New York Times, Monday, January 25, 2021

ACME: Although we rewrote this (several times!) over a year and a half ago, I'm thrilled with the timing of the publication as I've been living for Jan 20th to shout the reveal from my rooftop!

Such high marks for technical excellence! I usually find some aspects to nit-pick in both Acme and Kevin's layouts and gridwork, but not today. Themers positioned perfectly, even shifting ANKLE BOOT to the left to avoid an awkward letter pattern where BAGEL sits. (??G?K is terrible, so the shift avoids that problem.)

Almost every Monday puzzle should contain exactly what this one does: super-smooth short fill (minor UNE and odd A AND M aside), a few long bonuses (REDBIRDS, DOG SAT, NO CUTS!, and that's DOES LAPS, not DOE SLAPS), along with fine grid flow. I might have tried for a little less segmentation between the upper right corner and the diagonal swath, but that's more a wish list item, not a problem.

Sometimes constructors accuse me of holding them to too high a standard; five themers necessarily come with trade-offs. That might be the case with hard constraints — extra Xs or funny letter patterns — but in general, if you're not executing to today's standard, you have to work harder.

Well done, Acme and Kevin — I wonder if there's some interesting synergy here between your two construction styles?

So why no POW!? Because if I were the editor, I wouldn't have selected this one. Not because of any political sort of reason, but because I want puzzles to delight. Uplift. Create a temporary bubble of happiness in people's lives. While I can admire the technical merit, riffing on YOU'RE FIRED during a time of generational-record unemployment feels cruel.

I admire the clever hiding of CAN, AXE, SACK, and BOOT's meanings. Such a downer, though. I get that some folks will celebrate the irony of Trump's "firing," but that delight is more gas pouring onto our national dumpster fire.

Now look who's a downer! I'll leave you with cute deer instead. No slapping, I promise.