New York Times, Monday, August 9, 2021

This puzzle originally employed a much trickier gimmick. Rather than putting both halves of each pseudo-antonym pair in the grid, it clued one pseudo-antonym from each pair (identified with an asterisked clue) while putting its complement into the grid. One advantage of that presentation was that it accommodated twice as many pairings. The editors liked the basic idea of pseudo-antonyms but suggested putting both halves in the puzzle instead.

Embracing that restriction helped me tighten the theme. I pivoted to only including pseudo-antonyms with a positional aspect. And I was able to put everything in the correct place: OVER & HIGH on top, LEFT & RIGHT correctly ordered in the middle, and LOW & UNDER on the bottom. It's a subtle touch.

When I saw the pre-publication proof two weeks ago, I was surprised by a couple of things. First, that the puzzle would run on a Monday. During construction, the editing team requested clues at a Wednesday-ish level. Second, and more surprising, was the change to the last three theme clues. They were originally straight clues (per the editing team's recommendation). I would think converting them to cross-references ups the difficulty, which is counterintuitive for a Wednesday-ish puzzle running on a Monday.

Finally, based on last week's announcement, I believe this will be the last NYT crossword offered as a .puz file. Hopefully, this is an enjoyable final solve in that format!

Fascinating set of finds: two-word base phrases where if you substitute in their individual word opposites, you get another valid two-word phrase — one that isn't the opposite of the base phrase!

I reworded that explanation ten times already; I'm sure there's a more efficient way of explaining it. Best is to give an example. LEFT OFF vs. RIGHT ON — left/right and off/on are opposites. However, not only are these two phrases not opposites, but one's an add-a-preposition workhorse while the other's a fun exclamation. Couldn't be more different!

(Alex's other examples he couldn't include: COLD FEET / HOT HEADS, CATWALK / DOG RUN, STANDOUT / SIT IN. So hard to discover since it's not trivial to search for these programmatically — and such fun finds!)

Solid gridwork, too. Six shortish themers give a constructor the opportunity to add in a ton of colorful bonuses, and Alex confronted the problem head-on: SHELF LIFE, ETSY STORE, IRON AGE, SOUR CREAM, REVEILLES, and some fun mid-lengthers in EGALITE, HELICES, INFERNO.

I added COUCH GAGS to the XWI Word List years ago, back when I was a huge fan of "The Simpsons." The fact that they came up with something new for every episode, even after hundreds of episodes, was incredible. I don't love the entry as much anymore because it's been years since I've watched, but even if you're a Simpsons-hater, at least it's two words that you can recognize, making it possible to successfully finish the Monday puzzle.

I'd have liked the themers to be the longest Across entries in the puzzle since IRON AGE overshadowed LEFT OFF as a much more vivid phrase. Achieving that by shifting a few black squares around, and this could have been a perfect grid. (Although not for a Monday since some of the vocab like EGALITE is tough ….)

It's rare that I get the opportunity to laud a theme that feels this fresh, that adds a new modality into the crossword pantheon. It's common that Alex's name is on the byline when that happens. Extremely well done!