New York Times, Monday, September 30, 2019

Whenever newish solvers ask me for suggestions on how to get started solving the NYT crossword, I point them to Lynn's body of work. She produces such smooth products, setting up solvers for emphatic slam-dunk victories. Today's is right in line. IRMA is perhaps the only tough entry — and an easy-peasy clue for that, anagramming MIRA, makes it no problem.

I like my crosswords fun and uplifting. This one was fun, but not so much uplifting, given that the themers were ordering me to tear five things a new one. PUT DOWN ROOTS = put down "Roots" was a clever reinterpretation, but the idea of being ordered to put down a literary classic … not for me.

Four out of five themers were spot-on, exhibiting both neat meaning changes and strong base phrases. The only one that didn't hit was TRASH PICKUPS, which sounds more like a dictionary entry than something I'd say in casual conversation.

Lynn did something unusual with her layout, stacking pairs of themers, i.e., PAN PIPES and TRASH PICKUP atop each other. As long as your overlapping letter pairs are friendly, this often makes grid design easier; as if you only had three themers to work with instead of five. It allowed Lynn to freestyle a bit, working in so many goodies: AIR KISS, BOB DOLE, REPTILE, T BONES, UPTURN.

The drawback is that the themers can feel crammed up against each other. Constructors have an ongoing debate, Lynn's approach here (producing a better solving experience due to stronger bonuses), vs. spacing themers out, in rows 3, 5, 8, 11, 13 (solvers experiencing themers in a more equally distributed manner).

Constructors are weird.