NEW LOOK

Peter Gordon is a puzzlemaker and editor from Great Neck, N.Y. He has been a puzzle editor for Games magazine, Sterling Publishing and the bygone New York Sun. Since 2010 he has edited Fireball Crosswords, a 45-times-a-year online-only super-challenger.

One of Peter's bugaboos as a constructor is partial phrases — multiword answers that would ordinarily require fill-in-the-blank clues (like "Getting ___ years" for ON IN). He hates them. You won't find any of them here.

Two theme answers that didn't make it into the puzzle (both 12 letters, answers at the end):

1. Program in which some native Alaskans get minestrone and mulligatawny delivered?
2. Providence Journal headline after the local Ivy League school starts construction?

One thing I wanted to avoid in this theme was any extra I's in the theme answers. So something like INDIANAPOLIS COLITIS was no good because Indianapolis contains the letter I. That rule also eliminated GREGORIAN CHIANTI.

I liked BIRYANI FERRY, but that had the wordplay on the wrong end. And CLOUD BURSITIS or STAR BURSITIS didn't make much sense.

The two theme answers that didn't make it into the puzzle (encoded in rot13 to prevent spoilers):

1. FBHC GB VAHVGF
2. OEBJA ABVFVRE

FRESH PAIR OF EYES is not only a colorful figure of speech but also a perfect rationale for "add two I's into a word to form a new word."

It's not hard to dash off a few lines of code to get a list of words that become new words with two Is added — check out our new Replacement Finder, which does a simpler version of this. Some curiosities that Peter didn't mention: AIRINESS to James ARNESS, AS I SAID to ASSAD, BIALIK to BALK (evoking the recent travesty of Mayim Bialik not getting the permanent Jeopardy! job), etc. My shoemaker never SOLED, SO I LIED, for PIETIES sake!

However, it's much harder to integrate these specific words into phrases that generate a laugh. Tough to find a base phrase involving ASSAD! And most resulting phrases feel more awkward than amusing (see: FOR PIETIES SAKE). Great job with THOROUGH FAIRIES, hilarious image of meticulous pixies (the opposite of my children). And I loved POLKA IDIOTS, a sort of "Three Stooges at Oktoberfest" mash-up.

Like every editor, Peter has his specific tastes. He's not concerned with 3-letter words, whereas others hard cap them, and he can't stand partials, whereas some others prioritize them. Well, their argument is that if you must have a dab of gluey fill, at least solvers can easily fill in something like [ONE ___ (common rating scale range)]. Not so easy, perhaps, to crack the Pro-Bowler AL TOON. Peter is much more forgiving when it comes to names.

I'm curious how many solvers even noticed that Peter took great care to avoid extraneous Is in his theme phrases. I used to be right there with him, but these days, it feels like a factor constructors value much more highly than solvers.

Although only a small handful of constructors can be trusted to produce a solid 136-word grid, Peter is one of them. He made the most of his long slots — TRUTH SERUM and TOOTSIE POP are fantastic — and there's so much more FIRE BOMB, SWEATS IT, TELEPORT, WILDCARD, not to mention all the juicy mid-length bonuses. Easily overcomes the minor ASSN EDS EER ITE SYS trade-offs.

Not groundbreaking, but a solid example of a straight-over-the-plate theme type.