New York Times, Saturday, June 18, 2016

This puzzle is all about the grid pattern. Somewhere I got the idea of a grid where all the blocks are square-shaped, then it took some work to create a grid that was pleasing to the eye and not impossible to fill. Twenty percent of the grid is black squares, but there are only 60 words and the grid is all interconnected.

My starter entry was ATTENTION GETTER, which I thought hadn't been used before, but it's appeared 4 times in the NYT. Oops. That means the less-than-whimsical ENDOCRINE SYSTEM is the only new 15-letter entry in the puzzle. At least 1-Across is a fun fresh entry.

And yeah, there are lots of unfortunate short entries, from AIT to ETE, ELD to ENSE, and ONEL to LLDS, and maybe the worst of the bunch, NEAS. I'm sure it would have been smoother had I used the XWord Info Word List.

♫ ♪

For crossword fill that's clean as a whistle

Use the XWord List like a guided missile

♪ ♫

I need to go download my copy now, before ALL IS LOST.

Wow, what a cool pattern of black squares! For years, I had been dreaming of some way of incorporating fractals into a crossword puzzle — Todd did it! It doesn't exactly follow the strict definition of "fractal," but there's something so delightful about the giant square in the center, with smaller and smaller squares emanating outward. I usually don't care for black squares in the very corners of themelesses like this, but in this case they add to the impressive visual first impression.

Nice selection of long entries forming the grid skeleton, too. MAINSTREAM MEDIA, ENDOCRINE SYSTEM, ATTENTION GETTER, and especially ALIEN VS PREDATOR are all nice entries. I never saw the movie, but I've heard good things about it. I like it when franchises mash up.

Good to get a few long entries in addition, too. MR AMERICA and LOIS LANE were nice to see together, and TATER TOTs are my personal kryptonite. EYE CHART is also a good answer, and it's elevated by a great clue: [Where you might need to read the fine print].

The huge number of black squares does make construction easier, nibbling away at areas that need to be filled, but themelesses with interlocking grid-spanners tend to force a lot of compromises. I first noticed a few rough patches in areas near the intersections of two grid-spanning entries, which tend to be inflexible areas to fill. The usual suspects like BSS AIT CLI ENSE aren't that bad. When I hit [Things that lead to Rome?] though, I so desperately wanted it to be something besides the old-school ITERS. Sigh.

RUNAGATES … I struggled with the G, trying to judge whether [Wendi ___] might be DENT, DENS, or DENG. I guessed wrong, and finding RUNAGATES defined in the dictionary as "A fugitive or runaway" was mighty unsatisfying. I think I might actually like the odd feel of the word RUNAGATES, but not cluing DENG as in DENG Xiaoping left a sour taste in my mouth, like I had been set up to fail.

So, a memorable pattern of black squares, with some great long entries and an assortment of rough patches.