New York Times, Saturday, December 21, 2019

I appreciate the tremendous range in Julian's themeless innovative grid designs. He's done geometric patterns, figure 8s, a boxing ring, and even a butterfly-looking thing. In a crossworld where maybe three out of every four themelesses are based on a standard pattern involving four sets of triple-stacked answers in each corner, the variety adds spice. Bring on the heat!

Those NW and SE corners are beautiful. It's not hard to stack three longish answers atop each other, but it's a whole new level of difficulty when you have another three intersecting them. There's a reason why so few themeless constructors try to "turn the corner." Most would place some black squares roughly where OPEN is and call it good. SPONGES isn't that interesting, but SAO PAULO / JUNK EMAIL, through JOE CAMEL / SULTANATE / SANDALWOOD is an excellent result.

Even better is TREVOR NOAH / A AVERAGES / INERT GAS through TORPEDOES / SKI AREAS / YIDDISH. Note how Julian used cheater squares (the three black squares in the very NW and SE corners) to make his life easier. They cut down the number of intersections you have to work with. They're aesthetically attractive, too, giving the grid a lovely curved look, which is most appropriate for turning that corner.

Ah, Saturday, you devilish imp. I usually have to stop and think about a clue or two, but I had a lot of head-scratching today. Here are a few that will likely generate confusion:

• HOTSY TOTSY: doesn't this mean jazzy, or chi-chi, or exciting? This hilarious-sounding retro phrase has a huge range of meanings, even from different dictionaries. A few reputable sources give: "very sexually attractive." "Great or excellent." "About as right as can be." "Comfortably stable or secure."
• MIRE: "stick in the mud," as in a fuddy-duddy digging in their heels? No. Think about "stick" as a verb. And yes, apparently "mire" can be used as a verb.
• How could nimbi clouds possible define AURAS? When the dictionary says that "nimbi" is "a luminous cloud or a halo surrounding a supernatural being." Huh.

A bit of junk fill is expected with this degree of difficulty, so to keep it to ARIZ ETO TAI VAR is noteworthy.

Overall, I appreciated Julian's careful craftsmanship. I hope others don't point out the flaws without understanding just how difficult it is to fill a mold-breaking, eye-pleasing grid like this.