New York Times, Tuesday, July 5, 2016

The idea for this puzzle came when my MacBook word-of-the-day screensaver featured the term ex post facto, which I immediately saw in terms of theme possibilities. How many other entries could I find that start with a letter written phonetically? It probably wasn't very fruitful because I somehow zeroed in on the phrase "X marks the spot" instead, and saw that if I used EX, MARX and DESPOT I could, with a little poetic license, mimic that phrase.

Originally 29-Across was MARXBROTHERS, and the reveal was PIRATEBOOTY. Upon reflection I changed that to TREASUREMAP, which seemed to be more apt. After filling the grid I noticed that the two long downs each crossed at only one theme entry, which gave me some flexibility to relate them to the theme as well. OLDSEADOG crossed nicely at the S in DESPOT, however, I had trouble finding anything that would work with the MARX BROS. With the option of going to MARXANDLENIN available, I saw that the perfectly synonymous BUCCANEER did the trick. The addition of ISLE was serendipitous, and ARRR was deliberate (I was hoping for a September 19th publish date).

Thanks to Will and Joel, who excised a couple of "uglies" (my term) in the west and lower Mississippi, and greatly improved on my clueing.

I hope you enjoy the wordplay, whatever level of solver you ARRR!

X MARKS THE SPOT sounded out (pseudo-)phonetically at the starts of themers. I had a little laugh when I realized DESPOT was a stand-in for THE SPOT. It didn't totally work for me, since EX / X and MARX / MARKS are perfect homonyms while DESPOT / THE SPOT are not, but it reminded me of all sort of childhood jokes, i.e. "denial" is the longest river in Africa and "Denise" is the sister of de nephew. (groan)

I wasn't a fan of MARX AND LENIN as a theme answer, as it doesn't sound like a real phrase to me. Yes, Marx's philosophies heavily influenced Lenin, but it's not like they co-wrote something. Perhaps KARL MARX could have been a better choice, and moving the hidden phrase to the end would have allowed for a better DESPOT phrase, like BENEVOLENT DESPOT or something. That pesky EX wouldn't cooperate though, as there's no good phrase ending in the word EX. Rats!

Fun to get some theme-ish fill in BUCCANEER and OLD SEA DOG. The latter made me hitch though — SEA DOG and OLD SALT are terms for seamen, but OLD SEA DOG didn't sound quite right to my ear. It also wasn't as specific to pirates as BUCCANEER. Still, these two entries helped give the puzzle a heftier feel.

I don't mind a couple of minor dabs of crossword glue to hold a puzzle together. RRS, YDS, DELA, NATL, ANON … that's a little too much for my taste, but it's not far above my threshold. Although ARRR is thematic(ish), I have a tough time with arbitrary extra letters, like SHHH and OOOH. Feels inelegant to me.

Speaking of inelegant, BROADS hasn't been seen in a major crossword since 1990. I hitched on it, wondering how many women it would offend. I do appreciate the attempt at ameliorating it with the "impolite" qualifier, but I'd much rather not see any word listed in dictionaries as "offensive." I personally want my crosswords to be uplifting and fun, not insulting. I'm curious to hear from readers about this one.

Overall, some enjoyable fill in DJ SETS, MAKE PAR, A-LISTERS, and a few aspects that didn't hit home with me.