New York Times, Friday, November 28, 2014

Ah, the trickery! A rebus puzzle on a Friday will throw many solvers off, but I think tossing in a monkey wrench once in a while is just what the doctor ordered. Keeps everyone on their toes. And how nicely appropriate to have a BLACK FRIDAY theme on Black Friday itself. I appreciated that the theme wasn't immediately apparent even after uncovering BLACK FRIDAY — finding the special squares in a rebus puzzle is like a little Easter egg hunt, and having to figure out what the rebus actually is in the first place adds an appreciated layer of complexity.

Interesting interpretation of BLACK FRIDAY, hinting at four SALE squares. I was so sure that FRI would appear in black squares somehow, similar to a PAINT IT BLACK puzzle from earlier this year. I liked being surprised — nice to be caught off guard. It would have been nice to have a stronger connection to why the SALEs were in rebus squares (like how CRUSHED ICE logically hints at ICE rebus squares), but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Tracy goes big in the NE and SW corners, treating us to great stacks of long answers alongside the themers. ERIC CARLE may not be that well known outside of picture books, but he's a superstar within that arena. Him plus TEA KETTLE for just the price of a SKEE = big win. Loved that corner. The opposite corner works well too — EILAT will be a toughie for many, and I'll take it any day (with fair crossings) in order to get the awesome TESLA COIL. Beautiful work.

Things get a tiny bit rougher around the north and south, the awkward (var.) tag required for the infrequently seen SHMO, a SYST, a KAT, and RFDS. At first glance, these areas seem like they might be easier to fill than the NE / SW, as they seem like smaller chunks of white space. But 6x3 areas in the north and south make things tough — these bigger blocks are much more difficult to fill cleanly than the usual 5x3 ones. Tracy had to pay the piper — putting a column of black squares so far to the right (directly next to SPRINGS A LEAK) makes things easier in that beautiful NE triple-stack, but harder in the north section bounded by SHMO and SYST.

Still, these glue bits are small in quantity, and only SHMO is really unsightly in my opinion. Overall, I found it to be a really fun experience, enjoying the obliqueness of the BLACK FRIDAY hint as well as all the strong long fill.