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★ Five factors make this not just an easy POW! pick, but a paragon of Monday perfection.

Interesting theme. I had to go back nearly a decade to think of a Monday puzzle that had a similar feel. Not only are the theme phrases colorful, but they point perfectly to their "symbolic" clues. Q.U.E.U.E.S. as a DOTTED LINE makes me smile.

Consistency. Each themer is in the form of (adjective)(noun). Each clue contains six letters. Elegant! Consistency by itself cannot make a boring theme interesting, but it can make a great theme that much better.

Amazing bonus fill. Six long Downs spread out in alternating fashion, up down up down up down. Six long Downs, not an iffy one among them. No CUSS WORDs from me, just a giddyup, ALL ABOARD!

Short fill so smooth that it's unnoticeable. A mark of true grit. Most constructors would settle on six long Downs that worked(ish), and then they'd look the other way to get a final corner glooped together. Not a single dab of crossword glue for Leslie, showing iteration striving for perfection.

Fresh cluing. GELS has been in the NYT crossword 50 times. This is the first time it's been clued using "nail polish." Tying together two consecutive entries in BROOD and HEN was a nice touch, too.

Top-notch puzzle to hook newbs, as well as to remind ennui-ridden veterans that even early-weekers can spark joy.

– puzzle by Leslie Rogers

★ The NYT has published hundreds of rebuses now, so you have to raise the bar to get an acceptance. That's precisely what Jess does today! Well, not exactly. It's more than a literal RAISED THE BAR, and it's one step above a BAR rebus. In fact, it's exactly one step up!

An example, to clarify: RAIN (BAR)RELS / (BAR)ISTA both contain the BAR rebus. But wait, there's more! Under RAIN (BAR)RELS lurks SUSHI. SUSHI is not a [Place to order sake and sashimi], but a SUSHI (BAR) is — the BAR is "raised" at the end of that entry.

I could use some sake now, for heaven's sake.

Even the RAISE THE (BAR) revealer gets into the game, crossing CA(BAR)ET, with DIVE (BAR) hiding underneath. Neat to get these triple-theme answer sets.

And I'd totally go to a place that's a cross between a CABARET and a DIVE BAR.

Pairs of crossing themers make filling a bear. Tucking a third themer in amps up the difficulty by much more than 50%, even if that third themer is short. Good thing that Jess had a ton of flexibility; able to test out many possibilities under DISEM(BAR)KED: TASK, MINI, DIVE, or even CASH, CLAM, CLIF, CROW, etc.

I would have loved for all the bars to make no sense with their clues, like SUSHI. A [Shabby establishment] is a DIVE, so I didn't notice anything odd. CROW clued as [Device for applying leverage] would have been a much more interesting needle-scratcher, for example.

Overall, I appreciate Jess's efforts to add a unique extra layer, greatly enjoying the delayed secondary a-ha of figuring out SUSHI + BAR. And I'll raise a glass to those hidden MINI and DIVE BARs, because I love having my spirits lifted.

So much for raising the bar.

– puzzle by Jess Shulman

★ I wish I could do even half what Ryan can. This TECH NERD feels like he LIVES A LIE when admiring a construction that frankly is beyond his talent. Ryan is one of the rare constructors who inspires me to further develop my ARTILLERY of tools so that one day, I might be able to create an ultra-low-word-count masterpiece like this. The gigantic swath of white in the middle ... jaw-dropping, with its amazingly colorful and clean fill. It feels like it breaks several laws of physics.

Some youngsters might balk at the old-timey LON CHANEY, but there are a lot of solvers out there who might even remember when his movies were in theaters. And when you combine it with [Count ___] — misdirecting away from CHOCULA — that's bloody awesome.

– puzzle by Ryan McCarty

★ What a neat variety of "literal wordplay" tricks! I love that not one of them exactly repeats:

• PAY (literally crossing) through THE NOSE
• PAT ON (top of) THE BACK
• SMALL MINDED squeezed into three squares as (MI)(ND)(ED)
• TONGUE IN CHEEK interpreted as CHE(TONGUE)EK
• ALL EARS = an entry with all EAR rebuses
• Stretch one's legs = ONE'S LEGS elongated to OONNEESSLLEEGGSS
• BELLY UP presented vertically as YLLEB
• SIDE BY SIDE breaks the "no duplications" rule, but in a fun way

I had to work hard to dig up all eight hidden gems, and although there were frustrations along the way, I stretched my brain to its max, having to think in all sorts of different styles, and eventually crossed the finish line.

All that, with only a single short fill ding in PSA? Considering that the Sunday average is about ten gluey bits, that's amazing.

Heck yeah, I SEE WHAT (you) DID THERE — dozens of painstaking iterations to finally arrive at this high-quality product. Can't wait to see what LIEs AHEAD for this pair.

– puzzle by Christina Iverson and Katie Hale

★ Another beaut from Nam Jin! I've seen thousands of grid patterns over the years, so it takes something special for me to notice. This grid, symmetrical across a diagonal line from NW to SE, with a wide-open layout, certainly qualifies. If you tilt your head, it almost looks like the CONE OF SILENCE.

FORGET ABOUT IT isn't as memorable as FUHGEDDABOUDIT, but it sure is easier to spell. And given that what I seek above all else in crosswords is ten minutes of forget-my-worries bliss, FRIENDLY BANTER is such a CRÈME DE LA CRÈME entry.

Clever repurposing of "needle exchange," too, as in two friends good-naturedly needling each other.

I didn't get a few clues:

• VENAL means "showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery," or [Easily bought]. If you say so, dictionary!
• I was much more interested in learning about a media SCRUM. I imagined a bunch of reporters tackling each other, rugby-style, for the scoop. The reality is less interesting, but the term is going to stick with me.
• I must be doing YOGA wrong. You meditate on your YOGA MAT, not count down the minutes until the boredom concludes?

So much delightfulness in black square aesthetics, marquee entries, and clever cluing, all in a nearly squeaky-clean grid. Couldn't ask for much more than that.

– puzzle by Nam Jin Yoon

★ I haven't (happily) required this much gestation time to figure out a theme in ages. I hit SIGN FOR DELIVERY halfway through and figured the concept must refer to different kinds of deliveries. GUT FEELING might refer to ... how a method actor delivers lines? THE KICKER had to get at some football term … when the long snapper delivers the ball?

I can hear everyone out there shaking their heads at me. Don't worry, I'm smh at myself. Even with a couple of recent childbirth puzzles, including a fun one from a few months ago, I still got fooled.

After finally figuring things out, I wasn't sure if the phrases were too strained. WATER BREAK is so different from MY WATER BROKE, and even SIGN FOR DELIVERY is a weird way to describe signs of impending childbirth. Being forced to think a little (okay, a lot) about the connections is exactly what made the theme fun and even memorable.

The entertainment didn't end there! To get so much URBAN CAVER (I still haven't been on Seattle's underground tour, but it sounds amazing), MANSPLAINS, ROID RAGE, MIND'S EYE — amazing use of long Down slots! Smart layout, and such care taken to achieve smooth and snazzy results.

Even the mid-lengthers were fun — TAMARI made me smile, as my wife is testing out gluten sensitivity, so I've been experimenting with both TAMARI and liquid aminos. Definitely worth a bit of INU BSS (sorry, dog lovers!)

All this, in a debut? I can't wait to see what Rose will deliver next!

– puzzle by Rose Conlon

Such an elegant theme: four sporting venues that can all be used both as nouns and verbs. Not only that, but each of the verbs can start a legitimate phrase? That certainly would RING my constructor ALARM BELLS — if I were clever enough to think of it.

As if that wasn't enough, Claire wove so much fun into the clues. Those Europeans, eating their "Cool American" DORITOS. I bet they don't even have pumpkin-spiced everything yet in AUTUMN.

And I shall thusly explain the MEN clue to you …

Or maybe not.

Not a jump-out-of-your-seat sort of theme discovery, but one to sit back and admire. Beautiful early-week concept.

– puzzle by Claire Rimkus

★ Sometimes, a single sizzling entry in a themeless is all it takes to rev me up.

When I first started cracking into Fridays, SAY THE MAGIC WORD made me so happy that any crossword glue couldn't slime my smile. Today, YE OF LITTLE FAITH accomplished the same thing.

But IS NOTHING SACRED, that phrase doubling the impact? Whoa!

Along with the LOCH NESS MONSTER and the fun trivia about the "surgeon's photograph," Trenton could have poured gallons of AGS-ENT-ESE-ESS over me, and I still wouldn't have been on the LAMS.

(Only the most annoyingly compulsive crossword people will remember how many times AGREE TO DISAGREE has been part of a triple-stack. Let's agree to agree that I am one of the aforementioned. What, did you really think I wouldn't mention that? Oh ye of little faith.)

– puzzle by Trenton Charlson

★ I SLUMPED from being STUMPED but quickly went from WTF? to FTW! How could [Key lime] possibly be MOMENT OF TRUTH? Doubly fun to realize in that moment of truth that the clue writer hadn't followed the reminder the CROSS YOUR TS — as in [Key time], not [Key lime]. Such a perfect obfuscation, "key lime" sounding perfectly legit!

All of Adam's tomfoolery was so innocent, not a single theme clue making my Thursday-trickery-radar ping. My favorite was [One for whom libel is a major issue]. I plunked in PUBLISHER and happily admitted getting gotten, when the DALAI LAMA appeared on behalf of not libel, but Tibet. The double-t-crossing double-cross = genius!

I'm not often a fan of "Thursday trick in the clues," because the wordings can sound weirdly unnatural, or they get lost in the shuffle. There's a reason why most editors focus on long grid entries for 99% of puzzles.

Today's falls into that rare category of trickery-in-clues puzzles that works brilliantly. I rarely want to spend time reviewing anything after finishing a crossword, but I spent half an hour marveling at all the natural-sounding flim-flammery — as well as the fact that Adam didn't have any stray Ls in the non-theme clues!

In case you missed any of the genius, we've highlighted the themers below. Note that although symmetry wasn't 100% necessary, Adam did a great job of putting all his long themers in opposing spots. Dotting so many short themers around the rest of the grid made my Is open wide, too.

– puzzle by Adam Wagner

★ When I solve on paper, I put a C by any outstanding clue. Andrew and Caitlin are star C students today, with over a dozen of them! Highlighting the multitude of genres:

Interesting trivia. As many times I've heard ALOHA over the years, l've never known that it means "presence of breath." Entertaining fun fact.

Question mark wordplay. [Winners' circles?] — clearly, some wordplay is involved. Maybe it had to do with a circle as a gathering? Or victory laps? Brilliant wordplay, hinting at the circularity of GOLD MEDALS.

Innocent misdirection. A cheater might throw a game or match. A sporting final? Nope, literally, they might throw LOADED DICE!

Capitalization play. Whether or not you agree with NANCY PELOSI's politics, it's hard not to agree that she makes "House calls."

Pun fun. "Catchy communication" is an APB? Yes, if you're talking about catching a criminal. Groooan!

And that was all within the first 20 clues! Unbelivable density of delights.

I did have some hiccups, having to make educated guesses to suss out ALCALDE, FOLEY and DRE. Nor did I know of any racetrack and casino synergies. Unambiguous crosses for all of those entries, though.

Soooo much exhilarating cluing. Even with a boring grid, I would have still given this my POW! The fact that Andrew and Caitlin's construction was up to their usual sky-high standards made it that much easier to auto-POW! this one.

I love it when I get to rave about a crossword.

– puzzle by Andrew Ries and Caitlin Reid

★ MENTAL GYMNASTICS has such a wow factor, anchoring this puzzle solidly in POW! territory all by itself. The fact that it's also 16 letters, instead of the usual grid-spanning length of 15, also helps to distinguish it, because it opens up a ton of innovative possibilities in grid design. Daniel created a pattern of black squares that's not only eye-catching, but novel — nerds like me can use our "topologically similar grids" data (in our "Analzye this puzzle" feature), and it wasn't a surprise that today, there were no others like this one.

I flew through this Saturday much faster than Jim Horne, probably because I'm so much cooler than him. Gentle giant on "GoT"? HODOR! Danish attraction … LEGO HOUSE! "Dune" reference? TIMOTHEE Chalamet!

Jim's not impressed.

*preparing HORCRUX*

Thankfully, there was also more to love in less nerdly topics. FREEGAN might be a foreign term, but it's so fun. More importantly, it's gettable as a play on "vegan."

As if all of this didn't delight me enough, there were two standout clues:

• [Well done, in Italian] had me thinking about Italian food. Being the equivalent of a dull-witted two-year-old pre-hominid in the kitchen, I shuddered, wondering what sort of Italian cookbook term I was expected to know. Such a great a-ha when it turned out to be a general "well done!" term. MOLTO BENE, indeed!
• BRAILLE, so innocently clued as [Words read with feeling]. It should be a requirement that every Saturday puzzle has at least one clue this fantastic.

Some minor dings, like PLOT TWIST feeling oddly clued as a [Familiar soap opera device], but so, so, so much to love. Encore, maestro! (Daniel is a professional opera singer.)

– puzzle by Daniel Okulitch

★ Longtime readers know my love of Matt Gaffney's metapuzzle series. It's not uncommon for theme answers' clues to include numbers that hint at something. These numbers could lead to the letter number within the theme answer — KEVIN KLINE [7,9] would return the 7^th and 9^th letters, or L and N — or something completely different. These cryptic hints can be maddeningly difficult to crack, but once you get them, it's magic.

I went into this one with the meta-detective mindset, considering all sorts of strategies on how to use the clue numbers. Clearly, they had to lead to some meta-answer, somehow. Yet when I got to WAR HERO [4,0], I was baffled. How could an enumeration of zero possibly work? Was there a zeroth square hidden to the left of square one?

And when I typed in the last square, I was … done? Adam, this is supposed to be a mid-week puzzle, not one of Matt's deadly week 5 brain-melters!

Oh. I glossed over a long clue, for RHYMING.

Eh?

Ah! AH!

WHHHA?!

GREAT FUN is so apt, those numbers rhyming with their two-word entries. WAR HERO rhymes with FOUR ZERO, that's so novel and entertaining!

It's extremely rare that I run across a puzzle where I can't immediately recall some predecessor or even ancestor on the crosswording evolutionary chain. Along with some delights in GASTROPUB and MCDOUBLES more than making up for gloopy IS TOO VILLE (neighboring town to Whoville), I haven't decided on my POW! so quickly in ages. Bravo, Adam!

(Answer to Adam's bonus: [8, 2, 4] = GREAT SIOUX WAR)

– puzzle by Adam Aaronson

★ Mind-bending concept, three animals replaced by their collective noun. Three CROWs equal a MURDER, three LIONs a PRIDE, and three ANTs a COLONY. I love the innovation within the old-hat rebus genre, making for a memorable debut.

Memorable gridwork, too. Consider how many themers Andrew had to work with. It's not simply four Acrosses, but nine crossing Downs — triplets crammed together! There are so few possibilities containing LION, it's miraculous that any arrangement of SCALLION, PAVILION, A MILLION BUCKS worked.

I especially appreciated the gridwork in the BOLO TIE region, where so many themers interacted. With PRIDE MONTH lacing through CROWD NOISE and MICROWATT, I'd expect globs of crossword epoxy holding it all together. Such smooth results — with so few black squares in that area, allowing for not just BOLO TIE but also BRUNEI. Brilliant!

My frustratingly obsessive brain held me back from giving this an auto-POW!, as it raised a yellow flag, immediately recalling Paolo's Fireball. There are so many similarities. First reaction: ugh.

However, this is almost surely a product of constraints. So many of the themers have so few options, that if you asked 100 experienced constructors to work up this concept, I bet that out of the 10 who didn't stab their eyes out, 8 or 9 would arrive at something approaching this northwest corner.

Should Paolo's prior art take away from Andrew's debut? Paolo's isn't easy to find, the themers not even showing up on Matt Ginsberg's extensive database, and it ran in a different publication with a different target audience. Given the fact that constructors come up with identical ideas independently all the time — just like scientists — I shook off my hesitations.

This is the type of envelope-pushing I love to see in Thursday puzzles. It's a shame that Andrew got there much later than Paolo, but hopefully NYT tricksy Thursdays will continue to push boundaries in even more creative ways.

– puzzle by Andrew Linzer

★ It's a pleasure to encounter a set of connections I'd never thought of before — especially when it involves items that are in my fridge. I have a full bottle of RANCH DRESSING and a container of COTTAGE CHEESE that have been sitting for a month because my kids thought they sounded delicious ... and then they spurned both after tasting a fraction of a molecule. Stupid marketers; so annoyingly successful.

I wasn't impressed by the first themer, since there's a picture of a log cabin on the bottle — so much for subtlety. Then, I realized that it wasn't just LOG CABIN SYRUP that was named to give it a rustic feel. The words RANCH and COTTAGE are also employed to get at their foods' humble beginnings.

And HOMEMADE MEALS is a great way to tie the three foods together, plus make it all work with crossword symmetry. Love it.

I wasn't as wild about the gridwork. Four 13s is no joke, as each one forces two black square placements. Almost any four-themer grid can be executed with some long Down bonuses and a completely clean grid, though.

I appreciate the effort to work in great bonuses like MIND MELD, HABANERA, STILETTO, but even a single crossing like ORU (Oral Roberts University) / HABANERA can leave newer solvers in a TAILSPIN.

Okay, that is a ton of bonuses. I prefer a cleaner product to serve the NYT's broad range of less-experienced solvers, but I can understand the opposing philosophical viewpoint.

Most importantly, an excellent theme is an excellent theme. I spent an hour trying to come up with a single other possible entry but failed miserably. (KOZY SHACK PUDDING was the closest I got.) That element of tightness made this theme stand out.

– puzzle by Kathy Wienberg

★ I loved Andy Weir's latest book, Project Hail Mary. It's so inspiring to imagine humankind achieving the impossible.

Also inspiring: today's fantastic theme phrases! I would never have guessed that OPPORTUNITY, CURIOSITY, and INGENUITY could be incorporated into sizzling phrases (SPIRIT is easier). MORBID CURIOSITY is incredible.

I wasn't as wild about the revealer, as MARTIAN MISSIONS felt clunky; not nearly as strong as MARS MISSIONS or MARS LANDERS.

More importantly, the revealer gave away the game much too quickly. I love the moonshot at grid art (although I squinted so hard my glasses broke), and using left-right symmetry can easily allow for the revealer to go at the end of the puzzle, where it's supposed to. Singular MARS MISSION or plural MARS LANDERS in row 12 would have been perfect.

Dreaming big is admirable. It gets people thinking beyond their limits. Trying to build around five grid-spanners with only 72 words, though … there must be a balance between dreams and reality. The bottom corners show the most strain, not a surprise given how many Down answers had to weave through two themers.

As with space missions, continuous improvement is critical, and another 10 or 20 revisions could have turned this into a tremendous lift-off puzzle for two new constructors.

Even with the rickety elements, though, the quality of the theme phrases + the inspirational nature of the concept + Lawrence's space exploration background added up to win me over. Can't wait to see what Noki, Lawrence, and Andy Weir put out next.

– puzzle by Noki Trias and Lawrence Barrett

★ I haven't been so happily stumped by "Name That Theme" in ages. RAILROAD STATION … MARKET CRASH … CINNAMON BUN? Could it be a "words that can follow X" theme ... nope. Their first words aren't synonyms, nor are their last. Perhaps there are words hidden in the middle of the themers? Nuh-uh.

I give. Tell me the revealer!

STOP DROP AND ROLL?

How does that …

Ah! RAILROAD STATION is a STOP, MARKET CRASH is a DROP, and CINNAMON BUN is a ROLL. Elation as the lightbulb finally flicked on!

I love that each of the three theme phrases is strong and in the language, plus they're all nouns. Verbs might have worked for any, like COME TO AN END, TAKE THE PLUNGE, or SHOOT CRAPS, so it's elegant to connect the themers further through consistency.

Solid gridwork, especially for a debut. With four themers, there's always room for at least two long bonuses, and BRIE LARSON and ANOTHER ONE hit that mark.

Most importantly for a Monday puzzle, Tomas took such care to avoid sticky globs of glue. Bryn MAWR might look unfamiliar to some. AERO is easy enough to figure out from etymology. Given such excellence in gridding, I'd suggest that Tomas try adding another set of long Downs in the SW and NE next time.

This finance guy never likes hearing about a MARKET CRASH, but he loves it when a theme crashes joyously over him. No CRABs today.

– puzzle by Tomas Spiers

★ Themelesses featuring grid-spanning 15-letter marquees can be tough to pull off since these long entries take up a lot of real estate. Often, the rest of the grid isn't juicy enough. Not today! Fourteen long answers (8+ letters) is about average for a themeless, so hitting the norm while featuring great REQUIRED READING and PENCIL SHARPENER is an excellent result.

Standout clue for PENCIL SHARPENER, too — making good points in the classroom, heh. I love these types of themeless entries because not only are they colorful, but they lend themselves to such delightful wordplay.

The marquee entries were solid, but Hal hooked me at TAQUERIA crossing QUESADILLA. The former mystified me until I remembered how much I love mole sauces, and the latter made me crack up, remembering Marshawn Lynch's cameo on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."

AND a QQQ staircase, with the Q of IRAQ / QUEST? I love it even more, considering how well QQQ has treated investors over the past two decades.

I worried about wastage when I encountered ISOTONIC and NEAR SIDE, but everything else was thumbs-up. I've jumped to work in EUROZONE in some of my constructions, only to realize that it's boring because it's hard to riff on. Wish I had thought to play on "tender union."

I also enjoyed the freshness of HI TOP FADES. I attempted to give my neighbor's two-year-old a HI-TOP FADE last year, to disastrous results. Good thing hair grows back quickly.

Icing on the cake was RUMOR MILL, a great entry made even better by its amusing clue. I didn't know what a dirt farm was, but that didn't stop me from loving the wordplay.

– puzzle by Hal Moore

★ CHEF'S KISS is right! Perfect Saturday puzzle. This further establishes Nam Jin as a preeminent themeless constructor. Hard to believe his debut was only about a year ago.

Did you notice the diagonal symmetry along the NW to SE axis? Not only is it different — this long-time solver appreciates different — but it's purposeful. Running triple-stacked long entries through each other often makes a themeless constructor's life doubly agonizing because even if you can achieve greatness in one corner, you have to do it again in the opposite.

Not so with diagonal symmetry! Check out how much easier the SE is to fill than the NW.

And what excellent results in the NW. The horizontal stack is the star, with three marquee entries. The vertical stack isn't nearly as strong, but with HOOKAH BAR, it's so much better than a typical triple-stack-intersecting-into-triple-stack result.

Something unusual and cool about two long entries with a terminal F. Both SANS SERIF and NOTE TO SELF didn't come easy because I couldn't convince myself that this might happen. So many long entries in themelesses end in common RSTLNE letters.

Such entertaining cluing, too — material that made me feel smart. Great mix of giveaway question marks ("overdrawn account?" = YARN) and brilliant misdirects that you don't necessarily need to understand to solve. I missed why ERS were transcript omissions until Jim Horne mentioned that it's not a college transcript but a spoken one.

I love it when a constructor sets me up for a smashing victory, like an en fuego game of pool where each shot leaves the cue ball with a perfect angle for the next shot, culminating in slamming the eight-ball home. It's rare that I'll want to see a themeless byline repeated more than once a month, but I'm adding Nam Jin's name to that list.

– puzzle by Nam Jin Yoon

★ I don't know if it's because Jeff and I share the same first name, we both have two kids, or that his wife inspired him around constructing just like mine did, but this puzzle tickled me. I laughed at a majority of these dad jokes, which is saying a lot considering I don't even laugh at my own!

(Somehow, my kids still call me the funny one.)

DROP EVERYTHING as a pitch (sorry) for a mitt with a hole in it? NO STRINGS ATTACHED for a broken guitar you might pick (get it, guitar pick?)? I'd describe a book with missing pages as a LIMITED EDITION, without anyone being able to read me.

Thank you, I'm here every day!

I didn't understand BUY NOW PAY LATER — why do you pay later due to empty wallet slots? — and DOORBUSTER DEAL didn't play on a broken item like the rest. But five hearty/groany laughs is a great result.

Along with solid gridwork that didn't get in the way of the solve, and a plethora of dad-jokey clues, Jeff stuck the DISMOUNT. Okay, okay, I'm finally getting off my high horse!

– puzzle by Jeff Kremer

★ Fantastic finds! As if I wasn't already wowed by FRIDA spaced out through FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, SEVEN through OCEANS ELEVEN was doubly interesting because both movies are number-related.

And then the coup de grace, HEAT found twice throughout THE GODFATHER PART II. At first, I wondered if that double-vision was strange? But the duality of the themers echoed by two HEATs — as well as THE GODFATHER, Part II! — made it such a captivating finale.

I hadn't heard of INHERENT VICE, and HER all together (instead of spaced out like the others) made it less impactful. However, I admire Joaquin Phoenix's body of work so much that this entry cued me to add these movies onto my long to-be-watched list.

When a theme concept is this strong, the best thing to do with your grid is to make sure it doesn't get in the way. Work in a few bonuses if you can — EXOTIC FISH, NO SIREE BOB, NEED A LIFT, REN FAIRE, LOW LIFES more than do the trick — and keep your short fill unnoticeable. Adam did an impeccable job, not only keeping his quantity of gluey bits to way less than Sunday average but limiting them to gettable entries like ELLS, PHS (think PH paper), TO BE.

Sunday puzzles ought to have themes that captivate solvers all the way through the large canvas, and this did exactly that. I'd pay a premium if every Sunday NYT were half as entertaining.

– puzzle by Adam Wagner

★ I'm only vaguely familiar with OGDEN Nash's poetry — most through crosswords — but what a treat, these kooky animal rhymes. I have huge admiration for works that I couldn't imagine creating, and even with eight million limbs, there's no way I'd compose "Tell me, O Octopus, I begs, / Is those things arms," OR IS THEY LEGS? Bravo!

Nash is prolific, so how could you possibly pick only four of his best lines? Jenny and Victor did a fantastic job, narrowing it down to animals. I also appreciated that they stayed away from the popularized ones: Candy is dandy, but LIQUOR IS QUICKER, for example. I'd only heard the kitten/CAT line before, so I was treated to experiencing the rest for the first time.

My solve was much longer than usual, partially because of the thematic novelty, but the fill felt harder than a typical Tuesday. Starting with tough vocab in PARSE — crossed by ROTI — I stumbled out of the gate. EDUCE is another SAT prep word, and if you don't follow the Transformers (the AUTOBOTs vs. the Decepticons), that crossing could be deceptive. Given that the theme was on the difficult side, it'd have been nice to ease up the short fill. Perhaps blander but putting up less of a fight.

Great bonuses, the four long downs placed perfectly for smart spacing, and used to full potential: NOW SEE HERE, STEP ON IT, MOCKTAIL, NEW RELEASE all excellent.

It's neat that an older poet (born in 1902) gave me such amusement. I bet Nash fans might find this one too easy, but they might also appreciate one of their favorites being featured.

– puzzle by Jennifer Lee and Victor Galson

★ Eye-opening finds. I love these space-addition/deletion/shifting discoveries, GOLD INGOT and HOLDING ON sharing that long string of middle letters. Haters tend to say that these themes feel computer-generated, but this one requires a ton of human sifting. It's easy to write code to come up with pairs of entries differing only in their first/last letters. It's much, much harder to identify which of the thousands of finds are interesting.

There are tricks to cutting down possible pairs. You can eliminate terminal Ss, for instance, since things like CISTERN and SISTERS aren't impressive. You can require a space deletion or a space addition or a space shifting, but that will still allow a bunch of bland add-a-preposition phrases through. Then there's the issue of false negatives, i.e., the possibilities you miss by tightening the constraints too much.

There's a lot of artistry in organizing searches like this one. I had the good fortune to do a backyard hangout with David and Jim Horne last month, and I could happily chat for hours about an interesting problem like this.

Neat idea to incorporate the finds into rebus squares, too. Something was clearly odd about GA?AP, so breaking open GA(SC)AP made for a satisfying a-ha.

Great clues throughout, too. Kicking off the puzzle with [Where students might kick their feet up] — as in karate kicks in a DOJO — told me that I'd be in for some fun. It continued all the way to the end, where [Outdated charging device?] baffled me, even with the telltale question mark. Describing a LANCE as a "charging device" in a joust such a terrible pun that I groaned with delight.

It's so hard to come up with novel Thursday ideas, and this one scratched the itch I've been having for months now. Maybe it'll play hard for some solvers, since so much is going on, but the solve felt so worth the effort.

– puzzle by David Steinberg

★ I love getting cleverly stymied in "Name That Theme." NUTS AND BOLTS. AN ARM AND A LEG. Clearly, it's X AND Y phrases. Let's figure out what ties them more tightly.

Wait. LIGHTNING ROD?

Bzzt … literally!

At that point, I went looking for hidden words like SAND in NUTS AND BOLTS and MAN in AN ARM AND A LEG. Nope.

Maybe BOLTS, LEG, ROD are all different parts of … a Wankel rotary engine?

Even this mechanical engineer snickered.

Wait! The BOLTS is the nickname for the San Diego Chargers. The LEG … is the nickname of their punter, Mr. ROD?

An appropriate bzzzzt!!! for that Chargers theory.

Such a huge smile on my face upon uncovering FRANKENSTEIN. All three themers work beautifully, these figures of speech literally things that Dr. FRANKENSTEIN needed. You might even say that this joke was a graveyard smash.

Ow, stop smashing me!

A couple of blips in execution, not surprisingly showing up in the 1.) big NW corner (LAOTSE crossing ARS) and 2.) middle, where two themers squish together (ENGR crossing the ambiguous G CLEFS). Much of this stems from having to squeeze themers together since the 12-letter FRANKENSTEIN had to go in row 12, not 13. Some massaging could have helped boot out the AMIE/AMI and SNERTy crossword glue, but there's a case to be made that goodies like AD LIBS, MEADOW, AMOEBA, ROADIE, TWISTY, DONKEY …

And now that I see all those mid-length bonuses, I'm perfectly fine with these trade-offs.

What I want most out of a crossword, especially these days, is a few minutes of diversion, maybe some smiles, and even a laugh. I got all that and a whole lot more today. You might even say I was buzzing with electricity—

Bzzt bzzt BZZZZZZT!!!!

– puzzle by Michael Schlossberg

★ This is a perfect example of why people shouldn't listen to me.

If Katie had approached me for feedback, I'd have replied that the general approach is fine — we've seen sports term reinterpretations for golf, basketball, football, and many more. However, a mishmash from all different sports? What is this, a Calvinball crossword?

Moreover, I'd have suggested that terms like UNPLAYABLE LIE might turn off sportsball haters. Heck, even OFFENSIVE REBOUND might have that effect (unless you're a bball junkie like me). Will Shortz has such a vast solving population to address that he usually pushes to the masses.

The fact that Katie picked and chose from the entire sporting universe, looking for odd and interesting terms that best lent themselves to reinterpretation, is exactly what made this puzzle stand out.

Maybe you don't know the dreaded 7-10 split in bowling, but what a clever idea to imagine it as a time to leave. I'm no golf fan, but I could at least guess what an UNPLAYABLE LIE might be. Such a huge change in meaning, to an untruthy statement that can't be rebroadcast.

It was probably even funnier pre-2016 ...

It'd have been so meta if the grid had a black corner square in the NW — a perfect STARTING BLOCK to insiders. Still, an empty square can be called a "block," perhaps.

I also appreciated that Katie didn't try to do too much with her grid. Work in a handful of bonuses (RAISE HELL, TEEN MOVIE, YO YO TRICK, UNION REP), take meticulous care to avoid crossword glue (only APA and INRI is outstanding Sunday cleanliness) ... it's not a complicated formula, but so many constructors push too hard to feature some snazzy bonus they're in love with, aim for a personal-best low-word-count, etc. and end up with a product that I hear tons of complaints about.

Even not knowing some of the phrases right off the top, I still breezed through the entire puzzle, solving in record time due to the grid's top-notch smoothness. That made me feel smart, and who doesn't like feeling smart? Ten minutes of pleasure and ego-boosting, accentuated by several humorous highs? Yes, please! Every Sunday NYT needs to be at least this good.

– puzzle by Katie Hale

★ A perfect Saturday crossword.

72 words is the max allowable for a themeless, so the bar is sky high. Not only do you have to maximize every long slot and use near-zero dabs of crossword glue, but these days, there's another requirement: your short entries can't be boring. Will Shortz gets so many themeless submissions that he can shrug at entries like ERA AREA ARENA. Maybe this seems arbitrary, but it's hard to produce anything interesting for these words now — interesting both for him and for solvers. Caitlin and Erik hit all these marks.

Where this puzzle absolutely dazzles is in clever cluing. Roughly five great ones and I'm impressed, but I tallied nine today. Even better, they came from a wide assortment of categories:

• Question Mark Fun. Clearly, something tricksy is going on with [Undesirable bedmates?]. Doesn't stop the fun of talking about WEEDS in flower beds.
• Innocent Misdirection. Repurposing "blowing off steam" to describe a VOLCANO is Einsteinian.
• Punnery. I'd never think of turning Watergate into "water gait" or linking it to WADE.
• Figure-out-able Trivia. "Four-letter countries" is a common trivia category, and if you remember French colonization in West Africa, TOGO pops out.
• Colloquial. NO SPOILERS is such a zingy phrase. "Wait, wait, don't tell me!" is even better.
• Enticing. Someone with an awesome catchphrase, IT'S HANDLED? Now I can't wait to find out who Olivia Pope is!

On that note, I need to issue an apology to Kameron Austin Collins, as well as other solvers out there who love names in grids. Years ago, I got turned off when OLIVIA POPE caused me to finish with an error. There are many solvers who write to me that they hate names in grids — whether or not they're fairly crossed. I ignorantly assumed that this was the vast majority of solvers. Now I realize there's a segment, notably of younger folks, who strongly disagree.

I still don't love name-heavy grids, preferring pure fun and diversion in my crosswording. And from a results-driven perspective (if that's one of your goals), today's approach finally got me to read up on Olivia Pope — with high interest, at that.

When a name-heavy grid comes up, I try to keep Erik's editorial philosophy in mind: "this one might not be aimed at you, but maybe tomorrow's will be." I'll continue to make mistakes and say ignorant things, but I'll strive to keep listening and learning.

Anyway, I wish I had the skill to make a puzzle half this outstanding. Perhaps my favorite of 2021.

P.S. CONEY refers to the CONEY dog. Megatoad for the win!

– puzzle by Caitlin Reid and Erik Agard