New York Times, Tuesday, October 18, 2016

I remember using onelook.com to search for possible theme entries for this puzzle. I was pleased to connect the Ralph WALDO Emerson clue with the revealer, MIDDLE NAME, making it just a tad trickier. I don't recall many other details as this puzzle was one of my early submissions, dating back to 2013. Fill I would try to avoid today includes the plural AVAS, foreign ROTI, crosswordese OEN, ESME and EMAJ, prefix IDIO, abbreviated DESC and the partial IM A.

So happy to have this Tuesday puzzle published and officially hit for the cycle, having at least one puzzle published for every day of the week.

I hope you enjoyed your solving experience. Thanks to Will, Anna and Joel for accepting and editing this puzzle.

MIDDLE NAME = themers with NAME hidden across two words. Excellent finds in ARIZONA MEMORIAL and CAPTAIN AMERICA, the latter one of my favorite superheroes. Fascinating, his struggle to find his place in a modern world that's left his WWII-era persona far behind.

Five long themers makes for a tough construction. I like ML's efforts to spice up the grid with bonuses, even in the face of such a difficult task. DRAGSTER is great, and GOTHIC is image-evoking. I wasn't a fan of ZIP DRIVE, since those are 1.) outdated and 2.) don't have the groundbreaking quality of something like FLOPPY DISK.

BAD GIRL also made me hitch, as did ONE REED. The former is laden with all sort of negative connotations, and the latter isn't something I've ever heard in my 20 years of orchestra. DOUBLE REED for oboes and SINGLE REED for clarinets, but ONE REED felt iffy at best.

With so much going on, it wasn't a surprise to see some gluey spots. The north section, already having to work with VIETNAM ERA and BARCELONA METRO, became even tougher with the addition of BAD GIRL. That forced an AA ending in ABAA. And with a tough AQABA / QOM crossing plus the pluralized AVAS, it's a lot in just one little place.

The west and east sections are where you'd usually expect signs of stress in a puzzle featuring so many long themers. The east turned out okay, with just the IDIO prefix as glue, but the west has both ABRA and TROI. Both are reasonably fine by me personally, since I'm a Trekkie, but it's not unusual to see this type of crossword glue when the ends of long themers have to work together.

It was good to hear from her that this puzzle is from three+ years ago. Her constructing skills have come a long way since then.

I personally like "word hidden in phrases" puzzle more when there's some extra layer — using different but related words, a really incredible single word, a revealer that's really funny, etc. — but ML had some nice finds, especially CAPTAIN AMERICA, and the MIDDLE NAME revealer was apt.