New York Times, Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Thanks for solving! It's very exciting to have a puzzle run in the New York Times again.

In the original submission, the wording of each theme clue was "Spot's spot," and BENCH PRESS appeared in place of TEA SERVICE. In Will and team's reply, they suggested "It has spots" would be a better clue and asked for a replacement for BENCH PRESS since that wouldn't quite fit. I brainstormed a few ideas, and they liked TEA SERVICE the best. After some back-and-forth on the grid, this was accepted in September. Their only request I couldn't make work was removing DOLMA from the grid; all the alternatives I came up with had bigger problems. Hopefully not too many folks will be concerned to see that pop up on a Tuesday, they're so tasty after all.

I enjoy the lateral thinking required to dream up these types of themes. SPOTs can be found in PARKING LOTs, on LEOPARD PRINT, during a COMMERCIAL BREAK, and at a DOGGY DAY CARE. Four different types of spots demonstrate the wide range of meanings one word can exhibit.

I originally hitched at DOGGY DAY CARE, since Spot (the stereotypical dog name) required capitalization, but the entry itself is so sparkly that I decided I didn't care.

The only one that bothered me was TEASER VICE. (Think: one of those commercials that advertise "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.") Much too similar to COMMERCIAL BREAK, and a TEASER isn't exactly a "spot."

(I'm kidding, of course. Mostly.)

When I finally realized that it was TEA SERVICE — future crossword theme alert; fun parsing change! — I still wasn't a fan. Proper people do say "a spot of tea," but a TEA SERVICE having "spots" felt different; more of a stretch than the others. You can point while in a PARKING LOT and say "there's a spot." Same with the others. Not so much with TEA SERVICE.

I preferred Joe's original BENCH PRESS (where the bench presser is given a (safety) spot by a person behind). I brainstormed more and came up with CASH DRAWER and PAIR OF DICE. The former doesn't work any better than TEA SERVICE though since no one calls a ten-spot a "spot," and the latter is maybe too similar to LEOPARD PRINT. None of them is ideal, but BENCH PRESS works the best out of these options. I'm with Joe!

It is true that DOLMA is a toughie, especially for an early-week puzzle — doubly so when crossed with LOAM. There will often be prices to pay when a puzzle is theme-dense, but I think this could have been smoothed over by putting a black square at the L of TOILET and shifting black squares down within that column. I love DOLMAs, but its presence might make for a less satisfying newbie solve.

Besides that one blip though, solid gridwork. TEMP AGENCY, I BELIEVE SO, LET IT BE = solid bonuses.

Too bad about TEA SERVICE. The fifth themer makes gridwork much harder than four, and it detracted from the solving experience for me. I'd have given it the POW! if Joe had figured out a way to just use the four strong themers, which would have allowed him to jazz up the fill even more.