New York Times, Friday, November 14, 2014

No surprise that Bb5 jumped off the page of a chess book and reminded me of B flat expressed by an old typewriter. Not long after that, 31-A, 34-A and 35-A emerged, and their lengths suggested a puzzle with left-right symmetry. I only stacked them out of curiosity, but soon decided that the hardest crossing sequences ACS and LLM would eventually work out: 5-D was already in my word list, but I had to devise 7-D to match it in length. The rest fell into place with the usual amount of shuffling black squares around.

I was undeterred by cheater squares as long as the grid remained open and the fill stayed clean: I prefer the short fill to contain common words like 30-A and 36-A which are most receptive to word play clues. My other favorite clues are 4-A, 9-A, 52-A — my originals — and 46-A and 56-A — supplied by Will.

Joe Krozel never makes a "normal" crossword. Everything he does has some unusual constraint, usually something completely new. Here, the constraint consists of curiously related clues for the three Across answers that are stacked in the middle. In addition, two 15-letter Downs run smack through everything. Pretty amazing. One of the puzzle's test solvers, btw, objected to LETTER appearing in both 31A and 55A — but this doesn't break my rule. I don't allow any entire answer to be part of another answer (or appear in a clue, for that matter). But, generally speaking, I have no problem with part of an answer being part of another one. Most solvers don't seem to mind either. I'm more concerned with getting the best quality of fill, even if that means a semi-duplication like this.

Nice mini-theme; really enjoyed it. I'm beginning to reconsider my position on mini-themes — before I've said that I like them once in a while, but I've been more and more appreciating the extra juice they give, goosing up my solving enjoyment. This one was a little kooky in that the B -> B♭ -> Bb6 progression is slightly marred in my eyes because a flat symbol is not equivalent to a lowercase "b," but I admire the audacious approach. A triple stack of this nature is no small feat.

Speaking of no small feats, there's a reason why mirror symmetry is rare in themelesses. Why? Because a basic tenet of many themelesses is to use four separate stacks of 8's, 9's, or 10's, one pushed into each corner. This isn't possible using mirror symmetry — four sets of stacked 7's yes, but anything higher, no — so a constructor must break new ground. Takes a bold person to venture into largely unknown territory.

Some beautiful clues, too. [They might catch some rays] has nothing to do with UV rays — it's referring to manta rays. DOG EAR has a brilliant clue, playing on the "turn over a new leaf" idiom. PRINCES succeed to the throne, not succeed in life goals (although some do both, I suppose). Even the little AVE shines; States Ave. getting its capital letter camouflaged at the beginning of the clue. A lot of cleverness imbued into the cluing today.

Interesting point Will brings up. I lean toward the test-solver who frowny-faced at the LETTER quasi-dupe. On one hand, Will is the editor and gets to make the rules. On the other, the quasi-dupe feels inelegant to me. I realize that's a completely subjective assessment based on my own biases, but it is what it is. Not a broken law by any means; perhaps more of a hitch.

Same goes for the number of three-letter words. I did feel like the solve was slightly choppy, and I'm guessing this was partially due to these little guys. Most of them are fine, but the effect en masse took a little away for me. Similarly, I tend to notice when the crossword glue count gets over about five. Here, the combination of ENOL, ALL BY, A TALE, IN HER, LOLAS, ESA, etc. felt like too much.

So, some compromises, perhaps too many for me, but overall I appreciate Joe's neverending quest to do something different. There's very few people who push the envelope as much as he does.