New York Times, Monday, December 21, 2015

I was not very optimistic about this puzzle when I was constructing it, because I could not find a way to work DOOHICKEY or GIZMO into it. However, Will and Joel liked the seven theme entries and said they liked the way the words are "fun to say." I had this mental image of the two of them saying these theme entries back and forth to each other as part of the decision process, and that pretty much made my day!

I had options to get rid of some of the crosswordese (ALOE, EMU, IDA, etc.) but I wanted to stick to solid Monday vocab. It was not long ago that I was a Monday solver myself, and I was not at ALL irritated to run across the occasional overused entry or clue. My first grandson (Nolan) was born as I'm writing this — December 9 — the first thing they did when he popped out is clip a thingamajig on his whatchamacallit!

If you are a constructor and you feel like you are not getting enough of your clues accepted I have a suggestion for you: list more than one clue for the entries you really care about! The editors I have discussed that with like the idea, and I can't see any downside to it. Just put a slash/mark between them and try to pick options of varying difficulty. In this puzzle, I listed more than one clue for about half of the entries, and my "success" rate was higher on those than on the ones I only submitted one clue for. I listed two clues for MONA LISA — "Da Vinci masterpiece" and "Art subject with a famous smile" — the actual clue used was an "intriguing" blend of both those options!

By the way, those two odd clumps of blocks in the middle of the puzzle might look like cheater squares but they are actually subtle (Easter egg) grid art! The top one is a standard DOOHICKEY, and the bottom one is, of course, your classic GIZMO..... ;)

Hope you liked the puzzle!

List of terms people use to mean "thingie" = fun for me, as we mechanical engineers love our specific terms for doohickeys — ratchets, pawls, involute spline gear teeth, four-bar mechanisms, you've already nodded off. (We Mechanical Engineers are delights at parties.)

Glad that Bruce mentioned the lack of DOOHICKEY, which I was searching for as I solved. But I was impressed to see such a wide variety of terms — getting seven of them was pretty cool. THINGAMAJIGGY and THINGAMABOB are more highly scientific terms than THINGAMAJIG, but we'll let that one slide. I wasn't sure what a DINGUS was, but it checks out fine as a synonym for "thingie." Just don't look it up on Urban Dictionary. Ahem.

Impressive execution given so many themers. Yes, many of the themers are short, which makes this task easier, but seven themers of any length is a challenge. Bruce did a good job of keeping his fill clean. The places that would typically be the hardest — around MONA LISA and CREDITOR, which pass through three themers — are pretty darn good. IN RED usually sticks out like a sore thumb as a partial, but given the Santa clue, I give it a holiday pass.

Since some themers are very short, just six letters, it would have been nice to lay out the grid so that the longest across answers (including fill) are only six letters. DEADEYE and STUDIOS make for nice bonus material, but they do make it harder to pick out where the theme answers are. (I highlighted them below in blue, to make them easier to see.)

Great clue for LOGOS! I had to read [Shell's shell and Chevron's chevron] a few times before getting that. I forgot that Chevron's logo is a set of "chevrons"!

So, a good grid execution with just a ONE (A) - TWO (EGG) punch of gluey bits. (And TWO EGG is (mostly) fine; I just couldn't resist the joke.)