POW! (wow!) I swore I wouldn't choose two themeless puzzles in a row for Jeff's Puzzle of the Week, but I couldn't stop myself after ...
read morePOW! (wow!) I swore I wouldn't choose two themeless puzzles in a row for Jeff's Puzzle of the Week, but I couldn't stop myself after doing Josh's puzzle. Triple-stack constructions can be judged by 1.) the sparkliness of the long entries and 2.) the number and quality of ugly short crossings. Each one of Josh's quadrants shines in both areas; so many debut phrases and nary a stinker of a crossing (GAOL isn't great, but it's fair game for a Saturday puzzle). These days editors and solvers prize snazzy multiple-word phrases, and out of twelve long answer slots, Josh fills nine of them with great entries like JACK SQUAT and KINGS RANSOM. And for the three other slots where he has one-word entries, he and Will come up with fantastic clues to spruce them up.
Ah, the beauty of the cluing. Jim and I were both amazed at the cleverness behind "It opens during the fall". Such a wonderful example of the wordplay that has helped define the Shortz era themeless. And "Fall fallout, some believe" clue echoes the word "fall", giving a touch of elegance.
Finally, let's look at the inclusion of "Scrabbly" letters, notably J, Q, X, Z which are usually the hardest to incorporate. They often make a puzzle stand out, because the difficulty of puzzle-filling is proportional (more or less) to the number of Scrabbly letters. Josh uses four of these, plus five Ks, yet still manages to pull off great triple-stacks. Well done!
Final note: Matt Ginsberg, friend and creator of Dr. Fill (crossword-solving AI), warned me that having a POW! might cause six constructors sadness because their puzzle didn't get chosen that week. My intent is always to be a positive force for crosswords, so let me emphasize that we've had a lot of really good puzzles this week (and wait until you do tomorrow's!). I'll continue to use the POW! to recognize what I personally see as excellence above and beyond.