New York Times, Friday, June 11, 2021

This was the second themeless I ever made, and it was a bit of a lightning-in-a-bottle moment for me as a constructor who was still very new to the puzzle scene at the time. Compared to other themelesses I made in early 2020, this one has much more solid short fill (probably wouldn't jump to use RFK or EBOLA today, but they're both very real things), and the cluing is noticeably more interesting, with a surprising number of my clues making it through the editing progress. 5-Across, 52-Across, and 1-Down are some of my favorites!

It's also the only one of my early themelesses that I made with a center stair stack layout — the NYT team said they enjoyed the SETTERS / STREETS anagram "mini theme" in the middle, which was fun and also completely unintentional. Nowadays, I'd probably aim for a grid design with more than 11 entries of 8+ letters. In the spirit of the central seed, though, I think this one just has a lot of good vibes — hope it made for a happy solve! I'm always so excited to share puzzles that I make, and I'm really thankful that the Times chose to run this one, especially given how many phenomenal themelesses are being constructed and submitted these days (including tomorrow's gem by two of my favorite constructors!).

If you enjoyed solving this one and want to find more of my stuff, or if you're new to themeless constructing/puzzle making in general and want to connect, hop over to Twitter or my blog and say hi!

Solid "stairstack" offering, with some great long entries running through that central triplet. This nerd enjoys hearing people say NERD ALERT when I walk into a room (how did my kids learn to do this, by the way?), and EDELWEISS is not only a memorably defiant song from "The Sound of Music," but it's surprisingly tricky to weave into a grid, with its W.

My first impression of the solve was that it was a bit macho for my taste, given MR WORLDWIDE, Scorsese's MEAN STREETS, and the curious nickname "Big Donkey" for Adam DUNN. I'm not going to ask.

However, there's a lot of content that balances this. I loved the fresh clue for EXES, referencing the Cardi B lyric. NIKE clued to the Goddess, not the shoe. DRESSY. All of this helped dilute the testosterone.

I dug the wordplay and fun throughout the clues. AISLES was the big winner, playing on "long division." Literally, an aisle is a long division (of seating sections)! ETSY clued as a site for "crafty sorts" is amusing. And that Doris M. Smith quote, "Arguing with a fool proves there are TWO," is so witty.

Beautifully smooth puzzle, but for a 70-worder, there was potential left on the table with TOP STORIES and DATA FORMAT not doing much for me. Both could have risen to highlights if they didn't have such straightforward clues. For example, STAIRWELLS isn't exciting by itself, but misdirecting with "a lot of steps" sure elevated it.

Get it? Elevated? Because it's a stairwell? Heading up?

Or more aptly, heading down, like this joke.