New York Times, Saturday, January 12, 2019

It took me forever to get the middle of this grid to work, to the point where I'm thrilled with how it turned out (ARIE and EERO notwithstanding). Often with this sort of design, though, you get the middle to work and then find that one of the corners won't cooperate — I was happy to skate by here, though I'm not exactly in love with the SW (it's certainly less colorful than I'd hope for, and LICTORS is a bit of a deep cut).

I'm not one to include a ton of sports stuff in a crossword, so consider this grid with its skiing, hockey, football, and ESPN references to be an anomaly. Sports are more my dad's speed, so it's a fun coincidence that it's his birthday today! Happy birthday! I hope this crossword puzzle makes up for all the sports I quit during elementary school.

One reason I like to experiment with every known grid type is that it helps me understand niche challenges in crossword construction. Having worked with today's themeless grid style once or twice or three times, I have a pretty good feel about where difficulties can pop up.

It's incredibly tough to work with any 62-word themeless grid, but this particular one isn't quite as bad as others. The huge number of cheater squares — the two above BREECHES and the one above JER, for example — nibbles away a ton. It's maybe a factor of 10 (!) times harder to fill if you took out all those cheaters.

Still, a 62-word grid is a 62-word grid, bound to require some trade-offs. Like Sam, I found that the middle of this particular style is incredibly challenging. Even if you can find something that works, it often doesn't flow into one of the four corners very flexibly, requiring dozens of painful reboots.

Sam made his job even more challenging today by having four long entries all intersect in the center. And great ones they are! DRAMA COACHES, the MIRACLE ON ICE? Sam PUT ON A CLINIC! I'M SPEECHLESS at how strong those are. I don't mind EERO and ARIE at all to hold that juicy center together.

Flowing out to the corners gets so difficult at this point, what with those four long answers fixed into place (and the other entrance to a corner fixed as well). Take the NE, for example — you have MR starting 18-A, which doesn't have a lot of possibilities. Combine that with CLINIC set in stone, and you're bound to end up with some JER BENETS oddity.

And the opposite corner, HIND LEGS MS PACMAN are fantastic! I'm not sure they're worth LICTORS (and ELMIRA), though. It's a tough call. Any time you use an entry unused since the Maleskan era, it's a risky decision.

Overall though, I really enjoyed the solving experience. It's not often that constructors take on a 62-word challenge, and even rarer that the final product comes out with so many snazzy answers.