New York Times, Saturday, November 28, 2015

I was drawn to a supersymmetric grid largely because it's fun to look at. But I also knew I'd be dealing with 36 7-letter words and 12 5's — pretty cramped space for snippets of conversation and snappy phrasings. And so there are none! Still, it was a keen exercise in mining for energy in a highly restrictive environment.

13 D AGOUTIS... years ago, on a nature trip to Belize, our group adopted a wild agouti, named him "Rudy," fed him, and smuggled him home inside the leader's shirt in coach class. Great pet, very affectionate animal.

20-Across, ON POINT, is actually one of my favorites, and I sought to clue it cowboy-style (being a fan of Lonesome Dove), as the lead flank position for cowboys on a cattle drive. I'm also glad to get 55 -Down GARO Yepremian in here — I remember him as a kicker playing with no helmet (!) and also, at one point, famously trying to throw the ball for a touchdown, with no success.

Lastly, 44-Down ANYMORE is an absolute monster to clue. "These days" is as fair and accurate a synonym as you'll ever see. Special thanks to Will and Joel for terrific cluing throughout the puzzle, especially for 50-Down (CHIDE, cross-referenced to TUT), which never would've occurred to me.

I'm gaining an appreciation for themelesses featuring 7-letter entries. I usually want long answers (8+ letters) in a themeless, since with 7s it's more common to see neutral answers like AGOUTIS and REDUCED than colorful ones like NBA LOGO and PIEHOLE. But something this puzzle has going for it is a level of difficulty I haven't seen in a while. Puzzles featuring long entries tend to be easier to break into, since once you uncover a long answer, it gives you a bunch of toeholds.

Today's was an absolute bear for me. Even though the puzzle has a nice open flow to it, I kept on getting stuck. Those 7-letter words can be so opaque. [Turns in] could have easily been RETIRES or a few other things, and SCHLITZ took forever to uncover, with just the T in place. Good to get a dose of humility with my Did Not Finish today, a reminder that I still have work to do if I want to be able to solve all Saturday puzzles. I don't mind being defeated, if a puzzle does so fairly.

I appreciated Ned's ability to work in quite a bit of nice stuff, something I'm not used to in themelesses heavy on 7s. EYE OF RA, VOTER ID, SAZERAC, CHIN WAG are all assets in my book. There weren't as many of them as I would have liked, the puzzle also containing its fair share of neutral SEE NOTE, AERATOR, CALLS UP, AGES AGO, SATIRIC (satirical, yeah?) kind of stuff, but it was free enough from gluey bits that I didn't mind that much. UNI and ROTO along with some OHS and an ESS = minor stuff.

Ah. There was HIE. Any time you need "quaintly" to define a word, it's probably best to be avoided. (It's an old way of saying "hasten.")

I have a feeling some will complain about GARO Yepremian — his career was mostly in the 60s and 70s — but he was an incredible kicker who has two Super Bowl titles. I think the fair crossings make him a reasonable short grid entry.

Very tough crossword which made me appreciate how much 7-letter entries can bring to the table.