John Guzzetta author page

Saturday school is in session! Where have I heard the prefix HAGIO? Certainly not from HAGIOGRAPHY … ah, is the Hagia Sophia related? I bet it is! Now, if I could remember what the Hagia Sophia is. Surely it's … something to do with government? Wait, maybe it's like the Hollywood Walk of Fame? Was Sophia Loren involved ... because Loren is a tiny bit reminiscent of -latry?

Dammit Jim, I'm an engineer, not a crossword constructor who should know these things—

Dammit, Jim Horne knew this. A-ha! But did he know about the ironic usage, applying the term to "celebrities"?

Dammit, he did.

Thankfully, TAIKONAUT came much more easily, at least to this fan of Taiko drummers. Back when I worked as a mechanical engineer, I had the good fortune to have many work trips to Japan, including a few where I got a chance to see Taiko—

What? TAIKONAUT is a Chinese astronaut? If only I hadn't gotten kicked out of Chinese school as a kid for spacing out all the time.

(There might have been tacks on people's seats, too.)

I've never been happier for a strange short entry like ZONAL. I did recall Zoroastrianism after finally piecing together ZOROASTER, but I had thought that Zoroastrianism had East Asian roots.

It's a miracle that I made it past high school.

My stupidity aside, I declare victory over this Saturday challenge without many derogatory — er, DEROGATIVE? — words. Learning all these things was an educational experience, and the TRES CHIC additions of IDLE GOSSIP, IF YOU DARE, RETRO DINER helped the lessons go down more easily.

All theme genres go through a life cycle, from innovation to growth to maturity to retirement. Initialisms are a tough sell these days, residing somewhere between the third and fourth stages, so getting an acceptance is tough. Three elements helped John win that prized "Yes!" from Will Shortz.

Fantastic revealer. STARTING QB is a perfect way to describe that the first letters of the two words are Q and B. It's also such a catchy phrase for one of the skill positions hardest to fill in all sports.

Rare letters. I doubt there's room for another initialism along the lines of SS because it's too easy to come up with dozens of phrases using these common letters. There's a reason why "Wheel of Fortune" gives them away for free.

Top-notch execution. Gridding around a couple of Qs can cause problems. Jack that up to five, and you're nearly guaranteed to require some compromises. Building around a central 11 made his task even tougher. To escape with OBE ILO BUR (variant of BURR) is a reasonable result. Not perfect, but that's about as good as it gets, given the constraints. Compare and contrast to another recent initialisms puzzle.

To accomplish all this while sprinkling in some lovely mid-length material — SQUALLS PURSUIT QUANTIFY in the lower-left alone — made it an even stronger solving experience. I can see why Will decided it was one of the few he would take. Well done, especially given John's horrible, pitiable affliction.

(his delusional blindness to the fact that Tom Brady sold his soul to the devil)

Beautiful NW seed corner. OH BOO HOO is so dramatic, and I love having to mentally add the ellipses to WAIT … WHAT? I've seen the latter in many a crossword in the past five years, but it's only the second time it's appeared in the NYT. Along with STAR TURN, that's a star corner.

Such a fun story about expanding ROTI. I enjoy ROTI with curry, but to have it extend full-grid to ROTISSERIE OVENS is even tastier. Easy to picture those 7-Eleven ovens spinning their seventy-eleven-day-old hot dogs …

SHOESTRING CATCH is a colorful phrase, too. I've heard it many a time from friends who love baseball — a daring grab made at an outfielder's toes — and it's something baseball haters can at least figure out from the component words.

I did wonder ... why isn't it called a shoelace catch? At which point the ump tossed me out of the game.

(Shoelaces used to be called shoestrings back in the old days.)

Speaking of old days, CAGER. MODEL A. NEER-do-well. ROUE. And IRE clued as [Choler] reminded me of John using demesne a few times. Not the kind of challenge I'm looking from out of hard clues.

Thankfully, some clues stood out as hard, in a wickedly clever way. [Insight offerer] employed the "hidden capital" trick that fooled me yet again — that's the HONDA Insight. And SIT IN is indeed an ironic way to "take a stand."

SORE LOSER crossing TRUTH … let's avoid political controversy, but man, did I have a big laugh.

I had a tough time finishing, checking every PERSES cross five times, unable to believe that the corner could be right. This Greek mythology buff knows Perseus, sure — was there some sort of rebus trickery going on? Nope, a minor figure last found in the NYT crossword in 1994.

Some excellent entries, ROTISSERIE OVENS particularly fresh. Ones like MEET CUTE are getting less cute, though — fourth NYT inclusion in the past 1.5 years.

★ It's only been a few months since our last "joined squares" puzzle, but even with that, I enjoyed this one to a surprising degree. Great rationale in JOINED AT THE HIP = phrases with overlapping HIP sequences. Also, no telltale "stretched" boxes, as these puzzles usually contain. We debated whether to fix up the pairs of squares as per previous puzzles but decided that this was different. I like different.

At first, I thought it would have been better to employ HIPs that spanned across words. How hard could it be to find a *H I P* or *HI P* phrase? Surely … let's see ... BATH, I PRESUME? DELHI PEPPER? I ended up exclaiming BAH, I PROFESS!

I eventually did find SUSHI PLATTER(S), BANGLADESHI PEOPLE, NORTH IPSWICH, AHI POKE, WASHI PAPER. However, hardly any of them are as colorful as the themers John picked.

There's also something cool about working with such a fixed set of themer possibilities. For HIPs buried within words, all I could come up with were variations on HIPSTER, HIPPO, SHIP, WHIP, CHIP, as well as various proper nouns like HIPPOCRATES and HIPPOLYTA. It's cool that John covered basically the complete set.

Something pleasing, too, about having one set at the NW, another in the center, and a third symmetrically placed to the first. Tidy progression.

I was all set to point out COXAE as one of the few blips in execution, but John's comment made me smile.

I prefer trickier Thursdays, ideally with gimmicks I've never been seen before, but this one might be a great starter for intermediate solvers looking to push farther into the week.

I've had the pleasure of working with John and getting to know his stylistic preferences helped me today during my solve. He's a big fan of colloquial phrases, and NOT IF BUT WHEN and I MEAN, COME ON! both popped.

I appreciate his efforts to broaden the spectrum in his work, providing something for everyone. Some won't know the allegory of PLATO'S CAVE, but what a great clue! I've read about Plato's cave and seen "The Matrix" dozens of times, but I've never connected the two.

Great to get some clever wordplay in clues, too, something John and I spend a lot of time on when we're co-cluing. [High on the job?] describes a quarter of Seattle; what a fun way to describe one's CAREER BEST. And an OVEN TIMER being "dingy" … think "ding-y." Ha!

I spent one career in BioMed, but I'd never heard the term BIOTEXTILE. It does appear to be in (heavy) use these days, so perhaps it came into more frequent use after my time.

John once told me a story about seeding a themeless with VBS. That was a total head-scratcher to me — it stands for "Vacation Bible School" — and provided John a hard lesson about Will Shortz's dislike of initialisms that aren't uber-prevalent (because there's no way to infer the correct letters). I did notice quite a bit of religious entries and clues today, in APSE, EDEN, Holy SEE, EVENTIDE, even the "heavenward" clue for LOFTS. It wasn't enough to turn off this agnostic, but I could see how it might be too much for some.

There's a lot to love here, the great SALT MINE metaphor, ANGORA CATS with differently colored eyes, the ROMAN EMPIRE with an evocative quote about going from gold to rust and iron. The constructor in me had a hard time overlooking all the AFBS AMOR BCE EPS MTN in a 70 word themeless (max allowable is 72), but I still had a ton of fun, especially since I like John a lot, and his personality shined through.

★ SELF DRIVING CAR, now that's a marquee entry! Awesome phrase, and it can take all sorts of clever clues. I laughed at John's "auto correction" wordplay, but I also admired Will Shortz's crack about a (car) dealer yelling, "Hands off!"

ELDER STATESMAN is excellent, too, although it's harder to integrate wordplay into its clue. [Respected figure] generates Saturday-level difficulty from how general it is. That sort of difficulty isn't nearly as much fun for me. What could it have been?

(Two hours and 56 internet rabbit holes later)

How about [Old sage still in high demand?]? Maybe something about "Old Rough and Ready," Zachary Taylor?

Seriously, that was the best you could do, Jeff?

Off to rabbit hole 57 …

When a themeless features "awkward length" marquees — 12-14 letter phrases force black square placements right off the bat, cutting into precious flexibility — the rest of the long slots tend to suffer. That's especially the case if you try to "quad-stack," like John did in the lower left corner. Great results, though, OPED PAGE and RING TRUE ringing true, hardly having to TAKE A HIT with ony (super minor) APTS.

The opposite corner suffered a little more, requiring PICOT to hold that stack together, flowing over to OID. The latter is an odd suffix, but at least figure-out-able. PICOT was a head-scratcher. (Embroiderers, feel free to knit me a rebuttal.)

A friend asked me recently what distinguishes Friday and Saturday puzzles. Often, it's the presence of entries that might be considered niche. Don't take that as a reason to aim for esoteric words, though! While odd duck entries can be wildly elating for those in the know, they can turn off a lot of people.

I did almost call it quits in the lower right, unable to recall FAUX AMIS. That's another distinguishing factor — a Friday puzzle might have hinted at the direct translation, "false friends." Today's clue does give enough so you can work at "deceptive" leading to FAUX, though. Whew!

All in all, it is an excellent job minimizing trade-offs, offering up so much to love in the grid. Along with some delights in wordplay — NOAH organizing a "couples cruise," ha! — a well-deserved POW! for John.

I can't resist programming problems, and John challenged me with a doozy. How hard could this be?

It didn't completely break me, but it took some trickery to figure out a combination of manual sifting and automated processing to rake through the search space.

Matching results: 0.

Bah!

Well, except for the trivial closed chains of AIR MAIL to MALE HEIR and TOW PLANE to PLAIN TOE. Even then, I had to think whether I'd use PLAIN TOE as a theme entry — it's definitely a term used in shoes, but it's rather … plain.

Maybe if we could figure out a third pair, we could create something interesting? Off to the computer to generate lists of phrases based on switched homophones! Thankfully, it didn't take long before THYME TEA emerged. I didn't have it in my list because I'm not much of a tea drinker. Reading up, it felt solid enough to include — hundreds of thousands of hits with all sorts of reputed benefits.

Maybe I should become a tea drinker.

It's not easy to work with a bunch of mid-length theme answers, but we eventually figured out an arrangement that would let us work in some sparkly long downs. Hopefully, things like BALLGOWNS crossing GLITZ will keep you interested, if the theme isn't your cup of (thyme) TEA.

(I happen to know a certain six-year-old princess-loving daughter who would squee for the combination of those three things)

I was so sure I nailed "Name That Theme" today. Every themer contains ITTI … itty! Surely the revealer would be ITTY BITTY. After all, my daughter has "Itty Bitty Kitty" on her shelves.

Wait. Why would I think that ITTY BITTY KITTY would explain anything about the ITTI string?

Apparently I've been a quarantine parent — indulging my daughter's penchant for dressing up her kittycat stuffies — for far too long.

The actual revealer is far more apt; each revealer HAS IT BOTH WAYS, i.e., contains IT and TI. I like John's thinking; it's important to tighten up the theme concept somehow. Imagine if all themers simply had IT and then TI anywhere — it'd be so inelegant.

These themer lengths are so tough to work with. A 13-letter revealer means trouble right off the bat since it must go into row 12 (not 13), leading to that "smooshing" effect John mentioned.

I don't usually mind some extra black squares to facilitate smoother fill, but there are a lot of black squares today. Some editors cap it at 38. Will Shortz is more flexible, often allowing puzzles with 42 or even 44.

Going up to 46 … visually, it's so unappealing. I'd have tried a few more times to take out the block above FERMI. It's not an easy task, since you have to work with a long answer in that corner (GUNSIGHT), but I think it might be possible.

Repeating the same hidden string within themers can get … repetitive (ha) for solvers, but an unexpected revealer can make all the difference. I enjoyed not being able to figure it out immediately. There were prices to pay in the grid, though. SETTE ICI GNP / NEV are potentially tough for newbs. It'd be interesting to see if stacking themers — putting DETROIT TIGERS and SIT TIGHT in rows 4 and 5 — might have made gridding easier.

ADDED NOTE: Regular reader William Girard points out that ODELL Beckham Jr. might be a head-scratcher for Monday solvers, too. Agreed! And note that he's a Pro Bowler, as in he's made the NFL Pro Bowl — not a pro bowler! Strike one! Wait, that's baseball ...

Excellent "stair-stack," with a dynamite triplet of long entries. My bits of insider knowledge foiled me today — I've had the good fortune to work with John, who's an avid hiker, so I confidently wrote in MOUNTAIN HIKER. Then I frowned. Was that a thing? Thankfully, no! Such a brilliant clue for MOUNTAIN BIKER, "cyclical" ups and downs eliciting a punny groan.

TEASER TRAILER — man, that fooled me! I was thinking a seat-type "spot," or maybe one of those annoying pre-movie ads.

BEDSIDE MANNER is also a beautiful feature phrase, although the clue doesn't elevate it like for the other two. I'd have welcomed some wordplay here, rather than the vague [Doctor's approach]. Maybe something twisting "caregiver" with "care"?

Even more wordplay goodness in GAME OVER and ONE STAR? Yes, please! Maybe non-gamers won't figure out the "get a life" portion of the GAME OVER clue — it refers to getting a (new) life by restarting the game.

And [Amazon deterrent] is the clue of the day. I buy so much merchandise on Amazon these days, and I pay close attention to ONE STAR reviews, yet it had me fooled.

One clue I should explain since both Jim Horne and I didn't understand it: how does [Plates] equal TAGS? Both of us wondered, aren't TAGS the little stickers you put on your plates every year? But "tags" does appear to be slang for "license plates."

Solid execution, although sometimes one entry can so irritatingly stick out. ULA is so comically weird. Suffix to "form"? Give me an ILE or an INTS over it any day.

So much to love in this one. If John had taken another shot at the lower-left corner, I bet he would have reached into POW! territory.

YOU HAD TO BE THERE is a perfect themeless anchor. Snazzy, colloquial, snarky, memorable. It's unfortunate that the clue was so straightforward, giving away the game. Something playing on "being present," perhaps?

I'm often turned off by esoteric clues, like ones giving the scientific name of the entry. However, [Mammalian hematophage] is outstanding. It's like one of those crazy scientific names labeling the Road Runner (Velocitus delectiblus, Boulevardius-burnupius) that looks impossible to figure out at first, but then makes you smile. Hemato … ah, I get it!

I enjoyed some other entries almost as much. LOT IN LIFE. HAM HANDED. EX NIHILO is tough but interesting, both for Bible readers and logophiles.

Some outstanding clues, as well. Paying a "steep price" for TEA, ha! [Sort of spousal separation] felt like a downer, until I figured out the clever misdirect away from AGE GAP. How is Mount ETNA found on a couple of plates in Italy? Not dinner plates, but geological plates.

A few others didn't work as well. I like "clue echoing" best when the duplicated clue is spot-on but in two different ways. PET DOGS seek table scraps, no doubt. ANTs … yeah, but that's a tortured way to describe scavenging.

And [A, as in April]? I couldn't remember which form SCHEDULE A was (Wikipedia-ing ... itemized deductions, huh), and the "as in" part confused me. I get that it's trying to be clever, but it didn't succeed — especially since tax day wasn't in April this year.

All in all, an entertaining solve, although I could have used a little more juice. I bet closing off the SW and NE — imagine putting black square at the P of PICARDY, for instance — would have made it easier to squeeze more out of all the long slots.

Time to PART COMPANY! I've appreciated KROGER's drive-up-and-go grocery services during the pandemic, so it was fun to see that company split across BUCK ROGERS. Neat discovery of INTEL inside SAINT ELMO, too. I was positive the theme was going to be COMPANY INSIDERS, given INTEL's old "Intel Inside" slogan. Sadly, "Alcoa in your drawer" doesn't have the same ring to it.

I paused when I hit PART COMPANY. My first impression: it more strongly hints at another tried-and-true theme type, where the company is at the start and end of a phrase — like EBAY at the ends of EBBED AWAY. It's weird to see EBAY not separated whatsoever with a PART COMPANY revealer.

A few months ago, Will Shortz said he's getting pickier about "hidden words" themes, because he has too many on file. I've started to see where he's coming from.

There is still room for more, though. To stand out, constructors will need to include some combination of:

• Long hidden words. Shorter ones are too easy.
• Fantastic revealer, giving the theme a delightful reason for existence.
• Some extra layer. I can't define that, but if your "hidden words" theme feels cookie cutter, it'll be a tough road.

I enjoyed much of John's gridwork, entries like LUBE JOB, BEWILDER, TEE SHOT, BABY FAT, LUCKY ME, SADLY NO. A flood of riches!

They did come with high prices though, VADIS ESE ONA OTO TMEN unfriendly for newer solvers; inelegant. I'd have asked John to dial it back, accepting fewer bonuses in exchange for a smoother overall product.

I'm curious to see what constructors will do in this theme space in the future — there's still potential for interesting twists. "Insider trading" did make my theme radar ping …

When people ask me what makes for a great themeless entry, I'm going to point to CATTLE RUSTLERS. It has the four qualities that make it a gold medalist:

1. It's a snazzy phrase in its own right.
2. You don't need to clue it with excruciating dictionary detail since it's a common enough term.
3. It can take a wickedly clever clue.
4. Said wickedly clever clue doesn't need a telltale question mark, making it so innocently brilliant.

I almost gave John the POW! for this entry / clue pair alone. Little respect for brand names? Not generic products, but literally names that are branded. Genius!

I always learn something from John's themelesses, mostly in a good way. I didn't know the term BRISTLECONE PINE, but these are two recognizable words, so it didn't interfere with my clean solve. Same with SHAG BARK. I wish these were more shagalicious entries, but what can you do.

ARCHAISM felt archaic, but it stems from "archaic" so I still could figure it out.

Nice bit of BORNEO trivia. I had no idea it was governed by … (Alexa, open Wikipedia!) … ah, got it. (Speaking in a condescending Alex Trebek voice) Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia, of course.

I picked up the term "demesne" from crosswords, but I still don't know what it means. I had a vague feeling that I'd heard it from one of John's crosswords. A-ha! Thanks to our clue finder, I see that John indeed used this clue in a previous themeless. Two strikes ...

I enjoyed much of GRAB A BITE TO EAT, OPENS A TAB, the historical term BRITISH RAJ, THAT'S WEIRD. One too many demesnes that were weird for me, though.

John and I love our national parks!

I cringe whenever spotting circles arranged in diagonal lines. They play havoc on a constructor's flexibility, rigidifying a grid right from the get-go. Take REDWOOD, for example. Every one of the squares flanking that entry (both above AND below it) has to work with REDWOOD now — AND its usual across and down crossing answers! "Triple-checking" is the bane of many a constructor's existence.

There was some YTD ORA TCU SSA UNS as I went, but it was much less than I expected. More importantly, it was all minor, stuff that most solvers can ignore, or should at least be able to figure out from the crosses. Given the high constraints, that's solid gridwork.

Why do the PARALLEL PARKs go diagonally? At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, parallel parking is usually ... parallel (to the curb). Except the way I do it, in which case the parks would be partially hanging off the grid. Yeah, it's not pretty.

Maybe John chose national parks that feature slanting trees and other diagonal visual wonders? It has been a long time since I've been to Redwood national park. Ah! I remember looking up, taking in the grandeur of it all, and ... THE TREES LOOKING ALL ANGLED BECAUSE OF PERSPECTIVE!

Sure, why not.

The first time I went to REDWOOD national park, my jaw dropped at the sights. I didn't have the same reaction today, but just like most any national park is pleasurable, so is most any well-constructed crossword.

If you haven't tasted The Rooster, you haven't lived.

That sounds dirtier than it is.

Those of us hooked on SRIRACHA sauce call it The Rooster because there are plenty of knock-offs, but there's only one original SRIRACHA with the Rooster logo. No, it doesn't have any rooster in it!

Or does it? Maybe that's why it tastes like chicken?

(rimshot)

I also loved MIND … BLOWN! It sure could be tough to understand, though, if you've never used or seen the phrase and thus don't know to insert the implied ellipsis and exclamation. A clue with parallel structure could have helped, along the lines of ["That was ... UH-MAZING!"].

Two clues I should probably explain:

• Temptation to steal is a WILD PITCH? Think about baseball, where a pitcher's wild throw opens an opportunity to take off running. What confused me was that I thought a baserunner advancing due to a wild pitch was recorded as an error, not a steal. (Turns out that an anal overthinker analyzing a clue to death takes away all of its cleverness. And a wild pitch doesn't result in a stolen base or an error. Man, is baseball weird.)
• SWAMIS are know-it-alls? Aren't the wisest people those who know only that they don't know everything? (What was I saying about analyzing a clever clue to death?)

A lot to enjoy, notably marquee entries like AND … SCENE! (again with the implied ellipsis and exclamation point), BOLD MOVE, COWGIRLS, and GRYFFINDOR (I'd be an undistinguished Hufflepuff), but I like 70-word themelesses to be squeaky clean, avoiding the little dings of IMY, CMS, RDS, LPN, etc. as well as the perilous crosses of MCAN / COE and ALKALI / ALDO.

Four fruits playing JUICY ROLEs today. What? JUICY PARTs? That does make more sense for this theme concept, but it doesn't hit my ear as strongly as JUICY ROLE. Checking the Googs … huh! Apparently JUICY PART is highly favored over JUICY ROLE. Shows what I know.

I appreciated that John found so many long fruits hidden within themers. ROMAN GODDESS is fantastic, both as a base phrase and as a delightfully fruitful find. LEMON across ANKLE MONITOR is wonderful, too. Those 5+ letter finds can seem so impossibly possible.

Usually, I'm not a fan of hidden words contained within other single words, but TOMATO in AUTOMATON is top-notch; what a cool discovery. TOMATO has no shared etymology with AUTOMATON, so that makes it even better.

Even with five themers, you should almost always be able to work in a couple of long bonuses. TANDEM BIKE and BEAUTY TIPS both hit the mark, totally worth the price of a minor ENDO. I always have a tough time with ENTO vs ENDO, but John made the crossing unambiguous.

Great themers, strong craftsmanship … so why didn't this strike me as POW! material? Perhaps I'm suffering from "hidden words" fatigue. Will mentioned a few months ago that he has too many hidden word themes on file, so it takes something incredible to pass his bar now.

The revealer didn't quite hit, either. JUICY PART more indicates that one word of the phrase is a fruit in disguise, like LEMON LAW or DATE NIGHT. It does work, but not as beautifully as if FRUITY MIDDLE had been a real phrase. Too bad that's not a thing. Come on, candy makers, make a FRUITY MIDDLE Starburst or something already!

Solid puzzle overall.

★ I've had the pleasure of working on a couple of crosswords with John Guzzetta — we seem to be on similar wavelengths. His comment above made me laugh — about ten years ago, I pulled a prank on a friend, playing Darth Vader's Imperial March (on cello) as she walked down the aisle. During the rehearsal, not the actual ceremony!

I solve so many themelesses that they all tend to run together in a mish-mash of interesting phrases. One rarely stands out, so I appreciate it when I can hang on to something, anything that makes it feel distinctive.

Jill and I have French friends who like to poke fun of their Frenchness — it's delightful to hear Romain say he doesn't care about something "because I'm French" in an exaggerated accent. So many phrases today reminded me of that shrugging attitude: WHO CAN SAY, IT DEPENDS, WHAT GIVES.

I also enjoyed knowing "1-up" for EXTRA LIFE right off the bat, bringing me back to the old days when I'd hang out at the local arcade, a bunch of kids crowded around a "Donkey Kong" machine, our quarters lined up along the top.

Great cluing, too, making short, usually neutral entries stand out. [Some nerve?] elevated OPTIC. The wordplay for RUNE's clue was genius — it may be set in stone, literally!

A couple of minor dings here and there — MAZY and UNHIT are oddballs, and AREOLA is one of those entries we snooty constructors roll our eyes at since it gets used way too much because of its friendly vowels — but overall, a delightful solving experience.

Three GREEK CROSSes = pairs of themers intersecting at their hidden Greek letters. The LAT published a bigger version of this concept just two weeks ago, unfortunately. I liked how that one crossed the same letter with itself, forming GREEK CROSSes with equal length arms.

But then I wondered, maybe John's done something brilliant by picking out Greek letters THAT SPELL OUT SOMETHING! That would more than enough make up for his unequal CROSS lengths.

ALPHA = A

RHO = R

IOTA = I

ZETA = Z

ARIZona? Maybe there are Greek artifacts in Tempe? This is actually happening!

OMEGA = O

THETA = T

Huh. Would you buy Judas IZcARIOT?

Humph.

The grid contains several rough spots, enough that I stopped keeping track after ANSE ALYN ARTE RIAL SECY. Five strikes and you're out for an early-week puzzle! (That number could easily be three or less, for some solvers.) Not nearly smooth enough to be accessible to newer solvers.

What happened? The biggest problem is the size of the real estate around each pair of crossing letters. Take FINAL PHASE and AIR HOLES, for example. It's usually wise to put a black square close to that intersection, probably at the first P of PPM. If you don't, you're effectively trying to build a themeless-esque grid — but with several constraints already locked into place.

There's no easy fix, unfortunately, since if you put a black square at the first P of PPM, you'd form a two-letter word. That means you'd need to move that black square to the left of LEMON ZEST. The shocks ripple through the puzzle, and require a full redo. Unfortunate, but that's what was necessary.

I did like that John managed to work in so much snazzy long fill. LEMON ZEST and REST EASY are welcome surprises in the middle of the puzzle. LEAD APRONS, RAMS HORN, and PIT AGAINST would have also added to the quality of my solving experience, except for the problems they caused in short fill.

A standard 70-word themeless has to be near-flawless for me to perk up. Nearly all 12 entries in the four triple-stacks have to sizzle, and the short fill must be clean as a whistle. Even if these criteria are met, the puzzle usually has to do something above and beyond.

The longest entries, TWITTERATI and DEATH STARE, certainly qualified as above and beyond. Not easy to squeeze these into the middle of the puzzle. Note how cleverly John did this — both answers steer well clear of the four triple-stacks in the corners, making for more flexibility.

I did enjoy TWITTERATI more than DEATH STARE. I'm sure it's my personal preferences in this day and age, as the latter reminded me of a certain unpleasant Orangeman. Huh, so did TWITTERATI. #Sad.

A couple of clues stymied me. What's a "demesne"? Looked it up, and the dictionary said ESTATE. It's an accurate clue, but it's both boring and a turn-off.

Speaking of turn-off: the ULTRAHD clue. 4K? Apparently that's the term the wonks use for Ultra HD. (Something about 4000 horizontal pixels.) NONES is "the religiously unaffiliated" — basically, the dictionary definition. To EMBAR is to hinder, also from the dictionary.

I bet if you looked up FARO, you'd get something that starts with "gambling game that …"

These aren't bad. Neither are they good, though, and a (mostly) standard 70-word puzzle needs much more to help it stand out.

Thankfully there was enough OVEN MITT (awesome playful clue, riffing on "handy" = "hand-y"), HOW RUDE!, LOGICIAN, SCANDIUM, CANOODLE, to keep me entertained.

You think Mike likes portmanteaus? FUNEMPLOYED and MATHLETES today, with HACKTIVISM and STAYCATION in his last themeless? Hmm!

I'm partial to MATHLETE, myself, having been one (and wishing I were still good enough to be one). I mostly hear the others in a jokey way though, almost cringeworthy. I much prefer colorful multi-word phrases, such as CLAIM TO FAME, READY ROOM (Jean-Luc Picard fans unite!), FLAT BROKE, LOVE LETTER. Those feel much more timeless.

I remember the first time I SAW (II) WADIS in a crossword. My reaction was far from FOR THE WIN (something the kids say these days — or what they used to say, by now?). I've softened over time. It's kind of an interesting term, albeit specialized. Makes for a good party trick when you want to show off your trivia.

While I prize jazzy, multi-word phrases in themelesses, I also appreciate when a cool single-word entry dazzles, like IMPRIMATUR. I admit I wouldn't get this one right on a vocab test, but it made me feel good that I recognized the fancy-pants word.

All in all, not quite enough color in this one for my taste, along with a couple of (admittedly very) minor CES ESE HMS dings. It's tough — the bar for a standard 70-word themeless is so high these days.

Sometimes I feel like I have to HUNT AND PECK when a grid is filled with tough names. I'm personally familiar with NEMEA and Boba FETT, being a big fan of Greek myth and Star Wars lore. But pop music? Shudder! Names like DANGER MOUSE are dangerous to my ability to successfully complete a puzzle, when I barely know what "Gnarls Barkley" is. IT'S A MIRACLE that I finished with no errors, given so many DELIA, DEIRDRE, SHTETL, KOENIG entries in the grid!

I did love some entries, especially THAT'S GENIUS, which people say to me much less frequentsomely than I would not unlike. PASS THE BAR and IMAGINE THAT were also strongly on my WAVELENGTH(s).

Sometimes my constructor background stabs at my ability to enjoy puzzles. I see two elements that shouldn't coexist: 1.) a 70-word puzzle (just two under the maximum for themelesses), and 2.) more crossword glue than I want to see in any themeless. About five of AMAS DECI ESS FETT SEP THU XKES feels like an unpolished finish.

It's a shame. Other people have different (but perhaps equally valid) philosophies on themeless construction, some more liberal on how much crossword glue is okay — or even what qualifies as crossword glue!

Thankfully a couple clues helped elevate my solve. The clue for HAS BEENS was delightful — riffing on the astronomy term "distant stars" was brilliant. Similarly, riffing on the football "offensive line" for BARB = brilliant!

Some solid entry/clue pairs today. My two favorite:

• FLEA MARKET is good in its own right. Using the word "stalls" to misdirect toward "stalling" instead of "sellers' stalls" makes it brilliant.
• WATER POLO uses the eggbeater kick? Took me a while to figure out how one would kick like an eggbeater, but it provided me a nice a-ha.

SPERM DONOR … yes, a clever clue, in one who makes deposits to a certain bank. I know I shouldn't get a little breakfast testy here, as SPERM DONORs provide a valuable service. Still, I couldn't get myself to add it to the list above due to a persisting discomfort. Why did it make me cringe a little? A little too cutesy on the clue? Still not sure.

As a standard 70-word themeless, the long entries must all shine, and there can't be much of any crossword glue — the bar has been raised very high for this type of themeless. I thought John did an excellent job with his long entries, only NATTERED and TASTE TESTS feeling neutral to me (Will once called STRESS TESTS "cheap" because of all the uber-common letters).

I did end up liking AIR BAZOOKA, but what a kooky term. (I've known it as an "air vortex cannon.")

And as an engineer, I know the word CAMBER. Vaguely. It does seem odder in the plural.

I don't mind a bit of crossword glue in the name of making something incredible happen. But for a 70-worder, RETD, EDER (or is that ODER?), OFA (what is "of a piece"?), OKE, TAE is way too much for today's standards.

Still, an entertaining solve, if with some inelegance in execution.

ADDED NOTE: Apparently this crossword was spotted at the beginning of "John Wick 3"!

Beautiful middle stairstack! Delightful to get a mini-theme in BINGE WATCHING and SLIPPERY SLOPE. It's even better when they're located in positions that usually shouldn't allow for mini-theme placement. It's a similar sort of magic to a 15 + 15 letter phrase … stacked atop each other!

We've seen enough "stairstack" middles, that they're becoming easier and easier for me to critique — what's the quality of 1.) middle stairstack, 2.) NW/SE corners, 3.) SW / NE tail?

(On one hand, I like that more and more people are gravitating to this themeless grid type. It allows for a lot of great material, with interesting visual effect. On the other, I worry that it's going to become overused. I like innovation, dagnabit!)

Great work in criterion 1. PAROLE HEARING made for another snazzy entry — three for three winners. And such smoothness in the down answers holding that middle together. Not a fan of RESHIPS, but I do see it in alerts from Amazon.

Solid work in criterion 2. I didn't know we had an estate past the fourth estate (the media), but I can buy the FIFTH ESTATE. Fun to learn the term, anyway, and it didn't hinder my solve. IRA ROLLOVER is pretty dull even for this financial planner ... but RUMORMONGER helped keep up the color in that NW corner.

AVGAS … I'm a mechanical engineer, not an aerospace engineer. I'll grant you that. But AVGAS? I nearly choked because it crossed GIAN, which seemed like it could be GION or GIEN. Thankfully, that GAS part of AVGAS saved me. But even though the crossing ultimately seemed fair, it left me with a sense of inelegance.

Ah, criterion 3. That's where most people fall down. It's so hard to use those two tail sections in the SW / NE, once you've fixed your stairstack into place. Such juicy long slots … and PLODDERS is not the way to use them well. SAD SONG is a little better, and HEADLONG is okay.

If John had worked in a little more juice in these tough-to-fill sections, this could have been POW!-worthy. Pesky criterion 3!

Well crafted, got some POW! consideration from me. Not quite there, though.

★ WISE MOVEs indeed, two-word phrases where the Y sound is moved from the end of the first word to the end of the second. Some great results, doggy treats to DOG TREATIES my favorite. Such an amusing visual of dogs sitting around discussing settlement terms (maybe while playing poker?). Gravy train to GRAVE TRAINEES also worked well for me, as 1.) the base phrase is great, and 2.) cemetery interns, now that's something I'd write a book about! Great stuff.

Most of the others worked decently well, too. County fair to COUNT FAIRIES gave me a fun visual of census takers doing their darndest to get an accurate count while all the fairies flit about. Smartypants to SMART PANTIES made me laugh, too — not exactly sure what data a pair of SMART PANTIES collects. Probably don't want to know.

The only one that I was plus minus on was GROCER STORIES, which seemed duller than the others. A little too close to the base phrase of "grocery stores." YMMV.

Mostly strong work in the grid. Loved CHEEZ IT, EASY NOW, EVEN STEVEN, MAIN MAN, MEDIA STORM, NOSE JOB, OLD SALT, POWER NAP, SOUR MASH, and more. It's rare to get this much bonus material in a Sunday grid — four-ish bonuses is passable for me, so this is well above and beyond. Even if the theme didn't amuse solvers, all these great bonuses provide entertainment.

Not that many blips in the short fill, too — ETTES, IN AS, SDS, etc. is overlookable. Didn't bug me as I went.

The only sticking point for me: the oddballs in NEEDER and TUYERES. That first one is hard to imagine ever using in real life. The second … this mechanical engineer didn't recognize the term. It is a real thing, but it's not the type of mid-length word I'd strive to debut in the NYT crossword. Thankfully, John and Mike made the crossings fair. And I did like learning what a TUYERE is.

I liked this twist on the standard "sound change" type of theme. Done consistently, with a bunch of nice bonuses, and the grid mostly executed well. A nice example of a Sunday that can cater well to a wide audience.

DIASTEMA? That's a … gap in one's teeth? I was confused at the end of my solve, having missed the concept, but I got a nice a-ha when I realized that John split theme answers so that they were "gap-toothed": TOOT / HIS OWN HORN, DO UNTO / OTHERS, SPREAD TOO / THIN. Fun twist on the old "words hidden within theme phrases" theme type.

DIASTEMA is an unusual revealer. I might have chosen to go with GAP TOOTHED so as to be more transparent, but there's something to be said about using DIASTEMA to delay the a-ha moment; to make the solver work for it. It does run the risk of the solver finishing the grid without understanding the theme, and putting the puzzle aside.

I get John's point about matching verb tenses in the themers, but I found the lack of symmetry odd. Along with DIASTEMA being in an unusual location for a revealer — with no symmetrical theme answer — the layout felt a little clunky. Other solvers might not notice any of this, but symmetry is such a core feature of crosswords that breaking it requires an extraordinary or theme-specific reason to do so, in my book.

I wonder if it would have helped to split MOLAR, CANINE, INCISOR, etc. instead of just TOOTH? Or to use TEETH?

Some tough fill. Totally fine to use esoteric words in a Thursday puzzle, like DUMONT, RYDELL, NESSUS (and DIASTEMA!). But too many of them can be a turn-off, especially when they leave room for a solver to finish with an unfair error. I finished with SHIEST / RIDELL instead of SHYEST / RYDELL, and DOMONT / CENSORED instead of DUMONT / CENSURED. Ultimately, I think both errors are more on me than on the puzzle — SHIEST is apparently a variant spelling — but that didn't stop me from coming away frustrated.

Neat concept, fun to see those gaps in the TOOTHs (maybe it should have been TEETH!). Some problems in execution, though.

★ A ton of strong entries today, most all of them hitting home so well for me. That bottom stack in particular — PEACE SUMMIT, PR NIGHTMARE with its crazy PRN start, and SPIDEY SENSE? Yes, please! And there was so much goodness in those four corners, WORLDS APART to ZONE DEFENSE to HORSE AROUND to VAN DAMME (check out "JCVD" if you haven't seen it — amazing movie!).

And ADOLESCENTS isn't usually an entry I'd point out as an asset, but its clue made it shine. Such an innocent looking [Minority group] clue made me think of voting minorities, not under the age of 18 folks. Perfect wordplay; so clever.

The EMAIL clue, referencing the shenanigans in the 2016 election? Too soon, Will and Joel. Too soon.

I typically hold 72-word themelesses to a very high bar, because they're pretty easy to execute on. For me to pick one as a POW!, it usually has to contain well over 10 great entries, and close to no crossword glue. This one made me rethink my criteria. I counted about 11 assets and 3-4 liabilities. EEE in particular is EEEgregious, a constructor's crutch that I'd never use in one of my puzzles.

But I enjoyed the puzzle so much, that I was able to overlook these issues. Although there were some lost opportunities in the long slots — ARTINESS and GET REST don't do much except take up valuable real estate — the feature entries were so strong. Made me think I need to adjust my evaluation metrics, perhaps giving strong entries one point and super-strong ones two points?

My OCD need to measure and record everything aside, themeless puzzles are all about how the entries hit a solver's personal interests. This one was spot-on for me.

Easy-breezy hidden synonym theme, WHIFF, FAN, STRIKE all relating to striking out. I did check-swing on this theme concept at first, given that WHIFF and STRIKE are a single swing and miss, while FAN is a strikeout.

Then I realized that there are three synonyms … and in total, they're more or less three strikes, which equals GO DOWN SWINGING! Clever. (The puzzle, that is, not me, given how long it took me to figure that out. Probably ought to pull me for a reliever.)

John threw some heat in his bonus material, HALFLIFE, UNDERWORLD, ROSE GOLD, and PREALGEBRA good to great. With four themers — even if they're longish — it's almost always possible to work in four long bonus downs in staggered positions. Easy formula: spread out your four themers, spread out your four long downs, test liberally to make sure every section is fillable, and you're done!

It's not that easy of course, but it's a tried and true formula.

I also liked the changeup, John using a couple of long bonuses in the across direction. AD SLOGAN and LARGESSE are great entries. Most constructors don't do this type of thing because it can put a ton of strain on a grid, resulting in suboptimal short fill.

On that note, check out the east section. Constructors might typically put a black square at the O of CARDIO, helping to give that east region much more flexibility — with ADSLOGAN and PREALGEBRA fixed into place, there's not much wiggle room. AMICI is an odd word for an early-week puzzle, but as long as the crossings are fair, allowing most solvers a clean finish, I can give it a pass.

But AMICI crossing ESAI crossing FEIN … hmm, no bueno. I got those right because I do a ton of crosswords, but this isn't a good way to encourage newer solvers. I would have asked for a redo in that section alone and asked to smooth out WORF / WBA as well — even this Trekkie thinks it's not fair to expect people to know WORF.

Nice, novel concept, but I would have liked the grid tuned more toward early-week smoothness.

Mike was over at my place for a beer a few weeks back, and he shared with me an enviable fact: he and John are around 75% in terms of themeless acceptances. Considering Will once told me there's only one person who's sustained an acceptance rate over 40-50%, that's fantastic.

(The person is Patrick Berry of course, at around 90%.)

So what's their secret? Sending money directly to me, in stacks of large, unmarked bills. You can do it too!

Well, that, and working only with 70- or 72-word grids, focusing all their effort toward getting the four corners packed with juicy, clean fill. Middle of the puzzle be damned!

Of course, this is easier said than done. Creating a single triple-stacked corner with great entries and smooth fill is hard enough. Finishing a grid with four of them is a tough task.

I loved the lower right, AS EASY AS PIE for me since I'm a huge IDRIS ELBA and basketball fan. What a great clue for MIAMI HEAT too — I usually don't think about what logos actually are. Cool flaming (basket)ball.

Mike said VOLUNTOLD was one of their seeds. That one didn't do much for me, as 1.) I hadn't heard of it, and 2.) found it hard to believe people would say something so silly-sounding. It could easily be a TRYHARD situation, where I pooh-poohed that entry at first, and now I've heard all sorts of people (much younger than me) say it. Hmm.

INSATIATE in that same corner … I tried to plunk in "insatiable" and was confused why it didn't fit. Hmm again. INSATIATE is in the dictionary, though I doubt I'll ever use it.

ALEPH NULL was another curious one. I love math, having read a ton of Martin Gardner's work in rec math. But ALPEH NULL was tough to piece together, and it took a while to figure out what it meant (stupid complicated Wikipedia article!). I wonder how this entry will strike non-math fans.

In that same corner, John got worried that they had gotten scooped on MALL SANTA when they were working on the grid. It is true that themelesses tend to shine on the strength of a handful of fresh feature entries. But I think that given enough time between publications, great entries can still retain their sparkle, like this one.

I did get stuck in the NW, unwilling to believe that CYCAD was a thing. I kept wondering why LTD was specific to Lucasfilm (it's not). This uberdork immediately put in THX. Sigh.

Overall, great work keeping the grid smooth and silky. If only a couple of feature entries had resonated a little better for me ...

Mike mentioned to me that he and John had gotten three (or more now?) themelesses accepted, with a focused strategy: 1.) go up to 70 or 72 words, 2.) use a fairly standard themeless layout, 3.) focus hard on those four corners, packing in as many great entries as possible, and 4.) allow some gluey bits, just as long as it doesn't get to be noticeable. It's a strategy that's paid off well for them.

This one was almost exactly what I was expecting, given Mike's description. Love that ASTERISKS / CLIP ON TIE / RELAY RACE trio (ASTERISKS got elevated with a great clue referring to "qualifications" — modifiers, not resume points!). A bit of USS and ISSA (hard to ask solvers to know every congressperson) holding everything together, but oh so worth it.

I wasn't as hot on the opposite corner since CRINOLINE didn't mean much to me. I felt like it represented untapped potential for that precious slot — although I'd bet lovers of Jane Eyre and 19^th-century Britain would disagree.

Give what Mike told me, HEY BATTER BATTER was a nice surprise. Great feature entry right across the plate.

It can be tough to work in a grid-spanning central entry into a themeless, since its start and end reduces flexibility, constraining the triple-stacks it intersects. So I can understand why they decided to put that black square between STY and ICERS, to facilitate better filling. It'd be great to get another set of triple-stacks in those two corners, but it's much better to get just two great answers like LEVIATHAN and EYESTRAIN rather than try to strain your grid.

I was on the verge of feeling like AIS (partial), ICERS (is that a real profession?), and the aforementioned were too much, but they kept the glue spread out pretty well.

And with bonuses such as FBOMB and the amusing TWERK TWERP pairing, I quite enjoyed this 72-worder.

Sometimes themeless constructors (including myself) stretch too much, aiming for much more technically difficult 68- or 66-worders, but we'd do well to think about what these guys' approach brings to the solving experience. Looking forward to their next collaborations!