Brian Thomas author page

Ah, TU ES BELLE. I remember doing C.C.'s puzzle, my Spidey-sense going haywire when I filled in the mystifying TUESBELLE. I took five years of high school French, yet I somehow convinced myself that it was probably TUES BEL, LE.

Needless to say, I didn't get a 5 on the AP exam.

Part of me enjoyed the smugness of being able to identify the theme so quickly this time around. The other part braced for the coming onslaught of "what's the theme?!" questions. Seven entries are starred, but it's not simple to figure out that each of those answers with SUN MON TUE(S) WED THU FRI SAT.

It's too bad that TUES is the only one that can be a four-letter abbreviation, but what else would work? TUEBIGEN would raise some "Ach!"s, and TUEBROOK has a ways to go before its population of 14,000 gets it into the realm of crossworthiness. So, smart choice to reuse TU ES BELLE, and it's likely that only the analest of the anal will know about C.C.'s prior art.

Lots of strong fill helped to keep up my interest. Even the most constrained bonus slots stood out, with the fun NOURISH running through SUNNI, not to mention a auspicious crossing of KWANZAA through SATAN.

Given that there was no revealer like in C.C.'s, it would have been great to have seven long themers rather than five plus two shorties. That's an incredibly difficult feat, as some of them would need to be squinched tightly together, but Brooke and Brian are constructors who can deliver a SUNdance-level solve even with SATurnine constraints.

I played in jazz bands for twenty years growing up; never heard of the JAZZ AMBASSADORS, though. Interesting concept — I can imagine a bunch of state department wonks sitting around a conference room table in the 1950s, asking who could help spread the gospel of America's superiority. Jazz was huge back then (as was my beloved contract bridge; I clearly was born in the wrong day and age). Why not send Diz along with Benny Goodman to show how of course, there is no racial inequity in the good ol' US of A?

Not surprisingly, Dave Brubeck and others were critical.

The rare letters make JAZZ AMBASSADORS a great themeless marquee, and the controversy sure is compelling. Not as fun or entertaining as listening to Duke's big band, but that's okay.

Super fun to uncover HARD ASS. It's not a NYT debut, but it's still entertaining to wonder ... wait … could it possibly be … yup! Talk about NEW ERAS for the Times.

Fantastically innocent clue in [It's a blessing] — GESUNDHEIT! Trying to figure out what could possibly contain the letter sequence NDH reminded me of a puzzle from history I loved.

Not far behind that was [Window you might want to close quickly]. This jumpy Seattleite went straight to murder hornets and wildfire smoke, but thankfully it was a POP-UP AD.

I had a hard time spelling Megan RAPINOE, because I often forget if it's STOMA or STEMA. You know, because it's part of a plant? (Anybody? Bueller?) But I fondly remember watching World Cup soccer with a former NCAA Division I soccer-star friend, and appreciating her detailed descriptions of what RAPINOE and the others were doing. I forgot that RAPINOE was SI's Sportsperson of the Year! That is quite the honor; seriously crossworthy.

Speaking of STOMA, I asked a biologist friend to describe it. She asked how many hours I had, and I had to frantically make excuses to leave. Similarly, I asked an earth sciences friend if he knew what LOESS was. His eyebrows retracted into his forehead with disbelief. When I first started doing crosswords, these types of entries seemed bizarre — bizarre sure is in the eye of the beholder, though.

Off to go watch the JAZZ AMBASSADORS and learn more! Great way to gently pique my interest.

★ It warms my heart that at least one younger person remembers HE'S DEAD JIM. I can't describe how ecstatic I'd be if some Millennial or generation Alpha constructor used REDSHIRT, clued as [Poor sap destined to die in a "Star Trek" away mission].

I loved, loved, loved the summery vibe, with BOSTON POPS playing its annual July 4^th concert, SPARKLERs eliciting I'M AMAZED, pounding in TENTPEGs at a campsite, eating MACARONI salad at a picnic. I enjoy mini-themes in my themelesses, but most of them are simply two related entries. I'd love to see more like this, with so many connected elements!

Other fun entries in PLAY DIRTY, JURY RIG — been watching too much "Money Heist" and "Imposters," Brooke and Brian? — and even mid-length entries like CITADEL and ASTERIX elevated my solve.

ROBYN FENTY was a complete mystery, so I was relieved that every single crossing was unambiguous. I'm curious how many Rihanna fans could correctly spell (or even name) her birth name.

The PRESS BOX clue … it's getting at the press corps covering the field (of sporting action). I like the intent, but it wasn't as satisfying as [One with a train, maybe]. Once you uncover BRIDE, it's not hard to make the connection to the train some brides trail behind them.

What a fantastic way to clue TIL! I have some N.K. Jemisin on my TBR (to be read) list, but "How Long Til Black Future Month?" is such a provocative title that it's now at the top of my queue.

For a 70-word themeless, the bar is so high that I'd usually balk at even the minimal ATA DIA STD TELE, but there was more than enough color to offset these minor blips.

EBOLA SCARE? Too soon! I know it's not the same as coronavirus, but man, I don't need any reminders of pandemics right now. Maybe when we're all clear of these worldwide disasters, like election security, forest fires, hurricanes, racial injustice, climate change …

I'll have to cut this short, so I can go work on my underground bunker.

I'd much rather have crosswords provide an escape from daily woes — perhaps in a HOVERCRAFT! Better yet, a SPACE PROBE, given the way things are going.

Seriously though, it's a downer to get serious issues brought up in crosswords, where I turn for a brief moment of joy in my day. OL' MAN RIVER seems to be controversial. FOOD DESERT, that's a problem, no doubt. IT'S WAR?

Aaugh, I'M HIT with so many woes!

Much more satisfying were clues like "getting into hot water" in JACUZZIS. Entries like FATS DOMINO, close to EMINEM. Fun phrases to say like JOE SCHMO and IM SURE OF IT. That's more like it, I'm sure of it!

It's tough for me to connect with a puzzle that features a bunch of entries I can only vaguely identify — SEIJI OZAWA I learned from crosswords, and INTERMILAN was a mystery — so even though these are fair entries and likely to elate some others, this wasn't my favorite of Brian's products. Thankfully, there were enough moments of joy, like figuring out that a pouch referred to a PELICAN's beak, to help overcome many of these issues.

JEANNETTE RANKIN crossing ROSA PARKS! I didn't know who the former was, but I did enjoy reading up on her — the clue sure enticed me to do so. Two amazing women.

It's not often that so many feature slots are taken up by full names, but IVAN PAVLOV is a fantastic one. He's someone most Friday solvers should have heard of — ring a bell, indeed. Delightful clue!

I'm glad there weren't that many more names in the puzzle. When I added Paul BLART to our word list years ago, I had much internal debate about what score to assign it. Ultimately I decided to leave it at our nominal "probably fine" level, but it was an astoundingly terrible movie. And I'm a Kevin James fan.

Such impeccable technical work, big kudos to Brian for not employing a single dab of crossword glue. Meticulous work in every region. There's no secret to a clean 70-word themeless, it's "just" a matter of hard work, iterating until you get it right. A tiny minority of constructors go to this length, though, most others getting fed up along the way. No "good enough" for Brian!

ELS as letters typed with the right ring finger? That confused me because I thought at first that it meant the letters E, L, and S. Will Shortz must have some incredibly flexible fingers!

Thankfully, some beautiful wordplay clues to offset my confusion/ineptitude. My favorite was for CAT BURGLAR, literally a high-level criminal. Reminded me of the Anne Hathaway Catwoman, prowling up on ledges.

Themelesses featuring names can be divisive. If you're a pagan heathen boor who hadn't heard of JEANNETTE RANKIN, you might not even bother going back to look her up, tossing the puzzle aside, dismissing it as a ho-hum affair. If you know her, though, it might be a standout puzzle for you. No doubt, she had some incredible achievements, in a time when the deck was stacked heavily against her.

★ I love it when a puzzle makes me feel smart. Whizzing through this bad boy 66-worder made me a SPRING CHICKEN once again. There was so much variety, something for everyone, yet so much of it struck a chord with me. It's like when Cliff Clavin went on Jeopardy!

As a father of two little kids, I loved CHOO CHOO TRAINS and its devious clue — there's a lot of milk being chugged at my house.

SPREAD TOO THIN? Me? During the pandemic, trying to manage kids, work, projects, sanity? You don't say.

Oil and a brush? Yes, it's a SHAVING KIT (gotta keep the blades brushed off and oiled) with great wordplay misdirection toward the arts, but it also hits the mark as I attempt to cut my son's hair as he jiggles continuously. Now, that's an art.

I've played "Rhapsody in Blue" dozens of times in orchestras, so GLISSANDO gave me a big pick-me-up. Ah, the good old days (when I used to be able to play well enough that neighbors didn't stick their fingers in their ears).

Who you callin' a CHEAPIE? Me, because on principle, I eat whatever my kids don't, no matter how much they've pre-chewed it? Okay, fine.

Even the things I didn't know didn't feel force-fed. "Maundy Thursday" was new to me, but it was easy enough to figure out LAST SUPPER. I'll happily learn something, as long as it doesn't get in the way of a successful solve.

And some great clues? STAMP as one "stuck in a corner"? Spicing up the otherwise boring NINETEEN via a novel clue, that all of its letters are Scrabble one-pointers? [Airdrops?] confused me even after solving MISTS, but what a delight to finally understand it. "Air drops," indeed.

Such great craftsmanship, too, nothing I gave the stink-eye (maybe BANC, but as a finance guy I think it's generally fine). That's a tough ask out of a 70-worder, and a 66-worder is a much, much tougher construction.

A pure delight from start to finish. Brian, I choo-choo-choose you!

I never saw the twist coming, Scrooge being THE DEVIL Bob Crachit knew, but his wife — MRS CRATCH — being THE DEVIL he didn't. Reminds me of how Malaysia recently put out a PSA telling wives to not nag their husbands during COVID-19 lockdown.

Like Malaysia, I'll now apologize.

I researched SATAN for a crossword years ago but ultimately decided that focusing on THE DEVIL was too much of a downer. I want my crosswords to be heavenly, not six (million) feet under. I'm also a complete wuss when it comes to all things supernatural. He (or She, in the case of Mrs. Cratch) Who Shall Not Be Named, begone!

At first, I thought it would be more fun if THE DEVIL were revealed in a more clever way. Putting his (or her) name in shaded letters is like painting a giant pentagram on your forehead with the blood of a still-bleating goat. After some thought though, I appreciated SPEAK OF THE DEVIL, because it's exactly what Andrea and Brian (dare to) do. Better them than me!

To be safe, I left all the themers blank in my puzzle, so H(oS)WSNBN will be less likely to hear his name invoked and thus follow me into the bathroom in the middle of the night when I get up to pee. Take that, BEELZEBUB!

Aargh, I said his name! Now I'll have to hold it in as I pull the sheets up over my head and hide.

You think I'm joking.

Andrea and Brian went one step further by crossing LUTHERAN with THE DEVIL. Throw in ALEXA, who knows the meaning of life, and you've got yourself an excellent joke setup. The devil, a Lutheran, and Alexa walk into a bar ...

An odd choice to headline old Scratch and his various nicknames, but it works as a theme. Less devilish fill would have been better for a Monday though, AEON FLUX crossing ECOLE possibly tripping up solvers. And KOLN's clue, [City involving crazy trivia that no one would know] reminded me of last week's April Fool's Day puzzle.

Solid 66-worder, I'd give it my STAMP OF APPROVAL. I enjoyed the twist on the typical stair stack, Brian working in two 15-letter entries to provide extra color. Neat how he managed to weave so much through the five long across answers. HOME REMEDY, TESLA MOTORS, CAPITAL CITY, ON THE LEVEL are all on the level.

Plus BITE MARK and TRIFECTA? For a puzzle featuring so many ultra-long across answers, it's a feat of construction to add in so much more spice.

I wanted to love MISSILE ENVY, but it felt pitchy. Is it because it's a term from long ago that's fallen by the wayside? Or just not that clever, an in-your-face derivation of "penis envy" with no wordplay involved?

I had a similar feeling about BUDGE AN INCH, which didn't seem as strong without DIDN'T in front. Both of these marquee answers are fine, but I wouldn't call them standouts.

Neither Jim nor I knew TANIKA Ray, but this is a perfect example where I didn't mind learning something. She didn't affect my ability to achieve a victorious finish, and TANIKA looks enough like a name that I didn't give it a second thought. Glad to know about her now.

It's so hard to put together a 66-worder with so many long feature answers cleanly interlocked. Overall, top marks for technical execution, but a couple of bite marks for artistic merit.

★ A jazzy revealer — STICK EM UP! — along with four catchphrases: HANG EM HIGH, HOOK EM HORNS, KNOCK EM DEAD, and the doubled-up ROCK EM SOCK EM ROBOTS — made for a great theme set. Fantastic choices.

Every time the NYT runs a "parts of answers jutting up or down," I get angry emails saying that there's something wrong in the grid. Ooh, the vitriolic barrages I got after a HOLDING DOWN THE FORT puzzle (never mind that I didn't write it). You fool, you @#$@!ed up big time! You're the biggest moron in the history of moronocy!

I've learned to spell out themes in painful detail, so that (most) everyone gets it.

I enjoyed today's in part because I won't have to do as much explaining. Tried and true "jutting" theme, but it's so easy to figure out. (We've highlighted the EMs below just in case.) Instead of relying on a long jutting string, or several different strings, it's simply EM at work.

It is true that once you've figured out the theme, it all falls quickly. But I didn't mind that. Enough of a trick to make it worthy of a Thursday slot, but easy enough to make me feel smart. It's a win when a constructor makes solvers feel smart.

Fully agreed with Brian, I could have used a slightly smoother grid. DAK Prescott, become uber-famous already! ETE MKTS TIO TMEN XCI almost made me rethink my POW! pick. But these gluey bits did allow for a lot of great WHAT A TOOL / LINE DANCE CHIN MUSIC bonuses, so I'm okay with the trade-offs.

Even after doing thousands of crosswords over the years, I still get tripped up solving these "jutting" types of puzzles. I appreciate that Brian found a simple, but colorful, effective, and easy to understand concept within this genre.

Brian hits us with some winning TIC-TAC-TOERAGs today!

OZONE indicating an OOO pattern within themers. A friend of mine did this theme a few years ago for a different venue with 2.5 of the same themers — I remember admiring IT'S A ZOO OUT THERE and I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS. Thankfully, it's been a while now, so I appreciated seeing these jazzy themers again.

I also remember giving HAS NO OOMPH AT ALL the side-eye. I had less of a head-cocking moment today, but there's something odd about the present-tense HAVE NO OOMPH. It is a legit phrase … just not one I'd choose to use in one of my crosswords.

Similar case with BOO OFFSTAGE. Why do the past tense forms sound better to my ear? HAD NO OOMPH leading to getting BOOED OFFSTAGE? Not sure. But sometimes you have to make sacrifices in service of a theme, so these all work.

Brian is a fairly new constructor, and I admire how solid his gridwork is already. It was such smooth sailing through the puzzle, just a very minor TAE to slow me down, along with nice bonuses of CARPOOL, DROUGHT, HORIZON. And STEGOSAUR!

But GEE WHIZ about SINN. It is only a single entry, but I think we need to hold Monday puzzles up to the highest cleanliness standard. Something tough like SINN might take away from that glowing feeling of HAVING FINALLY FINISHED A NYT CROSSWORD! because you wonder … wait. Was I actually successful? What's that weird looking SINN doing in there?

Same goes for TOERAG.

As much as I like STEGOSAUR, I'd rather have broken it at the G with a black square, which would have smoothed that corner out.

Alternately, a black square at the S of SINN could have helped. Brian is right about black squares. Will tends to be more liberal about them than other editors, and I'm a big supporter of that philosophy.

Overall, a generally solid Monday offering, with an apt revealer in OZONE.

★ Now, this is what I call a gateway puzzle! Interesting and easy to comprehend theme + nice extras + smooth fill = oh so accessible to newer solvers. I'd happily give this one to people just getting started doing the NYT crossword.

I've seen the JACKS theme done in other venues, but I couldn't find it in the NYT archives. Plus, the HIJACKS — or HI, JACKS! — revealer is so much fun. It elevates the concept from the other implementations I've seen.

Hopefully, you aren't doing this crossword on a plane, though …

I had a slight pause with Jack RUBY, given his notorious place in history. But I couldn't find any other JACKs whose last names are so easily disguisable. Like Brian, I might have gone with Jack FROST — Jack SPARROW is a fictional character so there's no perfect consistency with Jack LONDON and Jack BLACK anyway — perhaps FROST / NIXON as a fourth themer?

Ultimately though, I respect their theme set choice. Plus, who doesn't like RUBY SLIPPERS!

I like what Brian and Andrea did with the grid. It's at 78 words, the max allowable, but they still managed to work in LATIN LOVER, EXTRA EXTRA, SURE CAN, ATHLETE, without making the grid feel chock full of short answers or too sectioned off.

Superb work. It's nearly everything I want out of a Monday puzzle.

★ I like playing the "guess the theme" game on early-week puzzles. It was clear from XOF and CBA that TV stations were reversed, but what a nice a-ha moment in BACK CHANNEL. It's a colorful phrase, and its CHANNEL has enough of a different meaning from TV channels that the connection felt clever.

What spicy theme answers, too! WAX ON WAX OFF, ZIPLOC BAG, USB CHARGER, yay! That last one feels particularly fresh and modern.

I'm usually not a fan of ultra-high theme density, especially if it forces grid compromises. But there's something neat about seeing all these channels, just like you might see in a high-density TV channel menu.

There were some compromises, no doubt. In particular, the south region felt a little gluey with ITBE and SOYS. But I think these are reasonable prices to pay for the packed array of channels.

I also like what Brian did with the grid layout. With six themers, the usual thought is to place them every other row — 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. But that's often hard to do, causing problems with spacing. Squeezing two themers into rows 3 and 4 can often be easier, as long as your overlapping letter pairs are reasonably friendly. The TC overlap of JOB HUNTER / BACK CHANNEL no doubt forced the pain in the south.

But check out how smoothly Brian addressed the north. ??FL is a rough pattern. Yay for textese! (Rolling on the floor laughing)

This was one that I admired more and more the longer I studied it and considered its merits. So many things done well here. Congrats on the POW! Brian, and thanks for the pleasurable solve!

HEADPHONES telling us that each theme answer contains a type of phone. Really, trust me kids, there was such a thing as a ROTARY phone, which you had to stick a finger into and rotate the plastic dial around, let it slowly spring back, and repeat this six or nine times. And if you got a single digit wrong, you had to restart. Did I mention the receiver was corded to the base? And that there was a receiver?

No way my kids will believe any of that.

Excellent themer choices, ROTARY CLUB, CELL BLOCK, MOBILE PHONE, SMART ALECK all colorful. The only one I hitched on was PAY FREEZE, which felt slightly off. But I couldn't quite figure out what sounded more natural for a wage freeze. Ah, wage freeze!

Especially important to choose strong themers when the theme type is one that's largely gone by the wayside. ("Words that can precede X" aren't being accepted by many editors these days.) A letdown for me when I got to HEADPHONES, but thankfully, Brian did a good job with the bonuses. BOOLEAN might draw some stink-eyed stares from math haters, but haters gonna hate. ANASAZI was nice, too, as was LAB COAT.

Pretty smooth grid, too. Welcoming for Monday newbies. Impressive that Brian kept the grid to just a bit of ODA / SEE NO, given that he used six themers, no mean feat. It's easy to see why ODA reared its ugly head, given how sandwiched that middle is (in between MOBILE HOME and SMART ALECK). But Brian laid out his themers well — stacking two themers (ROTARY CLUB right above CELL BLOCK) often (counterintuitively) helps makes things easier.

Strong execution helped keep my attention, but a theme type that's passé usually leaves me feeling let down, no matter how good the gridwork.

Country puns! In a … car race? Huh. Sure, there are international motor races, right? Yeah, why not!

I have a tough time figuring out "rules" for puns. I think the most important one is that they generate big laughs. Or groans. I liked FINNISH LINE the best, a simple twist on "finish line." Something about CZECHERED FLAG made me smile, too. Maybe groan a little as well. Pretty sure that's good!

It did feel all a little inconsistent, though. RUSSIAN, FINNISH, CZECH are all descriptors of those country's natives. "Polish" would fit that set better than POLE, yeah?

And POLE, RUSSIAN, FINNISH are separate words, but CZECH gets transmogrified into CZECHERED. Huh. Again, one out of four being the odd one out felt … well, odd.

A ton of great bonuses, great to see in a debut. Especially important for today's puzzle, as I can imagine that there might be some solvers out there who neither race fans nor punsters. Love FLIP FLOP, SCRUNCHIE, RASTAFARI. Even a couple of colorful shorties in CONTRA, TUDOR, OZONE.

And love it when a rare letter gets worked in as smoothly as the Z in the south. HAZY / ZANY even with a nice SLEEPY, without any crossword glue? Yes please!

But IIII? No sir! The IVES / SMEE crossing for an early-week puzzle? Yikes! And I finished with my first error in ages on a Tuesday, what with the odd MONTE clue. Three-card MONTE, yes. Just MONTE clued without "Three-card"? Plain old mea.! (TAR seemed fine for [Tarnish], and TONTE looked equally as odd as MONTE. Maybe I've seen too many ECARTEs and ONEOCATS in my day…)

Overall, the grid was pretty good on second glance. But it just takes one or two glaring blips to leave a bad taste.

The geometer in me loved, loved, loved the clue for PIP. How the frak could there be a [Circle on a cube]? Cubes are flat-planed, with straight lines, not circles or arcs ... ah, a PIP on a die. Brilliant!

Overall, I enjoyed the story Brian told. The puns didn't all work for me, and the lack of consistency bugged me, but there was enough entertainment to keep me largely amused.