New York Times, Monday, October 5, 2020

Standout "progression" theme. RAW to HALF BAKED to COOKED to BURNT — and each one so well integrated into a colorful phrase! Every single themer is an entry I'd happily use as fill in another puzzle. HALF BAKED IDEAS is especially strong.

(In my case, quarter-baked is usually more like it. If only four quarter-baked ideas added up to a full one.)

I wasn't as sold on the gridwork. None of ABBR ACCT EDS ESE is unpardonable, but in total, it felt inelegant.

Then you have the ISLA / SIA cross, which screams "It's a trap!" for newb solvers. A few weeks ago, my next-door neighbors — they're highly educated wordplay enthusiasts but have done few crosswords — attempted one of mine. They got stumped at 1-Across, not knowing what "Abbr." in the clue meant, and then decided they'd rather read a book.

How are newer solvers supposed to decode [Majorca, e.g.: Sp.]? Or solve that crossing square if they're not familiar with SIA?

Along that line, including NOOR, SARI, FTMEADE, AMI, PISAN, even ASPER (which could look bizarre if people don't know to look for unmarked spaces) … that's a tough ask for even an intermediate solver.

Now, it's far from a WOEFUL grid execution — there are plenty of bonuses like GROUPIES, OK SIGNS, DEBRIEFS — and some would argue that NYT solvers should be held to higher expectations. That's not my philosophy, though, given how many alternate forms of entertainment exist these days. Don't give solvers any possible excuse to put the puzzle down and go do something else.

Take that all with a grain of salt, though, since if it ever came down to the choice of a great theme or a great grid, I'd take the former any day — especially when the theme phrases are all stellar. It's a shame that we didn't get both today. With four themers of convenient length, it's 100% possible. Better deployment of black squares to separate the theme phrases would have helped.