New York Times, Saturday, June 11, 2022

62-word themeless grids are tough to construct and even tougher to get published these days. Modern 70- and 72-word themelesses are favored by editors as they're typically livelier, cleaner, and more accessible than low-word-count grids. But those who enjoy solving this genre of puzzle might have noticed a rare occurrence this weekend: Blake Slonecker's puzzle from yesterday and mine today each have 62 answer words. (That hasn't happened in the Times since 2017 when Patrick Berry and Jeff Chen had back-to-back 62-word jaunts.)

To create this puzzle, I started with the grid pattern, inspired by Nam Jin Yoon's themelesses with off-center stair stacks. This layout allowed me to tinker with the top-left and bottom-right corners independently but left open extra corridors (26-Across and 33-Across here) for solvers to access each region. After finding some corner options I liked, I tested them pairwise for compatibility. Eventually, I hit upon a combination that glued together seamlessly with other nice answers, forming the grid you see today.

Second 62-worder in two days, indeed! Note that Sid also used four pyramid blocks. As per Blake's comments from yesterday, they truly are a "cheat code," making ultra-low-word counts so much more tractable. My guess is a full order of magnitude. I often wonder why more people don't use them, although some constructors have a different aesthetic.

I found today's themeless so much easier to solve than yesterday's. Sid and the NYT team employed wordplay to perfection, helping me not only accelerate through my solve, but to pump my fist along the way:

WET MARTINI is a great entry. Bringing me along with a fun fact, that it's paradoxically made with dry vermouth, makes it that much better.

TAN LINE isn't as fresh as WET MARTINI, having been in the NYT crossword over a dozen times already, but man, that clue! [Abrupt change in tone] so innocently nudges you toward a speaking tone.

Even better was [One sitting on the bench]. It's been killing me to see Robert Williams (who helped win us our fantasy league this year!) on the bench more than usual because of his knee during the NBA playoffs, so my mind was focused on riding the pine. Great misdirect, away from PIANIST.

Saving the best for last, [Drawings with lots of little blocks]. Surely, pixels had to be involved. No, that's little city blocks in CITY PLANS!

I wasn't enamored by POD RACERS, given how old the reference is by now. And by how much "The Phantom Menace" menaced Star Wars fans worldwide. Other unexciting entries like STEWPOTS and SEMITONES are typical for 62-worders, but at least they didn't ruin an entire movie franchise.

I was going to add the EARPLUGS / OPEN EARS dupe to the liabilities column, but there's something fun about that pairing.

I enjoy a cruising victory, and today's puzzle was deftly crafted to give me exactly that. Perhaps too easy for a Saturday, but I think it's generally better to err on the side of leaving solvers feeling smart instead of frustrated.