David Liben-Nowell author page

I love it when something different comes along, especially on a Monday. It's been a long time since we had such a rectangular offering, and that one was money. Today's didn't just break out of squaresville, it also entered the ranks of Repeated Words puzzles. Bring on the carbs!

It'd be tough to open wide enough to eat this sandwich — unless you're one of my favorite competitive eaters. Even Randy "Atlas" Santel, Katina Eats Kilos, and Beard Meats Food might hesitate before tackling such a mouthful.

Although, Katina did show off Hulk Smash techniques …

Neat that all four (three) themers are the exact same length. It's like how my daughter grumbles if I don't get the jam or peanut butter to the exact edge of the bread. It is a time-consuming pain, but there is something satisfying about perfecting it, just as having the themers span today's grid is elegant. No crusts to cut off!

Working with such an unusual aspect ratio would make many constructors shake in their boots, since it's not uncommon practice to seek out and study (or reuse) prior grids that used your themer lengths. Reuse is okay, but it's so much better to customize each grid to tackle the hardest letter combinations. Plus, that gives you practice for when you need to break into unprecedented ground, like today. David did so well to incorporate not only four long Downs, but more extras by opening up the top left and bottom right corners. OVER ICE PIRANHA evokes strong imagery!

A straightforward PB&J isn't my jam these days, so I appreciated the unusual aspects.

A decent idea that went on too long. HAND, and then (second)HAND, that's fun. PLACE, and (second)PLACE, still good.

STRING, (second)STRING. Okay.

PERSON, (second)PERSON.

. . .

Just thinking about having to list out the other five makes me tired. Check out our list of puzzles with repeated words to see them all.

Why not branch out, avoiding being so repetitive (ha)? TIME and (another)TIME. LOCATION and (echo)LOCATION. There's so much potential for fun. You might have to give a hint to the implied word, maybe even put that implied word into the grid somewhere, but it would be worth it.

Thankfully, David and Victor worked in a lot of extras, helping keep my attention. SLIDE GUITAR sparkled. HEDGEHOG, SKI PANTS, WINNIPEG for Canuck solvers, the OUTBACK for Aussies, even some TORSION for us mechanical engineers.

With an average quantity of crossword glue, it made for a good overall grid.

This would have been much better as a weekday puzzle, scaled down. Alternatively, more creative, expansive thinking, would have improved the Sunday experience dramatically.

I continue to hope that Will takes my suggestions in publishing more interesting Sunday puzzles. Things ain't what they used to be.

Here's another suggestion: issue "Sunday theme query licenses" to 25 constructors. I get that it can be overwhelming to have to sift through theme queries, but:

1. A limited number would be more of a trickle than a flood.
2. Mike Shenk at the WSJ does it (with the huge help of Mark Danna)
3. Not being able to theme query is a tremendous hurdle that some of the best constructors aren't willing to overcome.

When I started doing themelesses, it was all about the entries. A couple of sizzling ones like SELF DRIVING CARS were what drove (see what I did there) my final impression.

These days, it's more and more the cleverness of the clues. I came away entertained today, even though there weren't that many entries I could point out as marquee — just PIPSQUEAK, SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, CLEAN SLATE. It was all about the great clues, showing off such wickedly brilliant wordplay. My favorite was "reproductive system" repurposed for MIMEOGRAPH.

Themelesses built around grid-spanning entries typically don't have much real estate left over for much else. And it's usually difficult to convert the limited number of longish slots into great entries, due to rigid grid inflexibility. TAKE STEPS isn't going to win any awards, for example. It's so critical that your grid-spanners seriously sparkle, since they're likely among the few that will.

I've heard some constructors muse about creating themelesses with zero feature entries that shine on their own, but which allow for fantastically clever clues. I wouldn't go that far — I wouldn't want a themeless loaded with TAKE STEPS or even MIMEOGRAPHs, for example — but I can understand the notion.

Big corners like the NW and SE are so daunting! As a constructor, they remind me of my many (many many) failed attempts to fill such wide-open spaces without resorting to ugly gluey bits or strange long entries. And as a solver, I shudder at the thought of how hard it is to break in; to get any sort of toehold. It's even harder when a corner is so isolated like these two are — just one entry apiece taping them to the middle of the puzzle.

Even tougher after I finished the middle, and realized that ?????WAY could be so many things … as could AIR????? ! This is a great tip for constructors working with sections like these, since retaining that type of flexibility is so important when trying to connect a giant corner to the rest of the puzzle.

In the middle section, I liked the KNEECAPS / CAR RADIO / PREREQ section a lot. THIRTY TWO ACROSS was a bit out of place to me, as it was the lone self-referential answer/clue — I felt like it could have made for a better themed puzzle entry, along with two or three other similarly done answers. Getting A DAY right over A PIPE seemed inelegant, but thankfully the rest of the middle was relatively smooth. (BE SORE, I'm still trying to figure out if I like you or not.)

So, So, SO tough to finish the corners (I didn't complete the lower one). I was really impressed with the upper left — it's so rare to get a giant corner like this filled with great assets like BROADWAY and BRAS TRAP. Er, BRA STRAP. For those of us who play Ultimate, we should probably let the clue get a pass — it's a technicality that a great majority of Ultimate players use Discraft brand discs, not Frisbees (which are weighted all funny).

The SE corner didn't do as much for me. As much as I loved RIOT GEAR, things like ASPIRANT and BORN INTO are the type of neutralish answers I'm more used to seeing in these chunky regions. Being held together with some OISE glue and the odd-sounding IS NEAR didn't do it any favors.

Even though my solve was frustrated by how separated the three parts of the puzzle were, as a constructor I have tremendous appreciation for that NW corner. Really beautiful work there.

There's an interesting idea here, CIRCULAR REASONING MAKES NO SENSE BECAUSE (repeat ad infinitum) placed into a loop. I like logical reasoning puzzles, so an element of this theme greatly amused me.

I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had solved on paper. Having a clue which is neither across nor down — one lone "around" clue — is a neat idea, but it didn't translate well into the electronic version.

A few inelegancies:

• Starting the quote off-center felt funny. It would have been great to get it started in the top middle, or the top left. I believe either of those could have been possible, unless I'm missing something.
• For a theme based around CIRCULAR REASONING, I wanted the big answer to go in an actual circle. That's tough to do, but a square could have been better than a rectangle.
• LOGICAL FALLACY is a nice addition to the puzzle. BEG THE QUESTION feels like a tenuous connection. (ADDED NOTE: Jim does bring up a good point below.)
• Like in Stepquotes, the places where the long answer turns is technically "unchecked," i.e. there's no way to solve it out if you can't figure out the quote. That made the west and east sections so tough that I nearly didn't finish. Made it awfully frustrating to have just a few blocks left to fill in and no crossings to help me do so.
• How cool would it have been to have the four corners of the quote spell something? Not sure what might be — FLAW perhaps?

There were a few nice bonuses in CS LEWIS, SKI SHOP, LIVE CHAT, and those definitely enhanced the puzzle. And it's definitely an interesting concept — Jim and I discussed how we might catalog an entry of infinite length into our database. Overall though, I would have liked the elegancy level to have been bumped up somehow.