New York Times, Friday, November 6, 2015

Not too many jaw-dropping entries today, but 35-Across (I'M UP FOR WHATEVER) and 31-Down (LEGO MOVIE) feel pretty fresh. 22-Down (BULWARK) is a cool word, too.

I'd recommend this grid pattern to aspiring themeless constructors. If you have a snappy 15 and solid 10s, the puzzle breaks into six sections without feeling too closed off.

Hope solvers like it!

Solid themeless from Ian. Fun to see GDP (gross domestic product), as I imagine Ian is taking macroeconomics right about now in business school.

Ian does well to convert nearly all of his long (8+ letter) slots into assets. (He's probably taking accounting right now, too.) The LEGO MOVIE was surprisingly entertaining, WORK VISA is an issue many tech companies struggle with today, and there are SO many nice casual phrases in IM UP FOR WHATEVER, NO BIG DEAL, THAT SAID, FALSE ALARM, and SAME HERE. Reminds me of Ian's easy-going approach to life.

There was only one long slot that I thought could be neutral, TELEGRAPH, but a very nice clue turns that into an asset for me. [Dotted line?] is a bit of a stretch in relation to dots and dashes sent by telegraph. I like the idea, though.

Good use of his 7-letter slots, too. BULWARK is an interesting word, and although I've never heard of PARONYM, it was fun to learn and something I might actually use. CAR BARN was also interesting to read up on, although it did seem less worthy of packing into my memory banks.

A trademark of Ian's puzzles is a very low number of gluey entries, and he delivers again today. Some might consider ORIEL esoteric, but it is a real term in architecture. IRES isn't commonly used, so I'd ding that. Aside from that though, just a minor DEC, AVES, and YSER is pretty solid.

The only real complaint I had was about the grid flow. A rule of thumb is that constructors should try to avoid grid layouts where a single extra black square would section off an area. Here, there are four places where that could happen — the R of ANGRY, the I of HINDLEG, the G of ARRAIGN, and the O of DOSED. As Ian mentions, this sort of layout does make a puzzle easier to construct, since each small area can be tackled one at a time — but it does provide for a more choked-off feel to the solve.