New York Times, Wednesday, September 30, 2015

As these are my first comments for XWord Info, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Will for his guidance for this and previous endeavors. Construction newbies, do not be discouraged — Will is really very helpful!

As brief background, I originally hail from England, where you're more likely to come across words like AGNAIL (?) or WINDLESTRAE (??) than OREO in a crossword. I personally find US-style crosswords more fun though, with its smattering of general knowledge thrown in. Also, speaking as an ex-engineer with a poor command of Chaucer-English or botany, I tend to do better solving the US ones.

On to the puzzle, which was submitted in September 2013, with final acceptance in April 2014. Straightforward break-a-something theme, where you don't actually physically break any of the items. The original submission had the revealer BREAKAWAYS, but Will suggested and preferred BREAKABLES that you see in the final product. With six themers, there's some compromising (OK, ugly) 3-letter fill to enable some fresh vocabulary. Most questionable entry : MATIC (sorry about that, but it's my engineering background). Personal favorite : GAZILLION (useful in engineering also!). Cozy pairing : LEGWARMERS + SWEATPANTS (neither of which I've worn).

All the good clues are Will's — he's so much better at this than I am, especially at pitching to the right level of difficulty for the given weekday.

I like this type of theme, going one step past "word that can follow." Here, we have BREAKABLES revealing that one can break a FEVER, break a RECORD, break a SWEAT, etc. Fun to think of all the disparate things that can be broken, in such different ways.

Cool layout, too. Freddie not only puts in six themers, but gives us a lot of great fill. Usually when people go up to such high theme density, it's at the cost of colorful fill. Not today! KEYNESIAN is my favorite, as macroeconomics fascinates me. Central banks and monetary policy have such a huge influence over the lives of millions, yet some economists advocate doing EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of what others insist upon. It's bizarre how little macroeconomists definitively know.

GAZILLION is really nice too. Fun and expressive word. But wait, there's more! FIRE DANCE gets wedged in too — so much strong material made for a cool bonus.

One issue for me is that "break a leg" is a colorful saying, but it's the only saying in the bunch. Made it feel like an outlier. I suppose one can break a leg, literally, but that doesn't fit with the idea of the puzzle for me.

Nice and smooth, especially given all the theme material and long fill. It's too bad that ITE and OID stick out in row nine, but they're minor. RARES seems less minor to me — it's hard to imagine any collector looking for RARES. But what else are you going to do with that R?R?S pattern going through three themers? Collateral damage from the high theme density.

EMBAR is also a funny one. It does appear to be a legit word, but the "To bar or shut in" definition makes it seem awfully bizarre. Collateral damage from the OWLET MOTH long fill.

All in all though, I really appreciated the combination of high theme density and a lot of colorful long fill.