New York Times, Saturday, August 26, 2023

This maniacal puzzle is a sharp turn from last month's offering, but one I consider among the best puzzles I've ever made.

Most people have a love-hate relationship with quad stacks, especially the dreaded 4x10, but I find them among my favorite type of themeless to solve. If done well — filled with vibrant long answers and few obscurities — that extra answer gives a surprising textural dimension to the puzzle, like the jelly in a jelly donut.

No seed entries in this type of grid — instead it's all about the story told by the stacks and how well the entries as a whole play off of each other. In this case, I'm particularly fond of the results. Every long answer in the grid I consider a strong asset, or has a great clue that elevates it into a strong asset (18A, 11D, 54A, 37D, 23D all mine!), or both!

This one goes out to Mrs. Wright's 8th (now 9th!) grade class, who I had the joy of teaching the morning this puzzle was accepted, and all the other brilliant educators out there (hi mom and dad) that have started or are soon starting school for the year — thanks for all you do!

Today brings our toughest challenge yet on Next Level Constructor. Only the bravest of chefs dare to cook with certain feature ingredients. Fugu is notable for its potential to kill if not prepared correctly, but many others require highly specialized knowledge. Few have ever seen a python steak or yak meat, and it takes fortitude to consider tarantula or jellyfish as the star of a culinary offering.

Such is the 64-word themeless, especially when dealing with quad-stacked answers. If woven together with seasoned expertise, this can be a highlight-of-the-year experience … but a few missteps can result in an unsolvable disaster.

While you might consider "disaster" a drama queenish description of a Did Not Finish, tell that to all the solvers out there who cling onto their triple-digit streak of successful solves, gritting their teeth as they pray that today won't be the day they lose it.

Plating up a giant corner like the lower right takes much more than FAKE SMILES and INITIATIVE. It takes a real HELLRAISER to dare to tackle something like this without sectioning off that corner from the rest of the puzzle. Adrian doesn't only smoothly complete his lower-right corner, but he ANIMATES it with some PONTIFF / GNOMISH cutting through a wonderful quartet of long answers.

And there are other delights woven in, like LOVE LETTER, SOUSAPHONE, I SEE IT NOW (TO NAME A FEW)! Yes, Adrian left specks of ENE OTRA SER TOPO across his grid, but those few imperfections enabled so much seasoning and sparkle.

This would have been a high-end offering if made with ground beef or a chicken thigh, but to produce such vivacious work with crocodile might just make Adrian the GOAT.