Chuck Deodene author page

Triple-stack! Back in Martin Ashwood-Smith's heyday, we used to get these so often, I was seeing triple. Not that many people besides MAS specialize in them; most constructors opting for easier patterns to work with.

I enjoyed the marquee trio, SPACE TELESCOPES / PUT A FACE TO A NAME / ARTISTIC LICENSE, the last one my favorite. Like Chuck, I did wonder if there are more SPACE TELESCOPES than the Hubble, but there clearly are. I also scratched my head as I deliberated if the saying was more commonly "put a name to a face." Merriam Webster also seems to think this grid entry is reversed, but it's hard to tell which is more in use.

Even more impressive was the set of long answers that ran through the central stack. It's hard enough to get any long entries to work, period, but when you can weave in CRY FOR ATTENTION, GLOBAL ECONOMY, SCENIC PANORAMAS, that makes the grid skeleton something special.

Those long crossing entries did force a lot of constraints on the grid. Check out the NE corner, where GLOBAL and SCENIC fix so much into place. I debated if GREEN CAR is an in-the-language phrase, and LATE NEWS is a reasonable but not standout entry. The opposite corner had similar issues, with IN ONE DAY neutral at best, a verboten long partial at worst.

I don't remember the last time a themeless debuted so many entries, but I wasn't wowed by all of them. I'm not going to strive to use SKYPER, for instance (I can hear the kids telling me, OK ZOOMER). Along with some blebs commonly needed to make a triple-stack work, like ON RED, TO SEE, ITE, SO I, it wasn't the smoothest of solves.

Still, I enjoyed the triple-stack novelty, the variety welcome, and the marquee entries were excellent. One might even call SPACE TELESCOPES—

Don't say it, don't say it!

Stellar.

Let's talk about the word SPANKing, Jeff.

Welcome back to another week of "Crossing Words, with Jeff and Jim!" We'll again alternate who leads off and who cleans up.

Innovative idea today, THE END IS NIGH hinting at phrases ending with a "nigh" sound. Chuck did well to uncover BRUNEI, ILLINI, SINAI.

English is such an oddball language.

The idea interested me enough to go look for other "nigh" sounds. Besides Bill NYE — ooh, he's gotta feel snubbed today! — I could only think of DENY. Impossible to DENY that the theme set is pretty tight!

I struggled mightily with DRAMATIS PERSONAE. Turns out that 1.) I had no idea what this meant, which made for easily the hardest Monday puzzle this year, 2.) I've been pronouncing PERSONAE all wrong, apparently, and 3.) PERSONAE (long E) by itself is pronounced differently than when used in DRAMATIS PERSONAE (long I).

Who the *@$%! is responsible for our ridiculous language?

Putting this big theme qualm aside, I appreciated Chuck's efforts to incorporate some bonuses. I like trying to HANG TEN while surfing. FISH FRY? Don't mind if I do! And my favorite, WINGING IT — describes my life to a tee.

Speaking of WINGING IT though, sure was some winging it in the grid. I'm okay with a more somber puzzle, but NEAR FATAL / PISTOL ... crossing FIGHTING and BATTLE? So much for a pleasant solving experience!

And although Chuck did well to split THE END / IS NIGH — that makes for a much easier constructing job, compared to keeping it together as one centered entry — there's way too much IRISE AME GRO IRT LXI OBI. Not an elegant result; quite an unfriendly experience for newer solvers.

Overall, a novel idea lending itself to some neat ways of spelling the "nigh" sound. I would have been much happier if IMPOSSIBLE TO DENY had replaced DRAMATIS PERSONAE though, and if the the puzzle had been run on a Wednesday, where more experienced solvers probably wouldn't blink an eye at entries like ARRAU.

Not being into home improvement, it was a fun exercise to guess what could fill in "___ ISLAND." I guessed DESERT, MIDDLE, STANDING, even ISLAND, (really, Jeff? ISLAND ISLAND?) and more ridiculous things before using the crossing answers to get CENTER / ISLAND. Apparently, that's a thing! I've seen them before but never known their proper terminology.

The engineer in me liked Chuck's firm interpretation of the theme, with the islands be smack dab in the middle of theme phrases. Note that TIMOR has exactly the same number of letters before and after it, as do the others (highlighted below to better illustrate).

Chuck could have gotten away with finding islands at any old position — say, ELBA in PARALLEL BARS, but that wouldn't technically be a CENTER ISLAND, not being exactly centered.

The writer in me preferred the snazziness of PARALLEL BARS compared to the lesser snazz factor of BUSHEL BASKET, though. The latter does appear to be a real term, but it's not something I'd strive to use as fill.

FORMAL TALKS did a better job of playing to both the engineer and writer — it's a great phrase, and it contains that exactitude of center alignment. Great find, too. Not easy to come up with 5+ letter hidden word discoveries like this!

Both personas also enjoyed the black squares in the center of the grid — they (sort of) look like a CENTER ISLAND. The writer approved of the kooky shape, and the engineer appreciated how much surface area that island would give the cook. Functionality!

What with such awkward themer lengths — 11 / 12 / 6 / 6 / 12 /11 — not a surprise to need some crossword glue. It wasn't terrible, but with I AM SO, SNEE, MTNS, NATAL, etc., I'd be curious to see if going up to 78 words would have resulted in a better grid. As much as I enjoyed MESMER, I'd personally have revised, maybe by shifting the two black squares above MESMER to the left and adding a black square at MESMER's first E.

Overall, I would have liked more sparkle in both the themers, even if it meant less rigidity. Take that, engineer!

Welcome back, Chuck! After almost a five year absence from the NYT crossword scene, the prolific constructor returns … with his first Monday puzzle. Only a Sunday left to "hit for the cycle"!

PARTY DOWN played upon, synonyms for "party" hidden in vertical theme answers. I liked the extra bonus of all the hidden words boogieing down from left to right, too. It's a party in your crossword, and everyone's invited!

Will has told me in the past that he isn't super keen on hidden words within a single, bigger word, i.e. BASH in WABASH. I tend to agree with that assessment, hidden words much more interesting when hidden across themers, so it was slightly disappointing to have every one of the party types hidden that way. It is consistent — all four done the same way — but the SCHOOL in SCHOOL CAFETERIA seems a little bit like a waste of space, for example.

It's easy enough to break most of the party types across two words, something like LEGAL AID or LIFE STORY, but it sure would be tough to get all four of them done this way while keeping the left-to-right boogieing down. And I sure did like that big-picture effect.

Chuck does so well with his bonus fill, the mark of an old pro. With five themers, there's not a lot of extra grid territory to work with, but Chuck wisely sections off chunks in the NE/SW featuring seven-letter entries. I GOTCHA, NOT THAT!, EPITAPH, CICADAS all helped elevate my solving experience. TOBACCOS is an odd plural, but GOES BALD is a fun entry. To us non-sensitive baldies, that is.

There was some ASA, COL, ESSE, SRA, AHOLD, but only ESSE stuck out to me. (AH SO is icky, playing on old Asian stereotypes, but it is gettable. Okay, maybe I am a little sensitive.) Everything else I think most beginning solvers should be able to grok. Reasonable trade-off, to get the high-ish theme density and all the extras.

Can't wait to see what Sunday concept Chuck is going to give us! I'm rooting for him to join the cycle club.