New York Times, Friday, July 28, 2017

Ok, Jeff, I know what you're going to say: look at that big ugly diagonal thing sitting in the middle of the puzzle. I know, I know— but in my defense I didn't realize it was an issue until you pointed it out in one of my puzzles last December. This grid, and my previous offending grids were already submitted before I knew better. But I assure you that now when I create a puzzle, I have a little invisible Jeff Chen sitting on my shoulder, reminding me to avoid dividing grids in half. I also strive for grids with 14 eight-letter words or more, another strategy I learned from you. Those two guidelines have definitely made my puzzles stronger, and I have you to thank. So… thank you Jeff!

As for commentary on this particular puzzle, not much to say, other than I'm glad I finally snuck BETTE in the grid, which is my mom's name. My mother has been solving the NY Times crossword for more than 60 years, and even though I began solving (and constructing) relatively recently, the Times puzzle has always been part of my world thanks to her. So this one's for you, mama bear!

Robyn has seeded her themelesses with material that has resonated so strongly with me. First it was SMARTY PANTS over MADE YOU LOOK, then JEDI MASTER over MIRACLE MAX, then a TRACTOR BEAM / STARGAZER combo, and finally she asked me to RIDE SHOTGUN while I was supposed to KEEP TALKING. She's got a knack for hitting my wavelength.

Today, DO I HAVE TO did it for this parent of two toddlers. (When does this phase end, BTW?) As a huge fan of "The Godfather," CORLEONE was good too, although DON CORLEONE or VITO CORLEONE would have been so much more colorful.

RUN A FEVER usually would be neutral for me, but what great wordplay, playing on a literal "hot body." Elevated it to an asset in my book.

Ha, Robyn got me! Yup, those narrow little passageways in the NE and SW corners ... why do I keep pointing these out? I am annoyingly OCD, granted. But a solver, I don't like these, since they create an impression of two separate mini-puzzles rather than one full solving experience. And as a constructor, they feel like too much of a crutch to rely on — once you fix LEWIS and LYMPH into place, you can work on each half independently.

I struggle with this issue. On the one hand, segmentation like this sometimes allows for an incredibly beautiful or fun half-puzzle — it's so much easier to construct half a puzzle vs. having to account for how one half affects the other. And some solvers may never notice the choking down of puzzle feng shui.

But for me personally, both as a solver and a constructor, it's so important for themelesses to feel wide-open — that's part of the magic of a themeless. I would have loved to see what costs Robyn had to pay to take out the black cheater square below DROPS and above POISE, for instance. Funny how much that would have opened up the entire puzzle.

With not as many fantastic feature entries as in her previous themelesses, and with ESTE, AMO, the obsolete ICHAT, ILE, STET, ILO, UNI — way too much, especially given that it's a 70-word puzzle — it's not my favorite of Robyn's themelesses. But I continue to look forward to her byline on the weekends. She has such a talent for delighting me with her seed entries.