New York Times, Tuesday, January 13, 2015

I'm not too good at either pop culture or sports, and this NICKELBACK theme owes much to serendipity. I was in a gym locker room, trying to tune out the football commentary on the TV, when I thought I heard someone say "nickelback" and I figured it was some defensive lineman or something. But then I got to thinking about the word, and quickly realized it had the same number of letters as MONTICELLO. Thanks to Google, I learned it's actually a Canadian rock group. And after looking at images of nickels, I happened on the coincidental symmetry of AMERICAN BISON and E PLURIBUS UNUM.

It's a pleasure to see the final version in the NYT and compare my clues as submitted to what Will published. As Manny Nosowsky (the first cruciverbalist I ever met!) told me years ago, despite the pride-of-ownership howls from constructors, Will almost always improves on the original clues. This was certainly true in this puzzle. I love "Run out of rhythm?" for AEIOU. I had "Plains buffalo, more correctly" for AMERICAN BISON, and I think it's much better to avoid the word "buffalo." Best of all was the clue for 25-Down, which brings together the Canadian and the coin concepts: "Image on the reverse of a Canadian quarter" for CARIBOU. Wow — and it runs right down through the center. Don't I wish I'd thought of that!

I only know who NICKELBACK is by the snarky comments people post about them on Facebook. (I laugh along, pretending to understand.) But no doubt, they make a good revealer for today's puzzle, which contains both MONTICELLO and the AMERICAN BISON, the two images on the tails side of a nickel.

Really interesting clue for ABEL — I like the effort to come up with something new and bold. I'm a bit of a math nut, so I follow the Fields Medal announcements every year (outstanding discoveries in math, awarded to mathematicians under 40). I had assumed it was the most prestigious math award out there, so it was fun to read up on the Abel Prize. Gotta love the Norwegians, blowing the piddly Fields Medal money out of the water with a gigantic six million kroner payday. Take that, Fields Medal!

For a puzzle with only three or four theme answers, I expect very clean, snappy fill. SCRIMMAGE and SINGAPORE and GLEE CLUB are all pretty fun. CUE TIP too. But I could do without the A TIME, AS A, OSTEO, ERES, and especially AGIN entries. I don't mind some gluey bits here and there if the theme is dense, or if the puzzle has kooky constraints, but for a standard four-theme puzzle, it's a bit too much for me. I would have liked to see some rework to get rid of at least half of those gluey bits.

I also would have liked a little more theme density / tightness. Yes, E PLURIBUS UNUM is on the back of the nickel, but it's not specific to the nickel like MONTICELLO. Sort of a filler than takes care of crossword symmetry. (US Mint: take note that JEFF CHEN'S FACE is also 13 letters. Licensing rights readily available, at a reasonable price starting at six million kroner.)

But overall, a fun trip down memory lane for me, back to a time when I was obsessed with odd coins. Wheat pennies, anyone?