Joel Fagliano author page

★ I love APRIL FOOL's day. It's so rewarding to build a false door, so my kids think they've been Cask of Amontillado-ed, or put on an elaborate parental replacement scheme, or stage a MEN IN BLACK memory wipe.

This fool has already set aside a future therapy fund.

APRIL FOOL means that all bets are off in the crossworld. There have been some jokes, screwy clues, sheer inanity, and even fake news. My favorites, though, are the rule-breakers. Repeated words! Letters outside the grid! Missing black squares! What will kooky constructors think of next? (Here are all the NYT puzzles from April 1 over the years.)

My Spidey-sense tingled immediately, with [Pikachu's cry in Pokemon]. Being a gigantic dork, I knew immediately that this was PIII-KAAA-CHUUU!!! Surely that couldn't be the answer though, since there were only seven squares.

Sadly, that was my actual thought process.

So much fun to see the "entry cannot be used the clue" rule broken over and over. The scientific name for the bison = BISON BISON was doubly fun. And this history (re)buff had to wait for all the crosses to figure out the fourth president after ADAMS. Or did he?!

(He did.)

I wondered if it would have been great for every clue break this long-standing crossword rule, but that would have been too much. The unpredictability is exactly what entertained me.

That also gave Joel and Wyna the freedom to go wild with fill and especially wordplay. [It charges for cleaning], as in how a ROOMBA electrically charges. REALTORS have (house) lots to deal with. [Cell info] these days is one's telephone number … unless it's the DNA in one's cells.

Along with the headlining of my favorite makers, ADAM SAVAGE, this puzzle gave me delightful JAMAIS VU.

I've been trying to construct something like this for ages — my concept is that all entries in a row could take the same clue — but every one of my attempts has been a miserable failure, the severe constraints making me gnash my teeth. I'm awed by Joel's success, almost every pair of Acrosses working to make a fine phrase. (The two Joel pointed out were the ones on my mind too!)

Even better, he worked in not just neutral phrases, but some excellent ones: INDIA INK, BEES KNEES, SKI SLOPE, WAIT A SEC, NEST EGGS. I love that Joel didn't say "good enough" and settle on only neutral pairings.

Best yet, the Downs didn't suffer much! Imagine how difficult it would be to figure out working pairs of Acrosses, all the while making sure the Downs are tractable. It's like some Sisyphean, Greek-myth punishment that Crucivera might hand down upon wicked crossword constructors.

Finally, to wrap everything up with TWO / TO ONE? Such a fresh product.

As a solver, I don't enjoy cross-referencing at all. I'm not sure I would have finished this one, if I wasn't so OCD. Jumping back and forth throughout the entire (electronic) solve injected too much annoyance, dragging down my astonishment of Joel's amazing creation. I fear that many solvers will have a similar reaction.

I'm hoping that the NYT app finds a way to circumvent this. It's a great example of a puzzle that could showcase the modernity of app-based solving — each pair of entries in the grid automatically treated as a single unit, so the solver doesn't have to manually move the cursor back and forth within that pair. For instance, if you were at the I of IRON and pushed the left arrow, the cursor would automatically move to the P of SCRAP (like it would if SCRAP IRON were one entry), instead of the solver having to manually move to it.

I went back and studied Joel's gridwork, a master class in walking that delicate balance between segmenting a grid for construction ease while still achieving adequate solving flow. Even then, I can only imagine how much trial and error was involved in working and reworking each of the tiny subsections.

Memorable puzzle that the constructor in me immensely admired.

I liked this theme more and more with each time I studied it. Yes, it's a simple sound change concept, but the spelling modifications are all so drastic. Check them out:

• RETREAT to RETWEET
• TRICKS to TWIX
• TREES to TWEEZE
• TRAIN to TWAIN

That last one doesn't do much, but the rest are neat.

There's a lot of humor here, too. I actually have an OLD BAG OF TWIX deep in my cupboard. So what if the chocolate is crumbly and chalky? It's still yummy enough that I need to hide it from my kids. FAMILY TWEEZE could have been boring, but the clue made me picture a Scottish clan getting their brows waxed — comedy gold!

The puzzle put up way more fight than a usual Tuesday, taking me about twice as long as average. That can be a good thing when the fill is snazzy and smooth. I enjoy getting a blast of MAJORDOMO, FACE SWAP (I didn't know this, but it's figure-out-able), SAM SPADE, HERETICAL, HOT WAX, SWANKY. Fantastic additions!

BLAMABLE, not so much. I also wasn't as hot on some OKAPI OLLA, but that's a reasonable price to pay. Joel is one of the few people I'd trust to go down to 72 words in a themed puzzle, and it mostly worked today.

I could have used some more gimmes, though, to make it feel like the solve wasn't quite so taxing. [Honey bunch?] for COMB right off the bat … as much as I like wordplay, struggling so hard to figure out 1-Across isn't the best way to start one's early-week solve.

Continuing, let's look across the first row. [Some Olympic sport …] okay, can't fill that in yet. [Hodgepodge] is usually how crosswords clue OLIO, and jumping to HASH isn't easy. Throw the early-week solver a bone, will ya?! Something like [___ browns (breakfast food Jeff eats off his kids' plates, much to their wailing and sobbing)].

We rarely get such great early-week wordplay clues, WRISTS as [They hold hands] my favorite. This also added to toughness, though.

Enjoyable Tuesday, although I bet some early-week solvers who thought they entered a fun-run might be surprised to find themselves running a half-marathon.

My editor over at HarperCollins is so tactful with his critiques. He does everything right, from starting and ending with positives to framing the ugly aspects as room for improvement. He'd say something like this today:

Such a fun concept! Who would have thought of taking something so mundane as a shift at Starbucks and making a story out of it?

Delightful use of common phrases reinterpreted in amusing, barista-related ways. I can just imagine a frazzled trainee having SPILLED THE BEANS everywhere, that being GROUNDS FOR FIRING.

Starting with SPILLED THE BEANS and finishing with GOT IN HOT WATER, that's pretty good, although ending with GROUNDS FOR FIRING might be stronger.

The middle could use more development. I'd like to see a more step-by-step progression in the story, making for a meatier experience. While the phrases are entertaining, they're more a loose collection of short stories than a true novel. Think about ordering the events to build more tension and then resolution.

I didn't understand why they RAN OUT OF STEAM, but then at the end, they GOT INTO HOT WATER. How did they get more steam?

All in all, a concept with strong potential. I'd like to see you revise the storyline before I can commit to a contract.

At this point, most writers go through a multi-stage process, starting from "curled up in the fetal position" to "banging head against wall" to "yelling that the feedback is stupid" to "just buy the damn thing already" to eight more steps covering denial and anger. Sometimes there's even a glimmer of light after all this, and you get back on the horse!

Or you just keep curled in the fetal position. It's cozy like that.

Overall, an amusing solve that worked at about 80%, most of the missing 20% involving giving the story more depth. I appreciated the meticulous craftsmanship, though, such little glue and so many bonuses (EARTH DAY, FIFTH AVE, PHONE TAG, PRESS BOX, RAIN DATE, STEALTHY!) helping that 80% measurement creep higher.

I'm not as much a fan of themeless Sundays as Jim. I do like innovation and something different every once in a while. Going with a themeless seems like a cop-out, though. I'd much rather see more effort put into soliciting theme seeds, working with constructors to develop them into great concepts. Without a theme holding a 21x21 grid together, I tend to lose interest over the solve.

I did enjoy many of the entries Joel featured. HEART EMOJI is fantastic. LIGHT SABER / SHORT LINE / THE SLOTS, that's so juicy. OEDIPUS REX / FIRE ENGINE / FLY SWATTER, too. Well done in that regard.

And what an a-ha moment when I finally conquered the clue, [It might require a quick check]. I was fixated on a business lunch or a microdate when the babysitter can't stay very long. But that's check, as in the king getting checked, in SPEED CHESS. Brilliant!

If you're going to slot in a couple of Sunday themelesses, I'd much prefer to avoid low word-count ones. Yes, this one is much smoother than the previous record holder. As a constructor, I'm impressed by the difficulty of the feat — a challenge I'm not brave enough to try.

As a solver, though, I don't care about puzzle records, especially when it means that my solving experience gets compromised. The prosecution introduces:

Exhibit A: lots of short-word-tacked-on phrases. RATTLE OFF. PEELED OFF. ONE UP. LOG ONTO.

Exhibit B: pitchy words formed by -ER, -ED. HOAXER. DARER. TRESSED. ASHED.

Exhibit C: misc. oddballs. ELLIPTIC without the -AL. APPOSE. ANIONIC. AEC. ONE C.

Exhibit D: Tough crossings. TISCH / PLISSE.

Exhibit E: ADIT. EUGENE MALESKA CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

Upon second glance, there were many solid entries to enjoy. FACE VEIL. DRAMA SERIES. CHEESE SLICER. YEAR OF THE PIG, appropriate for 2019. Kicking off the puzzle with FATHERS DAY, on said day. I had unfortunately forgotten about these — a shame that these got overshadowed by the hiccups. I'm glad I forced myself to give it further thought.

Joel is one of the few people I'd trust for such a daunting constructing challenge. I don't agree with the overall editorial direction, though, this low-word-count feat feeling more aimed at constructors and heavy wonks than general solvers.

Maybe it's okay to run a themeless every once in a while. But here's a suggestion to improve Sundays: hire Andy Kravis, who's already part of the proofing team, to work with constructors in brainstorming and developing Sunday themes. He's a brilliant, creative guy. I'm sure he'd be able to help constructors bring 10 or more fantastic themes to life every year. Considering how important the Sunday puzzle is to the NYT crossword's franchise, it'd be worth every penny.

STATE CAPITALS … anagrammed? Not sure why you'd want to anagram LANSING, uh … ST PAUL … hmm … whatever ANTI-US anagrams to.

I enjoy anagrams, but only when there's a good rationale for them. If there had been some real phrase like CAPITAL MIXUP, it'd have been solid.

This grid is a great example of how going to a low word count can actually work (it usually doesn't). For a theme that solvers might not connect to, it's essential to give them something extra in the fill to keep them entertained. Giant corners like the SW / NE, coming up!

When newer constructors ask for grid help, the first thing I do is look at the overall layout, and if there are any likely gridding trouble spots. My eyes would have bugged out at the SW / NE, advising to break up those sections STATE! Er, stat.

I'm not a fan of STELE or SANDP (that's S&P, outside the crossworld), but SAMANTHA / THIRTEEN / THE EU help offset them. And IT'S A GIRL / NET SALES are bonuses, too. Along with entries we don't see that often in crosswords — PARADE, NOUGAT, REPASTS — the grid gave me a sense of being anything but the same-old, same-old. In a good way.

There were trade-offs, no doubt. Having both AGHA and EMIR in one grid isn't ideal. EATER is basically a partial. Overall though, the freshness within the grid made up for the dings.

Joel has serious construction chops, so I think he made a good call to go to a 72-word grid. But the number of constructors who can do it successfully is in the single digits.

It's too bad that not many solvers would immediately recognize BLENDED CAPITAL — a finance term regarding mixed sources of start-up funds. It'd have been the perfect revealer. I probably would have used it anyway. Even with a boring dictionary definition, it would have given the theme a raison d'etre.

Great April Fool's joke, gettable for newbs and entertaining for longtime solvers. [Tea set?] is literally a set of 15 Ts, to go with a literal G-string, and a Beeline (B-line). At first I wanted a fourth themer to flesh things out, but the joke might have gotten old if SEA LANE or Prow (p-row) had been employed.

Love the bonuses in the fill. LGBT FLAG isn't as familiar as RAINBOW FLAG, but it's still good. EARWORM, THE THING IS …, RAGING BULL, GAME BALL, EN MASSE — now that's the way to take advantage of low theme density. If you're only going to use three long themers, you owe it to the solver to jam-pack the rest of the grid with greatness, and Joel did exactly that.

My one big pause: GINSBURG / ULEE / EBBETS / BAE. These three crossings could all be iffy for newer solvers; too high a chance of tripping someone up — ELEE (as in Robert) might feel even more correct than ULEE to those who haven't seen the movie.

(ULEE has become an inside joke among constructors, super helpful with its common letters, especially the terminal Es, but not that well known outside of crosswords.)

I get that the adjacent downs of GINSBURG and GRAY BLUE are nice, but I'd have much preferred breaking up GRAY BLUE to smooth out the south section. That might have led to replacing DOGES, too, a toughie for an early-week offering.

That said, the puzzle is overall an amusingly jokey offering, a tough task when April 1^st falls on a Monday. It's so hard to aim at a broad audience including a huge range from newbs to speed solvers, but Joel did well with this theme. If there hadn't been some newb-unfriendly blips in the lower half of the grid, I'd have given this one some POW! consideration.

★ False portmanteaus is on my (extremely) long list of theme concepts, but I never could quite figure it out. I even had SKORT along with SKI RESORT, but I couldn't come up with a clever way of cluing it. SKI RESORT as the entry, [Skort?] as the clue didn't seem like it would have produced a good enough a-ha moment.

Byron and Joel are more clever than me.

What a great idea, combining the two to help solvers figure out what was going on. SKI RESORT SKORT as a piece of clothing on the slopes, that's fun!

They did such a nice job of finding enough solid themers to fill out a Sunday, too. I kicked myself that in my own searching, I hadn't found BRADY BUNCH = BRUNCH, BURNING LOG = BLOG, and especially GREY POUPON GROUPON. That last one is a beaut.

Great color in the grid, too. HAUL ASS made me chuckle. NATO SUMMIT, yeah! This math dork loved RISE OVER RUN. Even PAID AD made me stop and think — is there such a thing as a non-paid ad? PEER GROUP, GOJI BERRIES, KIDDERS, RIBEYES, it just went on and on. Even if the theme didn't tickle you, there's plenty of solving entertainment to be had.

As with most Waldenesque constructions, there were a couple of entries that made me cock my head. NONREAL was the one that got me. I know imaginary numbers well, but calling them nonreal seems just ... unreal. It turns out it's a not a non-real dictionary term, but, huh.

(It looks like NONREAL may be replacing "imaginary" in math classes, chalk up one demerit for Jeff. Sigh.)

CORNETTI was another one I didn't know, but it was much more on my wavelength — it was fun to learn. I've gotten unhealthy fascinated by baking shows, and now I want to try my hand at making CORNETTI. I also appreciated that it's related to "cornet," which made me feel like I should have gotten it quicker if I had only thought a little harder.

It wasn't a surprise that this was a low-word-count grid (130, much less than the max 140). Joel and I have discussed this issue a couple of times, and I understand his perspective, that going low helps to introduce freshness. You're forced to not rely on short entries seen all the time in crosswords. But I personally tend to gloss over those shorties, while entries like NONREAL and EX-PARTNER tend to make me pause.

Going to a higher word count would have also allowed for smoothing, getting rid of AKEY, AGRIP, IMRE, etc. Don't get me wrong — this grid is way smoother than an average Sunday grid, even at 130 words — but I have an extremely high bar for these two masters.

That's all super-picky nit-picking, because I do have such astronomically high expectations for these two. Overall, so many great theme entries + strong gridsmanship = POW!

Melinda Gates! I'm a big fan of what she and the Mr. have done with their wealth — hard to think of other individuals who've done more for the world. Not all of the Gates Foundation's projects have been successful, but I like that they learn through their experimentation and failures. And several have hit it big, making a huge difference in the developing world. Inspiring!

Makes me think about getting back into biotech/pharma development sometime in the future. Why am I wasting my time writing crosswords?!

Nice concept, phrases starting with a single letter, having that letter doubled for kooky results. EE READER was my favorite, as ee cummings is a fascinating figure. And I love me some JJ Abrams — his reboot of the "Star Trek" movie franchise was amazing!

I felt like some of the themers were a stretch, though. JJ CREW should be JJ's CREW, yeah? BB COMPLEX felt similarly strained.

XX FACTOR made me a little uncomfortable. Several people pointed out a problem in one of my puzzles, that chromosomes don't necessarily define gender. I felt terrible that my assumption hurt some solvers' feelings, and I worry about the same happening today, given that the clue only mentioned women and girls.

Super solid grid, not a surprise given Joel's involvement. I love how he pushes the envelope, taking out black squares in the NW and SE in order to give us OIL GAUGE and RADAR GUN; same in the remaining corners, with JM BARRIE and BLUE ROAN. Given that this is a Wednesday puzzle, having a more (BB) complex grid feels fitting.

BOOOOOO on the clue for BRIDGE! BOOOOOO to the NYT for eliminating the awesome BRIDGE column, says this BRIDGE fanatic!

Grumble grumble. Fine, it's mostly for old people, grumble.

Nice concept, excellent gridwork. I wish the theme had tied to Melinda's work at the Gates Foundation, though. It's always neat when the puzzle is intertwined to the celeb.

★ It's rare that I can't figure out how I would have pulled off a particular theme, and I love when it happens. It's like seeing a great magic trick unfold — everything works together so amazingly, and you're left with a sense of wonder. How the hell did he/she do that?

It's easy to deconstruct letter addition or subtraction themes. Synonym themes. Words hidden in phrases. All of these are simple to pull off, using various computerized tools. But syllable additions? No idea, besides a whole lot of sounding out words to yourself (while the people around you slowly go crazy from all your babbling).

So many complex word changes! KING JAMES BIBLE to KING JAMES (LeBron) BUYABLE? Genius! WRITING to RIOTING is such a neat transmogrification, too. And CENTER to CEN-UH-TER = SENATOR is the best of all.

I might have liked one more themer, especially since OREGON TRANSPLANT didn't seem kooky enough for this Pacific Northwesterner. But I'd much rather have one too few themers along with a stellar grid, than one too many, along with serious compromises.

There are few constructors would could pull off a 132-word Sunday grid — one of the toughest tasks in all of construction — while keeping the solving experience so smooth. Just a bit of CEES and HOERs? That's way, way, way less than an average (140-word!) Sunday. With a couple of bonuses in SOLAR PANEL, BEANIE BABY, OKAY OKAY, and the delightful triple of AHI TUNA / PITCREW / SO THERE, it's an elegantly constructed piece of art.

Next time someone asks me for an example of a sound change puzzle, I'll be pointing to this one.

A couple of weeks ago, someone asked Deb what the little number under the bottom right corner of the grid here at XWord Info represents. (Every thousandth one is a milestone, so we make it a little easier to read today.) Could it be the number of NYT daily crosswords published since the very first one in 1942? Why, yes it is, and today marks the TWENTY-FIVE / THOUSANDTH! An accomplishment to celebrate.

I did wonder why END OF AN ERA is in the puzzle today. A veiled message? Another April Fool's Day joke? Nope, just a coincidence. Unless you have something awful to tell us, Joel … ?

A couple of great entries, DECK CHAIR, PITA BREAD / E-COMMERCE / DEEP STATE. Flashy entries like these don't need a fantastic clue to make them stand out. But there weren't as many as I like in a themeless.

Where I thought the puzzle shined was in the cluing. So many fantastic clues that I lost count! I'm usually happy when a themeless has two or three clever instances of wordplay. One that has TMTC (too many to count) makes me overjoyed. Here were my top three:

• [Net sales] is a boring financial term I saw all the time in bschool. I had to squint and blink a lot before figuring out that "net" meant "internet." Brilliant!
• I'm terrible at geography, so [Pocket of the Mideast] made me worry. Thankfully, it was all about the PITA pocket.
• TEST is indeed a [Class struggle?]. Great repurposing of a common phrase.

Note that the first two clues elevated already strong entries, and those entries are stacked! Made for a gold-medal SE corner.

I wondered if Tycho BRAHE / EAZY E might be a killer for some. But EOZY E or EEZY E … hmm. Tycho BREHE and EEZY E, that I could buy. Probably not the best crossing in the world.

Nice way to commemorate the TWENTY FIVE / THOUSANDTH NYT xw!

HIGH DEFINITION gets clued as if a dictionary entry for HIGH. OVEREXPLAINED as an entry for OVER. And MEANING OF LIFE as an entry for life? Brilliant! A winner of a theme. A true WITT (Wish I had Thought of That).

I did hitch at LEXICOGRAPHERS though, wondering why this was needed. It all made sense without this "revealer," yeah? Felt like LEXICOGRAPHERS took away from the impact of the puzzle, like someone overexplaining a joke, thus not making it funny anymore.

But I chose to ignore that and appreciate the three great finds. What an amusing concept.

I like that Joel pushes the boundaries in his grids, stretching to work a ton of long bonuses into the fill. Today, he goes all the way down to 72 words, no mean feat in a themed puzzle. It allowed entries like BLUDGEON, BARTENDS, PLATINUM, EDNA FERBER, HUFF POST — excellent stuff.

It did come at price, though. That tiny SE corner best demonstrates it. A BOY / ERGS in a Tuesday puzzle isn't great, and it isn't up to Joel's high standard of gridsmanship. I would have preferred placing a black square at the E of FACE, to break up EDNA FERBER and clean up that SE corner (sorry, Ferber fans!). A little too much stretching today.

If only LEXICOGRAPHERS had been replaced with something like JOB DESCRIPTION or DREAM INTERPRETATION, this would have been a no-brainer POW! pick. But even with the hitch, I had on LEXICOGRAPHERS puzzlesplaining to me, I still enjoyed it.

★ I'll admit, I had no idea what was going on until well after I uncovered the OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE revealer. Okay, I'll admit it was well past filling in the last square-- and re-reading the clue for OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE several times — before I finally figured it out.

Check out row 3 — ABE FORTAS is hiding in there, "obstructed" in two spots by black squares! Same in row 7, with EARL WARREN similarly "obstructed." So cool to see long, full names hidden throughout the grid. ELENA KAGAN within TO HELEN / AKA / GANYMEDE is beautiful.

So although it took some work and an embarrassingly long time to grok, what a neat a-ha moment when I finally cottoned to the idea. I highlighted the six names below, in case you haven't found them yet.

How awesome would it have been to get all the nine current Supreme Court justices? I spent some time wondering if that would have been possible … not really. Not only is it extremely tough to work in 10 themers (nine justices + OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE), but how are you going to hide JOHN ROBERTS? Stupid -HNR- string of letters! And good luck with RUTH BADER GINSBURG.

Still, a guy can wish.*

Grid played out like a solid themeless for me, loving the WANNABE, SABOTEUR, GO DARK, NEW WAVE, TAJ MAHAL, THE BOSS kind of fill (although I didn't care for the THE dupe, THE BOSS crossing THE PEARL). I enjoyed the solve even without understanding what was going on — so many good bonuses, with just a bit of OLA, NEBS, ANSONIA (how else are you going to hide SONIA, I guess), etc. Felt like an elegant, well-constructed grid.

If Joel could have figured out a way to make it work with all nine current justices, this would have been an easy POY! (year) choice. As is though, a fun, smooth solve, with a beautiful moment of clarity for this constitutional law lover = POW!

*I'm lucky enough to count Will as one of my daily readers. He recently wrote me with some feedback, that some of my wish-list ideas come across as too audacious or even impossible, and therefore aren't that useful. I agree that many of my dreamy notions are impossible, like the one today. Ridiculously impossible! But I'm hoping that these lofty ideas spur on constructors, both veteran and novice, to go on to create bigger and better puzzles. Think big!

★ Loved this theme. I've seen a lot of reparsing ideas, but to get MARKINGS changed to M A R KINGS, clued as [Midas, Agamemnon, Richard]? Brilliant! PASSPORTS into P A S SPORTS and HUSBANDS into H U S BANDS were also delightful changes in meaning. DIATRIBES into D I A TRIBES and APOSTATES into A P O states brought the total to five fantastic examples. Loved, loved, loved the concept; wish I had thought of it.

And what a beautifully executed grid. A ton of bonuses — almost too much. Big corners chock full of DAD ROCK (hand bashfully raised here), ENTROPY (why hasn't anyone written a crossword about one of my favorite physics concepts yet?!), DRINKER, PAROLEE / GRENDEL.

I admit, I didn't actually read "Beowulf" when I was supposed to. But I like feeling smart that I recognize the name GRENDEL!

Big corners with juicy material were just the start, too. Some longer bonuses in LPGA TOUR and CLEAR SKY, as well as ARS NOVA, a COP CAR lurking, YOU BET! Man, that's a ton of extras.

My only complaint was that I forgot about DIATRIBES and APOSTATES when I was admiring the themers. I was all set to ding the puzzle for only having three themers in MARKINGS, PASSPORTS, HUSBANDS. A more traditional layout would have had DIATRIBES and APOSTATES going horizontally, perhaps roughly where LPGA TOUR and CLEAR SKY. This would have helped themers stand out on their own, as solvers have gotten used to the convention of "longest across entries are themers."

That's not to say flouting convention is bad. There is something pretty neat about DIATRIBES and APOSTATES interlocking PASSPORTS. That's tough to do, and only can happen when the crossword gods smile down upon you. But in this case, I felt like the wow factor of that interlock didn't make up for the fact that the theme and bonuses got muddled up for me. Especially since LPGA TOUR kinda sorta looks like it ought to fit with this theme. If you squint.

But that's a minor point I bring up just for the sake of balanced analysis. Great theme, marvelous execution overall, and such little crossword glue that I couldn't find any to point out (maybe GROSZ, but the finance guy in me likes that).

This puzzle REDACTED, the FBI, NSA, and CIA "blacked out" (see grid below for details).

I immediately knew something odd was going on, given that 21-, 38-, and 55-Across had the telltale [---] indication of "no clue." But I had DOLPHIN FREE TUNA stuck in my head. And LOOSELEAF TEA, for some reason ... even though that makes no sense for [Student's note-taking aid].

I also wondered why these three orgs had been REDACTED in the horizontal direction, but not the vertical. Well, from a construction perspective, it would be at least an order of magnitude to do the REDACTED squares in both directions — it'd be as if those nine black squares were essentially white squares.

That might even be an impossible task, given how huge those swaths of white squares would be. Just that upper right corner alone … imagine that those "FBI" squares were white. Yikes, that'd be even tricky for a themeless grid, much less a themed one!

Speaking of that, Joel uses a themeless count, all the way down to 72 words (the max for a themeless). It allows for some great bonuses, especially in the upper right and lower left corners: STATICKY, PINE CONE, FOOT RACE, ALL IN FUN (REST AREA is a little drab in comparison). KISSED UP and SETH ROGEN were also fun bonuses.

Nice insider's nod to work in GLUEY, an adjective I often apply to entries like ANS, ITI, RNC (Republican National … Convention? Ah, Committee.). Joel does well to weave his puzzle together in such a way that it doesn't require very many GLUEY bits to hold everything together. Great craftsmanship that I've come to expect from Joel.

Some of the longer stuff wasn't super exciting, though. THE TRUTH felt partial-ish, and entries like SPRAYER, CONTEND, CRYING OUT feel like they do their job without adding much. Ah, the eternal trade-off of snazziness vs. smoothness in fill …

It'd have been great to get something a little more exciting than LOOSELEAF BINDER — maybe DATE OF BIRTH … which sometimes does get redacted! On that note, it was a little odd to redact the orgs themselves, not secrets they want to keep.

But all in all, some secretive fun.

We get a kooky GRAMMAR LESSON today, phrases from English class getting fun reinterpretations. I liked RELATIVE CLAUSES as relatives of Santa Claus — too bad this puzzle just missed Christmas!

FUTURE PERFECT was almost another perfect one, defined as a utopia. I hitched, though, as PERFECT FUTURE felt so much more utopian. FUTURE PERFECT … the grammar felt too tortured for my taste.

Not being very well versed in grammatical terms, I had a hard time with most of them, since I didn't really know the base phrase. The OBJECTIVE CASE is not something I could identify, for example. Not that I need to know what that is, but being familiar with both PASSIVE VOICE's normal and kooky interpretations made me feel smart. OBJECTIVE CASE, INDEFINITE ARTICLE, RELATIVE CLAUSE ... not so much.

A lot of nice bonuses, as I've come to expect from Joel. Loved DIAMOND JIM, PROP PLANES, DIESEL FUEL (although don't most people just call it DIESEL?), and YELLOW FLAG (cool piece of trivia, that it means "no disease on this ship"!). I don't often think to place long bonus fill in the horizontal direction, and Joel uses this well to shoehorn in more extras.

I also liked IN BAD TASTE (especially pairing that symmetrically with ANN COULTER, ha ha ha ba-BAM!), SEX SCENE, PRO SHOP, SOFT TACO, LIFE VEST, etc. All those bonuses were much appreciated today, given my idiocy with the grammar base phrases.

I did notice a few TOR, RST, SYN, IF WE, A SORT sort of crossword glue. For most anyone else, I'd just shrug it off, but Joel is one of the best gridworkers out there. Still, I felt like they were a fine price to pay to get so many extras.

P.S. LTE = "Long Term Evolution." Not sure why the marketing folks thought that would be a good trademark for a smartphone network.

★ I have to admit I didn't understand this one at all after uncovering PANTS AND A SNEAKER. Of course an aerobics instructor would wear pants! And a sneaker! But why not two?

I felt silly when I realized that 1.) it was PANTS AND A SWEATER and 2.) how much fun, that you hear PANTS in an aerobics class, and everyone is a SWEATER (one who sweats). Amusing play on double-meanings of words.

I liked most all the themers, but I loved SLACKS AND LOAFERS for an unemployed person — slacking and loafing are two of my favorite hobbies. And some of the themers also gave me amusing visuals. A gardener wearing BLOOMERS AND HOSE, love it!

I wasn't as much a fan of the central answer because 1.) it was the only one with three items, so I had a hard time figuring out that I needed implied commas in TURTLENECK, BOA, AND CROCS and 2.) TURTLENECK is associated with the turtle (to some extent), as is BOA / feather boa, and CROCS even have a crocodile for a logo — no real wordplay for me here.

Incredibly well-constructed. Plenty of constructors have tried to go down to 132 words, but very few have been successful in creating a both snazzy and smooth product. Joel uses four big corners and a diagonal swath of white in the middle of the puzzle, both of which should result in at least a few dabs of crossword glue, or at least some bleh/neutral answers. I love that lower left, with TRIBUTE BANDS, TAPENADE, WEB APP, (we were) ON A BREAK! ("Friends," anyone?), TEMPEST, with such clean results. Great stuff.

There were a few tiny HICCUPs here and there — as good as L'ETAT, C'EST MOI / DRONE BEE / the ICE MAN are in the upper right, TOOTER feels contrived. And in the lower right, PISTES is a bit esoteric. But to get so much jazzy fill like CHAKRA, KRONOS, CHIPPER, even CANNIBAL with a jokey clue, that's great stuff.

A playful theme plus top-notch execution is a rare feat on a Sunday 21x.

★ Ice cream swirls today, CHOCOLATE, RUM RAISIN, BUBBLE GUM, and PISTACHO swirling within the puzzle. And what an impressive construction! There have been tons of puzzles done with 2x2 chunks of letters (square D E A L kind of things), but rarely 3x3s. That's because they are so incredibly tough to execute on without resorting to the ugliest (capital Ug) type of crossword glue to hold those areas together. Most 2x2 chunks suffer, so think about how much harder a 3x3 is — I'd estimate it's a factor of 5 tougher.

Joel is one of the best gridworkers in the business, so I always expect a lot out of his puzzles, but this one goes above and beyond. I braced myself in each of those four areas, ready to cringe at some ridiculous random set of letters trying to pass off as a real entry … but there was nothing even creaky! TOI is very minor, and although NEHI will draw some assorted groans, it is a real brand. (Plus, it's Radar O'Reilly's drink of choice!) It's astounding that Joel managed to pull off this ambitious construction so smoothly.

He did have the advantage of flexibility — both in where the swirl started and which direction it went. Both of those seemed a bit random for my taste, but then again, that's how swirls really do appear in ice cream.

I did hitch on pistachio, as it's my favorite flavor of ice cream … and I've never seen a swirl in any pint I've eaten. Looking it up, there do appear to be pistachio swirl cakes, but no pistachio swirl ice cream. Dang it, now I really want someone to make just that! Hopefully Ben or Jerry is a crossword fan (please pass this along to them if you know ‘em) and heeds my desperate plea.

So that is a ding for me — CHOCOLATE, RUM RAISIN, BUBBLE GUM swirls = real things. Sigh, PISTACHIO. I'm not even sure what that would look like in ice cream form, but dang it, I want to know now!

The swirls smack dab in the 9x3 stacks were even more impressive, given the fact that 9x3 stacks in themselves are hard enough to get clean and colorful. To pull one off with a mostly fixed 3x3 chunk right inside is plain insane. EX HIPPIES did feel slightly made-up, but it's a funny enough answer that I decided I liked it. With great stuff like MATCH GAME, NO CONTEST, THAT'S A LIE — and just an ESTS and a TOI / ALII to pay — these are some brilliant sections.

Neat visual (see below for how it looked in print), gold-medal execution = very fun solve.

★ The first thing I noticed was that a incredibly wide-open grid, so I checked how many words it was. When I counted only 130 words, a nearly record-breaking stat, I worried. Joel and Byron are two of the best in the business, but people can't just pull off the impossible. Even they would have to resort to plenty of crossword glue, making for a clunky solve.

I didn't get very far very fast in my solve. I kept on looking for a revealer to help me figure out why answers were starred. It got frustrating when I couldn't break into so many of the huge swaths of white space.

But the click finally happened ... and what a click! The starred clues aren't really starred … they represent the word STAR. (STAR)Z is a CABLE CHANNEL, for example, and (STAR)ted talks = BROKERED A SETTLEMENT. Great concept. I remember similar-ish theme ideas, but this one felt fresh.

Even better, all of their theme answers were phrases in the language. Sometimes with themes like this, you might see things like EMCEE MCMAHON (instead of the normal ED MCMAHON) — entries sounding like dictionary definitions. I love that Joel and Byron took the care to make their entire grid appear as if it were just a normal crossword.

And the theme clues! Each one looked so normal that they kept me totally in the dark. My favorite was [*Z, for one], which made me think about a letter, a chemical symbol, a physics particle. STARZ to *Z is brilliant.

Finally, to do all that in 130 words … just astounding. Sometimes I hem and haw about some of Byron's entries sounding made up, but only OPERA CRITIC sounded a bit funny (are there such specialists these days?). RUBY SLIPPER, UNION STRIKE, NADERISM (think Ralph Nader), all great stuff.

PAUL PIERCE will be tough for some, but the crossings were chosen with care to make him gettable. And what a great story: a top prospect falling all the way to the number 10 pick of the 1998 draft, then dedicating his career to making all the GMs who passed him up rue their decision (almost all of them did).

There was one rough patch I didn't care for: the NE corner, with its concentration of SPEE/SMEE and the GARRET/FAROESE crossing. I couldn't actually finish the puzzle because of that corner. But I can overlook one small region because of all the goodness Joel and Byron worked in.

I've highlighted the special letters below — it was tough for me to see them all at once. (I imagine the impact of today's theme will be much bigger for paper solvers, who can easily circle each of them). The idea is that each starred entry has exactly two instances of each letter … except one. If you highlight each of those left-over letters, they spell REMAINDERS (reading top to bottom, left to right).

I enjoyed Joel's programming challenge. My coding was completely hacky but wow was it satisfying to crack the problem and generate a list of workable entries.

When he told me what he was looking for, I wondered how this concept would resonate with solvers. It took too long to see that the R in HIPPOCRATIC OATH was the leftover, and that was the case going all the way down. I do think it's a novel, interesting idea — and REMAINDERS is appropriate — but I fear that some solvers won't go back after filling in the last box.

I was amazed to see this is a 134-word puzzle, as Sunday grids at that level are almost always splattered with ugly swaths of crossword glue to hold them together. I breezed through the puzzle, hardly noticing the usual suspects like HOW I because they were rare. And to come across so many great entries — FAULT LINES, SPEECH BUBBLES, UP TO YOU, SAUTE PAN, NICOTINE PATCH — I really didn't need any theme in order to enjoy all the snazzy fill. Since I didn't have a way to circle the leftover letters in the theme, I just treated the puzzle like it was a big themeless, and I really enjoyed that.

Joel was wise to put all his long fill in the vertical direction, all spread out through the grid. More spacing = more filling flexibility. People would be wise to study this sort of layout.

I'm guessing that I would have given this the POW! if I had solved it on paper, circling the leftover letters as I went.

LEAP DAY commemoration, four holidays ending in DAY "leaping" over a black square: MOT/HERS (day), LA/BOR (day), VETE/RANS (day), and BOX/ING (day). It's tough to make long entries work in this fashion, so NAI(VETE) next to (RANS)OM is a great find. BON (MOT) next to (HERS)TORY is also nice. I wondered if HERSTORY is still in usage, as I haven't seen it in print in a while, but I like the concept (history as seen from a feminist perspective) a lot.

BOXING (day) = "one of these is not like the others," as it's the only non-American holiday. I wasn't sure exactly what it was, so it was interesting to read up on — cool that it's a "second Christmas" in certain countries! When I was a kid, the day after Christmas was such a letdown, so every year my brother's family and mine celebrate a Second Christmas shortly after (first) Christmas. Almost better than Festivus!

I wondered why Joel would include an odd fourth "day," and it was easy to see that INDEPENDENCE, COLUMBUS, and PRESIDENTS would be tough (impossible?) to break in keeping with this theme. MEMO/RIAL is the only one that fit with the others — you could have TAKE A MEMO and RIALTO (or RIALS), but the RIALTO would be pretty unfamiliar to some Monday solvers. Always the trade-offs.

Cross-referenced clues often annoy me, breaking up the flow of my solve, but I really liked WAXES / WANE crossing, echoing each other. It's tough to make those kinds of things works so perfectly.

And I often dislike when a corner is isolated from the rest of the grid — note how the NW has only word connecting it to everything else — but that sort of layout often brings wonderful flexibility. Here, Joel uses it to great effect, with a beautiful triplet in SIMIAN / ICE AGE / BON MOT. And the opposite corner is even better, with SHAGGY running through IN GEAR / BIG EGO / MAYDAY! I'd take that trade-off any day.

Nice idea, well executed except for the inconsistency of BOXING (day). If only America would open its eyes to the joys of Second Christmas!