New York Times, Tuesday, November 1, 2016

While driving home one day, I heard on the radio news something like "This would affect France's chances of .....", and the rhyming phrase just jumped out at me. Home to the notepad, where "chances" quickly became DANCES. Then, it turns out that there are relatively few country names that are short and have comfortable rhymes that can make the pattern work.

Initially, I sent the puzzle in with GUAM'S PALMS (which appear on the Territory's flag and official seal), but Will rightly pointed out that those two words don't rhyme in everyone's pronunciation. I should have anticipated that. After all, I am someone who is routinely teased (by my children, of course) for my pronunciation in which "fire" and "wire" aren't exact rhymes, which always makes talking about "firewires" awkward. No problem: I liked CUBA'S TUBAS even better!

Of course, it is hard not to "fall in love" with certain answers or certain clues. In this case, while I didn't mind changing the theme answers, I did love some of my original clues. For CUBAS TUBAS: "Low blows at Guantanamo?" and for CHINAS MYNAHS: "Asian producers of counterfeit audio?" and for TOGOS LOGOS: "Items only seen on two Winter Olympians ever?" Careful editing has adjusted these clues to appropriate Tuesday puzzle level, but breaking up is hard to do.

Country rhymes, using a consistent (country) + (possessive S) + (rhyme for the country). At first the theme seemed too loosey-goosey for me — pretty easy to rhyme many countries with words — but after some thought, it struck me that Ruth only used countries with exactly two syllables. That helps tighten things up. Additionally, she only used countries with the first syllable stressed — no JAPAN or IRAN.

Not all of the themers gave me a smile, but there's something amusing about CUBA'S TUBAS, with its visual of Raul Castro parading around in an oom-pah-pah band.

Neat that Ruth pushed the envelope, leaving a ton of white space to work with in this 72-word grid. I immediately got a delight in ALLOSAURUS, and CRIME SPREES and INNER BEAUTY sure helped to enhance my solve. What really stood out though, was the abundance of good mid-length material: LESOTHO, TOP HAT, PEORIA, SNEEZY, TIN EAR — so many bonuses packed in, all throughout the grid.

It all did come at a price, but not a very expensive one. The only region that made me hitch was the lower left, with OUS (awkward suffix) crossing the partial AS AN. I don't mind the latter that much, since it's so common in various similes, but since I had just uncovered THOS and AMBI nearby, it felt like a lot of compromises in one sector.

For me, the top right is a much better trade-off between snazz and smoothness. Love ALLOSAURUS, and LOOMPA is fun even without Oompa, just for the low, low price of AGR. (ETAS to me is so common as to be negligible.)

Although Ruth did make strides toward selecting a tight theme set, I still felt like it wasn't quite tight enough for me, as it was too easy to think of others: TURKEY'S JERKIES, SWEDEN's EDENS … okay, maybe it's a tighter theme than I first (or second) thought! And all the nice bonuses in fill sure were appreciated.