New York Times, Saturday, September 28, 2013

Judging by comments on the blogs, you either love Joe Krozel or you hate him. I lean more towards the former. Joe is always pushing the envelope, in this case with a super-low word count. As in most puzzles of this sort, there are compromises — as with NINS, D'ALENE, AT US, RUNTIEST, and TREEN crossing TREES.

On the other hand, the grid has a lot of great entries — PAW PRINT, SCHOOLMATE, TIME SINK, SHEESH, MILLIONTH, WENT SOUTH, BIG BANG crossing BIG BANK, and both 15-letter entries. I wouldn't want every themeless puzzle to push the envelope like this. But once in a while? Absolutely.

I love to climb. Every week I do at least two good hard sessions at my local climbing gym, usually topping out at 5.11b-rated routes. I tend to avoid 5.11c or higher because I'll usually flail, exhaust myself, and fail, but one of my climbing partners usually goads me into getting onto a 5.11c or even 5.11d. "It'll be good for you," he says with an evil smile. And he's completely right. I barely ever make it fully up, I usually come down with heart pounding as if I were dying, and I always learn something, coming away better for the experience.

Let's evaluate the grid from a constructing perspective. There are only a couple dozen themeless puzzles with a lower count than today's 64-worder, and Joe does something most of these other ultra-low word count puzzles do: keeps the grid wide-open (mouse over some of those other puzzles to see how segmented they usually are). As a constructor, it's a daunting task to face those two gigantic corners in the NW and SE. Even a 6x5 corner of white space will cause problems, so just imagine what a challenge an 8x8 region represents. Kudos to Joe for having the guts to try it.

For the most part, he manages to get in reasonable entries without a ton of junk. Nothing besides LISTENS TO REASON and ORNAMENTAL TREES are a "wow!" type entry, but most do a workman-like job. In the NW, subpar answers like POTTIES, AT US, and REMISE hold the region together, which is what those big sections often require. In the SE, THERMOSET plays that "glue" role. That BARTOLI/THERMOSET crossing was a total guess for me (I could have sworn I worked with THERMASET materials back when I was a mechanical engineer) but after some thought, that's more my fault than the puzzle's. A recent Wimbledon winner should be fair game, so I'll file MARIAN BARTALI away for the future.

Aargh, it's MARION BARTOLI, consarnit!

It takes a great deal of practice and perseverance to be able to accurately solve something like this. Puzzles like these are useful in that they force many of us to stretch beyond our abilities and learn something, coming away better for the experience. I have a great deal of respect for Joe as a constructor and appreciate today's 5.11d+ workout.