New York Times, Wednesday, August 31, 2016

This puzzle germinated with a failed theme entry, THE BIG DIGIT ("What was often extended by angry motorists during Boston's Artery/Tunnel Project?"), which I knew to be phonetically inconsistent, but tried submitting anyway. No go! But Will liked the theme and other entries, so I kept at it, aiming more for "chuckle value" in the theme answers than complexity.

I see that this puzzle has an appallingly low "freshness factor," (I think a record low for me) so it should play fairly easily. Will redid the NE and bits and pieces on the West side (MERCH at 5-Across — a debut — is also his). My original had SSNS at 19-Across, and I know better than that now: don't pluralize abbreviations if you can at all avoid it! I'm also becoming much more averse to partials and abbreviations in general.

One note about what I've seen evolve with themed puzzles in the last few years: the grid should feature at least 2, if not 4, lengthy non-theme Down entries (10 or 11 letters) crossing through two or three themers to keep the word count down and spice up the fill. That's a good standard, if sometimes challenging, and I believe it really boosts the quality of the solving experience.

Plenty of crossword puzzles are based on letter addition, and not all of them absolutely need a "revealer" to tie the idea together. But I think the best "add some letters" puzzles are those with some rationale; some raison d'etre. So I really liked MAKE IT LAST, interpreted as "add IT to the ends of normal phrases."

My favorite was SWING BAND to SWING BANDIT, as the meaning of that last word changed so dramatically. Generally amusing results overall, with some funny imagery of a Hormel spokesperson saying YES, WE CAN IT! SHORT STOP IT interpreted as a terse command to cease and desist also gave me a chuckle.

Some fun changes of meaning, i.e. CAN going from "able to" to "put into a can." I did wish there were more like SWING BANDIT, where the last word became a new word, though. CAN IT, STOP IT, POST IT … BANDIT. Would have been nice to have two of each, rather than BANDIT sticking out as different.

I didn't know LEGS DIAMOND off the top of my head, but what a cool name! Along with the clue referencing Dutch Schultz, I felt compelled to go read up on those two. IRS AUDITORS made for another nice piece of long fill. Along with SOAKS IN a HOT TUB, some nice bonuses. And it's not often that I notice a five-letter entry — in a good way, that is — but I liked the colloquial MERCH(andise).

The 11-letter central themer is so tough to work with. Ned uses one of the three main methods of gridworking around it, leaving himself big corners in the upper right and lower left. The former came out so well — beautifully smooth, if not snazzy. The latter demonstrates the trade-offs seen more often in these types of corners, with the esoteric ELOI, the APA, and BE A HERO sounding a little off without DON'T preceding it. But without much else in the grid standing out — just a bit of ANO / INT — it's generally well-executed.

It might strike some as odd that such a little 3x3 section would require both ANO and INT, but those little chunks can be devious. 4x3s or even 4x4s can often be easier to fill, what with more "good" four-letter words than three-letter ones.

Finally, really nice to get a clever clue right at the start: [One may bug you] isn't a pest, but someone might place a listening device — a SPY. The clue looks so innocent … just like a SPY!