New York Times, Wednesday, February 17, 2016

I started thinking these cold thoughts last winter when New England was covered in many feet of snow. And now here we are again, as the snow piles up in Boston. The first theme entry I thought of was EDWARD SNOWED IN and wanted a way to try to use that. Then I thought of how Dwight D. Ice in Shower inevitably melts into BARRY COLD WATER... and decided I was definitely making this puzzle, if only to inflict that on everyone. Two 12's and two 14's aren't ideal for a breathable grid, but I wound up liking this theme set best.

I've been a Tuesday short of the cycle for many years now and was hoping this could be the Tuesday I've been waiting for. But Wednesday it is.

In the unsolicited, fill-based Netflix recommendation department: besides being "Like a recent transplant," NEW IN TOWN is also the name of a funny John Mulaney standup special.

Puns, puns, puns. I admit, I don't really get them. (Full disclosure — all my pun submissions have been rejected, by every editor I've ever submitted to.) I did like many of Merl Reagle's punny themes, but the idea of "success" being defined as "making people groan"? That concept is confusing to this engineer-at-heart.

Anyhoo, there are some fun discoveries here, Edward Snowden turned into EDWARD SNOWED IN. Neat how those are so close, but the meaning changes so much. Curt Schilling (the MLB pitcher) to CURT CHILLING works similarly, a delicate sound change producing something nicely different.

The other two seem inconsistent to me — just outright rhymes, where one requires breaking the last name — but punnery doesn't seem to have any hard and fast rules. Huh. I groaned a little upon reading "Dwight D. Ice in Shower" … which I think means Kyle was successful?

I did appreciate the bonus fill, NEW IN TOWN, BAD WORD, and THE REAL ME very nice and fresh-feeling. PHYRIGIA felt only vaguely familiar, but I was able to pull it out of data storage in the far recesses of my mind. I enjoyed learning that nice piece of trivia related to King Midas — thankfully all the crosses were fair! HEARD OF and SAYS HI didn't feel quite as strong to me, as the add-a-preposition phrases don't usually impress me, but overall, there are some nice bonuses.

The short fill worked pretty well too, especially considering there were five themers + all that long fill. EXOD (short for Exodus) always looks funny to me (and why do people need to shorten a six-letter word to a four-letter one?), and it doesn't surprise me that it comes in one of the toughest places to fill in the grid, in the intersection of two themers crossing two long phrases. Very common to require some crossword glue when so much strain is placed on one small portion of the grid.

MRS C is familiar to me since I watched most "Happy Days" episodes in my childhood, but it does feel a bit outdated at this point.

Overall, some groans and some smiles for this winter-appropriate puzzle.

ADDED NOTE: Nixon lost the 1960 election while Eisenhower was still in office (as a lame duck), so the next Republican nominee after Eisenhower left office was indeed Goldwater. A tricky way to link the two punnable men!