New York Times, Wednesday, May 22, 2019

This puzzle took some back-and-forth before it was accepted for publication. The sticking point was the answer for [Three to get ready]. My original submission used APPETIZER TRIO (balanced by PAIR OF TICKETS), but the editorial team thought that phrase wasn't sufficiently common. Will and crew did, however, like the basic idea well enough to invite me to suggest alternatives for that slot. Among the others I proposed my favorite was PREQUEL TRILOGY. Unfortunately, none of my ideas worked for them.

However, in a stroke of luck for me, they counterproposed STOP DROP AND ROLL (in the sense of getting ready for an emergency) and asked if I could come up with something to balance it out. I found BROADWAY TICKETS and the rest is history.

Regarding cluing, I'm generally a big fan of the editorial team's revisions — they know their audience and the types of clues that work well. This time, however, there were a few changes I was disappointed by.

As a mathematically inclined person, I was sad to see the inspirational ADA Lovelace replaced by the Nabokov title character. I also miss my echoing clues for AREA and OCTANT (Pi r squared, for a circle & Pi/4 radians, respectively). But, I can see how those changes make for a better Wednesday solving experience. Likewise, I understand replacing Rita ORA and ANA Gasteyer to reduce the number of people in the grid.

On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the published clue for OPHELIA. Although the line is well known, it marginalizes and dismisses Ophelia and, by extension, women generally. The clue also defines Ophelia through the lens of Hamlet rather than allowing her to stand on her own as a character. I hope it doesn't engender any unpleasantness for solvers.

AES has some of the best theme ideas in the crossworld today. (A shame that he shares initials with Adlai "Madly for Adlai" E. Stevenson.) How could it be possible to come up with strong, in-the-language phrases for:

• One for the money
• Two for the show
• Three to get ready
• Four to go

I wouldn't have even tried — feels impossible.

LEATHER WALLET cleverly fits [One for the money], a bit of wordplay we might see within a great themeless puzzle.

BROADWAY TICKETS are certainly [Two for the show].

ALL WHEEL DRIVE is another deft interpretation, for [Four to go]. Brilliant!

If it hadn't been for STOP DROP AND ROLL not feeling apt for [Three to get ready], this would have been an automatic POW! pick. Even POY! territory.

I liked this idea so much that I spent a lot of time thinking about what else might have fit. (I wasn't a fan of any of Alex's original suggestions.) The best I could come up with was there's an old saying about the Three S's needed to get ready for a big event. But as spot-on as it was, it wouldn't have passed the NYT censor. (S___, shower, shave. First one rhymes with "hit.")

Ultimately, I couldn't think of anything that worked better than STOP DROP AND ROLL. So I gave it a pass in service of a great overall idea.

Strong gridwork, too. MAKES WAR, FIDELIS, JETWAYS, OPHELIA, WAVE SKI, all reason to APPLAUD. CAN'T LOSE!

Well, there's COLICKY. I don't know that much about Alex since he likes to keep a low profile (we still haven't convinced him to put up a pic.) I can guess that he has no kids though — for us parents of little kids, COLICKY is too soon, Alex. Too soon.

Good use of cheater squares. It's tough to work so many down entries through LEATHER WALLET and BROADWAY TICKETS. So I'm sure the black square above COLICKY was key in allowing Alex to make that NE corner smooth.

Even though STOP DROP AND ROLL didn't work for me, I managed to overlook it. Great idea and excellent craftsmanship earns Alex another POW!