New York Times, Monday, September 21, 2015

I can't think of much to say about this interlocking SS puzzle, so I'll relate a Short Story. When I started constructing puzzles in early 2012 I was quite inspired by Will Shortz and the crossword community and I went a bit overboard. Every spare minute of my day was spent working on puzzles and I cut back from sleeping eight hours a night to only six. I was submitting two puzzles a week, most of them horrible, and often I forgot to eat !

My wife Liz noticed I had lost a few pounds and thought I had cancer. She made me get an MRI in July 2012 which indeed showed a tiny cancer on my kidney. It was a bad cell type that would have killed me in a few years, but way too small to cause weight loss — the doctors said eating and sleeping less must have been the reason I lost the weight.

The tumor was removed easily and there is no sign of it three years later, so I don't think it's too much of a stretch to credit Will Shortz and the entire crossword community (and my wife of course!) with helping to save my life. Thank you!

Too bad the NYT doesn't use titles for its crosswords. At CrosSynergy, I find choosing the perfect title — either punny or obliquely hinting at the theme — one of the most fun aspects of brainstorming. Today, Bruce might have chosen "S'wonderful"? Or "Snaky Sounds"? We get an astounding 12 themers with a huge amount of interlocking. I thought there were only 10 at first, so I highlighted them below to make them stand out.

There are a ton of S* S* phrases to choose from, which I'm sure made Bruce's task easier. Might have even been the reason he picked the S* S* pattern. Most of the themers he chose were pretty decent. Others that I thought might have snazzed up the grid a bit: SOLAR SYSTEM, SHINTO SHRINE, SOUTH SUDAN, SPACE SHUTTLE ... there are so many options. But still, it's no mean feat to shove 12 themers into a 15x15 grid.

What really impressed me was the care Bruce took in filling out the grid. With such high density, I would expect to see many more gluey bits than just ENOW and PCT. In Bruce's recent puzzles, especially his "stunt" ones, I haven't cared for the trade-offs of more glue enabling more "stunt," so it was a pleasure to see how clean this one was. I especially appreciate that out of a Monday puzzle.

I totally understand the need to use variety in cluing, but I would have liked a double-dose of classical in RAVEL and LISZT. To get a tangly [Get tangled up] clue for RAVEL made it feel to me like a perfectly good entry got gluified. But I loved the clue for LOLA. Hearing "I'm not the world's most physical guy, / But when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine" makes it difficult not to want to rock out.

Not the most mind-blowing theme, but the ultra-high theme density executed pretty cleanly was nice to see.