New York Times, Monday, January 13, 2014

This was a relatively easy puzzle to do once the idea struck. I do remember regretting the need to scrap MONEYBALL, because I didn't want to repeat the B-A-L-L of BALLISTIC — and that was too good to part with. Also, the BALL half would have been too similar to CALL and WALL.

With themes like this, I like it when the pronunciation of the key word(s) changes. That was a plus for RHONE VALLEY, which admittedly rates rather low on the "fun" scale.

I see that Will changed quite a few of the clues, generally making them more straightforward. Yes, it's Monday. His clue redo that I especially like is for 33-Across. A number sequence there definitely has more flair than the "Sitcom, say" clue I submitted.

For someone solving this crossword from top to bottom, the puzzle's structure is like a joke. You wonder where the theme is going and then … boom! the punchline comes at the end (58A). Very pretty. As always, Lynn's construction is gorgeous, too.

An absolutely beauty of a Monday puzzle. It has everything I personally look for: 1.) innovative theme, 2.) spicy long fill and 3.) fill accessible to the novice (little to no ugly stuff). There's more good stuff coming up this week, but Monday constructions are perhaps the hardest type to pull off well, and Lynn's nailed it.

The theme isn't necessarily ground-breaking, but it contains an added level of complexity which helps makes it more interesting for the experienced solver. We see a lot of puzzles where a certain word is hidden within theme phrases, but having two words hidden helps to distinguish it.

And with five long theme entries, I'd expect to see a lack of good long fill and a lot of short ugly stuff. Lynn has done something unusual, shoving her top two entries into one region of the grid (instead of spreading them out, one to the left and one to the right). That usually creates difficulties in filling such a dense area, but she makes it look easy. Having a five-letter word sandwiched by theme entries (VILLA between PHONE CALL and RHONE VALLEY, and TOMEI between STONEWALLED and ONE AND ALL) often will result in bad fill due to the severe constraints, but she uses a set of cheaters in the very NE and SW to smooth things out. I fully approve — as Patrick Berry has said many a time, he'd always choose to use cheaters if it results in better fill.

The grid arrangement allows Lynn huge flexibility in the NW and SE corners (the theme answers barely constrain her at all in these regions), and look at all the goodness she's packed in there. ON THE GO / FOR A SONG / FLEW SOLO all in parallel, with only ESS as a (very minor) blight? Yes, please! I didn't notice any really bad fill as I solved, nor did I notice anything even with a careful scan afterward. A stonker of a job.

Uber-professional work, a total pleasure to solve; a near-perfect Monday puzzle. Beautiful start to the week.

That SERIES at 33 Across is, of course, the famous Fibonnaci sequence. Oh, and that GOOSES at 28 Across is from the same constructor who famously gave us this controversial answer in 2012.