New York Times, Saturday, October 18, 2014

This is one of the last puzzles of mine that the NYT accepted before I began my own crossword website. There are at least a few short answers that I probably would not use in my puzzles now, though I'm pleased with many of the longer entries I worked in. It's also a bizarrely "masculine" grid in that most of the proper nouns in the puzzle refer to men, and there's MAN and DAD in each corner. Go figure.

My favorite clues that Will kept were for AGE LIMIT, ROLEO, SLEEP, and LASERDISCS. I like Will's clever clues for MESS KITS, SEA, DESERT, POE, and CHAD, but there are a couple of original clues that I wish had made the cut. Partial phrases are a pet peeve of mine, so I admit I winced when I saw 34-Across had become A MIN (I clued that as the dictator AMIN). I would have loved to have seen in print my saucy, connected clues for CROTCH [Privates' section] and AUTOCORRECT [Modern tool for turning a couch into a 9-Across], though I expected they wouldn't survive the final edit. Will also changed a couple of letters — I had former Knick All-Star STEPHON Marbury (a.k.a. "Starbury") instead of STEPHEN, and TUTOR/POR (the latter clued as [Favor preceder]) — but that's a minor change and POR isn't a great answer, so no big deal.

Special announcement time!

1) I'm in the last week of my funding drive for Devil Cross. Those who donate before October 25 will receive two Sunday-sized bonus puzzles by yours truly: one themeless, and one variety Something Different grid. If you've never tried the latter, it's a fun type of crossword where most of the longer entries are completely made up phrases, but you can still figure them out if you solve the shorter answers first.

2) Mark your calendars, because the new Indie 500 Crossword Tournament — run by Erik Agard, Andy Kravis, Peter Broda, Neville Fogarty, and myself — will be held on Saturday, May 30, 2015 at the Marvin Center of George Washington University.

Evan's handsome construction today has quite a few names, some of them uncommon, which is always cause for concern — especially when they're in the same area, and especially especially when they cross. LAURIE (16A) crossing RAS (10D) may give some solvers pause, but I think "A" at the intersection is the most likely letter to guess. I also worried about SOLER (35D) crossing the difficult STINGO and ROLEO. Evan's clue for SOLER was "Baroque composer Padre Antonio __," who, I have to admit, I'm not familiar with. So I changed this to something more inferable, even if it's rare. Overall Evan writes excellent clues. The ones here for 15A, 36A, 43A, 4D, 12D, and 28D are all his.

A really nice construction job today. I appreciate how well Evan planned out his grid, the entire thing flowing so beautifully. There are so many strong entries and so few weak ones. I'd personally put the count at 14(ish) ASSETS and 4(ish) LIABILITIES, making for a puzzle easily hitting my criteria for a strong themeless.

The puzzle has a younger vibe to it, more current than an average NYT themeless. I like that Evan features KICKSTARTER and AUTOCORRECT, two high-visibility topics among the Facebook and Twitter crowds. I really like both of entries. It's true that KICKSTARTER may eventually lose out to Indiegogo or Fundly other crowdfunding sites, but it seems to be well established enough that I'd guess it falls closer to Facebook than to Friendster. Thumbs up. I imagine that if this puzzle was up on Evan's site, AUTOCORRECT would have gotten a much more hilariously risque clue, perhaps even more so than the hilarious one he mentioned.

The puzzle also has an edgy vibe, one that lives up to Evan's Devil Cross name. I didn't totally connect with the ambiance it generated. It's completely personal preference, but I like my crosswords to be uplifting, to leave me optimistic after I fill in that last square. Liz Gorski's weekly crossword for example, tend to leave me with a buoyant, pleasant feeling. Uncovering CROTCH (not literally, thankfully) made me pause, and while PSYCHOPATH is a colorful, snazzy answer, I find it a little unsettling, especially when there are other elements like DIRTY HARRY, AMIN disguised as a partial, strongman Mobutu SESE Seko, and RAS clued as the Batman villain.

But that's what's great about a daily crossword featuring a huge variety of constructors. If one day doesn't hit your sweet spot, come back tomorrow for something different. And overall, this is a beautiful piece of work, with fantastic grid flow, chock full of colorful answers and strong clues. A product of a constructor who's clearly honed his craft, paying close attention to every last detail.