New York Times, Saturday, January 31, 2015

Yes, it's another one of those 7x7 freestyles. I construct 7x7s when I feel like a challenge; the shorter the entry, the lower number of "fresh" or "exciting" possibilities. The reason it's harder to build 7x7s is that not only do you have to find as many exciting 7s as possible, but you have to intersect them, and you have to do it in all four corners. With six-letter entries and shorter, you can get away with having any entry, as long as it's not ugly; I feel like 7 and above is where you have to start finding great entries to fill the space lest it feel like a "wasted opportunity".

When I take on a puzzle of this shape, what I try to do is to load up the grid with as many "seed" entries as possible and see how many of those I can keep and how many I have to sacrifice during the fill. (In puzzles with 8, 9, 10, 11, or 15-stacks, I can get away with three or two seeds, or even one.) This is why I was very fortunate in building this puzzle: I don't remember ever being able to keep this many seeds that I started with. I started with 1A (CARLS JR), 8D, 20A, 33A, 24D, and 38A (among some others I don't remember that I had to throw away). I didn't even care that 8D (HOOK ME UP) and 20A (ME LIKEY) shared a word.

I'm very happy that Will kept my clue for 63-Across (REC ROOM); I had the toughest time out of all the entries thinking up a good clue for it. I'm glad that effort wasn't for naught.

Given recent events (that is, since I constructed the puzzle), I now consider 31A (ASSAD) off-limits when constructing a puzzle, up there with HITLER or IDI. I put it in then because it fit; now, I'll reconstruct a section completely rather than include it.

You'll notice that I included two pairs of "cheater squares". I can sorta see the appeal of not having them — the aesthetic value of the grid is reduced, I guess — but I never have qualms about using them. I value having that great entry without the expense of a bad one, or having a passable entry without the expense of a REALLY bad one, over pure aesthetic appeal. I understand that aesthetic appeal has value occasionally; but, given the choice, I favor content over look.

So much great material with a colloquial bent. We often get a nice OH BOO HOO type of entry, but to have HOOK ME UP, YES BOSS, HUMOR ME … me likey! (I used to wonder if that last one was a bit offensive to Asians, but me likey it too much not to use in regular conversation.)

Themelesses featuring relatively short entries often make for very difficult solves, and this was the case for me today. With a grid-spanning feature answer, there are so many toeholds available to drop in a letter here, a letter there, allowing you to crack it. Even an 8-letter entry will often fall, as GUYLINER did for me, with just two crossing letters.

A 7-letter answer often provides only one or two easy crosses, and sometimes there's nary a letter to help out. Trying to get HEARTHS off just the beginning H, or ARUGULA off just the ending A, is a skill I still have not developed. Great brain workout, but very difficult.

As a cat lover, I have to point out the genius of [Himalayan food, maybe]. I wasn't aware of the Himalayan cat breed before. Oh man, that thing is funny looking! (Humor me, me likey.)