New York Times, Friday, July 26, 2019

This puzzle was sparked by a love of rare letters (I'm an avid Scrabble player who studies the J, Q, X, and Z words for fun) and the discovery that AQUAMARINE seemed to fit rather nicely on top of FUZZY NAVEL. I began to create a potential grid skeleton around the double stack with ZEBRA on top, when I excitedly realized that I might actually be able to make it into a triple stack by using ZEBRA FINCH instead! This stack still remains one of my all-time favorites from my themeless constructions — I think getting four Z's and a Q into that 4x4 block is pretty cool, all four of the long answers up there seem pretty nice to me (especially ZEBRA FINCH, which is my favorite entry in the puzzle), and I'm especially pleased with how cleanly that corner turned out.

Once I came up with a rough grid skeleton, ALL THAT JAZZ seemed like it might work well at 27-Down to smoothly work in a few more rare letters, and it turns out it did. Construction often feels like it's all about compromise, so it's always nice when things just seem to fall into place — here, even allowing for a fortuitous pangram! With that in mind, though I admit that there was a not-so-small part of me that wanted to find a way to fit in ten more Z's (I might have a problem), I decided to prioritize filling the rest of the grid cleanly while trying to incorporate some more nice long entries. I think the puzzle turned out pretty well — it seems to me like one that can be enjoyed by a wide range of solvers, as there isn't much in the way of esoterica, current pop culture or niche references here, just some interesting entries, Scrabbly letters and some unique — and perhaps even mildly entertaining — clues.

Speaking of which, some of my favorite clues of mine in this puzzle are those for 42-Across, 50-Across, 27-Down, 43-Down, and 44-Down. Some might be interested to know that I originally clued CHALK LINE as the carpentry tool; to be honest, the new clue feels somewhat arbitrary to me. However, I was pleased to see that all three of my clues for the stacked entries in the upper-right survived, as I thought they were particularly… color-ful. On that (admittedly groan-worthy) note, happy solving!

So many rare letters worked in so smoothly! J Q X Z are the crossworld's Big Four, and to have one each of J Q X plus six (!) Zs is fantastic. It doesn't come anywhere close to the record number of Zs — scads of themed and themelesses with more — but Trenton worked them in so beautifully, his grid showing none of the signs of strain that most puzzles on that list exhibit.

Such a wondrous north section, with a string of connected ZQZZZ. That could be a new name brand for a sleep product — ZQZZZQUIL, anyone?

As if that wasn't enough, the clues stood out; so entertaining:

• Doughnut played upon as [Dough nut?] for MISER.
• How charming, CAST A SPELL clue playing on "charming." I always wondered if Prince Charming was secretly a wizard.
• Will knows that Jim's a concert pianist, so I wonder if the clue for PIANOS was a shout-out to him. Their players are often benched indeed — on a piano bench!
• And my favorite, [It comes from Mars]. ETS? Cosmic rays? Men? Nope, the candy bar TWIX. That's MARS, the candy company, not the planet. Beautiful misdirect.

ALL THAT JAZZ and hardly any wastage in his 16 long slots? (Maybe LAST TO LEAVE is a bit dull, but what else?) Sometimes I have to mull over which puzzle strikes me best during any particular week. This was not one of those weeks. Such a tremendous pleasure to do a themeless as enjoyable as this one.