Ben Tausig author page

★ Schrödinger! Ben adds to the short list of puzzles displaying duality, using the GENDER FLUID concept of identity. The four special squares are animated below — part of a house can be a ROOM or a ROOF, fabricate can be MAKE or FAKE, etc.

I really liked the fresh feel of this puzzle. Ben gives us material that both feels simultaneously new and timeless. ESPNU is such a weird string of letters, but ESPN U is definitely gettable even if you're not a subscriber. LOW ART, QUEER as part of LGBTQ, a great term in the clue for PUENTE — Nuyorican = Puerto Rican in New York — even MUSTY / FUSTY, it was a joy to solve all throughout.

Of the Schrödinger squares, my favorite was SAME sex … or was that SAFE sex? As Peter Gordon once emphasized, a great Schrödinger should exhibit real duality, making the solver pause as he/she tries to figure out which of two equally-correct-sounding possibilities is the "right" one. And with both options here as appropriate as well as colorful phrases, it's the huge winner of the four special squares.

I wasn't as taken with some of the other Schrödinger squares, filling in either M or F without giving it a second thought. [Reveal a secret, say] seemed like it had to be FESS UP. Afterward, thinking about it, MESS UP did fit, but FESS UP was the clear choice without looking back. Same with MAKE for [Fabricate] — FAKE does fit, as with fabricating a lie, but it feels like much more a stretch than MAKE. [It's combined at the beginning] felt like a tortured way to say PREFIX, but PREMIX didn't give me a pause.

But overall, I really liked the idea of using GENDER FLUIDity as the rationale for a Schrödinger, and the smooth, fresh fill — with all kinds of great DYSTOPIA, ODYSSEY, EQUUS, DANDY entries — made for an extremely enjoyable solve.

P.S. [Snake's place, partially] — the Snake river winds through OREGON. Tricky clue!

Fun idea, PASS GO meaning that you need to skip over G O in the themers in order to make sense of their eccentric clues. I like it when a grid looks perfectly normal, but there's something kooky going on underneath. For instance, GOOGLE DOCS (fantastic fresh entry!) reads as OGLE DOCS when you "PASS GO."

Speaking of fresh, Ben is really strong when it comes to delivering a modern feel. I've been lucky enough to have two guest puzzles in his American Values Club Crossword — I'm always impressed at how he balances the puzzles so they appeal to solvers in their teens and 20s, but also remain accessible to solvers of all ages.

I liked how Ben used his upper right corner to give us a lot of bonus material. MIXED DRINK is nice enough on its own, but crossing it with an AD EXEC and OPUS DEI makes great use of that real estate.

While I was impressed with the high theme density — four themers plus PASS GO and MONOPOLY — I did find it inelegant that PASS GO and MONOPOLY didn't have symmetrically placed theme answers. PASS GO is more forgivable since short revealers are often placed at the very end of the puzzle, but not having a match for MONOPOLY felt odd. I do like the feat of stacking EGOMANIACS atop MONOPOLY, and it's nice execution to get that SE area smooth, but I might have liked the overall layout better without MONOPOLY.

I wasn't sure what a WAGONMASTER was, but apparently, it's a ... master of a wagon. Huh.

Amusing clues:

• Who knew that the equivalent to a NUN in Buddhism was a Bhikkhuni? Neat trivia.
• [Low note?] refers to a cow "lowing," or making a MOO.
• A [Swiftly built home?] is a NEST … built by a swift. Awesome!

Great to see LGBT finally show up in the NYT crossword! I'm curious when LGBTQ will debut.