πr²

Gary Larson, of Edmonds, Wash., is a retired comedian. He spent the last 15 years of his career entertaining on cruise ships, where crosswords were a way to pass the time between shows.

One day a clue-and-answer combination in a New York Times crossword cracked him up, and he thought, "Why don't I try making one of these? I love writing jokes. How hard can it be to fit them into a puzzle?"

He found out. This is his 592nd puzzle. It's his fourth in The Times.

Little known fact: my first NYT puzzle submission was a PI rebus. I thought it was a shoo-in — what more could you want than a bunch of PI squares that formed the shape of an upper-case letter PI! Will Shortz was extremely helpful in his feedback, saying that 1.) it's an idea that's been tapped too frequently in crossword history, and 2.) made-up filler entries like SUNSON aren't acceptable.

Ahem. You know, like Asclepius? The SON of Apollo, the god of the SUN?

It's amazing, the things that dunderheads will convince themselves are perfectly fine.

Although there have been a slew of PI crosswords over the decades, this math junkie has admired many of them. A PI DAY celebration and a Sunday tribute came to mind right off the bat. I liked Gary's approach too, although I wonder how many solvers will be as confused by the rationale as I was when first encountering an equation-based rebus. It still doesn't sit quite right with me, since PI in (PI)*R^2 isn't squared — that would be (PI*R)^2 — but since it's commonly said as "area equals pi r squared," I can give it a pass.

I'd have loved a PI graphic, maybe the rebus squares in the shape of the letter pi, or forming the numbers 3 1 4. Gary chose to focus instead on working in colorful theme phrases, and he was successful — great choices in CONS(PIR)ACY THEORY / EM(PIR)E STATE, BABY AS(PIR)IN.

It's a shame that there weren't more that broke PIR across two words, like MISSISSIP(PI R)IVER. This is usually a requirement for Will, an entry like DRIP IRRIGATION hiding the PIR string so deviously.

Enjoyable solve overall, though; locating those hidden PIs was entertaining. Solid gridwork, too — only the repeat offenders of REIGNITE, RENEWS, REENGAGE stood out — and the bevy of delightful clues. I counted a half a dozen wordplay gems like [Doesn't sit right?] for SLOUCHES. Those help so much to elevate a solving experience.