New York Times, Wednesday, July 29, 2015

I don't remember the exact genesis of this theme in March 2012, but of course it was inspired by all the "word that can follow both parts of …" puzzles that came before. I submitted the puzzle in October 2013 and it was accepted in January 2014.

My original idea for the DOUBLE DOUBLE reveal was to stack the two DOUBLES on top of each other in one answer, resulting in six adjacent rebus squares. But I couldn't get it to work, especially because of the limited possibilities for answers containing UU.

I put the puzzle aside and took my dog for a walk and was fortunate to run into my crossword consigliere, Brendan Emmett Quigley, in the park. Brendan suggested keeping it simple and to just go with the DOUBLEDOUBLE answer you see today.

With six theme answers, the first and last of which are 12 letters long, I had to widen the puzzle to 16 squares instead of the standard 15 to fit all the themers in. Perhaps another constructor could have done it with some themers going down.

This puzzle benefitted from considerable editing, with not just clues, but several answers changed in the SE corner. Two of the best new clues, IMO, are movie-related: 36-Down (American Sniper) and 48-Down (Fargo). One of my favorite clues that didn't make the cut was also movie-related: "Delta __ Chi (‘Animal House' frat)" at 69-Across, as I am an unrecovered Animal House fan. My other favorite clue that was changed: "The majority of the answer to this clue" for ESSES at 73-Across was actually improved by the clue that references the whole bottom row of the puzzle and the general crossword phenomenon that many S's tend to accumulate there. Finally, on one more movie note, I was happy to see ELI still clued in reference to my cousin, director Eli Roth. I hope Eli Manning's family is not too disappointed.

Thanks to BEQ, Will and Joel and to Jeff and Jim for XWord Info, which is a real boon to fledgling constructors!

I love fantasy basketball. If I didn't have other commitments, I'd spend all my waking hours (and some of my sleeping ones) analyzing data, reading commentary, trying to pick up the smallest tidbit. So it was fun to see the DOUBLE-DOUBLE as today's revealer, pointing to phrases where both words can be followed by DOUBLE.

I was helping a friend with a similar theme construction which recently got rejected, Will/Joel saying the NYT has run so many of this theme type that it's nearly run its course. I agree with that sentiment, although every once in a while it's fun to see a well-constructed example.

I liked all the themers in today's puzzle, although they didn't feel as snazzy as I would have liked. STANDARD TIME is in the name of a famous Wynton Marsalis album, but the general term isn't as interesting to me. TAKEOVER and BACKDATE aren't bad. And PLAYBILLS is good. All solid, but CROSSTALK is the only one which I really loved.

And it was slightly confusing to me that CARWASH looked like a themer. (There really ought to be such a thing as a DOUBLE CAR.) With a theme like this, I would have preferred for the themers to stand out on their own right. That would have meant putting a single word in CARWASH's place, or rearranging the grid such that the CARWASH slot was shorter.

Great clue for ZEBRA. I hadn't heard of a "zorse" or a "zonkey," but I'll be looking for every opportunity to use them now. Another great clue for PLANE = [It lacks depth]. I love it when math and the English language merge to create cleverosity.

As with fantasy basketball, a DOUBLE DOUBLE guy is pretty good, but there are (relatively) a lot of them out there. It's when you see the potential for a guy to notch some TRIPLE DOUBLEs that you really get excited. "Three-word phrases where all words can precede DOUBLE" … now that would be Showtime!

P.S. Anyone with a good read on Okafor or Mudiay, lemme know. They both look like they might be worth a flyer.