New York Times, Thursday, February 17, 2022

I'm pleased as difficult-to-serve punch to be making my debut in the NYT! This puzzle began with me writing down all the examples of "synonym for 'small' + noun" I could think of. Some early candidates included COMPACT DISC (Frisbee) and TINY DANCER (Santa's reindeer). I noticed a lot of them involved food, which led to the party theme. I decided early on that the courses should be "served" in a logical order to build a sense of mounting frustration among the guests, but was left without a fun resolution. After a few weeks of brainstorming with friends, I hit upon MICRO SECONDS as the kicker.

As for the layout, having the first marquee answer be 12 letters long meant that I had to smush a lot of theme material into the middle of the grid. This limited the options for the rest of the puzzle, but I eventually found that opening the NE/SW corners for some long bonus fill actually gave a little more flexibility. Sorry for the partial at 29-Down — if you have a better suggestion to fill A_U_F, you can let me know on Twitter.

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What did the mad scientist shout after shrinking his nemesis?

Outta sight!

Terrible dad joke, but an apt description of today's theme. I spent a embarrassing amount of time trying to think of other synonyms for "small" that could fit this concept, and I failed miserably. To come up with five — all food-related! — is no small feat.

Given enough brainstorming time, I would have thought of SMALL FRIES and even MERE TRIFLE, given my fanboying over Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. ATOMIC SUBMARINE is a triumph, though. ATOMIC a synonym I might never have considered, and linking it to a SUBMARINE sandwich is amazing.

To explain Aaron's point further. It's typically better to start with your 10-letter themer — in this case, SMALL FRIES — because that can go in row 3, allowing for much better overall spacing. That ordering would have been just fine for this guy who likes to end the evening with a not-so-MERE TRIFLE of a dessert.

Aaron still made things work, albeit needing the awkward AHUFF LIM in the middle. Not atypical for a squashed set of themers. Exploring alternative possibilities with a 16-wide grid could have been useful.

Excellent SW / NE corners, Aaron squeezing every last drop of color out of his long slots. AFRIKAANS WINTERIZE I CLAUDIUS sure make for some STAR TOURS! When you decide upon an off-beat layout, this is the way to take full advantage of it.

The reader in me enjoyed the story of the mad scientist at a party — neat way to link this set that otherwise would have seemed random. If it had run on a Tuesday or Wednesday, when I'm not expecting something harder and more mind-bending, I might have given it some POW! love.