astounding 60 words. That's not low enough to break any records, but it gets him high on our list.

Previously, Ryan has dipped into ultra-low word territory, but the closest he's gotten until today is 62 words. With his other "pinwheel" themelesses, he's usually kept it more manageable, sticking to 66 or 64 words. Going down to 62 is a small percentage change, but it ups the difficulty by a factor of about five. My 62-worders have all been hair-tearing, Sisyphean trials. It's no surprise that I'm bald today — be careful, Ryan!

I enjoyed the solve, so much fantastic long material worked in. It's hard enough to fill a center as big as today's, but to do it with SANTA HATS, GO BERSERK, SCAM ARTISTS, STEP-PARENTS, SHOEHORNING, HEAD RESTS — my Santa hat is off to Ryan!

Not bottlenecking corners makes it so tough to generate both a colorful and clean puzzle. I appreciate that the grid is devoid of gloopy short entries, besides the outdated TNN.

I did hitch on several entries, though; not a needle-scratching effect but a lot of OTTAVA, REDBONE, ZENER, TRANK, HEW TO, ZAPOTECAN, and ANTONIN clued to something even this Harry Potter MEGAFAN couldn't recall. Low word-count puzzles almost always come with some form of compromise — I'd have gladly taken a couple more common short gluey bits in exchange for fewer of these tougher entries.

Even with so many entries that felt foreign, I did enjoy the solve overall, especially with clues like [Collection of offers?]. Having heard similar tricks (OFFER = someone who offs), I confidently put in HITMEN. D'oh! Same length as THE MOB; beautiful trickery.

– puzzle by Ryan McCarty

Standard letter removal theme — I bet some cryptic crossword solvers figured out the notion from the title, FINAL OFFER parsed as FINAL OFF ER, i.e., remove the ER from ends of phrases. I'm terrible with cryptics, and even after uncovering ABSOLUTE POW, I had no idea where MaryEllen was going. Not-so-subconscious play for this week's POW! award, hmm?

Oh right, it's from ABSOLUTE POWER. I knew that.

For such a simple concept, it's important to have dynamite themers, with hilarious results. I did laugh out loud at AMEN BROTH, the Campbell's offering for monks. I'm imagining the hilarious commercial, the monks silently miming "Mm mm good."

BRAIN TEAS, too. Maybe Campbell's and Lipton will do a joint venture.

Stuff like RECYCLING CENT, CELLPHONE NUMB, NO LAUGHING MATT, not so much.

It's also important to use your grid to elevate the solving experience when the theme might not sparkle. I did like entries such as GENESIS, UTOPIA, OLD HAT, PAGODA, but I wanted many more bonuses to help keep my interest. I'm not a fan of entries like FENESTRA, or even the fine-but-neutral NOMINATES, ASSOCIATE, EVACUATE that take up valuable long slots.

Even a single pair of sizzling long downs — maybe take out the black square between ANY and REGION for a juicy 10-letter slot — would go a long way.

This puzzle will likely appeal to casual solvers whose aim is to simply finish the puzzle — or even just to fill in a few entries — but I like more oomph in my Sunday solve.

– puzzle by MaryEllen Uthlaut

I was so sure I nailed "Name That Theme" today. Every themer contains ITTI … itty! Surely the revealer would be ITTY BITTY. After all, my daughter has "Itty Bitty Kitty" on her shelves.

Wait. Why would I think that ITTY BITTY KITTY would explain anything about the ITTI string?

Apparently I've been a quarantine parent — indulging my daughter's penchant for dressing up her kittycat stuffies — for far too long.

The actual revealer is far more apt; each revealer HAS IT BOTH WAYS, i.e., contains IT and TI. I like John's thinking; it's important to tighten up the theme concept somehow. Imagine if all themers simply had IT and then TI anywhere — it'd be so inelegant.

These themer lengths are so tough to work with. A 13-letter revealer means trouble right off the bat since it must go into row 12 (not 13), leading to that "smooshing" effect John mentioned.

I don't usually mind some extra black squares to facilitate smoother fill, but there are a lot of black squares today. Some editors cap it at 38. Will Shortz is more flexible, often allowing puzzles with 42 or even 44.

Going up to 46 … visually, it's so unappealing. I'd have tried a few more times to take out the block above FERMI. It's not an easy task, since you have to work with a long answer in that corner (GUNSIGHT), but I think it might be possible.

Repeating the same hidden string within themers can get … repetitive (ha) for solvers, but an unexpected revealer can make all the difference. I enjoyed not being able to figure it out immediately. There were prices to pay in the grid, though. SETTE ICI GNP / NEV are potentially tough for newbs. It'd be interesting to see if stacking themers — putting DETROIT TIGERS and SIT TIGHT in rows 4 and 5 — might have made gridding easier.

ADDED NOTE: Regular reader William Girard points out that ODELL Beckham Jr. might be a head-scratcher for Monday solvers, too. Agreed! And note that he's a Pro Bowler, as in he's made the NFL Pro Bowl — not a pro bowler! Strike one! Wait, that's baseball ...

– puzzle by John Guzzetta

I've learned a ton about Will Shortz's editorial preferences over the years; what entries he will and won't accept. One curiosity is that he tends to not only accept but relish in "drop trou" or "full moon" clues / answers. It's fun to imagine him subversively sneaking these in.

No subtlety today — KEEP YOUR PANTS ON, cartoon characters! I've seen lists of anti-pant-ites before, but it was amusing to get a reminder. Talk about subversive; generations of cartoonists secretly chanting nudist sayings. We declare no underwear, we like to feel the air!

I should have been a slogan writer.

Ever wonder why Yogi was made into a bear, not some other animal? YOGI BARE is more like it!

Or maybe a conspiracy theorist.

Beautiful grid to go along with the funny theme / revealer. I'm usually wary of adjacent parallel downs, since something like TV LICENSE / TRICK SHOT requires so many crossings to work through — especially when both of these long bonuses cross two themers! Amanda and Ross are such strong constructors that they pulled it off with both color and cleanliness.

There's no secret to producing outstanding grids, just a ton of gritty, iterative work.

If I hadn't ever noticed the prevalence of toons going ultra-commando, I'd have let out a mighty laugh at the revealer today. Even being familiar with it, I still chuckled. An amusing theme, along with such a masterfully-crafted grid, not your average bare! Er, bear. If it hadn't been for a bit of tougher OREAD and NEAP, I'd have no qualms about hooking a newb into crosswords with this one.

– puzzle by Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau

I love the way this theme plays out, three great "negative food" themers, followed by a HAPPY MEAL revealer that flips everything on its head with a positive spin. Kudos to Andy Kravis for the brilliant way of tying things up!

While the theme made me smile, the solving experience didn't quite measure up. The biggest reason was that each of the themers is clued so opaquely that it's almost like uncovering a quote puzzle, relying on every crossing Down answer. That's often a frustrating experience.

Another issue was that the grid was chock full of tough entries, like ED KOCH from decades ago and Julie KAVNER, who would be tough if you've never seen "The Simpsons." Then add in Scooter LIBBY, tricky TACET, inelegant PLASM, and a bunch of AMS, CIE, ISR, OREL, PSA … it's probably a passable result for a Wednesday since mid-week solvers can usually handle trickier things, but no doubt, I had to put up a fight to figure it all out.

Since this is a fairly simple theme, I'd have much preferred to slate it to run on a Monday, with more obvious clues — NOTHING BURGER clued to McDonald's, for example — and a newb-friendly grid.

I did enjoy some clever clues, thankfully. SALOON as a place where shots are served (or fired); that's amusing! It took me a while to understand why ASIA might be "polo grounds," but once I figured out the capitalized P was important — as in Marco Polo — it delighted.

SYLLABLE was the highlight, referring to the word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" — so much fun to see that spelled out, especially considering crossword clues usually are kept brief. This kind of accessible amusement would also have been great on a Monday.

– puzzle by Paul Coulter

Ah, me and my long crossword memory. If it hadn't been for a brilliant "black square plus signs" one from a few years back, I would have loved today's. Even so, I enjoyed seeing a different take on the concept, the black plus signs standing in for AND within phrases. It's amazing that all four phrases ranged from solid to great, given that all four had to interlock.

If you're not familiar with the DAGWOOD SANDWICH, it's that crazy, head-height monstrosity that Dagwood Bumstead makes for himself, unlatching his jaw so he can bite into it. GOLDEN HANDCUFFS might be foreign, too — it's the colorful business term for a set of incentive-laden contract terms that makes it tough for an exec to leave his/her position.

I appreciate that Simeon worked hard to give bonuses throughout the grid. He could have easily gone to 78 words, focusing on a clean grid, and I wouldn't have faulted him for that. But when you can keep the grid clean and go down to 74 words, allowing for great bonuses such as ALISTERS, APOLLO XI, MOONSET, SPAMBOT?

To see such smooth and snazzy work from a new constructor is such a pleasure. Biggish corners like the southwest are no joke, and it's clear that Simeon spent time refining each subsection of the grid.

That clue for APOLLO XI, too. I kept wondering why so many people would be interested in a TV series pilot — M*A*S*H, maybe? What a clever misdirect to a NASA pilot, seen on TV.

Overall, a solid concept that might strike non-OCD crossworders more strongly. It's fun to see black squares pull extra duty in a crossword.

– puzzle by Simeon Seigel

What a neat DNA pattern in the black squares! I appreciate seeing something fresh in a themeless grid.

The unusual layout is difficult to fill since the southwest and northeast corners contain pairs of long answers crossing each other. It's not as hard as when you're intersecting triple-stacks of long answers into another, but it's still no mean feat. That NE is dynamite, NOT A HOPE echoing EXTREMES, running through CHE GUEVARA and HOME PLANET. Throw in CAT CHOW, and that's a winner.

I liked the SW as well; YOU BET I CAN exhibiting that I DARE SAY daredevil attitude toward eschewing themeless layout norms. I didn't love ONE-SEATERS, though, as I'm not into racing. I bet it did a lot for NASCAR fans, though.

I enjoyed getting some echoes of Anne and Dan's previous work, some of their personal tastes shining through. HOME PLANET and the REBEL clue (about "Star Wars") were obvious enough connections to LAND SPEEDER, and NET NEUTRALITY echoed the social justice lines of YELLOW VESTS.

As I've mentioned before with Dan's puzzles, the gridwork is strong (aside from a couple of oddballs in PETARD ARTE ARGENT), but I'd like to see more time spent in the cluing arena. I didn't have as much fun solving this one as the grid quality might predict, because so much of the cluing was straightforward and even dry. Windflower = ANEMONE, Occident = WEST, Silver = ARGENT … not much life there.

A strong grid is a must to get a themeless acceptance, but it's clever stuff like "pat on the back" for BURP (as in the verb) that makes a themeless solving experience brilliant. I push co-constructors to write at least ten of these wordplay gems in any themeless puzzle, knowing that at least half won't quite make it through the editorial process, so solvers will still be treated to five.

– puzzle by Anne and Daniel Larsen

★ That central feature, PASSPORT PHOTO, is perfect. Not only is it a snazzy phrase, but that clue is so clever! Such a brilliant misdirection toward immunizations.

If only my PASSPORT PHOTO didn't look like I was high, sleeping, drooling, and a felon. Okay, I'm going to take the picture in three, tw — *click*. Who does that?!

DON'T BE SO HASTY is another great entry. It's not quite as strong as PASSPORT PHOTO overall, since it's hard to give it a clever clue, but it's a colorful, colloquial saying. Robyn shines in this arena, consistently treating us with ones like NEVER FEAR!

I wasn't award that RARE BOOKSTORE was still a thing, but it did remind me of a novel I loved, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. Sometimes our themeless solving experience is so tied into personal experience. If you're looking for an engaging, puzzly mystery, Mr. Penumbra is at the top of my list.

I appreciated the openness of the grid design. In the past, Robyn has sectioned off some of her corners, which is a huge help in construction (allowing for working on subsections in isolation) but can have detrimental effects on solving flow. It'd be so tempting in this grid to break up either ORIONS BELT or TEN FOOT POLE, so I'm glad that Robyn resisted.

I will say that the one area that bogged me down was the southeast corner, a tad bit cut off from the rest of the puzzle. I was confident SLOP was what you wouldn't find in a Michelin-star restaurant. GLOP? That didn't feel right. Along with not remembering Georgia ENGEL from decades ago (speaking of old, see: HEP) and not knowing Chekov's work in detail (OLGA?), I was worried I'd have my first Did Not Finish in months.

Thankfully, I wasn't so hasty, trying out a few random letters here and there until WOEBEGONE made my woes be gone. Whew!

Robyn's puzzles are always a ton of fun, a delightful combination of playful grid entries and a plethora of wickedly clever clues. HALF ASLEEP is a great entry, and [On one's way out] is some "Penn & Teller: Fool Us"-level trickery. I love the feeling I get after solving one of Robyn's themelesses, a golden glow protecting me from the woes of the world for a few precious minutes.

– puzzle by Robyn Weintraub

A couple of years ago, I was at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, chatting with Patrick Berry about a devious (read: infamous) puzzle he'd made for the contest. It was a similar conceit to Sam's, where two answers share middle strings, forming a wide capital I. He said it he'd originally tried to make it in a 21x21 format but had eventually given up. It was only in a weird-size grid (acceptable for a crossword tournament) that he'd been able to make it work.

When Patrick Berry, the Great One, has a tough time building around a theme — that speaks louder than any possible words!

I talked with solvers trudging out of the room afterward, with a wide range of responses. Anne Ellison, a top speed-solver, shrugged, saying that she finished it in a few minutes, but had no idea what the theme was. After another 45 minutes, time was up, and a wave of bleary-eyed zombies came out, asking each other if they'd finished even half of it. The answer was mostly no.

Sam has a clever idea here, a nice twist on word ladders. I missed some of the feature answers on the first go-around, unfortunately, for the life of me unable to see FOR THE LIFE OF ME. The way the answers cross make it tough for the eye to pick up.

It's no surprise that Sam had a tough time with this construction, even going up to 145! words. When you have one Across theme answer intersecting a Down theme answer, the region surrounding that crossing is inevitably difficult.

Then, toss in an additional constraint? The area right around each circled word becomes nearly intractable. More black squares inside each might have helped, but it's hardly a trivial problem to solve.

I might have enjoyed a simpler overall approach, just two pairs of super-long themers, one pair around RISE at the top, and one pair around FALL at the bottom. Maybe some clever RISE and FALL revealer tying them together in the middle? Something about the tides? The ROMAN EMPIRE?

Overall, an admirably audacious concept that tries to blaze new trails. It does have compromises, both in fill quality and solving satisfaction — I imagine MIXED REVIEWS will be apt today — but I'd err on the side of shooting for the moon any day.

– puzzle by Sam Trabucco

A couple of years ago, a crossword-solving friend of mine who's a "10x engineer" at Google innocently mused that most of crossword-making should be automatable.

"Ah, young padawan," I said in a terrible Yoda accent. "But a theme how about? A novel idea, AI cannot generate, hmm?"

"It can't be that hard," he said. "How about ... KING KONG, PING PONG, DING DONG …" He cleared his throat. "MING MONG? Is TING TONG a thing?"

"SING SONG," I added. "But would you have fun solving such a simple rhyming puzzle?"

Andrew paused. "Maybe it is that hard."

I had one of those Andrew moments today, scoffing. This is easy! How about ... HEIGHT FRIGHT? (Acrophobia?) SPRITE MIGHT? Elves are powerful, after all. DWIGHT BLIGHT, that's so apt for "The Office"!

Okay, maybe it is that hard.

Although rhyming themes mostly don't pass editorial muster these days, this one is fantastically tight (no other possible phrases that work). It's also interesting that Daniel and class found four solid phrases all composed of words from a rhyming set. Not an easy task.

The gridwork is unusual for a Monday. Few constructors would leave such big corners wide-open in the upper-left and lower-right — most would break up long entries like IM NOT HERE and TASTE TEST. This makes more sense when you consider Daniel's heavily themeless-based experience. If you can fill big corners, it can lead to more interesting results.

I favor a more traditional layout of black squares, though. Grid flow isn't great in today's NW and SE corners, and dabs of OLIVA, BREE, DAT, ERG, ESS in a Monday puzzle can be off-putting to newer solvers. Redistributing the black squares — fewer in the center, more toward the perimeter — would result in a smoother product.

There is something to be said about a different approach, though, especially when it enables such goodies like MARDI GRAS, TASTE TEST, BUBBLE TEA. And most importantly, it's wonderful to see Daniel take it upon himself to help shepherd along a new generation of crossword makers.

– puzzle by Daniel Larsen and The Wave Learning Festival Crossword Class

WAKANDA ... not forever? Come on, 2020, coronavirus, record wildfires, and flooding hurricanes not enough for you? Such a shocking loss, CHADWICK BOSEMAN dying at a young age.

I loved THE BLACK PANTHER movie and am saddened that there won't be a sequel, at least not without BOSEMAN's presence. Not only was he a great dramatic actor, but his comedic skills showed incredible potential.

I don't remember the HEART SHAPED HERB from the movie, nor do I completely buy SUPERHUMAN POWER as a phrase (SUPERPOWER or SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH is more like it). However, I'm willing to overlook these issues in remembrance of a remarkable actor and iconic title character. It's fantastic to see an African superhero come to prominence, and one that doesn't draw so heavily on stereotypes, like Iron Fist.

I'm not usually one for themer interlock, but there's beauty in CHADWICK BOSEMAN linked to THE BLACK PANTHER, with TCHALLA and WAKANDA locked into place. I'd have enjoyed the puzzle with simply these four — perhaps even more than with the harder to recognize HEART SHAPED HERB and SUPERHUMAN POWER, especially since that would have allowed smoothing out of MSS, SO HOT, etc.

A fitting tribute to a man struck down far too young. Themers aptly crossed, WAKANDAn style.

– puzzle by Jeremy Newton

The (PAPER) CHASE is on! Ten themers form such a pretty path through the puzzle, each of them requiring PAPER for the clues to make sense. [Kitchen item on a roll] is a (PAPER) TOWEL, the book type is a (PAPER) BACK, etc. A PAPER TRAIL, indeed!

"Path puzzles" can be so beautiful. My visual first impression was almost as stunning as it was for another path puzzle. Unfortunately, since I quickly figured out the PAPER concept, solving the rest of the themers felt more like rote (PAPER)WORK.

Thankfully, Margit gave us a lot of bonuses. The grid almost played out like a themeless, starting right off the bat with WHALEBOATS INK STAINED VOICEBOX, all the way to SLACKLINES, hopefully not giving you a SORE NECK. Toss in some CAT SITTING, EPICENTER, BROADSIDE, LEXUSES (LEXI?), and I'd call that a win.

I wasn't crazy about the odd suffix -IANA, the partial ABEE, and the potentially hair-pulling cross of MEZE / MATEO (that's "Matthew" in Spanish). It's tough to have zero prices to pay when you create an audacious grid with huge white spaces in the corners.

Fantastic LACES clue, repurposing "tongue ties," as in the tongue of a shoe.

All in all, a bit of an anticlimactic solve since the rest of the themers fell so quickly after the first. Still, a beautiful, symmetrical path creating a delightful visual and enough bonuses to make up for the lack of theme engagement. Interesting debut.

– puzzle by Margit Christenson

I was so confused, looking at [Bee, e.g.] for one themer clue, and seeing BEER BARREL elsewhere in the grid. Surely there was some cross-referencing going on?

No, wait! DEE is in the grid … as is EMME! EMME = M = [M, e.g.] = one of the LITTLE WOMEN?

Easy as ABC, my patootie.

I've seen some plays on crossword cluing conventions before — two that come to mind are 1.)[See X-Across] = phrases secretly pointing at words like SEE(PING), where X-Across is PING, and 2.) [With "The" …] = phrases starting with THE, like (THE)LMA AND LOUISE — but I don't remember exactly this one.

Kay, e.g. = K, e.g. = Keg = BEER BARREL. There's something amusingly insidery about this notion, crossword people not blinking an eye at words like ESS, WYE, and even AITCH. I'm not sure regular folks would find it as amusing. But what do they know, A? Er, eh?

I appreciate that Trenton used colorful phrases, never digging into the well of dictionary-sounding definitions. For instance, he could have used [Em, e.g.] with the entry ONE OF THE LITTLE WOMEN, but no one wants to see drab definitions in their crossword grid. El, e.g. = [SOFA SUPPORT]? El no!

I enjoyed the themeless-esque feel of the solve, Trenton's vast experience in that genre shining through. With five themers, including an awkward central 13, he could have called it good with maybe a pair of long downs. Such a bonus to get ANTIDOTE, SORCERER, COMPADRE, GAL PAL.

I did hitch on the LEN / TANEY crossing — should we be expected to know how to spell every Chief Justice's name? I do think this is fair, though, since what else might look more correct? LON / TANOY perhaps, but that's a far second. LIN could work, but TANIY seems ridiculous.

Novel twist on the "plays on crossword conventions" theme type. It didn't generate a strong a-ha moment, but I enjoyed the oddball multi-step process it required, transforming a spelled out letter to a single letter, then adding on E and G.

– puzzle by Trenton Charlson

★ Rachel! It was such a pleasure to work with her on her debut puzzle (for Universal). She's open-minded, hard-working, and not willing to say "good enough." I have a strong feeling that this will be just the first in a long line of NYT puzzles with her byline.

I wasn't a fan of THE MANDALORIAN (the show). I had issues with the pacing, unable to connect with a fully-masked protagonist, and the seemingly endless supply of minor characters who didn't play into the storyline. But how can you resist baby Yoda? Even better, the return of Carl Weathers! His portrayal of Apollo Creed was amazing, but it's his comedic role in "Arrested Development" I appreciate most. There's still plenty of meat on that bone!

I wondered if non-dorks should have heard of the TURING TEST. I've managed to fool everyone so far … whoops. I mean, I'm a totally regular, non-robotic human being organism who likes normal hominid activities such as ball sports and intake of a variety of alcoholic liquid consumables.

And that clue for ACROPHOBIA! It's such a clever play on the different definitions of the word "high." Here in Seattle, we have a third definition of "high anxiety": worry about Feds coming in and busting up our pot shops.

I did hitch at a few ESS, ELS clued as letter Ls, and TARES shorties. And THREE SCORE is an oddball. But there was the great DON'T GET CUTE, plus that amusing "plum pudding" reference in ATOM's clue and a Monty Python classic, "TIS but a scratch!"

Non-nerds might not enjoy the puzzle as much as I did, especially if they haven't heard of THE MANDALORIAN or familiarized themselves with Alan Turing through "The Imitation Game." But this dork had a ton of fun today.

– puzzle by Rachel Fabi

I'm a chemistry buff, and I knew with 100% confidence — no purity assay required! — that [Atoms that have the same number of neutrons] couldn't be ISOTOPES, which have the same number of protons. Yet, I still wrote in ISOTOPES. What else could ISOTO_ES be, after all?

D'oh!

So I was already hesitant when I filled in PURGATIO_. What else could that be? Fool me twice, shame on me! Could it be ... PURGATIOL? PURGATIOS?

This fool should have recognized the similarity to "purgatory," where I'm clearly headed after this shameful post. So much for my NERD CRED.

Thankfully, there was enough great DUCT TAPE (which I've used to construct load-bearing walls in my daughter's dollhouses), CORNHOLE (surprisingly fun!), ROAD BIKE with a great clue about not being for trails.

And that clue for BRACKET! People who don't follow sports might not get it — think about March Madness brackets, where people have to pick from 64 different seeded teams. "Collection of seeds" is deviously innocent wordplay.

A 72-word (the max allowable for a themeless) needs to squeeze every last drop of potential out of every long slot, so entries like EXTERNAL and GYMNASIA felt like something got left on the table.

I enjoyed the solve overall, especially after coming to terms with the word ISOTONES. With a non-audacious grid design, though, it's tough to overlook some weirdness.

– puzzle by Kristian House

PLAYING WITH FOOD, this is a puzzle for my kids! Tess likes to powder her nose with marshmallows, while Jake smears things everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. It's better if you don't ask for details.

Four plays on PLAYING WITH FOOD today, like letters demonstrating a literal BANANA SPLIT = BAN / ANA bookending a phrase. Although I'd seen all of them before in various incarnations, STUFFED OLIVE was neat. There's something about the circle looking like an olive that pleased me. I wish all of them had such a delightful visual effect.

I bet the overall punch of the puzzle would have been stronger if Alex hadn't used pairs of themers; instead, using the referenced food inside the clue, i.e. BANK OF GUYANA = [Financial institution investing in banana splits?] I know, it doesn't quite make sense, but I bet there's some fun way to tie them together.

Cutting the themers from pairs to singles would free up valuable real estate to introduce a greater variety of foodplay. Maybe a SPARE RIB (extra R I B inside an entry), SLICED HAM (letters H A M slashed out), UPSIDE DOWN CAKE (entry containing E K A C), etc.? Having seven wildly different literal takes on food would have been more fun.

It would also have freed up room for more interesting fill. I did like DRUM ROLL, EASY WINS, GOD OF WAR, but I wanted so much more. Plus, the collection of oddballs like FUDDLE, RINSO, ENGRAINS detracted from the solving experience.

I appreciate that Alex chose a narrow field for his wordplay examples — it's much better to limit it to food, rather than have any kind of SPLIT, any kind of STUFFED ___, etc. I'd have loved a richer, meatier solving experience, though.

– puzzle by Alex Eaton-Salners