New York Times, Monday, April 27, 2015

I fell in love with the word GOBSMACKED, thus this puzzle. As it turns out there are some really fun phrases that mean the same thing. I was just lucky that BLEW and AWAY match lengths to give me the perfect reveal.

This puzzle was accepted a while back, but just recently when looking at the grid, I decided I could do better so I asked Will if he'd consider a revision. Happily he said yes and with his input the end result is much improved over my original submission.

I really didn't know how to clue the theme answers as they all mean the same thing. My idea was to leave those clues blank, like they've been blown away, and use BLEW/AWAY as the definition for all. I like what Will came up with much, much better.

This is my third puzzle for the NYT and what's really exciting for me is that it's my solo debut. I hope that, while maybe not mind-blowing, it'll bring a smile or two.

Synonyms for [Left speechless]; DUMBSTRUCK and GOBSMACKED are really lively words. I hadn't heard of KICKED IN THE HEAD in this sense, but apparently it was a phrase that came into widespread use back in Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.'s day. Nice throwback.

For me, BLEW AWAY and KNOCKED FOR A LOOP weren't as colorful as the others, as they both felt slightly off — BLOWN AWAY and THROWN FOR A LOOP, yeah? If only the latter options has worked for crossword symmetry.

People often ask me what I mean by "colorful." It's a completely subjective term, but for me, Johanna's upper right corner exemplifies the word. TAKE THAT! / HOOKAH / HECK YES! are all entries I'd be happy to see in a themelesses. They're fun to say, and they evoke vivid images in my mind. (Although smoking flavored tobacco out of a HOOKAH was much more fun in idea than in taste. And aftertaste.)

That corner also exemplifies the Constructor's Dilemma. On one side of the spectrum, you can make part of your grid perfectly smooth, but it comes out with no zing. On the other side, you can jam-pack it with great material, but that usually requires some gluey entries to hold it together. Is all the great fill up there worth TRA and CIEL/TIA crossing? I think so, but there's merit to the argument that the intersection of two foreign words — one requiring a pretty good background in French — isn't desirable.

Finally, really nice job with filling the west and east sections. Typically those are the hardest spots to get smooth in this configuration (two 15-letter entries in the middle of the grid). Having three consecutive down answers that intersect two themers, i.e. 25-D, 26-D, 27-D, is tough. Excellent work to escape both areas with only an ECONO prefix.