New York Times, Saturday, November 21, 2020

This one's not my usual constructing style. I fought the urge early on to make the grid as wide open as possible, and left in more crossword-y glue (T-MAN, TNN, ASP) so that every last long answer could be fun in its own right — even common words like LAUREATES and ELEMENTARY preserve the human feel of a puzzle, and offer tons of cluing possibilities. With this approach, I'm hoping there aren't any answers outside of 1A that cause solvers to say "Weird" or "Huh." Okay, maybe LINAC and URSAE crossing ENESCO wasn't so great ...

My favorite aspect of the final publication isn't the zip, though, but the smoothness of the NE / SW corners: FLOORS / RING UP / ENERGY and DOOBIE / NO LOSS / AND YET, all crossed by real-word 3s and 4s. The clue I miss most, that (understandably) didn't make the cut: SHORTSTOP, clued obliquely as ... [Second or third person?]. But I'll settle for any angle that includes a Baltimore Oriole.

Enjoy the puzzle, and give today's Scrabbly Spelling Bee a go!

IOWA CAUCUS is such a standout entry! I love that a small state underestimated by too many wields such influence every four years. That clue, too — something both Bill and Hillary won once? Now that's the way to entertain with trivia!

Perfect 1-Across for this puzzle. I give a thumbs-up to WEIRD, HUH?, since I've said it many a time, but I bet some will describe the phrase as "weird," which to my kids means "you smell terrible, dad."

Similarly: THE SINAI (Sinai Peninsula, more commonly), ASTROBOY (it's two words put together, thankfully, but even this cartoon maniac didn't know it), TURING TEST (more passable since "the Imitation Game" came out, but still niche).

I wasn't so hot on a couple areas of the grid. I'm a physics dork and even interned at NASA but never heard the term LINAC (short for linear accelerator?). That doesn't bode well for the general solving population, not even the regular Saturday folks. Cross it with the composer ENESCO — in twenty years of orchestra, I never played one of his compositions — and that's a death cross. I applaud the attempt to make it fairer, but UNESCO is a toughie too.

Judith RESNIK crossing the partial-sounding IN A KIT wasn't as unfair. At least you should be able to piece together IN A KIT — that is, if you can get past the notion that this is a (verboten) six-letter partial.

Thankfully, Sam worked in several solid phrases/clues to keep my interest. Will Shortz is careful not to do much shameless self-promotion in crosswords, but NEWSDESK was a highlight. Hiding Times — as in the New York Times — at the beginning of [Times table?] is brilliant.