Alan Arbesfeld author page

H2O -> H (to) O makes for a strong "letter swap" rationale. It's been a minute since we've seen a numeral in a grid, so I'd say I dig-it.

"Letter swap" puzzles are so old hat that you have to do something special to make one stand out. The numeral in H2O helps, but it's not enough. Thankfully, some of Alan's transformations were eye-opening — it turns out that there aren't as many pairs of words that work with the swap. (You can use our Replacement Finder to see for yourself.) I'm no oenophile, but I recognized SOAVE enough that I could appreciate the cool SHAVE to SOAVE change.

I'd have loved some longer words or examples involving a space shift — like LOST IN THE SHUFFLE to LOST IN THE SOUFFLE (I'm currently hooked on "Iron Chef") or BITCHIN' CAMARO to BITCOIN CAMARO.

In the past, I've been critical of Alan's puzzles when he goes too low in his word count, ending up with excessive grid glue. Today, I appreciated the cleanliness, only some MEADE AMOR. However, given that this is a Thursday puzzle and there are only four themers plus a short revealer, more color would have been great. I think he could have taken out the black square between OMNI and NOME, for example, and added pizzazz while keeping it as smooth.

A straightforward letter swap isn't my Thursday ideal, but using a numeral helped make it more interesting.

X in the Y patterns ... ah, brings back memories — I dipped into that well for my first crossword theme, way back in 2009. We've seen several other implementations over the years, but it's tough to locate them all in our database because they appear in bizarre ways. (Our Clue Finder can be helpful, if you search for the word "literally.")

I appreciated Alan's consistency, always using phrases beginning with THE. Some might feel that that's too repetitive, but it does make things easier for newer solvers. My solving time was much longer than usual, so I imagine some newbs might have gotten discouraged if the initial THEs didn't give them no-brainer toeholds.

I did pause at THE NIP BUD. With so many options available — MAN IN THE MOON, ACE IN THE HOLE, ROLL IN THE HAY, etc. — it was kick in the pants to see this one. Plenty of folks won't notice or care, but I doubt many Asian constructors would make this choice, and it wouldn't surprise me if some solvers pushed back.

(Full disclosure: It didn't bother me enough to mention it to Will Shortz pre-publication.)

Given that there are so many themer possibilities, and that this concept has been done soooo many times over the years, it needed an extra layer to help it stand out. For example, use AIR and SKY, toss in MOON, and you might have a theme that has a real THE PLACE SUN.

Not easy to work with six themers, and Alan did a solid job of converting his mid-length slots into bonuses. BEANBAG, DATASET, ITS OPEN added spice. I'd have preferred fewer themers and some longer bonuses, but these mid-lengthers added a lot of JINGLE to the ELIXIR.

The constructors' dream is for a fresh, famous TOD or LEY to emerge. Crucivera, oh great Goddess of Crosswords, we pray to thee to make it happen!

Curious choice to run a tricksy theme on a Tuesday. I like switching things up once in a while, but if you're going to spank newbs with a tough theme, I'd try much harder to be friendlier with the grid. Kicking things off with a tough piece of vocab in SPINET, the odd ENOTES, and a head-tilting ONE RATE ... I'm eager to gauge the reactions from my greener solving friends.

Homophones have been a crossword staple for decades. Look up any list of homophones, pick out a set containing four or more, and chances are it'll have been in a crossword before. For instance, I first tried WRIGHT, searching *WRIGHT* (the asterisk means "anything," so this will find any phrase containing WRIGHT), and voila! An Arbesfeld from 20 years ago.

Because of the overexposure, it's rare for me to delight in a homophone puzzle these days. However, today's tickled me! At first, it seemed run-of-the-mill, but the more I studied it, the more I appreciated it. Although this theme uses syllables instead of full words, it's uncommon to feature six homophones.

It made me wonder, is this a perfectly tight set? HI, HAI, HIGH, HEIGH, HEI, HY? It took me 30 minutes to finally land on HIERONYMOUS BOSCH. If you can think of another, I'd love to hear it.

Unfortunately, the first themer I uncovered was HAIKU POEM, since it's more common to hear it as simply HAIKU. The overly descriptive HAIKU POEM does work, but it would have been better to bury this entry toward the bottom of the puzzle. Lead with your best stuff!

Speaking of best, this might be my favorite of Alan's (large body of) gridwork. Alan often attempts to go way under the maximum word count, which can result in a ton of gluey or esoteric entries. I worried about that even more, since Monday puzzles are so important to keep clean.

Wow, was I impressed! I'm so glad he stuck at 78 words (the max) and didn't try to do too much. There's nothing showy in the grid, but it's mostly all AGREEABLE (I'd prefer to keep out ARAL, NEHI, and TYRE), and that's so critical for a Monday puzzle.

An interesting concept, a meaty set of homophones, and a clean grid = a product I'd happily give to a newb. That's a big success.

DROP ME A LINE is a great phrase to riff on, and it perfectly explains what's going on today. We've written ME in white to help you see the theme entries more clearly, but we've also grayed out the MEs below those. Fun idea.

I wasn't sure why SHAME was clued as SHA, similarly THYME to THY and NO TIME to NOT I. Those dropped MEs seem like they should cleverly blend into the background, rather than sticking out. Then again, this way does make it easier for solvers to figure out the concept. They might not understand why KISS and KATE are connected, or they might not grok why THYME is weirdly clued, but chances are they won't be stumped by both.

Cleanliness isn't as important to me in a Thursday product since not many newbs dare to tread in these deep waters. However, Alan hit most every type of glue called out by editors in their specs sheets. There aren't any partials, but I introduce Exhibits A, B, C, and D:

1. Tough names: KYD EARLE AHN THEA
2. Foreign words: OBIS AMI
3. Esoteric words: MOSELLE ILIAC SWALE ESKER
4. Abbreviations or shortened words: ERE TIS

It's not a quality product.

I liked the idea, but I would have asked for a complete overhaul. I bet shifting KEEP IN TOUCH to the far left (and DROP ME A LINE to the far right) would have created better spacing.

And don't get me started on how THANK (ME) LATER causes gridwork problems. It isn't a great phrase, anyway, so a replacement would have done wonders.

(It might seem like DONT GET (ME) STARTED would be tougher to grid around since it's longer than THANK (ME) LATER. However, it'd be much easier to work with, since it doesn't force awkward black square placements.)

Another central entry pattern that would be easier to work with: _ _ _ ME _ _ _ . If we could only think of something that would fit. Hmm, let me see …

All in all, a concept well worth executing on, but the gridwork issues drove me crazy.

Hidden word themes can be judged by three criteria:

1. How long (and/or interesting) is the hidden word? It's easy to find most three-letters words within a phrase, like PEW. It's much harder, and therefore more notable, to feature a seven-letter (!) word like OTTOMAN.
2. Is the theme phrase in-the-language; natural-sounding? PIPE WRENCH, absolutely. COMES OF AGE, great! DUTCH AIRLINE made me pause, but in the end, I didn't mind, since KLM is, in fact, a DUTCH AIRLINE. A LOT TO MANAGE … I confidently filled in A LOT TO HANDLE, and it was a lot to handle to change that.
3. Does the hidden word touch every word of the phrase? Not all editors care about this, but Will Shortz is strict about avoiding words that do no work. The initial A in A LOT TO MANAGE isn't part of OTTOMAN, for instance. (Since A is such a minor word, it's fine.)

None of Alan's findings are perfect — PEW in PIPE WRENCH is a shortie, CHAIR inside DUTCH AIRLINE is a neat finding but DUTCH AIRLINE isn't a great phrase — but overall, it's a crossworthy set with a perfect revealer in MIDDLE SEAT.

A lot to manage in the fill, though. (Okay, it's growing on me.) There's so much to turn off newer solvers, an OLEO (or is that an olio?) of toughies like EDY, GAI, NEN. These aren't nearly as overlookable as something more minor like DDE. Crossing NEN with MACNEIL makes it even worse.

Six themers are rarely easy to pull off, especially when you're building an early-week grid appropriate for newbs. I did like the variety of the themers, though, so I hesitate to suggest cutting one out. What might have helped produce a better overall product: stacking themers, like PIPE WRENCH and COMES OF AGE in subsequent rows, for example. That can require a lot of trial and error, arranging and rearranging themers to form friendly letter pairings, but it would have been well worth it.

I completely failed at "Name that Theme" today. DOGGIE BAG was my first entry, easy enough—probably an animal theme! Except that it was the odd-looking DOGGY BAGS (not to be confused with DOOGIE BAG, what Doogie Howser, M.D. carried around).

BULLY PULPIT slowed "Guess that Theme" further, then sidetracked it. DOGGY and BULLY … are both animal-based adjectives? I knew that DOGGIE BAGs originated as a container to take home bones and such. BULLY isn't related to bull, though.

Or is my overthinking just a bunch of bull? (As always, yes.)

Etymology online doesn't give a definitive answer, sadly. So the theme couldn't be animal adjectives. Maybe it was a repeated letter pattern theme, words ending with doubled-consonant + Y?

KITTY CORNER … no, CATTY CORNER? Looks like both terms are in use. My daughter, an ardent pleader for us to get a kitty, argues for the former.

No victorious fist-pumping moment, given my struggles to figure out if there was indeed more than just a repeated letter pattern theme.

I *think* maybe perhaps sorta kinda ... it's supposed to be all animal-derived adjectives?

In any case, I do like that Alan came up with a novel set of themers. Sure made me think, and that's rarely a bad thing.

The other big factor in my sadly-non-fist-pumping-Monday was the difficulty baked into the fill. Educated solvers should at least be familiar with world capitals, so LUANDA is 100% fair game. When you force newb solvers to additionally wade through ORONO YORBA plus the tough names ERNO GIAN ALBEE, though, that's a recipe for making people walk away.

I'm a broken record, pounding the bully pulpit that low word-count grids shouldn't be allowed if they punish the solver. As much as I like how MY IT'S LATE and MENTORING / DYNASTY spice up the grid, they're not at all worth potentially losing solvers.

Overall, Will has done a great job of welcoming newb solvers into the fold — it's day and night compared to Maleska, who seemed to delight in the insularity of crosswords. I wish Will Shortz would crack down on grids like these. There are a couple of offenders he keeps letting slide, over and over and over again.

When Jill and I first started dating (almost ten years ago!), I quickly learned that she enjoyed crosswords and Scrabble. So when she went back to Indiana for Christmas that year, I planned a little surprise while I schlepped her to the airport through two feet of snow. As I let her off at curbside, I slipped a present into her luggage.

The next day, I sent her a cryptic message: MIX TACKIEST COUPLES

Her response: ???

Me: STIR TOE TUSK IPECAC

Her: ?????

Third time's a charm, maybe?: ALTER CACTUS SPIKE TOE

Her: if this is someone who's stolen Jeff's phone, I'm calling the police

Me: no, wait! It's a puzzle! A fun one! I swear!

Her: TELL ME ALREADY OR I WILL REACH INTO THE PHONE AND THROTTLE YOU

Me: I put some of your favorite chocolate bars in your SUITCASE POCKET

Her: … … … aww! Sorry I threatened you with bodily injury.

Long story short, I imagine Alan had as much fun as I did making up the state anagrams. I'm not sure how many solvers will care to go back and solve them, unfortunately. I wouldn't have, if my OCD didn't compel me to list them out: WASHINGTON, NEBRASKA, WISCONSIN, TENNESSEE, DELAWARE, CALIFORNIA.

Along with the plethora of tough proper names: ARAMIS, DE SICA, MERSEY, ELBE (one foreign river per puzzle, please), even my beloved ASTERIX, I can relate to how Jill felt over that set of messages.

There was a guy on my Ultimate frisbee team we codenamed "binary fingers." You'd hope that there would be a better story behind it, but it was because he loved showing everyone how to count in binary on his fingers. Thumb is the 1s digit, index finger is the 2s, middle finger is the 4s, ring finger the 8s, pinky the 16s. For instance, you stick up ring finger (8) + index (2) + thumb (1) to make 11 (8 + 2 + 1). See?

Then he'd joke about giving you the number 4.

(Think about what that would look like …)

Man, we were dorks.

I liked how Alan combined some tried and true ideas to make something a little new. Phrases starting with numbers + homophones + doubling, through a good revealer in DOUBLE HEADER? That works.

The grid had some nice material in it, too. Some COLD ONES, the UNIVERSE, BITMAP, DO-GOODER, SEQUIOAS. Strong bonuses!

That almost made up for all the gluey bits and the odd longer material. Almost. I can let some NFLER ERG OVO VUE slide. Add in EGESTS though. S-CLASS. IN AN HOUR?

The problem — all too common these days — stems from too low a word count. Not a surprise to find out that this one clocked in at 70 words, much lower than usual for a weekday puzzle. I'd like some DO GOODERs to help me do good by encouraging constructors not to do this anymore. Think of how much smoother, how much more elegant the SW / NE corners would have been if they had been broken up.

A stellar grid can help elevate a theme that's just run of the mill. But it's all too easy to go astray and have the opposite effect.

★ So clever! This one reminded me of another change-of-spacing puzzle I loved. Not sure if I ever would have come up with the idea of:

1. Sticking countries together
2. Parsing them for kooky results
3. Tying things neatly up with the perfect UNITED NATIONS revealer.

MALI ESTONIA becomes MA LIES TO NIA? What a fantastic find! And PERUSER BIAS PAIN doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but still, it's the type of discovery I wish I would have made. PERU SERBIA SPAIN … wow, what a change those spaces make!

Sometimes I feel like I'm too harsh on Alan's gridwork. You could easily go to town on ELL ONT OPEL SHUL TNG ULEE. Another day I would, rambling on at length in gruesome technical detail about how to fix these issues — there are dozens of ways for this particular set of themers.

But today, I'll shut up and just enjoy. This theme shines so brightly that the flaws in execution are easily overlookable. Just like Jacob's puzzle, this one will stick in my memory. That's a rare and lovely occurrence, indeed.

Happy 75^th birthday coming up tomorrow, ROBERT / DENIRO! To me, he's the real Kevin Bacon of the "Six Degrees" game, having been in umpteen movies now. My second favorite was "Midnight Run," where he got a chance to show off his comedic range. And who could forget "Meet the Parents"? Or best yet, his magnificent performance in "The Godfather, Part II"?

Dang, what a mark he's made on American culture!

It's tough to make a list puzzle celebrating a guy who's done so much, because what do you shoehorn in? You're bound to leave out some important stuff, and then include some lesser works for the sake of crossword symmetry.

I don't imagine many would list THE FAN as one of his biggest movies. But it does match ROBERT in length.

As much as I love DENIRO, tribute puzzles don't tend to stick in my mind unless there's something that elevates them. Otherwise, they come across as Wikipedia-esque listings of some of the person's accomplishments.

It's beyond audacious to try to build a puzzle around a theme set of 6 / 6 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 6 / 6. Whoa, that's incredibly high theme density! But given that so many compromises were required from the short fill — I sighed and stopped counting at 10 — I'd have preferred something less theme-dense.

Perhaps just focusing on his two Academy Award roles would have been nice and tight? Heck, this "Godfather" megafan would have been fine with just:

VITO CORLEONE 12

THE GODFATHER 12

ROBERT DENIRO 12

ACADEMY AWARD 12

It's nothing fancy, but at least it's tight, and would allow a lot of freedom to include colorful and clean fill throughout the rest of the grid.

Although, I can see how DENIRO's wide-ranging career would be best represented by as much darn theme you could stuff into a single grid. So I understand Alan's thinking.

Okay, you all know the joke I'm going to make. But I'm still going to do it. Just hold on a sec while I analyze the puzzle.

I couldn't quite figure out what the theme was at first. The themers … start with the same sound? CY, SI, SCI, PSY? Oh, wait. SAY and CI also have this sound, in SAYONARA and CITATION? Okay, that's pretty interesting, how many ways the sound can be spelled.

Another cool element: I couldn't come up with any other entries that would fit, with a different spelling of that sound. There's PSI, but PSI OMEGA or something doesn't work in the same way, as PSI is a full word. So I appreciated the tightness of the theme, a full set of six.

But the grid execution …

SIGH.

(You couldn't expect me to resist that, could you?)

Way too much crossword glue. These days, a puzzle can't allow TENN ERN RIATA SDAK UKE ATRI anymore, unless it was all working for an incredible theme. What ADRAG, indeed.

Yes, it's tough to execute on six themers, all of them pretty long. But there are a lot of ways of executing on six themers that work much better.

• Swapping the shorter answers, SAYONARA / CITATION, with SILENT NIGHT / SCIENCE FAIR, often produces better spacing.
• You can also try squishing themers together, say in rows 3 and 4.
• Or putting two of the themers vertical.
• Or perhaps sacrificing some of the long fill. URBAN MYTH and GO IT ALONE are nice, but not if the price to pay in terms of crossword glue is so high.

Although I had to think about the theme a lot, it's a neat concept. (Or maybe because I had to think about it?) But the gridwork let the puzzle down.

I was mystified at first — why wouldn't you use the proper ordering of the moon's phases: from NEW to CRESCENT to HALF to FULL? And why on earth (or on the moon) would you separate out HALF from the series? Alan's decisions seemed bizarre.

How embarrassing to realize that I've had the sequence wrong all these years! It's actually NEW to CRESCENT to QUARTER to GIBBOUS to FULL.

Wait, you say, what about HALF? It's the kookiest thing. HALF is equal to QUARTER when it comes to the moon's phases.

Wha … ?

Well, QUARTER refers to the fact that it's a quarter of the way through the full lunar month cycle. So even though it looks like a HALF moon, it's a QUARTER moon. And both are correct.

Whoever named these is seriously messed up.

So you see Alan's dilemma? It's great that he strove to incorporate the sequence — I've seen plenty of "word that can precede MOON" puzzles, i.e. phrases with HARVEST, BLUE, BLOOD, etc., but that puzzle type is passé at this point.

However, there is no good phrase using the word GIBBOUS. Makes sense why he decided to skip it.

And how can you place QUARTER and HALF at the same grid entry? You can't! So I understand that decision to shove HALF off on its own. Reasonable choice to place it symmetrically with MOON.

All in all, too many compromises for my taste. Felt inelegant. I probably would have dropped the theme idea, after realizing what a mess these terms present.

But at least the grid is pretty good for a Monday, with just some ARNE, LIS, ORO. Not perfect, but passable for an early-week puzzle.

Tidy start to the week, a consistent "*AY IT *" pattern featuring some snazzy theme phrases. SAY IT AINT SO is fantastic, as are PLAY IT BY EAR and LAY IT ON THICK. PAY IT FORWARD wasn't a great movie, but what a neat concept.

The only one I was plus/minus on was MAY IT BE. I did enjoy the LotR movies, but that song didn't ring a bell.

Get it? Ring a bell? In Lord of the RINGs?

*crickets chirping*

It's not a mind-blowing theme, but I appreciated that it was a step up from simple rhymes. I tried to think of other good phrases with that pattern, but I couldn't. That's one mark of what I call "tightness" — neat that these five seem to form a complete set.

I've been critical of some of Alan's low word-count Sunday puzzles, which have tended to require a deluge of crossword glue. But today's solving experience was a perfect example of the role I think short fill — words of five letters or less — ought to play. Your job is not to be noticed, short fill! Beautiful execution in that regard, with just some minor EMS, HST, ISA kind of stuff.

Alan could have opened up the grid a bit, possibly by removing a black square between YEN and BALI or even the one between NEIL and SASH. Bravo for not doing so! Made for an easy-breezy, smooth as silk solving experience. It is boring from a constructor's standpoint — going up to 78 words, the max allowable, presents little challenge — but the solving experience must take priority.

Great clues in ROOFER, someone who's work is on the house. And AYES being [Naval agreements?]? Love it!

Strong overall execution, with snappy theme phrases, good long fill, and minimal crossword glue. If the theme had been more exciting, this could have been POW! material.

Four "uplifting remakes," movies with "average" modifiers upgraded into "outstanding." "Ordinary People" to SPECIAL PEOPLE, "The Kids are All Right" to THE KIDS ARE SUPER, etc.

Not sure why this runs on a Thursday. Will has said that all he's aiming for in a Thursday puzzle is ... something harder than a Wednesday. Sure, going down to 72 words made for a tougher solve. But there was no tricksiness to the theme, and it didn't provide me with much of an a-ha moment to warrant the extra work in solving clues made Thursday-tough.

I did enjoy the bizarre "Madly for ADLAI." (Not hard to see why he didn't get elected!)

I didn't enjoy all the crossword glue. For a four-theme puzzle, there shouldn't ever be more than four or five dabs. With ADLAI, AMEBA (variant spelling of AMOEBA), ATTN, ERNO, LTDS, POS, SHEB, etc., it felt unpolished. I can at least understand that if there's enough great fill to balance it out, but I CANT WAIT and MGM LION weren't enough for me to consider it a reasonable trade-off.

My guess is that Alan decided to make it a tougher solve by going down to 72 words, and Will thought this would help him fill out his Thursday slots, which tend to get fewer submissions than most other days of the week. Sometimes the realities of supply and demand are difficult.

I would have much preferred a clean 76- or 78-word grid with four great pieces of bonus fill, run on a Wednesday. Even though the theme didn't tickle me personally, at least I could have enjoyed the grid more that way.

State abbreviations have been mined for crossword themes over and over, but I can't remember this exact implementation. I enjoyed a few, CATCH ME (Maine) IF YOU CAN a potential tourist slogan for the Pine Tree State. EVERYTHINGS OK (Oklahoma) might be another one. Amusing to imagine a bunch of marketing folks brainstorming slogans like these.

Many others didn't work for me, though. LETS KEEP THIS IN (Indiana) HOUSE felt made-up, weak for a central feature base phrase. For as many IN phrases as there are, why not go with one more spectacular? Not to mention, it was weird to get IN in OH (Ohio) TO BE IN ENGLAND, but not have it stand for Indiana.

MA (Massachusetts) and PA (Pennsylvania) KETTLE felt like it should be pluralized; tortured grammar.

HIT OR (Oregon) MISS gave me an uncomfortable picture of physical violence. I hope that's just me.

ONE MO TIME … is that something people say? Seems to be an MC Hammer song?

I appreciated that the grid was smooth(ish). I ticked off about ten dabs of crossword glue, not terrible considering how difficult it is to construct a 21x21.

But I think it's important to avoid too much glue of one type. Notice anything in common between ETUI ENOL ETE EERO ESME EDH? Reminded me of another puzzle I helped a friend out with.

I would have much preferred to go up from 138 words to the maximum of 140, by breaking up GATEWAY at the E. That would have allowed Alan to remove ETUI in the top, and OSS, EERO, ROUE, ETE in the south. GATEWAY is a nice bonus, but it doesn't make up for all those dabs of glue.

Overall, I liked the idea here, and the couple of nice bonuses too, in PAST LIVES / AA MEETING, IM BROKE, MADE SENSE. I think it had the potential to be a really strong puzzle, if it had been spun as "marketing slogans for states."

Quote puzzles are tough to make sizzle. You put all your eggs in one basket, dedicating every one of your precious theme entries to the quote. It has to land well and generate a big laugh, or the puzzle falls flat. This one, playing on the phrase FIGHT / TOOTH AND NAIL, didn't do much for me, but perhaps people more into groany puns will be delighted.

What can help quote puzzles are 1.) addition of bonus entries that help keep a solver's attention, and 2.) clean short fill so that if it's not your cup of tea, at least it's a silky smooth solve.

I liked the additions of SIOUX CITY, JET STREAM, POLE VAULTER, and TICKET TAKER a lot — each one of these is a strong entry. PRAVDA, FLAMBE, and even NECTAR are fun, too. It can be hard to incorporate bonus fill in the across direction, since that often creates filling difficulties, so JET STREAM in particular was a joy to uncover.

Speaking of filling difficulties though ... I stopped keeping track of crossword glue after SEPT, AOUT, ISLA, RLS, EQUI, SPH (sphere?). I couldn't help but pick the tally back up at the end, though, finishing with TBA / BIERS (what a tough word!), ENERO / ERST in a single corner … no bueno. No. Bueno.

I wonder if the puzzle concept would have been better served by using different body part phrases? Perhaps TOOTH AND NAIL could be the punchline to this particular joke, HAND OVER FIST could be a manicurist mano a mano, FOOT IN MOUTH could involve a podiatrist kickboxing with an ENT, etc. That way if one didn't do it for you, maybe another one would?

Overall though, a couple of great long bonus entries did help elevate (get it? POLE VAULTER? (speaking of groany)) my solving experience.

The Boston accent has been played on for crossword fun many a time. I liked most of Alan's themer choices, my favorite = A CALL TO ARMS converting to A CALL TO OMS. Not only does it looks so bizarrely cool as A CALL TOOMS, but it gave me an amusing image of a yoga instructor acting like a (curiously relaxed) drill sergeant.

SPARK PLUGS to SPOCK PLUGS also gave me a smile, as I'm a huge fan of most Star Trek crews (*giving Captain Archer the stink-eye*). ITS MY PARTY to ITS MY POTTY worked well for this parent of a 2.5-year-old. And I'm all for a LOW COB DIET.

INSTANT COMMA did baffle me, though. Apparently INSTANT KARMA is a … John Lennon song? It has been covered many a time, so perhaps I should know it?

And A SHOT IN THE DOC felt so grammatically tortured that it was hard to enjoy. Still, a majority of themers hit for me; pretty darn good results.

Disappointing to get so much crossword glue in so many places, given that Alan is a seasoned constructor and this is a standard 140-word construction challenge. I don't mind starting a puzzle with SEL and NOU right off the bat. Keep on with ULM / ASLOPE, CCL / KEL, STR / ADIA / AGITA, AGA / STAC, etc. = no bueno.

I would have liked to see this one kicked back for rework, even if it meant going down to eight or even seven themers. Simple theme concepts sometimes make constructors feel like they have to do something extra, but seven themers with above-average fill would have made for a stronger puzzle.

I did like some of the longer bonuses Alan worked in though — PROTEST VOTE, ACID ROCK, TURN IT UP all gave me lifts.

TAKING THE FIFTH interpreted as "add the fifth letter of the alphabet, E, to base phrases, with kooky results." I enjoyed a good number of them: HOT CROSS BUNNY gave a funny image. OFF THE MARQUEE had a great spelling change (MARK to MARQUEE), as did TABLE TENNESSEE (TENNIS to TENNESSEE). ATTILA THE HONEY flips Attila amusingly on his head.

Sound change puzzles often don't do much for me, but I enjoyed today's results as a whole. Not every Sunday puzzle has to be (or should be) groundbreaking, and as a solver, I welcome sharp examples of tried and true theme types.

A couple of nice bonuses in the fill, TIDY SUM, AQUALUNG, FIRE AWAY, PRO TEAM. These good mid-to-long entries helped keep my attention.

I wasn't as hot on the short fill, though. It felt like everywhere in the puzzle, I got bogged down by an abundance of crossword glue. I stopped counting at about ten — ERNO, GTS, ADEE, ISTH, LEU, DEO, MST, and so on — and I still had half the puzzle to go. Way too much; dragged down the quality of my solving experience.

I admire that Alan strives to do more, consistently dipping under 140 words in his Sunday puzzles (this one is at 136). But it's so hard to do while retaining smooth fill. I don't feel like it's worth it, if you have to use so much crossword glue.

Usually, I don't mind if there are bits of glue dabbed over the puzzle — and Alan does well not to concentrate it in any one spot — but there's just so much in total that it felt like it should have been reworked for a smoother overall feel. Going up to 140 words would undoubtedly have helped.

Certain ones felt particularly egregious, too — the Maleskan ITER and ADOLF. Hard to save that last one with any clue.

It's rare that a sound change puzzle tickles my fancy, though, so I did appreciate the good quality and quantity of themers.

I used to think there was a finite number of palindrome sentences, like MADAM, IM ADAM. Imagine my surprise when at the ACPT one year, there was a palindrome-writing contest! Will (Shortz) even gave the people a constraint to work with: they had to incorporate at least one X. (There might have even been another constraint, too.) I was impressed that both contestants were able to come up with something in the limited time (10 minutes?) that actually sounded like a real sentence. Pretty cool.

Alan came up with four palindromes I had never seen before, with some good results. EMUS SAIL, I ASSUME evoked a funny image, not just of an emu sailing, but of someone making the curious statement. And NO WAY, A PAPAYA WON! made me think about awestruck fans at some sort of fruit Olympics. Funny stuff.

What there really ought to be is a punchline contest. A TSAR, A NUN, and A RASTA walk into a bar … man oh man, I can't wait to find out what happens! At first I thought that palindrome was the weakest of the four since it's not a complete sentence, but adding "walk into a bar" makes pretty much everything funny.

Nice effort to work in some long fill, without resorting to very many compromises — not an easy accomplishment when all four themers are grid-spanners. I would have expected the NE and the SW corners to be the gluiest places, given that the ends of two long themers have to work together, but Alan does well in both places. Okay, ERODENT is a little wonky, and we see counselor TROI for the second time this week, but I like this trade-off. IT'S A DATE and JUBILANT in symmetrical spots is a ton of fun.

Alan could have easily placed black squares at the second U of CAUCUSED and the A of BROADWAY, making his life easier, but those are both nice answers, worked carefully in. A smooth final product, especially considering all the constraints + the bonus entries.

I can't wait to see what punchlines people send me! I'll be waiting at the bar.

Add-some-letters puzzle, DIS appended for kooky results. (DIS)BAND ON THE RUN provided some fun imagery, as did TABLE OF (DIS)CONTENTS. Sure, the latter really ought to be "malcontents," but sometimes kooky theme answers can get by with a lot of leeway.

Humor is so tough to figure out, so specific to each individual. (DIS)CREDIT CARDS doesn't feel very funny to me, but I suppose it is a big transformation from CREDIT CARDS, which is nice. ELLA (DIS)ENCHANTED didn't do a whole lot for me either. I usually avoid these theme types as a constructor, because my sense of humor is often pretty different than Will's. Or most people's, for that matter.

Alan again dips into the very low word count territory. You can see on our list of lowest word count Sunday puzzles that Alan's name appears quite frequently. I think he has more success today than in previous ones, giving us such goodies as PROBOSCIS and MIXED MEDIA. Even PUERILE is a fun word (says the kid in me.)

I'm generally not a fan of low word count Sundays though. Since it's almost inevitable to require some gluey bits when building a 140-word puzzle, I think it's near impossible to get a 134-word grid to the point where I don't get bothered by all the AT YA, FMS, ATIC, SOR, etc. strewn about the grid. And to have a precious seven-letter slot taken up by HURTERS? That word is a hurter to my ears.

I did appreciate the challenge in solving the big SW and NE corners — those were fun. The NE was a great experience, rewarded by finding a BATBOY and some trivia that the Michelin Guide only goes up to THREE STARs. Cool!

Not as rewarding to fight the SW, only to realize that the last square I struggled against was inside APEAK. Yikes.

And perhaps I need to brush up on my cultural references, but I worry that I won't be the only one blanked by the crossings of ARRAN / OLAND / SELENE / DE SICA up north. Three intersections, all three of which I guessed wrongly on, made for an unsatisfying finish.

So, the ultra-low word count experiment continues, with a mix of effects.

I interned at NASA during my senior year of high school — I even got to fly aboard the Kuiper Airborne Observatory! — so I found it enjoyable to get these kooky interpretations of astronomical terms. I've heard RED GIANT as a wacky clue for Mao many times before, but SUPER NOVA was fun (apparently some people call Nova lox just Nova), as was LIGHT YEAR.

I wasn't as wild about POLE STAR — do people refer to Obama or Angela Merkel as a "star"? — and RADIATION BELT is pretty deep into astronomy, even for me.

Alan has worked with very low word count puzzles for a while now, and while this one isn't nearly as difficult as some of his other attempts (notably the 132-word Sunday puzzles), it's still tough. Five themers, with a central 13-letter one splitting up the puzzle, is tough enough to do in 78 words. Lower that to 74 and you have a giant challenge. Generally Alan does well, getting such goodies as TAX HAVEN and JUICE BAR and even FEISTY for not much of a price.

It's too bad that one of those prices is two partials. Rich Norris of the LA Times limits partials to a max of two in a weekday puzzle, and I like that criterion, since partials feel very inelegant to me, one step away from [___A] cluing YMC. And to have A JAM kick things off ("stuck in A RUT" is more common, yeah?) is doubly unfortunate. Still, to keep the gluey bits down to that pair plus some OBI, SLO, is decent.

I liked the idea behind the ACROBAT clue: [One going head over heels?]. But don't most humans go head over heels, i.e. they stand erect?

I also found the CELT clue to be off — calling Bird or Ray Allen anything but a CELTIC seems off.

For this science dork, these types of themes are very welcome. But I can see how some people would have a rough go of it, not really understanding what a RADIATION BELT in space is. Without grokking what the base phrase is, it's harder to appreciate the wordplay.

Perfect title, HAVING ASPIRATIONS hinting at a W changing to a WH, as if aspirating (producing a sound by exhalation). I liked many of the themers, THE ROYAL WHEE really amusing. GET OUT OF MY WHEY also evoked good imagery, as did WHACKS MUSEUM. I've seen many plays on world/whirled and wales/whales before, so those didn't do as much for me. Same goes for witch/WHICH … which are homophones, yes? That one muddled the theme for me.

Alan is one of the few constructors to take on the ultra-low-word count challenge Will has been experimenting with. It does provide for a wide-open feeling grid; cool to see so much white space in every subsection. It's got a similar feel to a themeless grid.

Going down to 132 words is not something I think is worthwhile just for its own sake, but it can allow for a lot more mid-length and longer entries than we usually see in Sunday grids. The center of the puzzle does a wonderful job of this — a huge bonus to get HOLY COW, IN A WORD, STODGES, and CECILIA with the catchy lyrics. Even TINTYPE and ARCSINE are interesting entries we don't often see.

Check out the perimeter of the puzzle, though. It's chock full of 6-, 7-, and 8-letter entries where we're used to seeing 4- and 5-letter ones. That can theoretically make for a more interesting and colorful solve, especially when you work in such juicy answers as YO TE AMO and SPOILER and … well, that's the problem for me. I don't mind getting a smattering of I THE, ENSE, NEH, GUARE, INRI along that bottom if it means I get a lot of great material. But ENMESHES, OUTRACE, BLINK AT, ESSAYED, etc. = pretty neutral material in my eyes. I'd much rather see a 140-word puzzle with a few more sizzling answers and maybe half of the gluey bits we see today.

So, some fun themers and a good data point in the continuing experiment in ultra-low word count Sundays. I'm finding myself liking them less and less, but I do like the pushing of the boundaries.

Eye-catching grid. Even though the puzzle is chunked into three very separate sections, I was tickled by the visual aesthetic. Neat to see only four sets of connected black squares!

The 15-letter entries have to carry so much burden to create zing, as the next-longest entries are only 7-letters. I liked most of them, although RAISE THE TITANIC … I used to be a Clive Cussler fan, but not so much these days after I realized how repetitive they get. And RAISE THE TITANIC wasn't one of the better ones. If only the RAISE THE TITANIC movie had done better, but it was a flop. Sorry, Dirk Pitt.

Alan does work in some snazz using his 7-letter slots, EUNUCHS and GOALIES elevated by their great clues. I'm glad EUNUCHS was clued in its metaphorical sense, rather than its (insert crude joke here) sense. And [Ones who have saving accounts?] fooled me but good. I should have seen the weirdness in "saving" vs. "savings" but I missed it (unlike HOPE (GO) SOLO, who got almost everything this year!).

Certainly some prices to pay, though. That middle section tossed me over its lap and gave me an old fashioned spanking. I guessed at the ETAMINE / AMICE / GANNETS crossings, and like the bad guy in Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail, I chose poorly. ETAMINE is so crossword-friendly — check out its Es and Ts and its perfect consonant alternation — but pretty solver unfriendly.

And as with most grid-spanning triple stacks, the crosses required compromises. The top didn't bother me too much, even with a RLS / DES / ISTH concentration, as those are all fairly minor and common. The crossings on the bottom stack felt like a higher price to pay, what with the oddball RESAT, and a slew of IT IN, UNARY crossing NON U along with the toughies INA and TAL. (Note: chess players consider TAL a must-know person, and crossworders looking to improve their skill ought to follow suit.)

Great first impression what with the beautiful patterns of white space and connected black squares, marred somewhat by compromises throughout the grid.

I was curious why this puzzle was so difficult — my usual Sunday solving time is 20ish minutes, and this one took me twice that. Amazing to see it's a 132 word puzzle. The number won't mean anything to most people, but it's the equivalent of making a themed 15x with only 67 words. We keep lists of such accomplishments, and only about a dozen people have managed this feat.

I appreciated the added level of complexity, given that the theme was immediately apparent from the title. What else could CALIFORNIA, HERE I COME be but "add CA into themers for wacky results?" THE LIFE OF PICA gave me a good chuckle, as did YOU MAKE ME WANNA CASH OUT. The latter has such a nice transformation, breaking up SHOUT into CASH OUT. Nice moment of solving discovery.

I wasn't familiar with REALLY BIG SHEW, so REALLY BIG CASHEW made me struggle. Apparently Ed Sullivan was known for this phrase? (I'm ducking in preparation for all the people throwing stuff at me for even questioning their beloved Ed Sullivan.)

For those of you (heathen) non-Trekkies, DEEP SPACE NINE was a series in the Star Trek franchise. It had its moments. Really. Seriously! Okay, not really. It was terrible. As in, "Star Trek: Voyager" terrible. (Again, I'm ducking.) But DEEP SPACE CANINE did evoke an amusing image.

Upon closer inspection, it's amazing how open Alan kept this grid. Those four corners are so open, so themeless-esque in nature. I appreciated how relatively smooth it all was. The only point that bugged me was the raw number of esoteric names required to hold everything together. I like learning a few BALTO, LETITIA, ENZI kind of entries. Makes it really tough though, when a STAEL or a LENI is required to break into a wide-open section.

All in all, a nice experiment into the low word-count arena. Certainly made for a challenging brain workout. Perhaps somewhere in the middle ground — say, a super-smooth 136 worder — is a sweeter spot for solvers? But pushing the boundaries is a great thing; something very few people can do.