David J. Lieb author page

I love fantasy basketball. If I didn't have other commitments, I'd spend all my waking hours (and some of my sleeping ones) analyzing data, reading commentary, trying to pick up the smallest tidbit. So it was fun to see the DOUBLE-DOUBLE as today's revealer, pointing to phrases where both words can be followed by DOUBLE.

I was helping a friend with a similar theme construction which recently got rejected, Will/Joel saying the NYT has run so many of this theme type that it's nearly run its course. I agree with that sentiment, although every once in a while it's fun to see a well-constructed example.

I liked all the themers in today's puzzle, although they didn't feel as snazzy as I would have liked. STANDARD TIME is in the name of a famous Wynton Marsalis album, but the general term isn't as interesting to me. TAKEOVER and BACKDATE aren't bad. And PLAYBILLS is good. All solid, but CROSSTALK is the only one which I really loved.

And it was slightly confusing to me that CARWASH looked like a themer. (There really ought to be such a thing as a DOUBLE CAR.) With a theme like this, I would have preferred for the themers to stand out on their own right. That would have meant putting a single word in CARWASH's place, or rearranging the grid such that the CARWASH slot was shorter.

Great clue for ZEBRA. I hadn't heard of a "zorse" or a "zonkey," but I'll be looking for every opportunity to use them now. Another great clue for PLANE = [It lacks depth]. I love it when math and the English language merge to create cleverosity.

As with fantasy basketball, a DOUBLE DOUBLE guy is pretty good, but there are (relatively) a lot of them out there. It's when you see the potential for a guy to notch some TRIPLE DOUBLEs that you really get excited. "Three-word phrases where all words can precede DOUBLE" … now that would be Showtime!

P.S. Anyone with a good read on Okafor or Mudiay, lemme know. They both look like they might be worth a flyer.

Debut! Really interesting find; five different –OUGH endings, all pronounced differently. Great way to end the puzzle too; an in-the-language phrase incorporating TWO of them. PLOUGH THROUGH, indeed!

Great to see David's ambition here. Sometimes debut NYT puzzles can feel like the author was simply happy to get the grid to work. Completely valid feeling when you're starting out. But David goes way beyond most debuts, incorporating a huge quantity of long fill. MALE MODEL, PIE CRUST, BEDEVILED added a lot of color to my solve — much appreciated.

It's so tough to find the balance between snazziness and cleanliness. Personally, RADIANTS didn't do much for me, and those parallel down arrangements (RADIANTS/PIE CRUSTS and ANO NUEVO/NANOGRAM) often cause trouble in surrounding fill. David does amazingly well in those direct regions, but they do sort of propagate around to cause a little of ISR/MSU/OSE/ISH sort of glue.

Finally, I might have liked a little more consistency in the themers. Although TOUGH ON CRIME is a beautiful answer, it's the only themer with three words. And DOUGHNUT HOLE is an equally snappy answer, but it stuck out for me in a different way, as the only themer where the –OUGH ending didn't actually end the word. David's original themers could have worked well, or something like DOUGH MIXER and TOUGH BREAK could work too.

Then again, some people argue that consistency is overrated. And given my strong liking of the final themer — the only one with two -OUGH enders — I might even agree. I sure do like my DOUGHNUT HOLEs.

Interesting theme, solid execution. Some solvers might complain about the preponderance of esoteric names — CYD, RAMOS, EKBERG — but all the crossings felt fair to me. I like learning a little something in my crosswords.