New York Times, Monday, September 8, 2014

For some reason, the theme for this puzzle didn't jump out at me when I was actually getting the cards and gag gifts that accompanied hitting the big five-oh: it wasn't until a few months later that the light bulb came on. My first version of the puzzle had FOOT LONG HOT DOGS as a central entry, but try as I might, I couldn't come up with a decent grid/fill with five theme answers included, so I had to settle for four. I was pleased, however, to hit on an alignment that allowed me to include what Matt Ginsberg has described as an Easter Egg (or maybe more appropriately for this puzzle, five Easter Eggs?): a hidden theme-related bonus that not all solvers would notice. If you are reading this, you probably are the type of solver that found the Easter Egg yourself, but if you didn't see it the first time through, take another look and see if you can spot it.

I was also glad that the end-product was smooth enough for a Monday — a first for me in the NYT.

Dan gives us theme entries each with five O's, tying it nicely together with THE BIG FIVE OH. Relatively smooth grid; a good start to the week.

How can you find theme entries like this, you might wonder? The old way is to try pulling it out of your memory banks, which still works just fine. But you can also try our Finder page, which gives you a quick way to search for a pattern such as "*O*O*O*O*O*". This will return all the matching strings that have ever been used in the NYT crossword as well as many from outside sources — if nothing else, it's a nice first pass, giving you possible entries such as:

• A ROOM OF ONES OWN
• BY HOOK OR BY CROOK
• COME HOME TO ROOST
• FOOT LONG HOT DOGS

A handy way to sort through possible themers. I tend to prefer ones that haven't seen much use, but the most important to me is to pick ones that are snappy and interesting to solvers. With so many choices available, it's important to be selective and pick only the best of the best. I like Dan's choices, BOOK OF MORMON and VOODOO DOLL in particular.

I did find it a bit odd that there weren't five themers, which somehow in my mind would have made more sense with THE BIG FIVE OH. Thinking about it some more, that doesn't necessarily exemplify THE BIG FIVE OH any more than three themers. Hmm. (I never claimed to be logical.) I also did find it a bit odd to have OOO at the central down spot and not have it tie into the theme somehow, especially since there are three themers with the five O's. It's not necessarily a bad thing; it just made me wonder if that was supposed to be part of the theme or not. It'd be one thing if the area were so constrained that OOO were the only option, but our old friend Yoko ONO could have fit there just as easily. Probably best to avoid such confusion on a Monday, methinks.

Finally, Dan does a great job of selecting single-word fill entries. Often, multiple-word entries are snazzier, but if you're careful about your choice of single words, they can be just as strong. SORORITY and HOOLIGAN are such fun words, ripe for imagery.

ADDED NOTE: aha, my spidey sense tingled for a reason! Dan let me know that the Easter Egg is the set of five "eggs" (the grouping of five O's) in the center of the puzzle. Fun!