Evan Mahnken author page

I eagerly finished the puzzle and re-read the notepad. Four solutions? I couldn't wait to find another one! This had to be some sort of Schrödinger. Maybe a variant where each circled letter could be not just one of two valid letters, but four.

I spent two invalid hours seeking out different solutions. I did find ANOTHER ONE in the circled letters, but where were the final two?

And then it dawned on me … there are four solutions in the grid. Specifically, chemical solutions (containing a solute dissolved into a solvent): MOUTHWASH, HAND SANITIZER, WINDOW CLEANER, and SALT WATER. Chemistry joke, ha! I'm glad I worked so hard to figure it out because that's clever. April Fools!

I'm curious to see what percentage of solvers figured out the full joke, and of those, what sub-percentage laughed. It's definitely higher than my wife's enjoyment percentage of having her mouthwash replaced with hand sanitizer this morning.

Today's crossword proves that sea levels are not rising, but are in fact falling. If it's in the New York Times, it must be true. Suck on that, climate changeologists!

A DROP IN THE OCEAN is such a colorful phrase, ripe for wordplay. I enjoyed the touch of elegance that IN/DIAN originated IN the revealer. We've seen a lot of one-line-lowering puzzles over the years, so these kinds of touches can help distinguish a theme.

I would have loved all five oceans represented. Then again, we get so much New York-specific material in the NYT crossword, it's nice to get their ATLANTIC snubbed. Take that, East coast elites!

But what have the poor penguins ever done to you, Evan? SOUTHERN's omission is a black and white issue to them.

One-line-lowering puzzles can be tricky to build around, so perhaps limiting to three was a reasonable trade-off. I loved the long theme answers — JOAN OF ARC, SUPER PAC, AS IF I CARE hardly make me RETICENT — but the construction required too much that could easily turn off less-experienced solvers. A single ENOW / WYVERN crossing, and it's easy to imagine a NOOB say enow is enow.

Theme tightness and gridding blips aside, I did enjoy the neat visual of the gray squares dropping. Cool that the black square diagonals mimicked the lowering motion, too.

Standout "progression" theme. RAW to HALF BAKED to COOKED to BURNT — and each one so well integrated into a colorful phrase! Every single themer is an entry I'd happily use as fill in another puzzle. HALF BAKED IDEAS is especially strong.

(In my case, quarter-baked is usually more like it. If only four quarter-baked ideas added up to a full one.)

I wasn't as sold on the gridwork. None of ABBR ACCT EDS ESE is unpardonable, but in total, it felt inelegant.

Then you have the ISLA / SIA cross, which screams "It's a trap!" for newb solvers. A few weeks ago, my next-door neighbors — they're highly educated wordplay enthusiasts but have done few crosswords — attempted one of mine. They got stumped at 1-Across, not knowing what "Abbr." in the clue meant, and then decided they'd rather read a book.

How are newer solvers supposed to decode [Majorca, e.g.: Sp.]? Or solve that crossing square if they're not familiar with SIA?

Along that line, including NOOR, SARI, FTMEADE, AMI, PISAN, even ASPER (which could look bizarre if people don't know to look for unmarked spaces) … that's a tough ask for even an intermediate solver.

Now, it's far from a WOEFUL grid execution — there are plenty of bonuses like GROUPIES, OK SIGNS, DEBRIEFS — and some would argue that NYT solvers should be held to higher expectations. That's not my philosophy, though, given how many alternate forms of entertainment exist these days. Don't give solvers any possible excuse to put the puzzle down and go do something else.

Take that all with a grain of salt, though, since if it ever came down to the choice of a great theme or a great grid, I'd take the former any day — especially when the theme phrases are all stellar. It's a shame that we didn't get both today. With four themers of convenient length, it's 100% possible. Better deployment of black squares to separate the theme phrases would have helped.

English majors and their willful ignorance of basic microeconomics! I doubt you could even buy a vowel for FIVE DOLLARs these days, much less a fancy-pants word. I wonder what five dollars bought back when this term was coined. Probably a manse, a horse and buggy, and you'd still get a bag of gold dust in return.

Reminds me of when my just-out-of-school brother-in-law had a delicious meal and a cold beer and said, "I feel like a hundred bucks!" Chris could have bought twenty juicy words that night.

It's a shame that the term isn't FOUR DOLLAR WORDS, since NOTE, BUCK, BILL, and CLAM all fit so tidily into single squares (if you write carefully). Not so much with SINGLE. Jamming six letters into a SINGLE square is bonkers, which is why Will Shortz almost always sticks to shorter rebus words.

As an embarrassingly bad bridge player, SINGLETON came easily to me. I'm not sure how common that term is outside the bridge world, but then again, if you don't play bridge, you're of no consequence.

I appreciate when rebus squares are worked into both long across and long down entries. It'd be easier to do the bare minimum with shorties like (BILL)ED or (NOTE)LL, so I enjoyed the pairings of ICE (BUCK)ET CHALLENGE and BUCKAROO, as well as HORN(BILL) and (BILL) MAHER.

(NOTE)LL … I usually love rebuses where the word is disguised this well. It stuck out today, though, since the rest of the rebuses read as individual words, or at least identifiable syllables.

With so many long rebus entries—many of which crossed each other — it wasn't surprising to get a logjam of BOR DEG ELAM (I finished with an error, ELAH / NO TELL HOTEL) ETO, etc. If I had five dollars for every dab of crossword glue …

I'd have preferred a scaled-back version, perhaps with a simpler DOLLAR revealer and four rebuses (no SINGLE), since the term FIVE DOLLAR WORDS didn't do anything for me. Still, I can appreciate the audacity of the concept.

Sometimes I look back upon my early crossword solving/constructing days, when the crossworld was filled with wonder. Thankfully I still take great enjoyment in puzzles, but my obsession with crossword construction has pulled back the wizard's curtain (speaking of TOTO). A decade ago, I might have been awed by the find of CALIFORNIA mixed-up inside AFRICAN LION. Magical! How the frick could someone have possibly figured that out?

(Pushing glasses up nose) Actually, it's fairly simple:

1. Consider each entry in your word list that's longer than 10 letters.
2. Consider each string of 10 letters within that entry.
3. Do a frequency analysis of said 10-letter string. Does it have exactly 1 of C L F O R N and exactly 2 of A I?
4. If so — and the 10-letter string is different than CALIFORNIA, to avoid false positives — write to an output file.

WILL YOU JUST SIT DOWN ALREADY, SMART ASS, AND ENJOY THE MAGIC SHOW!

Ahem. There was one other entry that met the query criteria besides AFRICAN LION(S): TROPICAL RAINFOREST(S). I like that one better since it doesn't invoke a proper noun, which possibly muddies the theme, given that the US states are locations—

STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!

But ... I haven't even begun to discuss the technical merits of this grid construction--

STOOOOOOOP!!!

Ahem. Maybe I should stop my analysis of ridiciminutia here?

YOU THINK?!

Some neat finds, and the clues helped to pull everything together. I don't know that I'd have figured out that CALIFORNIA was within AFRICAN LION without "Golden State" in the clue, for example.

I'm explaining the theme in detail because you didn't understand it. I did, of course, because I'm a world-class genius. I figured out the theme from just looking at the empty grid. In fact, I saw "The Matrix"-like patterns of flowing green characters throughout the encoded .puz file even before opening it. Heck, I even predicted the concept before Evan came up with it.

(Okay, fine, Jim Horne explained it to me.)

Each of the four themers is a common (more accurately, "common") logical fallacy, treated literally. Here I was, thinking that the SLIPPERY SLOPE is just the big pile of dirt in my backyard where my kids have been digging for dinosaur bones, and it's a classical logical fallacy.

What, you don't know exactly what a classical logical fallacy is? Sigh, I'll deign to explain it to you, I suppose.

(Jim. Psst. What exactly is a classical logical fallacy again? Why is a SLIPPERY SLOPE considered to be one?)

Jim explained it all to me, but honestly, I stopped listening after about three words. So just nod your head like I did and tell people, of course, the SLIPPERY SLOPE is a logical fallacy, dummy.

Pro tip: if you yell it super loud, you'll sound even more convincing.

I enjoyed the bonuses, THE RAVEN and BLAST OFF delightful. THE RAVEN crossing POTOMAC is even better, a bit of a shout-out to Poe's home town of Baltimore. Toss in some BIRD FLU, RWANDA / PRAGUE, and that's a lot to enjoy.

The short fill was mostly fine, although there is a real-life logical fallacy: ORONO crossing MOA doesn't seem fair. I don't think—

Huh? That's not a logical fallacy, you say?

YOU'RE A LOGICAL FALLACY.

All in all, a curious theme that Jim got immediately and appreciated because of his more cultured background, and one that I completely and totally didn't miss whatsoever.

JAYZ interpreted as people whose full names are bookended by J and Z. My first reaction: shouldn't JAYZ hint toward people whose initials are J Z?

Second: but Jeff, why should that be? Just because so many crosswords use this initialism convention doesn't mean it's the gospel truth.

Third: yeah, but it makes more sense that way. People call me JC. Plenty of folks shorten to initials. BJ. JD. AJ. THAT'S THE WAY IT IS.

Fourth: JC stands for "just criticize" then? ANNOYING!

It's a little odd to have two letters played upon as bookends, but I ultimately enjoyed the novelty. Just as with a Peter Gordon puzzle that used two letters in a non-initialism way, this one pushed the envelope of what's possible. I like pushing.

I don't like early-week grids that can trip up newer solvers, though. JENNIFER LOPEZ and JOAN BAEZ — every NYT solver ought to at least have heard of them. JON LOVITZ ain't no Adam Sandler or Mike Myers, but I'll give him a pass because he was so annoyingly hilarious back in his SNL heyday.

JC CHASEZ? Oof. I learned his name through a crossword, but it was a late-week crossword, and I remember thinking, if this is the kind of thing I'm expected to know to solve a Saturday puzzle, it ain't gonna happen. To throw JC CHASEZ at newer solvers — years after his heyday — isn't fair play.

Nor is crossing REMO / AMANAS. Perhaps educated solvers should have heard at least one of these, but I'd be sympathetic for newbs putting in SAN RENO, SAN REVO, etc.

All in all, I appreciated the different take on two-letter revealers, and to do it with rare letters is admirable. Those Js and Zs sure made for a tough gridwork challenge, though, leading to compromises in the early-week solving experience.

I wasn't familiar with the front and center WILHELM SCREAM, but thankfully all the crosses were unambiguous (and WILHELM looks like a name I might recognize, in contrast to AVICII). I don't mind learning something new in a crossword, as long as it doesn't get in the way of a victorious solve.

One of my favorite potential aspects of a themeless is a mini-theme that takes a moment to piece together. The WILHELM SCREAM ... as someone goes over VICTORIA FALLS ... a BETTER YOU THAN ME DISAPPEARING ACT?

I wonder if Evan is working on a screenplay.

A grid having so many long feature answers rarely has room for much more. So it was a pleasure to get the long downs in VIRTUOSOS, BATMOBILE, AER LINGUS, WENCESLAS. That last one's clue made it even better. I was sure Carole King was spelled with an E at the end. No? Ah, the K wasn't capitalized! Clever appropriation.

I didn't enjoy the puzzle as much as I should have, though. It took me a while to realize why: it felt trivia-heavy, specifically with tricky vocab. There's SAPOR in the grid, along with WILHELM. In the clues: contumely, manumission, and Yggdrasil.

(I do think manumission is an important word that you ought to learn if you don't already know it. Crosswords shouldn't feel teachy, though.)

It's a shame. With even more bonuses in AAA BATTERY and IVORY TOWER, there's so much goodness, and such little glue. With different editing choices, this might have been in POW! territory.

My favorite part of the crossweek is comparing notes with Jim. Our exchange on today's:

JC: What, no THUMB?

JH: Technically, the thumb isn't a finger. It's a digit.

JC: So if I asked you, how many fingers do I have, what would you say?

JH: Eight.

JC: That's probably why almost everyone in the world uses a base 8 counting system, then?

JH: Base 8 is quite logical. Think about computing. Binary operations. 1, 2, 4, 8.

JC: Well, yes, but—

JH: Eight bits in a byte? You use a computer, don't you?

JC: Of course, although—

JH: Would you prefer for your computer to go faster — using base 2 / base 8 — or slower, using base 10?

JC: Slower.

JH: See, I told you … wait, what?

JC: HA HA HA I GOT YOU THERE!

I explored this FINGERS CROSSED theme concept many moons ago, dropping it because I couldn't figure out a way to get every finger crossed into a chain of five (NOT FOUR!) themers. Not within the framework of some form of symmetry, at least.

Interesting to see Evan's execution — I hadn't considered leaving out the THUMB, or throwing caution to the wind and placing themers wherever they'd fit. It's not elegant, but it works. Mostly.

Maybe it works better if you think about people with janky fingers? Rock climbers sometimes break their ring fingers, leaving skewed digits as a result?

Let's go with that.

I did enjoy a lot of the bonuses, fun to encounter LADIES ONLY, LIQUIDATED, PARENTHOOD, the evocative UV EXPOSURE.

So many liabilities, unfortunately. AS FAR and IT'S SO take up so much precious space. ESQS ESTA GEES LEM RETD WEI — none are terrible, but as a whole, it's far from elegant. It's tough — the themer layout dictates the low word count, and there's no simple way to make the construction easier. You can't break up UV EXPOSURE, for instance, since PRICE INDEX would be affected.

I'm 90% positive that a symmetrical layout would be possible if you separate FINGERS / CROSSED into 7 / 7. That would allow for great flexibility in squeezing those two revealer words into whatever symmetrical locations you could find.

Man, Evan made me laugh so hard with his Crucivera joke. She can be a big bully, that she can.

Jim and I had a long debate over this one. I love the idea here — it can be surprising to see just how many films were adaptations or loosely based on Shakespeare. WEST SIDE STORY provided a great click, as it reminded me of the parallels between the plots. Capulets : Montagues :: Sharks : Jets, that sort of thing.

But something was missing. Took me a while to figure out that there were two factors:

1.) Some of the movies were unfamiliar. That's partly due to my knowledge gap in movie trivia, but SHES THE MAN hardly seems like cinematic gold. For this theme, it's less than ideal to use a movie where the plot isn't immediately apparent.

I found two lists right off the bat of movies inspired by Shakespeare. THE LION KING and STRANGE BREW both based on Hamlet? Now that's a cool point of trivia!

Ooh ooh! I would have loved a theme where all the films (you could open it up to musicals, plays, etc.) were based on Hamlet. Now that would have been a stand-up-and-clap a-ha!

2.) It would have been great to more strongly hint at the parallels between plots. Crossword clues generally can't be as long as [Movie in which the Jets and Sharks go to battle, kind of like the Capulets and Montagues, and then people get stabbed or otherwise maimed. And the main woman and man still try to pursue their forbidden love, but end up dying tragically].

But why not [Movie in which two star-crossed lovers defy their household blood feud, to tragic end]? And then you could clue SHAKESPEARE PLAYS directly to the ones referenced: [The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, and The Taming of the Shrew]. That would have provided a better click.

Great clue for ARCADE. I used to bring a stack of quarters down to the local ARCADE (Donkey Kong was my jam), and my MBA self was tickled by the "computed quarterly" terminology.

Bold attempt to spice up the gridwork, Evan leaving himself large corners in the NW / SE. It didn't completely fly for me, as the price of ESS + ALII wasn't worth the longer material in the NW. But STAMPEDE / ARCADE / MY SIDES were decent bonuses in the SE ... so, a reasonable decision, albeit not one I'd have made.

Overall, a strong idea whose execution didn't generate an equally strong a-ha moment. Some structural changes and it might have been POW! material.

★ Fun debut! At first, I thought it was a simpler concept I'd seen before — listing the very next word in the dictionary AFTER HOURS as the clue (perhaps "house arrest"?) — but Evan's idea is so much better. Not only does "house party" come shortly AFTER HOURS, alphabetically … it's also described by AFTER HOURS! "Flanked" comes UNDER(neath) FIRE in the dictionary … but it's also described by UNDER FIRE! Loved it.

I appreciated how solid all the themers were. BENEATH ME was the only somewhat iffy one (sorry, Evan!), feeling like a partial without "That's" or "It's" preceding it. Five out of six is excellent. (AROUND NOON is a tad arbitrary, but I've heard it plenty to describe lunch plans.)

Tough task to debut with six themers. Evan did a good job with his layout, placing AFTER HOURS above NEAR MINT, and keeping UNDER FIRE well away in another corner. It's a variant on the "windmill" pattern many constructors use with just four themers, and it usually makes for good spacing.

I was worried about execution when I quickly ran into OER, RAH, SDS, all at the top. And there was quite a bit of crossword glue scattered about — DER, EDY, GAI, IRR, MES, ORI — but at least there wasn't another section quite so dense with it as the north.

And Evan did give us some strong bonuses in BROWNIE MIX, SONIC YOUTH, LEONARDO, DARE I SAY. I'd personally have preferred a smoother grid with fewer snappy bonuses, especially because the theme already tickled me. But I think this trade-off is a reasonable one.

Overall, a great idea, taking a concept I'd already seen to another level. The theme, plus all the great bonuses, plus the fact that it was a debut, were enough for me to overlook the glut of crossword glue. POW!