New York Times, Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Before any notes on the puzzle, as a resident of the Bronx, just want to say thank you to all the healthcare, retail, transit and other essential workers in the city right now that are doing so much to keep the city afloat.

As for the puzzle, I had fun bringing a small twist to a common theme type, and I hope you all enjoy the puzzle. I wanted to have something in the puzzle visually look like a BOWLING ALLEY, so I ran the entry vertically through the puzzle. I then began playing around with having the other entries intersect with BOWLING ALLEY. After many, many (many!) variations, I found a set that would work, while at the same time allowing for a lot of lively other entries in the puzzle.

Some of my favorite non-theme entries include BOO BIRDS, PULL A UEY, I'M SAVED! and FAN MAIL.

Lastly, just wanted to give a thank you to Howard Barkin for testing out the puzzle way back before submission and giving lots of honest feedback on where I needed to improve the puzzle. The end product was better for it.

We all know that Will Shortz is a table tennis fanatic, playing every day religiously. (What's he doing all day while quarantined? Working on trick shots, I bet.) But he has a dirty little secret: he's a bowling nut. Completely obssessed!

I jest. Maybe. Three bowling puzzles — this one, a rebus, and a Sunday visual puzzle — within the span of roughly half a year? Perhaps Will just loves the fashionable shoes.

For regular solvers, today's puzzle might have felt repetitive, but I did appreciate that my previous experience enabled me to drop in TURKEY without hesitating. I still had to look up what a TURKEY was (a guy who wears bowling shoes out in public — I'm talking to you, Seattle hipsters), but I didn't give it the side-eye this time!

At first, I wondered why Sam didn't place the themers in sequence. Jim Horne and I discussed in great detail how to describe this theme and eventually decided that it's because there is no sequence. Never mind!

I couldn't get my head to shut up after Jim and I de-Zoomed, though. It finally dawned on me that there isn't a sequence ... but there is an ordering. Worst result is a SPLIT, then a SPARE, a STRIKE, and best of all, a TURKEY.

Order in the alley!

Intersecting the four themers with BOWLING ALLEY is mildly interesting. It's amazing that Sam got it to work — with the four bowling terms all starting their phrases! However, I'd prefer a more standard grid layout (all themers horizontal), using worst to best ordering, for a neat and tidy presentation. That would have also allowed more flexibility so that every themer could stick to the singular.

To be clear, Sam's choice is valid. Along with stellar gridwork (bonuses like DRUMPAD and BOO BIRDS just to start) and meticulous attention to detail (only some ETAT RTE YDS), I could see some solvers asking, "What the hell is Jeff's problem?"

I'm happy to answer, if you have ten hours.

If you're looking for distractions while house-bound, check out Pongfinity, one of my favorite YouTube channels. They take on all sorts of ridiculous challenges, including playing with chopsticks, a la Mr. Miyagi. I'm hoping their next challenge is to play with a bowling ball!

I may be watching too much YouTube during this shelter-in-place ...