New York Times, Tuesday, October 29, 2013

I enjoyed this type of theme when I was a newbie solver and always wanted to construct one. I know Will recently stated on this site that these types of themes are a bit old, but I think it's fun to see these kind of connections between words. Particularly, when there are so many "in the language" phrases that can be tied together by a common word.

I actually had two more themers that I squeezed into an earlier iteration of the puzzle, GUARD DOG and ROAD WORK, but the fill became too strained. Even with the current 6 theme answers and the revealer, it was a bit strained in places, most obviously at the crossing of ELFMAN and LDOPA. Hopefully, since the answers are from different disciplines, everyone will know at least one of them.

I liked the intersecting BIRTH and BERTH and IDIOT and DORK next to each other-reminds me of the movie Dumb and Dumber. I also liked FIRE and SMOKE next to each other. I think ASPERSE is a great word that you normally only hear in its noun form.

Mostly, I'd like to say I hope everyone has some fun solving it. That's what it's all about.

I have to give Robert Cirillo kudos. Sometime after I'd accepted and filed his HOUSE puzzle, he grew unsatisfied with the construction and sent me a whole new version ... that was better. I admire that.

Wow. I had to rub my eyes after solving this puzzle to make sure I saw it correctly. Six long (and snappy!) theme entries plus a revealer, and good long fill to boot? I had to study the puzzle to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Excellent work.

A fine example of the "word which can follow both halves of the theme phrases" type. The usual knock on these is that the theme answers are often blah to tortured, because it's difficult to find two-word phrases which fit this criteria. But Rob scoffs at that, giving us six great theme answers, including my favorite of the bunch, WHITE SMOKE. True, there are many phrases that can end in HOUSE so he did have a big set to choose from, but the fact that he chose HOUSE and not, say, CABER or WEASEL, is to his credit.

If only there were such a thing as a CABER WEASEL. I'm not sure what it would be, but I want one.

Typically, with six+ theme answers, there isn't much flexibility for good long fill. It is true that Rob didn't use any 8+ long downs, but the sevens are really good: OPEN BAR, SET SHOT (which always makes me think of basketball players in the 60's dressed in those hilariously short shorts), and DREAM ON. Excellent work there, and the short fill is remarkably clean given all aforementioned constraints.

If there was one thing I could ask for, it would have been a snazzier revealer. This type of puzzle has been done enough now that having something like DOUBLEDAY is a welcome extra layer of elegance. Not sure what it would be for HOUSE though. Someone invent a DOUBLE HOUSE already (CABER WEASEL first though).

Finally, I love the fact that Rob sent Will another grid even after his puzzle was accepted. (I asked if he could send his previous grid for us to post, but he had already deleted it.) Five or ten extra hours in order to produce a snazzier and cleaner grid AFTER an acceptance? That's the striving for perfection that all of us constructors should strive for.