New York Times, Thursday, January 20, 2022

This puzzle arose from the simple idea that The Voice was a TV show with the initials "TV". It shouldn't be hard to find other examples of apt initials (right?), so off I went down the rabbit hole. Of course, as it often happens, it's not quite as easy as it seems. Here, I had to limit the theme to: 1) two-letter initials 2) that are common with a name well-known enough to enough people, and 3) the initials can also describe what the name is or what the person has done.

A couple rejected possibilities along the way: Canadian PM Paul Martin (not familiar enough in the US), ex-Yankees GM Gene Michael (too sports-specific), and sadly, Mariah Carey (not an MC that I could find).

The puzzle won't make you LOL, but I hope it was OK and maybe raised your IQ a little.

THE VOICE on TV, what a terrifically vibrant find! It lends itself to a perfect clue, [TV talent show], that describes THE VOICE in two ways. I liked FLEETWOOD MAC as "FM band on the radio" even better because it involved some wordplay — "band" can mean a rock band or a frequency band.

MICHAEL CAINE was an Academy Awards MC? Apparently so, back in 1973, co-hosting with a host of other folks! This would have been a much stronger theme answer if he'd hosted it by himself, or more times, or more recently, but it still does work. Ish.

It's a shame that UNCLE SAM doesn't fit into the entertainment vibe. He is a [U.S. symbol], but considering he was named partly because his initials matched those of the United States, this entry had a "one of these things is not like the others" vibe.

Some rough spots throughout, hitting most categories of editors' spec sheet frownies. We score them all at 25 (nominal is 50) because there is so much subjectivity among editors. For example, Will Shortz usually looks the other way for a partial or two (ON AN, OF ALL), but he hates initialisms that aren't known by virtually everyone in the world. If you don't know that EMS stands for Emergency Medical Services and have a tough time with the crosses, you might be SOL.

There are a couple of strong bonuses to help offset the problem areas, MOHANDAS and MAHOGANY echoing in a Wordle-like fashion (clearly, I'm hooked, too). Along with this DJ spinning his DAD JOKEs, there was enough to still make it a pleasant, if not challenging-enough Thursday.