Paula Gamache author page

Three-letter words get their middle letter removed, giving kooky results. I got a smile out of WHAT'S UP DC? — anything Bugs Bunny-related makes this kid happy — and I loved TYRANNOSAURUS RX. Something so amusing about those "sad T. Rex" cartoons.

The others didn't do much for me. HOPPING MD was neither good nor bad. ZIP YOUR LP didn't make much sense. CHEW THE CD … not only does chewing a CD feel too over-the-top kooky, but CHEW THE CUD doesn't feel like a phrase in use. CHEW THE FAT, sure. CHEW ONES CUD ... maybe?

Some nice extras in the fill. Much appreciated that Paula went the extra mile to include four long downs, a tough task especially since she had to weave them through her five themers. INDOOR CAT, SOAP OPERA and AS WE SPEAK are quite good. MILLIBARS … if this mechanical engineer (who has his MS in ME) needed most letters to piece it together, it's going to be rough for others, methinks. Still, I liked it pretty well.

With five themers and so many long downs, it'd be hard to avoid using some crossword glue to hold everything together. All in all, though, Paula does a pretty good job of it. There's a NSW (New South Wales), UKE (who calls a ukulele a UKE?), ARTY (artsy, yeah?), and the tough IN REM, but this OLD SOUL felt like these prices were acceptable given all the goodies they made possible.

Themewise, I so badly wanted the removed vowels to go in A E I O U order. That would have been an interesting take on the "vowel progression" theme type. I did like that Paula removed each vowel exactly once. But to get them in O A E I U order felt inelegant.

If it were me, I'd have to include the hilarious TYRANNOSAURUS RX. But if the A E I O U order were to be followed, that one would need to be the second themer, requiring a 15-letter fourth themer using the O. That might be tough.

Ah, how often doth the gods of crossword symmetry rain on a constructor's parade …

President's Day extravaganza, featuring eight POTUSes and interesting trivia. I had heard some before, like BUCHANAN the lifelong bachelor, and TAFT who went on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. And I think we've all heard enough about OBAMA's birthplace.

But there were a few good ones in there, especially ROOSEVELT climbing the Matterhorn. Appropriate for the Rough Rider!

It took me a while to read the long FORD clue, but I liked that one a lot. (He became VP when Agnew resigned, and then President when Nixon stepped down.)

And HARRISON's grandfather was also President? Yes — William Henry Harrison. I suppose the clue could have been written for the latter or the former.

On that note, I would have liked something pulling all the trivia together. The tidbits were interesting, but as a whole, it felt scattershot. Each and every POTUS has something quirky about him or his Presidency, so focusing the trivia around hobbies, political careers, families, etc. would have been great.

Although none of the themers are long, check out how many there are (highlighted below). Such high theme density almost always makes for a tough grid making challenge. Ed and Paula wisely spend many of their black squares in the middle, separating HARRISON / OBAMA / TYLER / BUCHANAN, and the results in the center are smooth.

But without many other black squares to deploy, they're forced to work with relatively big swaths of white in the corners. Some entries like INTERIM and STATION are good, and I like OZONE HOLE and MACADAMIA (yum!). But ORGANDY, TRALEE, WYNN, SMEW, make for more aggregated toughness than I think a Monday puzzle ought to have.

And the south suffers in terms of short fill, with ATIE, ADDN, LTD, LLCS. Those last two are fine, in common business usage, but as a whole, that little south section felt heavy with crossword glue, especially also considering SMEW and CLEO (do people really call Cleopatra that?).

Some trivia I'm glad I learned, but it would have been nice to get an organizing principle to rationalize why these eight Presidents were chosen.

Note to self: OBAMA at 44-Across — POTUSes at their appropriate number — would have been cool!

Puns on *LESS words today. I really liked the ones involving a drastic change to the first part of the word, SEAMLESS my favorite. So funny to think about a coal miner, his/her shoulders sagging as he/she waves bye-bye to a beloved work site. BASELESS was amusing too, evoking a picture of a soldier roaming the world, BASE-less like a ronin.

Seven themers are rarely easy to fit into a grid. Paula does have the huge advantage of working with seven themers sharing a common four-letter ending, which makes intersecting themers much easier than normal (MOTIONLESS / SEAMLESS). Still, all those themers take up so much space that there are bound to be compromises in the short fill.

I like that Paula tried for some bonus fill, even what with the seven-themer challenge. Entries like POOL CUE, THE CAPE, MY STARS, IN HELL, even a little PASCAL (one of my first programming languages!) added zest to my solve.

I see you though, ISOLA, ON OR, EMAG, ENCL, MTGE, etc. That's too much in one puzzle for my taste, but I can appreciate Paula's decision to push the boundaries, using a good amount of crossword glue in order to cram in some bonus fill. Ah, the trade-offs constructors are eternally faced with.

[It has arms and waves] hinting at SEA made me laugh. I love that kind of riddle, as they remind me of many a beloved children's book I read as a kid. Or yesterday. (A major reason why I'm able to read more than 100 books a year is because most of them have "for kids age 9-12" on the back cover.)

I didn't love the themers where the kooky definition was a little too similar to the original meaning — HELPLESS is defined as "unable to ... act without help," which doesn't seem very different from the kooky clue — but I thought the idea was generally neat and made for an entertaining solve.

Every time I think Will has finally exhausted his stash of "both words can precede ___" puzzles, another one trickles through. Paula uses GO ON AHEAD to describe "both words can precede HEAD," i.e. RED LETTER = RED(head), LETTER(head), etc. It's a very nice revealer, aptly describing what's going on.

"Both words can precede HEAD" feels pretty familar to me, though. Perhaps it's because Paula recently had a similar puzzle which used LETTERHEAD as one of the theme answers? This theme genre is tough these days — so many have been done that it's hard to elevate one now, even with strong themers and/or a perfect revealer.

With six themers, Paula goes a smart route in stacking pairs at the top and bottom. RED LETTER and HOT SHOWER only overlap by three letters, and those letter combinations are very friendly — TH, EO, RT. Still, it's no surprise that those regions are the parts I had the most trouble with. I hitched on PATHE, unfamiliar to me as I don't watch many foreign films, and ETRES, which was tough for me to piece together even after four years of high school French. (Needless to say, I did poorly on my AP French test.)

Similar result in the south. BONE WHITE over GO ON AHEAD gives easy IG, TO, EO letter combinations. Yet ORNE sure was tough for me. It's fair since IGOR looked much more reasonable than IGER or IGUR, but I could see solvers guessing IGER as the [Prince of opera].

DEL WEBB was also mysterious. Might just be out of my wheelhouse since that company focuses on retirement homes. Although, the retirement home right around the corner from me looks awfully enticing, with its fancy meals, private movie theater, game room ...

Overall, a really nice revealer with some strong theme entries, but a tried and true theme type like this needs to be absolutely perfect in order to stand out.

ME TOO interpreted as "me two," i.e. two instances of ME within a single phrase. I bet there are a ton of phrases exhibiting this property, so I like that Paula tightened things up; two-word phrases where both word ends in ME. Also nice is that she managed to get two rhyming pairs and two non-rhyming pairs. How's that for a RHYME SCHEME!

I often like Paula's choice of short to mid-length fill, and today is no exception. YOWZA, KAPUT, and DHARMA are all great choices. Some might say that DHARMA isn't "Monday fill," but I don't buy that argument. As long as all the crossings are gettable — and they are — most any real word ought to be fair game.

Although I'm a big fan of both counterculture and the Lord of the Rings, that SW corner was a little troubling for me. I know ABA from seeing it all the time in crosswords, but I don't know that it's something I'd expect a beginning solver, even a generally educated person, to know. It should be no problem for regular solvers and for those of us who've visited the set of LotR in New Zealand and stuck our heads through hobbit hole windows and reenacted scenes for so long that we were politely asked to leave. Ahem. But I fear that crossing is setting up some novices for failure.

OKEMO crossing DANKE seems more fair to me, since the song "Danke Schoen" is pretty famous. IN A WEEK was the only other thing that made me hitch — it sounds too much like a partial, or something arbitrary, for my taste.

But some nice theme phrases and a fun play on ME TOO.

I loved that middle swath running down the diagonal. SO much great material packed into a small region! BE PATIENT, ESCAPE KEY, JET SKIS, BETWEEN US …, PEN SETS, CUT TIME, even the odd but neat GUM WEED = such a snazzy solve! And I didn't even include the curious PA BARKER, which I had to spend some time on to figure out if it was ludicrous or awesome. (Still undecided.) I can't remember seeing a swath so beautiful.

This arrangement does make for a sectioned-off feel though, the two corners nearly cut off from the middle. But I do understand why Paula might have chosen to go with it — you can almost fill the middle independently of the corners, which makes a constructor's job so much easier. And when it allows you to make a middle swath that juicy, it can be worth it.

I also loved POMPOUS ASS and SURE YOU ARE (dripping with sarcasm). The ALAMODOME feels outdated now and SIT AT HOME a bit dull (like sitting at home?), so the corners didn't do nearly as much for me as the middle. Additionally, those isolated black squares create EMP and RES and BOA and UHS. Three gluey bits out of four ...

Speaking of short answers, I don't mind a few dabs of crossword glue here or there, but I think it's much better if they come from different categories. Getting UHS, BAHS, and TATAS makes all three of them stick out, as does having three legal terms in RES, JURIS, and NISI. As a solver, that sort of concentration draws attention to these otherwise minor flaws.

Glad to see SANDRA OH get her NYT crossword debut. As much as I enjoy seeing Asians in my puzzle, my first reaction was to wonder if she was indeed crossworthy. But then I remembered how much work she's done throughout the years, having some really big roles. I particularly enjoyed her in "Sideways." So thumbs up!

Such a beautiful middle swath, that solve more than delightful enough to make up for a few blips.

My engineer's brain loves quantification, and that extends to my evaluation of themeless puzzles. Usually I count any long(ish), colorful entry as an asset, tally them up, and add a point or two (or even three) if there's some cool visual impact or level of construction difficulty. I've found that the if the result is less than 10, I feel like there's not enough great stuff packed in.

At first glance, this puzzle didn't have a huge visual impact — sure, a wide-open, innovative-looking grid, but nothing that wowed me. However, there is something pretty impressive about six long answers interlocking — I've highlighted them below to better illustrate the effect. It's tough to do this and still make all six answers sparkly, and Paula has excelled here. It's fun to see the fresh GLUTEN-FREE PASTA, and the rest of them are absolutely assets in my eyes. So I might add a point or two for the difficulty factor.

I tend to stay away from themelesses with crisscrossing skeletons, because they are so difficult to make sparkly and cleanly. Each intersection reduces your flexibility, and when you have a section like the south where POTATO PEELERS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, and GLUTEN-FREE PASTA constrain it, you're bound to need some glue like E-DATES (does anyone really use this?) to hold it together.

The corners have fewer constraints, but they're still hard — when you have to run mid-length answers through the start of POTATO PEELERS and BACK IN THE SADDLE, you tend to need things like the old-timey ONE O CAT. I did like entries like PENTANE (I love me some chemistry), RATED PG, SKI BIB, SWEE PEA in the full, and STAN LEE though.

Overall, this type of construction is still not my favorite, as its level of difficulty can be tough for non-constructors to appreciate, and the gluey bits like DIA, TRA, KEL, E DATES, etc. can be harder to overcome, since there's not a ton of snazzy fill.

Interesting to see how different Paula's and my interpretation of this theme were. I remember starting with a giant list of words that can be preceded by DEAD, then going through a systematic process of matching pairs to see what sounded colorful to me. I can't say I ever would have picked out WOOD DUCK or BODY WEIGHT (and I'm kicking myself for missing SEAHORSE!). Neat to see how Paula's personal preferences led to such a different end result. Vive la difference!

I also appreciate Paula's addition of fill that I wouldn't have considered or thought of myself. SAUTERNES is vaguely familiar even to this anti-oenophile, and GOOD FAT is a snazzy answer. Along with other entries like JET BOAT, ON THE MAKE, SHALLOT, and even CAB IT, it feels like a very Paula-voiced puzzle.

I wasn't a huge fan of the grid segmentation, the NW and SE corners virtually cut off from the middle. This does help in filling — especially since there are so many themers, all jam-packed in — but it made for a choppy solve. Additionally, shortly after starting, I dead-ended in that NEO / ONE-D / BENE / EDU section. Gave me the opportunity to study all those short gluey answers concentrated into the corner. Not ideal.

Speaking of short entries, that SAL / LOEB crossing feels nearly like a killer. I wonder how many people know the mule SAL from "I've got an old mule and her name is Sal / Fifteen years on the Erie Canal"? And if you're not from New York, LOEB Boathouse seems like a guessing game. I suppose you could argue that SAL / LOEB is the only reasonable possibility, but for beginning solvers, I could see SAM / MOEB, SAN / NOEB, even SAK / KOEB. I think most all puzzles, especially early-week ones, should set up the solver to ultimate prevail. Crossings like this make that tough.

Good to get another of these "both words can follow" or "both words can precede" themes every once in a while — and getting one with such theme density + great long fill is nice — but they do feel like they're on their last legs.

I always learn a little something from a Paula puzzle, as we travel in very different circles. Things like RAGLAN, ANGUILLA, EDDIE ARCARO, even BRAVA (apparently I've been insulting women everywhere by saying "Bravo!") are unfamiliar to me, and I'm glad to pick up tidbits I really ought to know. I like that I can count on Paula to expand my horizons.

Straightforward "word hidden inside phrases," INNER / EAR describing the word EAR going across two-word phrases. I loved the SURFACE AREA clue, making me really think about that long calculation involving squaring the edge length of a cube. Yay for math! FALSE ARREST is also a colorful answer, and although EDDIE ARCARO was only vaguely familiar to me, it's pretty fun to pair him with HORSE AROUND.

Not a fan of the broken-up revealer, though. Cross-referenced answers force me to jump around the grid, chopping up my flow enough for me to ignore them most of the time. Stuffing in short words is much easier than adding a fifth long themer (INNER EAR all together), but it's much less elegant. Even something like INNER crossing EAR at the terminal R at the very SE of the puzzle ... that would have been harder to do (and perhaps caused some compromises), but I would have much preferred it.

The "parallel down" arrangement is difficult to execute cleanly and snazzily on, and today gives us a perfect example. Paula chooses some great fill in FINE ARTS (ADDED NOTE: actually a themer, I missed that) and ACID HEAD, but what can you do with SD? at the end except SDS? That by itself is fine by me, but when you add in DAHS and NIA (please, do another great movie already so constructors can use you all the time!), it's so close to perfect … but not.

Same goes with the pairing of RHODESIA / BARE ARMS (also a themer I missed). Most of the crossings are easy to work through, but ?SR leaves only ISR or SSR. Again, it generally really strong work, but getting to squeaky clean perfection with this parallel down structure is very difficult.

Nice shout out to crosswordy HELENE Hovanec (who organizes the ACPT) and Jim HORNE, my partner in crime.

Golf theme today, a DRIVE, PITCH, CHIP, and a PUTT to end up IN THE HOLE. Fun wordplay around the revealer, repurposing its metaphorical "behind the 8-ball" meaning to a literal one.

I wasn't familiar with CHIPBOARD, but it's legit, if not snazzy. And at first I was put off by the extra PUTT in PUTT PUTTS, but given my golfing skills, I should be happy it wasn't the more accurate PUTT PUTT PUTT PUTTS.

The 9/9/11/9/9 arrangement of themers forces a lot of seven-letter entries in this grid, and Paula fills them well with the colorful WARPATH, HUSTLES, TRAITOR, and even SEPHORA, a kooky-looking brand name. Without any fill longer than seven letters, I much appreciate her usage of these slots, working in some great entries.

Getting all those good TIDBITS came with a cost, though. Will typically doesn't like acronyms unless they're very well known, but he'll sometimes let them through if the crossings are fair. BHT is vaguely familiar to me, but I can see solvers putting in MHT, with MAA as a believable [Sheep's sound]. Tough one that might irk some solvers; not a good thing for a Monday puzzle.

Although there was a good amount of glue almost necessitated by all those seven-letter slots, I liked that Paula spread it around, not really having a concentration in any one area. I didn't get bogged down at any one particular section during my solve, which sometimes happens if there's a huge bolus of gluey bits somewhere. In total though, I did feel like there was too much for my taste, what with a couple of partials, a prefix, abbr., a CHA and a SHA and a RAH, etc. Uncharacteristic for Paula.

Some people think I hold Mondays to an excessively high standard of smoothness. One can even make the argument that partials are good for Mondays, since they tend to help solvers. I can see that perspective, but I feel like smoothness / elegance in fill is one of the factors that distinguishes "the good crosswords" from the computer-generated or worse.

Great, creative clue for SKY. Reminds me of those jigsaw puzzles that are only one color. Talk about SADO-masochistic!

Paula's back! Fun to see her byline after a year and a half hiatus (although she has done a variety puzzle recently). I enjoy her usually edgy take. Today, that comes in the form of HAIR TODAY GONE TOMORROW, a play on WAXing. I haven't been a big fan of the BRAZILIAN WAX in the NYT crossword as of late, since it's a pretty private (no pun intended) matter, but this to me is pushing the envelope of taste just far enough while eliciting a laugh.

With four grid-spanning themers, there are often some compromises in fill, especially in spots where down answers have to cross two themers. This gets even more tricky when you go to a low word count like 72 — with very few blocks to deploy, you can't separate your themers very much. This gets noticeable in the upper right, where UREY and TWO GIGS sit. Normally, this subsection would be easy to fill cleanly, but when you introduce longer words like GROOMED and CRAZIES into the mix, that task becomes much harder.

I don't mind Harold UREY, but I can see how some might be turned off by having to know a Nobelist from 80 years ago. And TWO GIGS is awfully arbitrary. Maybe back when 2G jump drives were the state of the art this would have been fine.

I like some features of 72-word feat. Even if it doesn't allow for that much longer stuff — only four entries of 8+ letters — notice how many 6- and 7-letter words are in there. CARLITO and DO GOOD caught my attention. I still would generally prefer a grid with four stellar 8+ letter entries, as those tend to stand out in my mind, but I can see the merits of going to an ultra-low word count and focusing on the 6- and 7-letter stuff.

Some great clues, making her mid-length fill sing:

• ALIMONY is indeed a [Splitting headache?]. Hilarious!
• [Water source for many insects] is a great piece of trivia. I had no idea DEWDROPS nurtured life forms.
• [Sticking point?] = nice wordplay on the CARET, the editing symbol to stick in a character.

Impressive to have so much theme density (phrases containing NBA across words), with each themer crossing another. Fancy work from Paula, who incorporated some very snazzy phrases. Checking onelook.com, there seem to be a lot of options available for the *N BA* pattern, so Paula did well to select what she did. It almost felt like a themeless, uncovering such goodness as KEVIN BACON and PINBALL and SUNBATH all throughout the grid.

It may not be apparent how tough this construction is, but it's a real challenge. Any time you have crossing themers, filling around those entries becomes tricky. Yes, Paula had the flexibility to switch out themers if the surrounding fill got too gritty, but she still had to fill cleanly around four separate sets of crossing themers ... and then make sure they all connected. Very hard to execute on, and she even managed to throw in entries like BIG IDEA and DESPOT as she linked her subsections.

I would have loved to see NBA as the last answer. It usually feels inelegant to me when the revealer is in a strange location, but there are no hard and fast rules about this. I can see how difficult NBA would have been to incorporate into the very SE, considering the crossing themers in that section. As always, there are so many trade-offs in puzzle construction.

Will brings up a good point about the trend to judge a puzzle by its worst answers. I enjoyed all the theme density, but understand how people could find the trade-off not favorable. I don't think any of the entries are terrible, but hitting SAT I right off the bat felt clunky to me. Was it worth the theme interlock up there? I think so, but I could see how people would see otherwise. Anyway, these are subjective calls.

Nice change of pace Tuesday, enjoyable four minutes.

Easy-breezy theme for a Tuesday, WI/SE CRACKed so that it bookends the theme answers. It's fun to see a constructor's tastes come through in a puzzle, and today is a fine example. I don't know Paula but get the impression from our brief meetings that she's more cultured than me. (Really though, I'm having trouble picturing anyone less cultured than me. Perhaps the construction worker at this coffee shop who's currently showing off a different type of crack. Tee hee.)

Fun theme phrases today which help make the puzzle sing. When there's a straightforward theme type, it's crucial to pick themers which are snappy, in-the-language phrases, and Paula does well in this arena. WINGED HORSE, WIN OR LOSE, WINEHOUSE, WILD GEESE, they're all phrases I would prioritize for use as long fill in one of my puzzles. Well done.

Tastes will differ of course, and I have a feeling this puzzle will appeal to more upscale clientele than me. Some may point out the elegance of having ANAIS above HENRI, perhaps an irreverent hint at Nin's personal life with Henry Miller (don't worry, I had to look that up too). The WARNERS class up the joint as well, and an ETUI and some POESY round out the high-classisity of the work. Perhaps not my cup of lowbrow tea, but I can appreciate it all the same.

A nit to pick: I got hung up on WISE CRACK, wanting the theme answers to have an actual crack within them made of black squares, or something of the like. Having the WI and SE at the outer ends of the themers more connotes WISE ENDS or OUTER WISE. Minor issue, but for these types of "literal interpretation of a phrase" puzzles, I like to have the interpretation be carried out as exactly as possible. This felt slightly loosey-goosey in interpretation.

Finally, the tremendous amount of strong long fill present today is a mark of a veteran constructor with chops. As Will mentioned, to pull off a 74-worder with such theme density is quite a challenge.

Nice mid-week offering from Paula, one of the most prolific authors during the Shortz era. She's one of the top 20 most published and has hit for the cycle and amazing SIX times over. Talk about a well-rounded constructor!

It took me a while to appreciate the theme. Originally I thought it was simply homonym switches, which seemed a little dull, then I realized it was a subtle sound change, and it finally hit me that it was a consistent sound change, using a soft CE to harder TS substitution. Not only that, she stuck with words where the change didn't affect the length of the word. Impressive. The theme answers are largely successful, the image of being startled by monks giving me a giggle. LOSING PATIENTS seemed awfully depressing, but luckily PRESENTS OF MIND and PRINTS OF THIEVES evoked fun images.

Paula uses a 15-14-14-15 arrangement, which is often tricky. Because each themer is a grid-spanner or a near-grid spanner, there will be many down answers which intersect two themers. This often produces challenges, specifically at the west and east (SUMP and SEXY) areas, which are constrained by the beginnings and ends of the middle two themers. Paula is largely successful in these areas today, helped by the fact that she's smartly placed her 14's in the middle, taking away one set of constraints where the "cheater" squares are. OBE is not ideal, but certainly acceptable for a Wednesday, given that the crossings are fair.

The grid-spanner constraints cause a small blip in the NW region, where Paula has chosen to give us the snazzy FANTASIA. I'm not totally agin leaving AGIN in a grid, but if it allows for FANTASIA, maybe it's okay. Difficult trade-offs when there are tough constraints to work with.

Enjoyable Wednesday; I'm curious to see how Dan's time (and that of the other speedsters) looks compared to Bob Mackey's. ADDED NOTE: holy !*@$% Dan finished in 2:48 (on paper). It took me longer than that to type this added note.