New York Times, Tuesday, August 30, 2016

This puzzle is a milestone for me, in that it is my first themed puzzle in The New York Times. It was constructed in August of 2015 and accepted for publication in December.

It has an unusual history. The puzzle was last in a package of four that was mailed off as soon as I completed it. The next day I gave in to my lingering doubts about the answer I chose for 38D and sent off a revision (the version we have before us), along with an explanatory note. I'm sure this kind of thing is not a hit with editors, so now I have a "cooling-off period" for sober re-assessment before I let go of a grid, so that this won't happen again.

The idea for this theme came about during an online brainstorming session. The pattern "element symbol-something" is easy to search for, but doesn't yield many useful results. I was lucky to find symmetric pairs of themers, and also lucky that my first choice for revealer was the right length. I recall regretting that I had to leave TIN SNIPS on the table, but there was no mate for it, and the grid already was getting pretty full of theme squares.

The clue for IRON FENCE (26A - What hath the gardener wrought?) gave me a chuckle. It's there thanks to Will and Joel. It seems that less of my clues are being re-written than in previous published efforts. That's an encouraging sign which I attribute to more practice in solving quality puzzles.

Neat idea, two-word themers with a chemical element as the first word, and the second word starting with the appropriate CHEMICAL SYMBOL. SILVER AGE was a particularly appropriate phrase, and a beautifully colorful one to boot. And I've come across CARBON COPY umpteen times in life, but this is the first time I've realized what a neat feature it has, following Roland's pattern.

COPPER CUPS and IRON FENCE aren't quite as nice; phrases that I wouldn't count as assets if I saw them in a themeless puzzle. If only COPPER's symbol was Mu — I like me a Moscow Mule in a copper mug on hot summer nights.

It's unfortunate that three out of four themers contain two-letter CHEMICAL SYMBOLS … and the last one just has a one-letter symbol. Gives that final one a "which of these is not like the other" feel. I imagine the selection was very limited, and crossword symmetry rules make the choices even fewer. Ah well.

Some fun longer fill; love SUPERMOM and BIG BUCKS. And as a big Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike fan, the only thing better than getting ROWLING in a grid is getting JK ROWLING.

Theme-dense puzzles are always hard to fill, and there's good smattering of crossword glue today. All the crossings are fair, but all the dabs in total felt inelegant to me. A couple of ORU (Oral Roberts University) and ONE A (draft status) are fine. Dipping into the deeper ATRI, SNEE, PSEC, ARA well, along with the old-timey-feeling RIVE, and that's too much for my taste.

No doubt it's tough to work around five longish themers though, and it is good that Roland mostly spread the glue out. The themers are well-spaced out as possible, but there are so many areas where words must interact with at least two themers — no surprise that ATRI sprang up in the middle of the puzzle, in a space sandwiched between IRON FENCE / CHEMICAL SYMBOLS / SILVER AGE.

A very cool idea. If the themers had all been as strong as SILVER AGE — I would have been just as happy if the symbols were anywhere in the second word (not necessarily at the start), so that might have opened up more options — and the grid had been smoother, this would have been POW! material.