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Jules P. Markey author page

22 puzzles by Jules P. Markey
with Jeff Chen comments

TotalDebutLatest
225/10/201210/6/2021
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Jules P. Markey
View these same grids with comments from:
Constructor (19)Editor (2)Jeff Chen (19)Jim Horne (3)Hide comments

See the 78 answer words debuted by Jules P. Markey.

Alternate name for this constructor:
Jules Markey
Puzzles constructed by Jules P. Markey by year

Jules Markey is a retired U.S. Postal Service letter carrier living in Blue Bell, PA. Many of his crossword theme ideas came while trekking through the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, delivering the mail.

Wed 10/6/2021
MOLESIEGEWPA
IDESSACREDHAS
KEEPACLHEADALI
ASKANCECRAFTED
NOHOTTESSE
COMANECIOLDCTS
AWEDOLTAOK
NEWATATESNIDE
ARILYRANOD
DANGLECRSLIGHT
ONTOLENIAN
COCNINGPASSAGE
IRKPIGEONHOLES
LAIANODESLIMP
EKEDONUTETSY

It always throws me off to experience a rebus on a Wednesday. Sometimes it's obvious what's going on — today's was not. So tough to figure out not only where the rebus squares were located, but what was inside them. When I eventually figured out that I needed multiple letters for WHATS COOKING, I tried COOK as the rebus. Geezers as OLD COOKS, you ask? Sure, I like to cook!

Rebus revealers can provide such a sharp a-ha moment when they're indirect but still lead you to the right notion. My light bulb dinged as I went from wondering what PIGEONS had to do with COOKs, to realizing it was a sly way of getting at COO. Clever idea.

I'm not sure the HOLES part of PIGEONHOLES works as well as some rebus revealers, though. I usually think of crushed or box, which more directly gets as the notion. Since this is a Wednesday, how about circling the rebuses like in Amanda and Ross's puzzle, making the COOs more hole-y? Maybe even darken them!

It'd have been great to get COO broken across words of a phrase, but all I could find was CO-OWNER. I like Jules's selection of themers, evocative KEEP A COOL HEAD to WHATS COOKING to a COORS LIGHT. And heck yeah, ME WANT COOKIE! Almost could make this into a food/drink mini-theme. Just sayin', ME WANT COOKIE with ICE CREAM SCOOPER …

I appreciated Jules's effort to make all the rebus entries interesting, in both Across and Down. COCOONING and OIL TYCOON, that's great extra material. It did force some compromises, especially where themers met up. No surprise to see TERR near the crossing of OIL TYCOON and COORS LIGHT.

Overall, a fun multi-step process of rebus discovery, making me work for a payoff that was worth it. I found it tough for a Thursday experience, making it frustrating for a Wednesday, so all the ANON EDT ESSE LAI OTT WPA kind of glue bothered me more than it should have. Curious choice to not run this on a Thursday.

ADDED NOTE: Jules writes, "Pigeonholes are boxes like crossword squares. Your hole-y critique was wholly misplaced." Excellent correction and love the groany puns!

Wed 4/22/2020
DUMBPABSTCUBA
ATEITORATEOPEN
FAITHLIBRAROAD
THREEMILEISLAND
MEATPHIL
SEVENHILLSOFROME
APEDICEYPEEKED
DONSOARSDALI
ACTUALRITESPET
THIRTEENCOLONIES
GOVTPLIE
PRIMEREALESTATE
CROCRATIOETHER
PISAEDENSELENA
AXELTESTSEMTS

Several years ago, a newer constructor ran an idea by me, using PRIME REAL ESTATE as a revealer for THREE MILE ISLAND, plus some others I don't recall for TWO, FIVE, and SEVEN. I loved the notion, but his choices left something to be desired. I thought his chances for acceptance would be much higher if he brainstormed for better themers, but he went ahead as is, and subsequently got rejected.

Enter today's puzzle! I like Jules's selections, each themer easily recognizable and catchy to boot. I would have loved for TWO and FIVE to be included, but crossword symmetry requirements are a cruel beast. To get the three prime numbers in ascending order is a nice touch.

Today's grid is more wide-open than usual, the word count of 75 deceptively high, considering it's a 16x15 grid. With biggish swaths in the SW and NE, parts of the grid approach themeless-like openness. I often dislike when constructors do this, leaving me with a feeling that they're trying to show off, trade-offs be damned.

Not today, Jules's decision is paying off. LEVERET is a bit of an oddball, but when you can work in SURGICAL, CORAL RED, TEA SHOP, POLITICO, that's worth a bit of ARIL ETES GOVT. There's some extra bite, to be sure — I nearly got stuck in the NW, unable to make the connection between "Buzz off!" and BITE ME, for example — but it wasn't enough to create the feeling of mismatch that can come with a straightforward theme buried within a tough grid.

I enjoyed this concept the first time around, and I enjoyed it even more now. Makes me want to go back to my notes to see if there is a TWO and/or a FIVE themer.

Wed 5/29/2019
NOSHFLABSIZE
OREOELATEIDOL
PANSROMANGOOF
UTTERRUBBISH
LOTUARCOTTON
PROUSTCOIFADO
STATEMOTTOES
BASELEENPASSE
EXPRESSLINES
ALISOSOODESSA
DETOURALAAMI
SPEAKVOLUMES
PIMAARIESROLL
JPEGREARSISLE
SATEMASTSASS

It's unusual for Jim and me to agree on which puzzles we liked / didn't care for in any particular week. I always appreciate his counterpoint, which so often makes me curious to go back and take another look.

My first impression of today's puzzle that it was pretty good. Interesting but not flashy theme, generally fine gridwork. So I was surprised to hear Jim say that he would have picked it for his POW! I did like it enough that I gave it a little POW! consideration, but the "a-ha" moment was more of a "okay, got it."

I also had wondered if SPEAK VOLUMES didn't disguise the first word as well as the others. It does have a different meaning — there's no actual speaking when something speaks volumes — but it's not as cleverly disguised as EXPRESS as in EXPRESS LINES.

All in all, it felt like a solid puzzle, certainly above average, but nothing to write home about.

Upon second glance though, I liked it more and more. I hadn't even noticed that each themer was about the written word: MOTTOES, LINES, VOLUMES.

Well, RUBBISH didn't fit that pattern. (Except maybe if you were reading aloud some of my earlier "practice novels." I'm trying to destroy all copies of those floating around.) Such a great bit of wordplay, though! Perfect way to repurpose the great phrase, "talk trash."

There were also a couple of clever clues I glossed over the first time around. The usually ignorable I DO gets an innocent [Pledge of allegiance] treatment. Get it? It's pledging your allegiance to your partner? Fantastic!

I ask for a [Little help?] often. With any luck, one of these days it'll be an ELF answering my request.

Maybe I should have made it my POW! pick. My appreciation rose with my second look, and yet more while writing this post. There is another puzzle later this week though, that resonated more strongly for me.

Tue 3/12/2019
ATSEABEEPZAP
CONESHELGAEVE
TOOKATOLLONRIG
OTOSROLEIPODS
NEZLADYACE
EDENICUNGARBED
FAKEPEATUTE
SIEGEATETITAN
IRSYOLOCAST
RETROFITACROSS
OUTHARKNEW
SLEEKYELPEDGE
LOXNIMBUSCLOUD
ARIOCCAMPEWEE
PETWEARLANDS

Will Shortz isn't taking many "words that can precede X" themes these days, as they've become done to death, and as Jules mentioned, "___ DOWN" puzzles are falling into that camp too. But there's still room for one that offers something extra. I appreciate the tight set — it's hard to think of more BUTTON types than SNOOZE, LIKE (think: Facebook), BELLY, PANIC.

I like to play the early-week "name that theme" game, and it took me a while to figure out what was going on. Partially in a good way, since it's tough to figure out what SNOOZE-FEST, LIKE YOU KNOW etc. have in common.

But partially in a confusing way, as I stared at TOOK A TOLL ON, UNGARBED, RETROFIT, and NIMBUS CLOUD for ages. There had to be a link! Who would use the word UNGARBED if it weren't necessary for some clever theme?

Will is much more lax about this "theme obfuscation" issue than other editors. Rich Norris over at the Los Angeles Times won't allow long acrosses (8+ letters) when themers are arranged in the down direction, because it confuses people. Mike Shenk at the Wall Street Journal is more lenient, but it's still frowned upon. I tend to side with them because regular solvers have been trained to look for theme in the longest across answers.

This can be a real problem when it comes to grid construction. Jules already went up to 80 words (two past the max allowable), so simply breaking up TOOK A TOLL ON and NIMBUS CLOUD isn't the answer. I have a feeling that including more long down fill would have been a good direction — perhaps taking out the block between TOOTED and IRE (after breaking up TOOK A TOLL ON), and similar strategies throughout the grid.

I think it's possible to retain all five themers, all of which were great phrases and made the theme meaty, while elevating the elegance. Cleanup in aisle AGA ASA OTOS EEKS! Tough to say for sure without rolling up my sleeves, though.

Tue 10/30/2018
ATOPSPAPAGED
RIPOSTESORONO
TRIPTYCHSIFTS
SEEPYSOCIAL
ELSROTYIP
MRRIPLEYDAMA
AYEZAGAOKAY
GRAVEYARDSHIFT
AIDEDMAPTAO
PASTSUNRIPEN
EDAURNERL
LENAPEAUSSI
BROADEGOTRIPS
OFUSEGIVEARIP
ODDERSSALENS

Funny that Jules should mention Joel's puzzle! That was the first time I ever saw this type of theme; a trigram moving through a puzzle. I was so impressed with Joel's creation that it was one of the reasons I wanted to start blogging about puzzles. It's such a delight to be able to gush.

Big smile when I got to today's revealer, GRAVEYARD SHIFT, indicating that the RIPs are shifting down the diagonal. An apt concept for the day before Halloween.

I would have liked the gravestones to be spaced out a little bit more, though. Having two RIPs atop each other felt like something else was going on, like a commentary about cemeteries saving space by burying bodies atop each other. (My mind goes to gruesome places, doesn't it?) Placing the second RIP in row 4 instead of row 3 seems like it would have made for a better visual.

Alternately, I would have been happy with just four RIPs — once you fill in two of them, you get the sense that you're supposed to put in RIP for the rest. This would have also had the added benefit of allowing for better fill.

Don't get me wrong; I thought Jules did wonderfully on one of the two criteria I use to judge fill: color. GO FLY A KITE! STYLIZED. MYRIAD of nice bonuses.

The other criterion, smoothness, is where the puzzle suffered. Any time you need to use the "old-style" or "old" descriptor (RFD), it's probably a sign to go back and rework. Same goes for the "var" tag (EGIS). Toss in the tough LENAPE, both DAMA and SRA, some ERL EDA and you have a zombie apocalypse!

Thu 4/12/2018
OFFTOBIBBOGRE
DOLESISLEBLED
DREAATCHERGONG
STARMAPUGLYBTY
EAVEDUNH
BOGSINAPIGSEYE
RHETTSILOAOL
IANWISHNESTUV
MRIEMMAIRENE
SAUGEPARTYERGS
TUTDAUBS
ASWESAYBLATANT
NEOSCABLEBOXES
TARTELIEARENA
ELKSDENTSEDER

Jules does something exceedingly well today. Usually, rebus squares get placed into the longest grid entries, and then the crossing entries are made short to facilitate grid construction. BET might turn into ABETS or BETAS in the crossing direction — pretty dull.

Not today! Jules manages to get four full pairs of great theme answers, DREAM CATCHER / TEAM CREST, UGLY BETTY / GLOBE THEATER, WISHBONES / DASHBOARD, SAUSAGE PARTY / GENIUS AT WORK. Eight fantastic answers!

(SAUSAGE PARTY was hilarious, but man oh man was it raunchy! Highly recommended, but prepare to wash out your eyes afterward.)

These four pairs of long crossing answers, plus the CABLE BOXES revealer, take up a huge amount of real estate. It's tough to build around so much theme material, but Jules did pretty darn well.

The only thing I ask from short fill is to not stand out as inelegant. I didn't care for the ILE / ISLE dupe (yes, they're clued in different ways, but I can't help seeing the French ILE = ISLE). And the random letter string TUV is bad. But that clue! [iPhone 8?] = the letters TUV on the 8 button on an iPhone. Doesn't make TUV a desirable entry, but it excuses it a teeny tiny bit.

I did find it a bit strange that IN A PIGS EYE didn't have a rebus — usually, you want all your longest entries to contain rebuses, especially in the across direction — but I gave it a pass since Jules already had so many long themers.

This ___ BOX concept has been done many a time, i.e., PO BOX, JACK IN THE BOX, HAT BOX. Tried and true notion, repetitive, but I appreciated the careful execution.

I also appreciated Will running a solid Thursday puzzle — one with a toughish theme, worth working hard to uncover — for the first time in weeks. Rebuses are a bit overdone these days, but they still provide a fun solving challenge.

Wed 1/17/2018
ACELASTOAIDEO
DORAGEELSNOVA
DNASAMPLESTWIT
EMAILABUNCH
LAWEXAMDRIFTS
ERATOSEAATE
DRYOFFAVIVALL
GINNIENAPETIA
EVENEMOANTHEM
REGCLOTSERENE
RAHWHOWIRES
STEREOEHOWSET
LATISHRIPON
ORZOAPOSTROPHE
WOKSRUNELIRAS
STYEEPEEDRONE

DOWN FEATHERS … equals "birds hidden within themers in the down direction"? I stared at that revealer for a long time, trying to figure out if I was missing something. Where were the feathers? Perhaps they were drawn onto the print version? Now that would have been cool! We see so many shaded and circled squares — how about some feathered squares!

Some great finds, FINCH inside A GAME OF INCHES, RAVEN inside BRAVE NEW WORLD, etc. Love that Jules went with longish birds. It would have been all too easy to use TIT or OWL or EMU.

The puzzle does need a revealer — something to explain the concept — but DOWN FEATHERS didn't work for me. As much as I love a clever revealer, if you can't find one that feels sharp and/or witty, best to stick with something straightforward like BIRD as your last entry. It won't win any awards, but at least it'll do the trick and not confuse people. (BIRD DROPPINGS is hilariously on point, but it's also pretty gross!)

Good gridwork, especially considering the five long themers. STOA and IDEO up top worried me, but thankfully, just a bit of ESE and RAH otherwise. I would have expected some glop around the EHOW / RIP ON section due to themer overlap, so the smoothness there was much appreciated.

Down-oriented themers … a typical drawback is that the revealer comes too early in the puzzle. Gives away the game! But that can't be helped; just part of a vertical themer layout.

Another problem is that it can be tough to incorporate good long fill, since stuff like DNA SAMPLES (great fill!) tends to get mistaken for theme. Rich Norris over at the LAT frowns upon long across fill like this, and I agree. Best to cap this kind of fill to seven or eight letters, max.

The print edition has so much potential, able to do things that the electronic version can't. I'd love to see more elements like a feather printed lightly atop squares that can help keep the print newspaper alive. Even distinguish it.

Wed 10/25/2017
LOCHAPTGOADS
SARISLEOEASEL
DRIVERECKLESSLY
MERVAYEAVE
DREITSNOWONDER
ROWFRODUO
EXAMILIARIFLE
GIVESPERMISSION
SEETOSKINERAS
EYENEAEMU
SOLDATALOSSDYE
AGETSASHIA
BREAKUPTHEBANKS
LEDGEEKEYMCAS
ESSAYNEWBENT

Such a horrible time, back in 2008 during the financial crisis. I only vaguely remember the BREAK UP THE BANKS movement, but I do recall thinking how pointless it was — finance people always tend to find ways around whatever new regulation is introduced. Sigh.

Anyhoo, Jules "breaks up" four banks today across words in phrases: RIVER bank across DRIVE RECKLESSLY, SNOW bank across ITS NO WONDER, etc. Amusing that DATA bank got split across SOLD AT A LOSS, a stock-related phrase all too common during 2008.

Well, amusing if you didn't sell at a loss back then.

DRIVE RECKLESSLY didn't feel as in-the-language as "reckless driving." And GIVES PERMISSION … it works, but it's a little dull, not something I'd strive to work into another puzzle.

Jules had to work with high theme density, difficult to fill around themers of length 15 / 11 / 15 / 11 / 15. ITS NO WONDER there was some AGA, KAN, SST, ILIA kind of crossword glue necessary to hold everything together, but that's less than I was expecting. Solid gridwork, especially considering he went out of his way to incorporate CRIME WAVE (nice dig at the finance people behind CDOs!) and FIRE DANCE, some great bonuses.

Overall, I enjoyed the puzzle despite BREAK UP THE BANKS being only vaguely familiar to this finance wonk — granted, I try to ignore politics these days — and it hearkens back to a dark time in recent history.

Maybe still a little too soon, Jules and Will …

Wed 3/29/2017
ITCHYBLOCIDLE
RELEERANIMEAD
ELECTRICENGINES
FLAKODEENTIRE
USNTAGARAATL
LOSTONESMARBLES
NEINAIMESS
MIDDLEAGE
OBEEOSMCML
ADIRONDACKCHAIR
POSPOORASCEO
ERESTUSENGASP
MACHINEWASHABLE
ANTECLAMERROR
NTSBESPYSPEWS

MIDDLE AGE interpreted as "phrases with a specific age within them." I've seen several like this before — even published one myself for CrosSynergy — but I like today's progression. Starting with the ICE age, moving to the STONE age, IRON age, and NEW age = fun chronology.

I did wonder about NEW age — SPACE age seemed a more logical progression to me — but there's something to be said about being pleasantly surprised with a changeup. Jules also has a good point, that it's hard to hide SPACE in the middle of a phrase.

Very tough set of themers to construct a grid around. Having four grid-spanning (15-letters long) entries is difficult enough. Then throw in a middle 9, and you're asking for pain. There are so many places in the grid that have to work with at least two themers. Results in such little flexibility, causing trade-offs in so many places. Quite a few rough patches.

Take the bottom left. The biggish corners are going to be particularly hard in a layout like this, so to get a POS, NTSB, OBE, SHEB isn't unexpected, but also isn't great. BISECTS and APEMAN are pretty fun. And Jules did use a smart "cheater square" (to the left of OBE), which I'm sure made filling the corner much easier. But still ...

I won't tick off all the gluey bits, but there was so much that it bogged down my solve. Perhaps something less audacious — three phrases with hidden AGEs, plus MIDDLE AGE — would have been better.

(I would have loved MIDDLE AGE running vertically down the middle of the puzzle, with the various themers intersecting it horizontally. That would have been easier to construct than the layout you see … if you could get the intersections to work. That's always a big if!)

I feel sorry for all you poor saps out there who don't play the world's greatest game, BRIDGE. You probably didn't understand a great clue, [Game for dummies?] — in BRIDGE, one person ends up being the "dummy," the person who plays his/her cards at the direction of partner.

It's a game for dummies, ha!

Perhaps you had to be there.

Some nice bonuses in CINERAMA, MACABRE, even LAERTES for the Shakespeare lovers out there. Those were much appreciated.

Mon 12/26/2016
EBBLETAYEIPA
DEAERECTEDNOR
ALPSILOINGSWM
MATSEENOTECEL
ARISEXENAHARE
MUSERSSTOLES
ESTAOBOESLEDS
BOXINGDAY
ESSESNOGOONAN
ATTESTNIKITA
ROESHEARMEETS
FRAGETRICHBET
LAMANATOLEUMA
AGEPOPSTARHPS
PEREWESWERTE

I wish we got cool holidays like BOXING DAY in the US. But maybe that's just my ongoing post-Harry Potter Anglophilia speaking because BOXING DAY turns out to be just the day after Christmas when "Christmas-boxes" are given to service personnel. Grumble grumble. I was hoping to see Hagrid enter the ring against a boggart.

Jules literally boxes up days: LEAP day, ELECTION day, SNOW day, GAME day, PATRIOTS day, HUMP day. I liked how consistent he was, always starting in the lower left corner and then continuing clockwise. It's little touches like that can help make a puzzle sing.

It's always tough to fill around big chunks of letters fixed into place, so Jules did pretty well in the upper left. Note that he deployed a lot of his black squares in the middle — separating BOXING DAY from the six literal boxes makes for easier filling overall — which means he was forced to work with relatively long answers in the corners (to keep to the maximum allowable 78 words in total). Love EDAMAME, BELARUS, BAPTIST around that LEAP day. MUSERS is a made-up-sounding, pluralized -ER entry, but ESTA is the only other gluey bit. Pretty good there.

The bigger boxes are naturally tougher to fill around, having eight instead of four letters to work with, so it's not a surprise to get an old TELEX and a rough -ATION up top. SILOING sounded a bit odd at first, but it does seem to have real usage.

The bottom also shows some strain in a partial-ish THE NOW and the esoteric French ETAPE. But I did like GET RICH and POP STAR.

Overall, I liked the homage to BOXING DAY, but it would have been nice to get a little more tightness than simply "any word that can precede DAY." Maybe all holidays, or all slang terms for days of the week, or all Wizard-based holidays, etc.

There really should be Wizard-based holidays. Grumble grumble.

P.S. As Jules pointed out to me, there really ought to be a NIB 'O EGGO day (check out the center of the puzzle).

Tue 7/5/2016
ETTAARCINGBID
NAANREINERUKE
EXPOSTFACTOCEL
MEANTLOLVOCAL
YDSEREIRENA
MARXANDLENIN
BROADSTEAMESA
YOLKSATSSPELT
RUDEALIPETREL
DESPOTICALLY
EARLSCOLTSA
OHARATEEEDITS
MUDTREASUREMAP
EGOEARVINLORE
NOGDJSETSARRR

X MARKS THE SPOT sounded out (pseudo-)phonetically at the starts of themers. I had a little laugh when I realized DESPOT was a stand-in for THE SPOT. It didn't totally work for me, since EX / X and MARX / MARKS are perfect homonyms while DESPOT / THE SPOT are not, but it reminded me of all sort of childhood jokes, i.e. "denial" is the longest river in Africa and "Denise" is the sister of de nephew. (groan)

I wasn't a fan of MARX AND LENIN as a theme answer, as it doesn't sound like a real phrase to me. Yes, Marx's philosophies heavily influenced Lenin, but it's not like they co-wrote something. Perhaps KARL MARX could have been a better choice, and moving the hidden phrase to the end would have allowed for a better DESPOT phrase, like BENEVOLENT DESPOT or something. That pesky EX wouldn't cooperate though, as there's no good phrase ending in the word EX. Rats!

Fun to get some theme-ish fill in BUCCANEER and OLD SEA DOG. The latter made me hitch though — SEA DOG and OLD SALT are terms for seamen, but OLD SEA DOG didn't sound quite right to my ear. It also wasn't as specific to pirates as BUCCANEER. Still, these two entries helped give the puzzle a heftier feel.

I don't mind a couple of minor dabs of crossword glue to hold a puzzle together. RRS, YDS, DELA, NATL, ANON … that's a little too much for my taste, but it's not far above my threshold. Although ARRR is thematic(ish), I have a tough time with arbitrary extra letters, like SHHH and OOOH. Feels inelegant to me.

Speaking of inelegant, BROADS hasn't been seen in a major crossword since 1990. I hitched on it, wondering how many women it would offend. I do appreciate the attempt at ameliorating it with the "impolite" qualifier, but I'd much rather not see any word listed in dictionaries as "offensive." I personally want my crosswords to be uplifting and fun, not insulting. I'm curious to hear from readers about this one.

Overall, some enjoyable fill in DJ SETS, MAKE PAR, A-LISTERS, and a few aspects that didn't hit home with me.

Wed 1/6/2016
POSTCHADPJS
ENEROHIDECHOU
ZEROEDINONHOED
AUDIDRYREDS
TAGIMBUEPOBOY
ECLIPSELINEN
AEIOUGULAG
CROSSREFERENCES
ROTORONICE
TSKEDORNETTE
BRONXIDIOTYON
RILEAMOBOIL
OTOERADIOEDITS
COEDIGORDENSE
ANDDESKSEAT

CROSS REFERENCES = OED crossing OED (Oxford English Dictionary). I liked Jules' long themers — OEDIPUS REX is such a great entry! And RADIO EDITS crossing PIGEON TOED was really nice too. Normally I don't care much about themers interlocking when the letter patterns make for high flexibility, but OEDIPUS REX crossing CROSS REFERENCES is fun.

BROCA's area, in red

It would have been great to have variety in the "references" (ROGETS, maybe?) — once I uncovered the first set of shaded squares, it was too easy to fill in the others. That did help me as JOE DON gave me a tough time (do his friends call him Joe Don? If not, it feels like a long partial, a la HAYLEY JOEL or JENNIFER LOVE), but filling in all those OEDs made the puzzle too easy for my taste.

Well, except for TEAC and BROCA. I thought I had all the Japanese electronics manufacturers down — SANYO, SONY, even NCR — but TEAC I hadn't heard of. (It originally stood for the Tokyo Electro Acoustic Company, and they make high-end audio equipment.) I like major brands in my crossword, as they make them feel more real-life, but I'm not sure TEAC qualifies (I'm not even sure how to judge this). That ???C pattern is usually tough to fill, as there are relatively few four-letter words ending in C.

BROCA seems more crossworthy to me, as there's part of the brain called "Broca's Area," after the French Dr. BROCA. But the OTOE/BROCA crossing is going to be rough for some. Whether or not you consider it to be fair (I lean toward yes, since midweek solvers likely have seen OTOE many times), I think crosswords should strive to set the solver up for a win (or at least feel like he/she should have won). I don't think this crossing does that.

It's tough to fill smoothly around crossing themers. Note how there's at least one little gluey bit near each crossing — ENERO in the NW, CHRON in the NE, etc. This arrangement can be done totally cleanly especially if there's flexibility in themers, but it's very difficult to accomplish.

Great clue for the BRONX, Ogden Nash rhyming it with "no thonx." More clever poetry, please!

Thu 8/20/2015
BAUBLESCHENE
IMPAEDUPHOLDER
NOTNOWPRAIEDOG
EROSITSYSPANS
TENSNITATT
SINPAOFSOCKS
OVINESAONONE
NINERSDROPMEX
ETCDADOTEMPLE
BALETOWTORTS
CLAVOYANTHOE
EURSEAASDS
SCENTOTTOASIA
HOMEREPAROBERT
ENTRUSTSTRUDGE
LASNOSASTAES

Nice idea for a rebus, AIR getting COMPRESSED into a single square. Since so many rebus puzzle have been done by now, my strong preference is for there to be some rationale, some interpretation which justifies it. This is a nice one. Check out our list of rebus puzzles — especially in older ones, people just chose some random string and rebused the heck out of it.

Experiencing a little gas, PR(AIR)IE DOG?

I like how Jules incorporated AIR into some of the puzzle's longest entries. AIR hidden in PR(AIR)IE DOG and CL(AIR)VOYANT and UPTON SINCL(AIR) = fun and twisty to uncover! I also like that in these three examples, the word AIR isn't explicitly part of the entry. It is nice to get some bonus AIRs through the puzzle, but CON AIR and SEA AIR (and the odd BAIRNS) I could do without. With no rationale of why eight AIRs is the appropriate number, having just five or even four, with all of them hidden so nicely in longer answers, would have been my preference.

Grid is stretched out to 16 rows in order to accommodate UPST(AIR)S DOWNST(AIR)S — fun to have a marquee answer with two rebus squares. If you stretch a grid to 16x15 or 15x16, you'd think the word limit of 78 should go up proportionally, meaning that it's okay to go up to 83 words. That's what Jules does today, but I prefer keeping close to if not under that original 78 word limit. Today, we see a whopping 39 entries with length = 3 or 4, almost half of the puzzle. That's a huge number of shorties.

UPHOLDER … for only having two pieces of long fill, I want them to sizzle.

Pretty well executed otherwise. It can be tricky to fill rebus puzzle grids, because every rebus square you put in means you have both an across answer and a down answer frozen into place. The AIR string is easy enough to work with, so Jules did have some flexibility, but he did pretty well to keep the glue to the minor stuff: TET, ESO, SCH, ATT, etc. None of those stick out enough that they affected my solving fun.

Tue 6/23/2015
ROADTOADTOLD
AUTOUTNECAPER
BROMANTICCOMEDY
ESPIDOSAMENS
ORRAPER
HOPEANDCROSBY
CUREDEATINAON
AMOSMINUSHYDE
TINCIGNAMOOED
DOROTHYLAMOUR
APTSLCD
LANCEERICYMA
SONGANDDANCEMEN
ICIEREDIEMCAT
BOLDBALDBALI

Word ladder integrated with ROAD TO BALI, a film apparently in a line of "Road to …" movies. I had heard of BROMANCE before but not BROMANTIC COMEDY. Apparently it's a thing! I did find it odd that the term was used today to describe a movie made a long time before the term even originated, but perhaps that was the point. HOPE AND CROSBY were apparently way ahead of their time!

It must be riotous, because the poster says so!

I like consistency in a crossword, so I found it bothersome to have HOPE AND CROSBY (last names only) along with DOROTHY LAMOUR (full name). It might have been one thing if DOROTHY LAMOUR had gotten top billing in the movie — it seems even weirder to have the third star get her full name while the first two get crammed into one entry.

I think I would have preferred to have just HOPE AND CROSBY across the middle of the puzzle, especially since this puzzle was about BROMANTIC COMEDIES, yeah? Only having three long themers might have felt a little thin, but with the word ladder I think it would have been fine.

Four themers in a 15/13/13/15 arrangement also makes for a tough job in filling. And when you add in those four-letter words in rows one and 15, it's even more difficult. As an example, note how tough it is to fill the bottom right corner, constrained by -EMEN and BALI fixed into place. I tried to refill it out of curiosity, and couldn't come up with anything cleaner. No fun to be trapped with a configuration that necessitates gluey bits from the start.

A 15/13/15 arrangement isn't easy either, but in this case it would have given so much more flexibility in filling around those pesky word ladder rungs.

I like word ladders every once in a while, and I much appreciate an additional element so it's not just a boring old word ladder. So using ROAD to BALI is a nice touch. Having the ROAD to BALI go down a diagonal would have been even better — forming a sort of connected road!

Thu 2/12/2015
SWALLSAFTGEMS
HITSATJIBATOM
ENLACEARSLAVA
NEATPAREZALES
GSNNOSARIITO
EATINSCRIPTION
PITTAMOCO
CORNERSTONE
POEMEDEMI
TIMECAPSULEOMG
OSAAPESISTER
UTTERRISESIMI
CRITZOONIACIN
HINTARTOSMOND
SAGEGSARHINES

Literally four CORNERSTONEs today, with a beautiful clue for the revealer. [Where one might find a date …] felt like it had to be THE CORNER BAR, COFFEE HOUSE, MATCH DOT COM, or whatever the kids are using these days. Love the trickery, pointing to not a first date, but a calendar-type date.

That hot date is just around the corner!

Also nice to get some bonus material, INSCRIPTION and TIME CAPSULE worked in. And crossing theme answers, nonetheless! For how constrained those NE and SW corners were, they came out pretty well. People may point to OSA, ETTE, and ITO in these regions, but ITO feels perfectly fine to me given the fame both Lance Ito and Midori Ito achieved.

Once I figured out the concept, I worried a bit about the NW and SE corners — so difficult to fill corners with perimeter answers, and even more difficult when those areas are this big. Very pleasantly surprised to see how well the NW came out, even a WINESAP worked in.

The spanker sail is the one on the lower left

The SE did have more glue than I like to see, but it's hard to avoid that. One aspect that I've picked up over the years is that in this sort of arrangement, needing words ending in "I" makes filing surprisingly difficult. Having two perimeter words containing an I — RHINE and GRIND — likely made things tougher.

Unfortunately, the ?????STONE pattern has limited results, and with TOUCHSTONE already used elsewhere, there aren't a lot of other good options in those two slots. In cases like these, I find that switching black squares around so that you can also draw upon ????STONE (only four preceding letters) can help immensely, opening yourself up to entries like SAND(STONE), EMMA(STONE), LODE(STONE), etc. Different lengths = more flexibility.

Finally, I loved the clue for AFT: [Like a spanker's position on a ship]. I hope no one's looking at my Google search history …

Thu 8/21/2014
TEMPCLASSRAPT
ALAWSAMOAASHE
CAKEPLEPSITION
ITERTARREDANA
TEAPTLEIEPNYM
FLORAFLAP
SHIITEWIICELS
POSTOFFICEBOXES
YETIEONGARTER
CARLMESNE
DEISMLOOSPNGE
ELSISOLDEPSAT
PISONPWDERPITH
SOURKEIRAEVEN
ETESEDENSREDO

Rebuses have come a long way. Browse the huge list to get a sense for this genre's evolution (mouse over the dates to get a thumbnail view!). At first it was simply any set of letters without any reason. People then made shapes out of rebus squares, and even tied them to revealers. These days, rebi with rationale for why there are rebus squares are de rigueur — today, the rebus squares are literally PO "boxes." Neat idea, similar to CRUSHED ICE, etc.

I hadn't even noticed that the four rebus containers all 1.) use two words and 2.) start each word with a PO box. Now that's nice consistency and elegance. Sometimes I prefer less order in my rebuses, so I have to work at sussing out where they are, but in this case, I liked seeing the order afterward.

I did find POISON POWDER less compelling than the other themers, which all pop (warning, bad joke ahead), especially POPCORN POPPER. Do schemers put POISON POWDER in wine, or just poison? Methinks the latter, but I could easily be wrong. Now if it had been IOCAINE POWDER...

And as much as I liked the consistency factor, I could do without some of the glue that this constraint necessitated. MESNE and ITER are just two entries in a 76 word grid, but they're pretty old school. One is pretty easy to overlook, two feels crunchy. And having A MERE and A LAW near two of those PO boxes makes me wonder if removing the consistency to produce a smoother fill would have been better. Tough call.

Where will rebuses go next? Tough to say, but I'm looking forward to the next evolutionary step in their development. Evolve or bust!

Tue 4/29/2014
JUTSPUPASANER
AMIEUPONUTERO
DAMERESTNEWAT
EMERGENTSWASTE
DISLENOPOMP
TAOSFARRALA
ORALBAFROSPUG
RUBLEBITHIERO
EELTRUCEIRREG
OSERATEOPEC
CLOYBOREOSA
HIHATCOVERALLS
AVANTAXELCUES
VERGEPENSAMEN
ESTERESSEINKS

NEWSPAPER COLUMN, how meta! Today's puzzle gives us four "literal" (quasi-literal?) themers, each of which starts with a stereotypical name of a newspaper (TIMES, GLOBE, POST, SUN). I'm not sure if I'm missing an added layer? The revealer refers to the entirety of each of the four themers, so perhaps TABLE, CHART, OFFICE, etc. are also the names of famous papers?

Anyway, a nice construction, given the high constraints. Not many people are brave enough to try a 15/12/15/12/15 skeleton, because it's a bear to tackle. (Excuse me, it's an OSA!) As would be expected, there are signs of stress due to all the across entries which span two or more themers: EMERGENTS felt off as a "real thing," and hints of OSA, OSE, ESTER, HIERO, etc. crop up. It's the typical trade-off of more theme / more corresponding crossword glue vs. a less ambitious approach with cleaner fill.

Laying out a grid like this is tough. I bet Jules spent a lot of time considering his crossings even before starting to fill. The only two places I might have tinkered further with: where ORAL B and IRREG sit. The ??A?B and I?R?? sequences are unfriendly letter patterns, so perhaps a little more playing around with black squares could have been beneficial. That IRREG / HIERO section is about the best it could be with the given skeleton, but it did give me a little hitch as I solved. It's so tricky to work with five long themers — it's almost inevitable to have one or more trouble spots in the crossings.

Finally, a beautiful clue, especially nice to see on an early-week puzzle: [Places to put ones dough] for OVENS is fantastic. I thought through SAFES, VAULTS, MATTRESSES, etc. before head-slapping myself. Perfect, absolutely perfect; awesome that the clue didn't need a giveaway question mark which would have foiled all the cleverness.

Wed 11/27/2013
MALIAALAABCS
UCONNTOMEDUAL
GRAVYTRAINDICE
SOMERINSESCHE
SQUASHRACKET
CACTUSOTOS
ISHITALONERD
THANKSGIVINGDAY
EYREANIMEACE
LOEBPRANKS
DRESSINGROOM
WESLOOIESSOBA
ETTETURKEYTROT
EROSANTEMEZZO
BONESHYALOOP

Fun pre-Thanksgiving puzzle from Jules, phrases containing a hidden traditional Thanksgiving dish. If only there were such a thing as BRUSSEL SPROUT FLAIR or PECAN PIE GEOGRAPHY so my favorite American Thanksgiving foods could have been included*.

Well-constructed puzzle. Five is becoming the new four in terms of theme entries, and it's hard to pull off cleanly. Jules only has two long downs in the puzzle but makes good use of them: CHARLESTON and BUICK SEDAN are both quite nice. And it allows him to fill the puzzle cleanly, with just a smattering of ETTE, OTOS, A LOOP.

Sidebar on A LOOP: there's a surprising disparity among constructors on what the worst type of fill is. I would have guessed that everyone would have a similar hierarchy: old-timey entries like ADIT at the top of the hit list, followed by crossword-friendly words like ERNE/EPEE, esoteric names, and then partials. But it's been eye-opening working with a bevy of different collaborators. Some of them are completely fine with partials and some abhor them, especially five-letter ones. It sure would be nice to have one scale with which to judge what is "good" or "bad", but this serves as a good reminder that so much in crosswords is subjective.

I generally like to see a theme that is both consistent and specific, and this puzzle certainly hits on the former. One might think that it misses on specificity, since there are dozens of traditional Thanksgiving Day foods which could be included. But how many can be hidden within phrases, where the food doesn't mean the food? I couldn't think of any right off the top. So well done there.

This puzzle has made me hungry. Off to fetch my eating pants!

*Food donations can be sent via fax and/or modem to www.xwordinfo.com; just shove it into your USB port and hit "enter".

Thu 11/21/2013
CONARCATHOME
HMOWOODSHARES
ANTLOCOSISALS
RITEFOWLESNEE
MAORISNONWAGES
WITACETIC
SPONGEBOBLETTS
UAREDAMOLDHAT
FIRSTSFLAPEXE
IDYLSBOOKATRIP
ABOARDSEE
COPYEDITTSETSE
ABOTENETSSHAQ
VAULTSROAMEMU
EMCEESSIRIROI
SAHARALSDESP

Fun, having DOWN COMFORTERS run down (vertically), as well as incorporating four theme "comforters" (comforting statements) in the down direction. Clever idea! It was tougher than usual for a Thursday (for me), but I liked the challenge. Not having clues for those four down answers largely made it like a quote puzzle, where you have to work for every crossing until you start to make out bits and pieces of words. It took a long time but felt very satisfying when I finally figured out what was going on.

It was interesting to read about Jules going through several iterations of the "comforters". IT GETS BETTER and THERE THERE worked perfectly for me, but THIS WILL PASS felt a little off (ITLL PASS seems more in the language to my ear). Could be a generational or a cultural thing? Same with NOT TO WORRY. Could also be that I'm personally much more likely to say GET OVER IT, SUCKA. I'm kidding. Sort of.

Even with five long themers, Jules manages to work in a lot of nice fill. SPONGEBOB is fun to see in the grid even though we saw him just recently, and COPYEDIT and BOOK A TRIP are quite nice too. Trying to find good entries that cross three themers (SPONGEBOB and BOOK A TRIP both do this) is often very difficult. Even if you can find a few good options, it often forces compromises in the surrounding areas since you have few options to try out.

Two areas I paused at, the first being FOWLES / LOEB. I know Lisa LOEB the singer, but the Harvard reference was lost on me. The cross was a blind guess, made tougher by my reasoning that if it was LOEB it would have been clued to the singer. You can see now why I'm a terrible rock, paper, scissors player, as I try to out-think my opponent until my brain smokes. (And I totally would have taken the wine with Iocaine powder in it.)

The second was the NW corner. NOT TO WORRY didn't make itself apparent in my head so I tried all sorts of DONT WORRY, DONT YOU WORRY, WORRY WORRY (I never claimed I was logical). Not knowing OMNIA made that especially hard. But hey, this is the New York Times Thursday puzzle. It's supposed to be hard.

Glad to finish it with just one error!

Thu 2/14/2013
REPOORBROSES
ELANBELLATOYA
FIRESIDEASTLEY
ECASHDUTCHOVEN
RIDESEYEAEXO
STEELTRAPDEFAT
EVEFEBNOMO
ELEVATORCAR
SLUEEARETC
HARDGBARNSTORM
APOARBOTCTEA
BACKSTAGEAPOLO
BLOUSEOPENDOOR
AMINESLEGALAI
TANGSFROSENS
Tue 10/23/2012
AVESUSPSFOCAL
BORASODAARUBA
FIRSTCLASSCABIN
ALOHASHOTADE
BARISTAALIGNED
MEANTION
REGISTEREDNURSE
AAANEABEG
PRIORITYSEATING
WISSETTE
STEEPLELETSSEE
HESPAPAITALL
EXPRESSCHECKOUT
BAYEROTOEINDO
ASSTSMAILTEEN
Thu 5/10/2012
ZIGSKNOWQUISP
ISEEARCHUNTIL
SUITEMATEISERE
THEASPLETSEAT
KABUKIENID
SAWMILLSSRA
EUROPEANSELOAN
REPOMANESTELLE
ERATOCATBALLOU
OSSSTARDATE
IBARTAKEME
BAILEYSPARADE
MAFIACOURTSHIP
AMASSALVAAPEX
CARTEPDASJUMP
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