Bruce Haight author page

Will Shortz has often said that he simply wants Thursday puzzles to be harder than Wednesdays. For this amateur cook (read: I can open a jar of spaghetti sauce), a French recipe definitely is hard! I was sure that something kooky was going on in the NW corner, since WTF are NEW POTATOES? Surely that can't be a thing …

Oh, it is?

That's a LOW NOTE even for me.

Spelling VICHYSSOISE was even harder. Although I've only had it a few times — the HEAVY CREAM isn't great for us lactose intolerance deniers (my poor wife) — I should be able to piece it together.

VICHYSOISE …

VICHYSSOICE …

My French friends down the street are tsking at me, moaning "oo la la."

This theme was too straightforward for my Thursday tastes — the picture to the right looks suspiciously bland — but it certainly provided a challenge, given that I had no idea what goes into the dish. It also piqued my interested in trying to make VICHYSSOISE. It couldn't possibly be any harder than spelling the word!

It's so much fun to watch Julia Child take pleasure in cooking — great reminder to take pleasure in whatever you do.

Let's set the stage: you're the main character in today's play, searching for what connects each pair of words in four phrases. And … action!

Get it? Connects … as in LINKING? And action … as in a verb's job?

Perhaps I'm TOO CLEVER BY HALF.

LINKING VERB nicely describes what's going on. You can use our Finder to see other possibilities (the question marks ensure that VERB will never be at the start or end of the phrase). This doesn't eliminate false positives — it's no SILVER BULLET — but if you BEND OVER BACKWARD, you'll find a slew of goodies.

Speaking of goodies, Bruce worked in so much great fill into the corners. FACES IT / DID TIME / ARSENAL is a bit too "Sopranos" for my taste, but I enjoyed the optimism of I HOPE SO.

Can there be too much of a good thing? Will Shortz gave me useful feedback a few years ago, that my puzzles were tending to have too much stuff like ER NURSE. I love that kind of entry as a solver, so I was taken aback. However, he had an excellent point. Today's bonus fill took center stage with its sheer quantity, distracting me from the theme. OVER BUDGET on the bonuses, perhaps.

I loved the clever cluing touches. [Coffee in the milky way?] is a delightfully kooky way to describe a LATTE. Linking ADELE's "Rumour Has It" to I HEARD's ["Rumor has it"] is a fun "clue echo."

Straightforward "hidden words" puzzles are a tough sell, especially when the hidden word repeats repeatedly. I appreciated Bruce's efforts to pack in an enormous quantity of bonus fill, but I would have liked something else to provide added lift — a metaphorical HOVERBOARD.

We've seen a ton of grid art over the years, and some of it works much better than others. One of the problems tends to be that even if you can get black squares to look unquestionably like your desired image, the other black squares that help make the grid fillable detract from the impact. Take a delightful tennis racquet, for example — there's little doubt what those central squares form. However, all the other black squares in the puzzle dilute the overall impact.

Today's visual is so simple, so pared-down, yet so effective. Besides the usual "fingers" of black squares along the grid's perimeter, all we see are 1) a football goal post and 2) a single dot flying through it. That black square is up … and it's good! What makes it so good — great, even — is that the black square "rock" is smashing GOLIATH squarely in the middle of his forehead.

DAVID at the bottom. A slingshot in the middle. A rock-bashing GOLIATH. Such stunningly basic imagery. This picture is worth more than 71 words.

71 words in a themed puzzle usually spells trouble, especially when targeting early-week solvers. This mirror layout is tough to work with — you get the excellent bonuses of EGO MASSAGES and SHANTYTOWNS, but those have to work next to the long VALLEY OF ELAH and BOOK OF SAMUEL, creating a considerable challenge. Not a friendly early-week solve overall, especially considering the crossing of two geography trivia names, ELAH and URAL.

Although the puzzle would have seemed thin if it had only been DAVID and GOLIATH, along with SLINGSHOT added in somewhere, that would have been a direct hit to this solver's forehead. Then again, I probably would have complained so much about only 21 thematic squares that you'd want to wind up that slingshot even more than you do right now.

Ultimately, it's audacious grid art, and the imagery is on par with that work of the old masters.

I've been obsessed with football's Statue of Liberty trick play ever since Boise State used it to win the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Such misdirection and flim-flammery!

Not nearly as much deception in today's theme, although it wasn't until I hit TABLET that I was 100% sure it was about the STATUE OF LIBERTY. Neat that her major features — TORCH, CROWN, TABLET, GOWN — can all be hidden (to some extent) at the ends of phrases.

TRIPLE CROWN worked best, since it's 1) a colorful phrase and 2) it doesn't refer to the physical object. ROYAL CROWN would immediately call Lady Liberty's headwear to mind, for example.

ASPIRIN TABLET uses a completely different meaning of TABLET (pill vs. writing pad), which is fantastic. However, it's not snazzy enough to be a theme-worthy phrase. Tough to imagine people asking for an ASPIRIN TABLET as opposed to simply an aspirin.

Like Bruce, I wondered if she wears a GOWN. I always thought of it as a toga, but that makes even less sense than the monument greeting immigrants in a ball gown.

Sticking to only TORCH, CROWN, and TABLET would have made for a stronger puzzle, especially since the central ASPIRIN TABLET forced some newb-unfriendly regions. I'm glad that LILI's clue gave solvers an additional hint, but when the EDER is flowing next door, to the sounds of COSI Fan Tutte, it's too easy to put the puzzle down and do something else.

Going to a 74-word grid could have smoothed things out — a black square around the S of YES I DO (along with much black square rejiggering elsewhere) might have lent our Lady her rightful aura of awe.

Solid July 4^th puzzle though, and I appreciated the top-down ordering of her TORCH high in the air, the iconic CROWN next, and the TABLET at her waist.

Add-a-letter themes can be underwhelming since they can feel too easy to accomplish. Not today's! I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this one. Bruce and I have similar senses of humor, so I also chuckled at PUBLIC TOILETH. That was even more surprising given my son's cringeworthy propensity to touch everything in public restrooms.

I love when I can't figure out how I'd come up with examples for a particular theme. Especially considering that roughly 38% of my brain is permanently jammed into crossword mode, I appreciate themes that feel a touch miraculous. It ain't water into wine, but I sure could taste something different.

I was so entranced by the concept that I sat down and mapped out how I might have tackled it. The best I could do was to produce a list of nouns ending in ET and circle the ones that become verbs when the ET is removed. Even then, you're left with a lot of material like HELMET(H) that can't be worked into a strong theme answer.

Solid gridwork, as usual, these days with Bruce. Smooth solve, with great bonuses like ART SCHOOL, HOTEL BARS, LITTER BUGS. Many of them were made even better by wordplay clues. "Drawers in the study," using the punny "people who draw" meaning, is the type of cleverness I love in my later-week puzzles.

This is not your Old Testament add-a-letter puzzle — the ET to ETH Biblical modification is something entirely new. I'll shout some Hosannas to that.

HOLD MY BEER! I hadn't encountered this phrase until it debuted in a themeless, but I've seen it everywhere since. Great riff today, Bruce disguising containers that beer typically comes in.

I wasn't sure if I liked CASE as a HOLD MY BEER themer. Wouldn't CAN be more in line with GLASS, PITCHER, and BARREL? I decided I enjoyed the creative stretch, since it helped delay and build the a-ha moment at the end.

Building an early-week puzzle around a central 9 (SPACE CASE) can be a challenge, since each corner becomes a 7x3 chunk, at minimum. Seven-letter entries can be so tough to fill with color, but Bruce did well with ZIP FILE, EARSHOT, and TEST RUN. GERMANE is even an interesting one-worder.

It's a lot to ask solvers to remember an attorney general from generations ago, but the ED MEESE crosses seemed reasonable (OSU = Ohio State University).

IONA crossing AMANA seemed less fair, although Don McLean would disagree. Even IANA crossing LAS GATOS might be plausible. It's tricky — all those entries can be argued as fair and crossworthy, but crossing them makes for a much less newb-friendly experience than crossing HIP and IDEA, for example.

I wondered why POWDER KEG didn't make its way into the theme, but I warmed to Bruce's alternate approach, using CASE. I like it when an early-week theme obfuscates in a creative way.

One of the lifeboats keeping me afloat during these dark days is my weekly crossword conversation with Jim Horne. I knew exactly what the Seinfeld infidel would ask about this week, so I prepared my seventeen-step explanation of NO SOUP FOR YOU!'s brilliance. Fifteen minutes later, I dropped my mic. (It's less dramatic when the mic is your phone, and it falls into the toilet.)

There was a long pause.

"So … this Soup Nazi was one episode? From a show … that aired 30 years ago? Can you explain again why this is funny?"

Note to self: next time, eighteen steps.

"Okay, wise guy," I told him. "Explain to me what 'Columbo' is, and why that one delighted you!"

"Sure. Imagine the sweet old grandpa from ‘The Princess Bride.' He plays this tottering detective, pretending to be a fool. Then as he walks off, he turns to the criminal and says with a wry smile, JUST ONE MORE THING. Then drops the bomb."

Thus, I binge-watched a season of "Columbo." And loved it.

I'm not a big fan of "list puzzles," since it's too easy to use any of the hundreds of possibilities out there, Bruce's alternates a mere sampling. "Seinfeld" alone generated dozens of them. Also, not including the full (IS THAT YOUR) FINAL ANSWER felt inelegant.

I might have enjoyed the solve more if there was a bigger range of age demographics — both Jackie Gleason and Columbo, but what is there for younger solvers? — or diversity. Sadly, there aren't many Asian-focused shows on TV now (or throughout history), and THEY CANCELED "KIM'S CONVENIENCE," BOOOO!

I appreciated the gridwork, Bruce's craftsmanship solid as ever these days. Entertaining that GOOD GUESS echoed FINAL ANSWER, and the clue for WARIO referencing the W on his hat made that entry more accessible to newer solvers.

Bracing myself for the flood of angry WHY YET ANOTHER BASEBALL PUZZLE?! emails …

I receive a lot of comments from people who hate this or hate that, or simply hate a puzzle because it makes them feel left out (or stupid). Baseball is at the top of that list. I'm no baseball fan, but it's difficult for me to understand the vitriol. It is America's National Pastime, isn't it? Perhaps it's the same reason as why certain NFL fans loathe the Dallas Cowboys, AKA "America's Team"?

Haters gonna hate.

Today's is a reasonable theme, common baseball idioms. It's been done many times over through the years, though, so I would have liked some extra layer, like Bruce mentioned. That could range from fresher, more recently coined sayings (INSIDE BASEBALL, perhaps), to some revealer that touches both on baseball and language. Maybe Delaware's nickname, the DIAMOND STATE, could have tied baseball idioms together, if they had been clued as spoken (stated?) phrases?

Solid gridwork, although not as colorful as I would have liked. GRAMOPHONE is historically interesting, but I don't like getting reminded of all the INSECT BITEs I get over the summer. I don't mind a NO SENSE entry but throw in WHO YOU and they collectively lend an off-kilter feeling.

Squeaky clean grid, though, with only CBER sticking out, and I didn't mind it because of the delightful clue. Radio-active … groan!

I'd love to know what percentage of the NYT solving population realized that the grid art was supposed to be Ms and Ws. Anybody? Bueller? I love grid art, such fun ways to snazz up a solving experience, but the M / W thing didn't dawn on me until long after I filled in the last square.

Reminds me of an M / W puzzle Alex Vratsanos and I did years ago. So many people asked me, what's up with the weird chunks of black squares?

(sigh)

(Yeah, looking at it with fresh eyes, I don't totally see it either.)

There was a lot to love about this theme — once I figured out what was going on. I'd have never thought of spoonerizing M / W phrases! Even if I did chance upon the concept, I wouldn't have had the foggiest on how to find appropriate themers.

Okay, I did think of a way, after prolonged rumination. I enjoyed the challenge.

The first and last themers worked wonderfully. "But wait there's more" to BUT MATE THERES WAR? Hilarious! "Care to make a wager" to CARE TO WAKE A MAJOR? Equally uproarious! Delightful base phrases and even more delightful results.

The middle one wasn't as strong. MEN'S DAY WARNING didn't make me laugh, instead making me wonder what a MENS DAY might be, and why it might require a warning. Frat-type hazing? Then, the base phrase confused me. Wednesday morning seems arbitrary.

Ah, there's a Macklemore song called "Wednesday Morning". I probably should be embarrassed, given Macklemore lives maybe 15 minutes away from me.

Even more embarrassing: I also missed that "Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m." is Simon & Garfunkel's debut album. Drat.

As much as I enjoy grid art, these M / Ws let the puzzle down. It'd be one thing if they screamed M and W and thus felt worth it, but 1.) I doubt many people will notice them (we've highlighted them below to make them stand out), and 2.) they forced so many compromises. Crossing CAEN with CANA is deadly, not to mention ETERNE, EPHEDRA, ACH / HUTTON, etc. There's a lot of great material, BEST BUD, MUST HAVE, ROAST PIG, but I'd have enjoyed the puzzle more with no grid art and smoother fill.

Fun to see a concept I'd never have come up with on my own, though.

Bruce and I had a thoughtful exchange a few weeks ago. He mentioned that in the past, an outstanding grid could sometimes overcome a weak theme. Back in those days, wobbly grids were the norm, since the software wasn't as good, and solid word lists weren't as easy to come by. These days the playing field has evened, and there's no sneaking by with a below-par theme, no matter how incredible the grid. It's the way it should be!

Great craftsmanship today. Bruce wisely used a 7-letter middle entry, which makes construction so much easier than if he had chosen something like POODLE CUT. Every single constructor should be making grids like this, buttery smooth with a couple of bonuses. There's no magic to it — smart layout, careful placement of black squares to separate themers, and a whole lot of iteration. This is the gridding standard to which all submissions should conform.

However, I'd have loved more tightness to the theme. It's a workable concept, but it's not something to which I'd immediately shout YES! There are so many movie terms that SHOT EXTRA CUT SCORE TAKE come across as a film festival of shorts more than a cohesive epic. I'd have sent it back, requesting some extra layer — how about finding more that relate to SHOT CUT TAKE, creating a narrative around film editing?

All in all, though, I'd happily give this to a newer solver, as it does its job of allowing for a victorious solve. Not the most exciting concept, but that's not usually the most important criterion for a Monday puzzle.

HO HO HO … HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO!

Is anyone else hungry for Ho-hos?

Or worried that Santa's maniacal laughter makes him sound like the Joker?

I enjoy a good story. Santa landing on the roof — LAND HO HO HO — to … taking a call about a reindeer strike? Isn't he already on the roof? Ah! This is one of those "put the cartoon panels to form a proper story!" I figured out the secret game!

Santa: Whew, I'm finally 1.) HO HO HOME from the workshop! Time to take off my girdle and Spanx and get a good night's sleep before tomorrow. Ah, for f's sake, the phone. (taking call) 2.) PLEASE HO HO HOLD!

Rudolph: Nuh uh, boss. We talk NOW. We're done with all the mistreatment. Strike! It's 3.) HO HO HOPELESS for you!

Donner and Blitzen: Ha ha ha, 4.) HO HO HOLY SMOKES, fat boy!

Santa: Aw, come on. I only yell at you a lot. And for your own good. Don't you remember the Grinch? Do you really want to take away Christmas for all the good little girls and boys? No sound of 5.) LAND HO HO HOing on their roofs tomorrow night?

Prancer: (grumble grumble) all we're asking for is a little hay. Maybe an apple once in a while. Would that kill you?

Santa: How about you poop less on my carpet?

Comet: That does it, unleash the poopstorm, boys!

(The Nightmare Before Christmas)

I enjoyed the bonuses today — POOL HALL had such a clever clue, repurposing "That's my cue!" (as in a cue stick) — and IN TOO DEEP was strong as well.

Overall, though, the theme was so repetitive. It could have been uplifted by forming a story. Perhaps one less demented than mine.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a hope that Rudolph doesn't become Napoleon the pig after he seizes control!

The paper version of this crossword … you might say it's published on a "BENCH press"?

Someone bench me.

The best "seemingly unrelated things" puzzles take concepts that surely could never be linked, not in three treeee-llion years — and then, the revealer suddenly gives you the unguessable connection.

Today's theme phrases are too similar in concept. Sure, a BALLPLAYER, a PARK VISITOR, and a JAZZ PIANIST all sit on different styles of benches. They're still all benches you sit on, though.

Mae WEST, always good for a dry witticism. Snow White, but she drifted? If only West were around today, she'd be one incredible guest star for the NYT celeb series.

Not as stellar as the usual Haight grid today. I hold Monday grids to a high standard — higher than Will — because entries like EBAN OSSA ALEE have the potential to make newbs feel unwelcome. Get off of my lawn if you don't know crosswordy stuff, you whippersnappers! I'd have suggested rejiggering, to only include three BENCH players. Ditch PARK VISITOR, a duller phrase than the rest.

Thankfully, a lot of bonuses to enjoy. WERE IN LUCK, indeed! BLAST ZONES, GET BUSY, MILKMAN, even a MISHAP. I can see why these elevated the puzzle in Will's eyes. Stellar fill can never override a so-so theme, but it is an asset.

A couple years ago, I thought I was onto a great "seemingly unrelated things" theme with STAFF: it can link a MUSICAL SCORE, a wizard like GANDALF THE GREY, and a COMPANY ROSTER. I couldn't come up with a full set I thought would delight solvers, but that's an example of a better way to link things that seemingly never could go together.

I get a lot of theme review requests, and I see a lot of the same ideas popping up over and over. Redundant phrases is in my top ten list, as is its evil twin, paradoxical phrases. So after uncovering just one themer, PAST HISTORY, I knew what was going on, and the rest was, well, history.

However, Jim reminded me a few weeks ago that I'm hardly an average solver. There will be some (many?) newer solvers who have never encountered this theme idea before. Some of them might even be impressed at seeing something new in a phrase they've used over and over, like BUNNY RABBIT. Could be quite the wascally a-ha moment.

I did enjoy so many of the bonuses, as I'd expect out of any Haight puzzle these days. So much packed into those corners — YES OR NO, THINK SO?, TAX SCAM, GRAB BAG, AIR TIME. All of that helped entertain me through the solve.

Today's grid wasn't as strong as Bruce's usual standard of work, though. It is solid — better than average NYT quality — but SEGAR made me pause. Then NOYES. Then ARIE. All of these are fair game, at least considering that the crossings are perfectly gettable. As a whole, though, these have too much potential to leave a newer solver with the sense that the puzzle was weird.

(Whenever my kids say that something is weird, that's the kiss of death.)

After ten years of being friends, Jim continues to surprise me. A few weeks ago, he averred that ASHMAN ought to be fair game, even for early-week puzzles. For today's, he avowed that SEGAR should never be seen in an early-week puzzle. I agree with the latter (and still roll my eyes — in a respectful way of course — at the former.)

In general, if a theme idea is covered by tons of lists out in the intertubes, it's not going to do much for me. But again, newbs could have a different experience, so it's a reasonable puzzle theme. Just as long as it doesn't trigger budding constructors to spam me even more with this kind of thing.

Ha ha!

Seriously, stop.

We add to Bruce's tally of grid art — specifically his grid art involving rare, diagonal symmetry. Scan through his full listing; see if you can pick out the birds, the goldfish, and the butterflies. Make sure to check out his first, my favorite of the bunch.

I appreciate how Bruce and David tried to make the most of the mini-theme, linking in their 15-letter marquees. BATS IN THE BELFRY works, although I did wonder if that can be an offensive term to people with mental health issues. For that reason, I liked SPREAD ONE'S WINGS better, but it would have been better to have a more bats-specific themer.

Hmm. Some ideas:

• How about ECHOLOCATION, a phenomenon people closely associate with bats? (Of course, the grid would need an overhaul to accommodate a shorter marquee themer.)
• Make it Halloween-themed, with VAMPIRE BAT and BRAM STOKER.
• "Things with bats" could be a fun way to obliquely flesh out the theme. BASEBALL GAME and TRANSYLVANIA?

Brainstorming for a more clever mini-theme aside, I enjoyed so much of Bruce and David's grid. It's tough to squeeze juice out of seven-letter slots, too often needing things like CAMERAS and AT A TROT to hold a grid together. LEFT JAB is a great start. ALLOW ME, CAR LOAN, WENT PRO, MR GREEN, all high-quality assets.

Editors tend to favor multi-word entries since they're more colorful on the whole, but check out the beauty of LISSOME / ESPANOL / FURRIER. Not words you see every day, and so satisfying. ANODYNE is in the same mold.

My only nit was the DR DREW / ELROND crossing. I'm a big fan of both, but it's a tough ask, requiring all educated solvers to know one or the other. So many other letters could look reasonable: DR CREW, ELRONG, DR TREW, ELRONF.

Overall, a highly enjoyable solve. If the headline themers had elated me — they felt worthy of a bronze medal performance instead of a gold — it'd have been an easy POW! pick.

MULTIPLE CHOICE — interpreted as "three instances of OR"?

Huh.

The best crossword themes are consistent, tight, and have a beautiful revealer to tie everything together.

• Consistent? Each phrase has exactly three ORs. Check!
• Tight? How many other triple OR phrases are there? I could only find INTERIOR DECORATOR (too long), FOR BETTER OR WORSE (middle OR isn't hidden as part of another word), REPORTED FOR WORK (would duplicate the FOR in WORD FOR WORD), MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR (too repetitive). So, check!
• Raison d'etre. If the answer to "why three ORs?" is "because that was what created consistency and tightness," that's not good enough.

You'd think two out of three is fine, but that last one is the most important of the three.

Today's theme does work as an average idea, but what if MULTIPLE CHOICE had been interpreted as things like:

• APPLE ORCHARD [Choice between fruit and veg?]
• LABOR POOL [Choice between work and play?]

Much more playful and interesting.

Thankfully, Bruce's smooth and colorful grid — just a TSO as crossword glue, while achieving some fun TURBO BOOST, TORCH RELAY, SPATTER — made up for some of the ho-hum feeling of the theme concept. Pulled up the product into a decent early-week offering I'd hand to a newb.

My feeling toward this puzzle can be summed up by part of the final entry: LOVE.

Now, is that the "adore" meaning, or the "zero" one?

I landed well toward the former, amused by the theme phrases as interpreted by a tennis nut. I grew up in the John McEnroe era, so CONTEMPT OF COURT gave me a big laugh.

Solid gridwork, as always with Bruce these days. I appreciate the care he takes in putting together grids that are both colorful and clean. INSERT COIN + ACT NATURAL — virtually no crossword glue = admirable craftsmanship.

Only two minor nits today:

1. I could have done with just one cross-reference. SARA / LEE works well — who doesn't LOVE her? (Pretty sure the marketing team was going for the "adore" meaning.) But BACK / NINE confused me a touch, as a golf cross-reference inside a tennis puzzle was a touch confusing.
2. I'd have liked Bruce to push himself, to go down to 76 words (it's at 78), so he could add in another pair of great bonuses in the fill. Even with five themers, it's usually possible to get a long bonus worked into each corner. One great player in each of the four corners ... sort of in the vein of a doubles match!

(Sort of. Okay, that was a stretch.)

Newb-friendly Monday offering, I like it. Not quite LOVE, as I'd heard some of the themers or their variants before, but like. Let's say, like like.

(Darn it, doesn't "like like" mean love? Who invented this kooky English language?)

"___, we can't do without lactose products for our Japanese theater production!"*rimshot* (see below for answer)

I enjoyed these. We've seen a ton of homophone puzzles, but there's something hilarious about taking a phrase, homophonizing both words, and then cluing it in a way that hints at both the base phrase and the resulting one.

But wait! Do these jeans make me look like I've put on BUTT WEIGHT?

*snicker*

You guys and that crazy EWE GUISE. I groaned hard at that one, but I think that's the sign of a successful pun.

All of them worked for me. Impressive that Bruce found five solid examples of common conversational phrases where both words have a sound-alike.

Solid gridwork, too. It's tough to get a lot out of 3x7 corners, but Bruce has worked so hard to develop his abilities in this arena, and it shows. So much goodness: LAB TECH, TOOLBAR, CHATEAU, HOT SEAT, HOW TRUE, EYE ROLL, THAT'S IT!

I had to laugh at SCREAMO. It's not something I would ever listen to, but it's amusingly self-descriptive.

It's hard to make a homophone theme stand out, but I gave this one some POW! consideration, especially considering the excellent craftsmanship.

*NOH WHEY

Day 2 of WTF? Week at XWI! I love having the chance to tell people What I'm Thankful For.

I'm thankful for the solid products that Bruce has given us over the past year. He's become so good with his gridding skills, never afraid to put in the time to work, rework, and polish his grids, to the point where I'm often just nitpicking at minor faults.

It's been a pleasure to follow his journey, all his hard work paying off in spades.

Also great to get such a pleasant theme, O TANNENBAUM also known as "Oh, Christmas Tree." Get it, a Christmas tree festooned with GARLANDs, (candy) CANEs, an ANGEL, and a STAR?

Love that clue for ADULTHOOD, too. It's a rare treat that we get such a clever notion this early in the week. It had me thinking about a step above the minor leagues in baseball for a long time.

And that clue for WENT SOUTH! It's referring to Santa heading south from the North Pole, but it made me smile, thinking about various Christmas movies where things go south for Santa before the hero steps in. Now I'm going to have to rewatch "Elf"!

And to all, a good night!

★ I love it when constructors break rules (for a good reason.) There have been plenty of grids where one section is completely separated from the rest, including one TOMB, but I adored the image of the little CRYPT at the bottom of the puzzle, actually looking like a CRYPT straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.

(I gave the TOMB puzzle a POW! too ... might I be obsessed with burial sites? Hmm.)

The "letter homophones" concept has been done many times in crosswords, one in particular that I loved. Even though this notion been employed over and over, there's always room to innovate, by cleverly combining the well-worn idea with a different one to produce something more than the sum of its parts. It's neat that you can homophonically spell out a five-letter word in C R Y P T, and even neater to make the leap to use this to hint at a blocked-off region.

And the execution! Cross made out of black squares gives the grid an even creepier feel. Added bonuses in ROTARY CLUBS, KGB MOLE, GOMORRAH, ARAMAIC — lovely stuff. All with super-clean short fill? Yes!

I could have done without the stretch to clue THEME as sort of a quasi-revealer. But other than that, such a fantastic solving experience.

★ I love me some beautiful grid art, and this is right up there with the best of the best. Big ol' LIGHT BULB, that's pretty good. But when you add in WHATS THE BIG IDEA, it becomes doubly clever. You know, because a LIGHT BULB represents an idea in the comics pages, and the LIGHT BULB is literally a BIG picture in today's grid?

Have I explained it to death yet?

Bruce ain't kidding about the difficulty of filling that middle section. I would have been sorely tempted to put a black square at the Q of IRAQ WAR. That would have made the puzzle 73 words — over the max of 72 for themelesses. That might have passed muster, but more problematically, it would have removed some precious long slots. Stunt themelesses sometimes suffer when held to normal themeless standards, because they don't have enough color to please solvers, so every long slot is golden.

Check out how critical that center section was. With IRAQ WAR crossing CONQUEST for a bit of sneaky political commentary, the kooky MEGADETH rock band name giving me happy memories of "This is Spinal Tap," and the delicious SNOW CRAB? All of that, with no prices to pay?

Good thing Erik was at the filling helm, not me!

There was already enough RIDE SHOTGUN, THAT IS TO SAY, NOW LET ME SEE, STATE MOTTOS to make it a pretty decent themeless. Adding in those appetizers in the middle of the grid made it great.

I did almost fail in the west section, not knowing the term ECHO BOOMERS. And there were some wickedly hard clues. But the clue for MOO was tough in a good way — great click when I realized that it was a cow saying that someone was "milking it a bit too much." Groan-worthy! In a good way.

Excellent craftsmanship in a tough construction, with just a little minor OCTA TSO ATTN. For me, this weel's POW! pick was AS EASY AS ABC.

Initialism puzzles have been done to death in crosswords, so it's super important to add some extra element: tough letters, amazing themers, an interesting revealer, etc. Bruce did well by employing that last one — THE EIGHTIES, phonetically sounding like THE A Ds.

Er, THE A Ts!

Me speak English goodly. For reals!

Solid themer choices. Love me some ATOMIC THEORY. If you haven't read "Baby Love Quarks," I highly recommend!

It's not easy to produce a colorful and smooth grid around five longish themers. PIANO TUNER plus its fantastic clue — someone involved with a grand (piano) opening, indeed! — was a standout, a rare gem of a spot-on clever clue gettable by newer solvers.

And with just OLLA and AMAS eliciting UGHs, that's great execution. I've become a big fan of Bruce's ever-increasing attention to grid detail. Very happy that he pointed OLLA out himself.

It's tough for me to get excited about an initialism puzzle, but Bruce pulled this one off well today.

For me, the link between PRINCE CHARMING and CAPTAIN OBVIOUS was anything but obvious. (For those that don't know him, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS is slang for that dude who says stuff that everyone already knows.) If only there were a person called CAPTAIN TENUOUS!

I appreciate the attempt to mini-theme-ize this themeless, but I didn't get an a-ha moment from the two feature entries tied together using the "A day without sunshine ..." quotes. It seems like a trite thing for PRINCE CHARMING to say, and the one-liner is more funny than obvious. (Seems like it's Steve Martin's line?)

Anyhoo, the rest of the puzzle. Unfortunately, it didn't have enough zazz in it for my taste. With just eight total long slots (of 8+ letters), you have to make each one of those count. BRING OUT is fine, but it's hardly star quality.

I did like some of the mid-length fill — PBS SHOW and AD SALES were fun.

Why so light on the quantity of colorful fill? One of the main reasons is those pesky 14-letter seed entries. It's so hard to build themelesses around 14s (and 13s and 12s) because they fix black squares into place right away, taking away precious flexibility.

This points to the fact that if you're going to seed a themeless with 14-letter entries, they have to be thunder-punch brilliant. For me, these two weren't. By themselves, they're both good entries. But trying to tie them together took away from their impact. Gave me an a-whaaaa? moment.

I did appreciate that it's a well-crafted puzzle in terms of short fill, with just AMON sticking out as a bit odd. But I expect so much more out of a themeless these days.

I've seen many a "word chain" theme, i.e., linked phrases like (word game) + (game bird) + (bird food) + (food chain) = WORD CHAIN, usually presented all smashed together like WORD GAME BIRD FOOD CHAIN. Important to do something a little different if you dip into this tried and true well. I liked Bruce's extra layer, using PERSON PLACE or THING to describe the three elements composing each smash-up.

Not hard to find theme examples, as you just need:

1. a person with a last name that can be an adjective,
2. a two-word place, with its second word also able to double as an adjective.

THING is awfully broad, so that can be just about anything.

Not much of an a-ha moment, as the title gave away the game much too easily. I was thinking that PERSON PLACE OR THING would have been a great revealer in the puzzle … except that this theme is more accurately PERSON, PLACE AND THING. Which makes it seem inapt. So that tripped me up.

I know, I tend to overthink things way too much. But if Bruce had ditched PERSON / PLACE / THING and instead riffed on some other X, Y AND Z revealer, that would have given me a sharper a-ha.

Not many bonuses in the grid, but not much crossword glue, either. Impressive that I couldn't pick out any real flaw, just maybe a RES. That's amazing for a Sunday 140-word puzzle!

But I would have preferred more WHATNOT and ABSOLUT kind of colorful material — having a handful of crossword glue would have been worth it. As much as I detest inelegant gloop, I do want *some* sparkle out of a Sunday grid, especially for those solvers who don't quite vibe with the theme.

Creative idea, BUBBLES UP meaning that the Os in soft drinks rose to the top. Fun to see those O-shaped bubbles!

The annoying engineer in me wondered why oxygen bubbled up, though. It's carbon dioxide! CO2! NOT O2! IT'S WRONG! WRONG WRONG WRONG! IF IT'S JUST O-SHAPED BUBBLES, WHY IS EACH THEMER IMPLYING OXYGEN BY PROVIDING EXACTLY TWO OS?

Man, that engineer is annoying. Just enjoy the O-shaped bubbles, will you?

I liked that Bruce found so many themers, without repeating a key word like SODA or COLA. Tough task.

Solid grid, lots to love in MALL RATS, SLY WINKS, RAW DATA, CAT TREAT, AD BIZ. Bruce is getting so good at injecting long bubbly fill into his grids.

(EEE WIDTH ... not so much. We'll look the other way for that one.)

Yeah, there's some AMAT ANOS EINE in the short fill, but I'm okay with these as prices to pay for all the great long bonuses. And considering Bruce had to build around five themers, I think he did well!

The one real flaw: the BDAY / BENNET crossing. I expect a good deal out of educated solvers, but knowing all 100 senators seems unrealistic. With DDAY, VDAY, and BDAY all fine answers for an [Annual celebration, for short], a more specific clue was badly needed.

Maybe that's just sour grapes, as I guessed VENNET. It seemed plausible at the time.

Fun a-ha moment when I realized what was going on with the O-shaped bubbles — after beating down the annoying engineer complaining about accuracy, that is.

★ Nearly the Platonic ideal of Monday crosswords. Catchy theme phrases, fun concept, strong bonuses in the longer fill, little to no gluey bits in the short fill. Platonic!

Okay, I don't exactly know what "Platonic ideal" means. Something about the perfect thing ... right? I tried to read the Wikipedia entry, but it wasn't ideal.

Middle-grade-level humor hits my sweet spot, so I enjoyed the plays upon BRIEFS, JOCKEYS, BOXERS, SHORTS, DRAWERS. Something about AMATEUR BOXERS really tickled me — keep on practicing, underwear, and one day you'll make the big time!

It helps that I'm a fan of these "kooky interpretation" types of puzzles. I enjoy snappy phrases in crossword grids, and I also like funny interpretations of said phrases.

Amateur underwear, tee hee.

I love how Bruce wove in a bit of extra mid-length stuff, ROAD WIN, and EKG TEST, to further spice things up past ORGANISM and REFEREES. Constructors usually break up these areas for ease of filling — you could place a black square at the D of ROAD WIN, for example. I did hitch slightly on EKG TEST, as it's usually called just an EKG, but ROAD WIN was well worth it for me. And no prices to pay, in terms of short fill around these regions!

INANER was the lone squinty entry for me. I did squint pretty hard at it. But it's not the inaner-est thing in the world. Overlookable, given all the goodness in the puzzle.

Wonderful puzzle, especially considering the difficulty of constructing around five themers, one of which is an awkward 13 letters. Not many (any?) Mondays are truly memorable to me, but that's not their purpose — they ought to first and foremost, be accessible and interesting to newbs. I'd happily hand this to a rookie solver.

I PUT A SPELL ON YOU = HEX atop YOU, three times in the grid. Even though HEX and YOU are both shorties, they're tough to disguise, so some nice finds. TOOTH EXTRACTION made me reflexively wince, but it's a solid answer. MATH EXAM probably made others wince, but this former mathlete approved. And CORN CHEX was a good way to finish it off.

EMPTY OUT did a good job of obfuscating YOU, JOYOUSLY as well. They're both long entries, though, and stacking pairs of long theme answers can be problematic. So many pairs of letters to work through!

See: EOUS in top stack, and AIT in close proximity. ESAS / MLLE in middle. BURL / NONU in bottom.

Pete and Bruce made the grid 16 rows high to center MATH EXAM / JOYOUSLY, but I'd have been as happy with MATH EXAM in the center of a 15x15, with something like YOUTH below it. Might have smoothed things out a bit.

Typically, placing long theme answers in rows 3 / 13 (third to last) is the smart choice, giving yourself the most space possible. Here, I think moving them inwards one row apiece could have helped, giving Pete and Bruce more flexibility in filling around all those letter pairs.

For me, EOUS would automatically force me to restart a puzzle. BURL or NONU I might let slide if they were the only offender, but I'd work mightily to make sure there wasn't some better option.

I did appreciate the big corners in the SW / NE. BASE HITS / ASTROPOP / APERTURE, yes! ANIMALIA / TROOPERS / SYNOPSIS, triple yes! That's the way to use those relatively unconstrained sections of a grid. I don't like ENRY much, but I felt it was a price worth paying for the wide-open goodness packed with juicy answers.

I think the best stacked-themer puzzles are ones where you need to figure out the theme in order to finish the puzzle. Tracy Gray had a memorable such one. Finding the HEX atop YOU instances was more of an afterthought for me.

It's the second time around for Bruce's "+letter then anagram" concept, and I still don't get it. I mean, I get it — toss in a random letter along with a word and anagram to form a valid phrase — but why? It feels related to "randomgramming," a term constructors use, meaning "jumble up the letters because REASONS, that's why." So, same qualms as last time.

How awesome would it have been for the extra letters to spell out US OF A! I think this might be a real possibility. But looking through combinations of 44 different presidents x 26 extra letters is not something I'm willing to do just to answer that question.

Anyhoo, one aspect of Bruce's gridwork I'm digging these days is his usage of seven-letter slots. Often, these get filled with neutral stuff, placeholders that solvers skim over as they go. But ME FIRST / EVIL EYE, LA SCALA / DREAM ON, HAN SOLO — that's a ton of great mid-length bonus material!

It does come at a small price, with a bit of AYS, BALDS (odd verb usage) to make those corners work. Totally worth the cost.

I wish there had at least been more time between Bruce's states + letter randomgramming puzzle and this one. The first time at least felt unique. To get another instance so quickly, with no real change in ideology, wasn't great.

Still, what is great is the phrase POLICE DOG. Love it. And I'll go ahead and choose to believe that GARFIELD (plus you, or U) were both LIFEGUARDs.

Or something like that.

BOXED / ROSES, represented as R O S E in a 2x2 set of squares. That felt thin by itself, so I'm glad Bruce tossed in a quasi-kinda-sorta-mini-theme. HAVE A HEART and STEAL A KISS hinting at Valentine's Day candy. They weren't consistent since one could be a literal "have a (candy) heart!" statement, while the other was wordplayish. Still, flowers and candy are traditional, so it all kinda sorta meshes.

Quasi.

Nice to get some bonuses for us VDay questioners. BATCHED IT! Love that one. I've also seen it as BACHED IT, but that looks more like you listened to a bunch of baroque music. (My kind of batching it! Sadly.)

ALMA MATER, I BELIEVE SO, FLAX SEED, GO SIDEWAYS rounds out some excellent bonuses in the fill. Great choices for those long slots.

Nice gridsmanship through the R O S E boxes and that central BOXED / ROSES. The letters are common and easy to work with, but usually, constructors would hit at least a hiccup or two. Only thing that bugged me was STEERER, but I suppose the person with the rudder in a bobsled is the STEERER?

At least it's gettable.

The SIT PAT clue … huh. I appreciate attempts at new and fresh ways of cluing shorter entries. Invoking PAT Sajak seemed … odd. A bit too kooky for my taste.

Not a bad VDay tribute. It didn't all quite tie together for me — a DOZEN / ROSES (with ROSE hidden 12 times) would have felt more apt (is it just me, or do BOXED / ROSES seem old-fashioned?), and the HEART / KISS mini-theme hit my ear off-key — but a good attempt, at least with good gridwork.