Margaret Seikel author page

★ I love crosswords that do something different. I love mirror symmetry — especially when the grid is smiling at me. Smiling's my favorite!

I'm well aware of two fingers representing BUNNY EARS, as my kids think it's hilarious. It Bugs me. And while I remember the PEACE SIGN and V FOR VICTORY, combining all of these with TWO, PLEASE to make a crossword theme, is such a creative connection. Using emoji for the two fingers gives it all a modern touch.

Such a clever idea to try for themer interlock up top. It's often impossible to make happen, and even when the great goddess Cruciverba shines her love down upon you, sometimes it forces difficult trade-offs. Today, it's not only impressive, but it's incredibly useful for both the construction and the solving experience.

Let's look at the alternative. Given that the themer lengths scream for mirror symmetry, if there were no possible interlock among the triplet of 9s, you'd have to lay out those three all vertically. Then, technical reasons demand that you build a triple-stack around the middle 9, like in this puzzle from last year.

While this can make for some juicy surrounding long fill, it's so hard to create a triple-stack of 9s with both cleanliness and color. Today's arrangement is so much more conducive to engineering an early-week, newb-friendly experience. That black square under the second E of PEACE sign makes it so much easier to pick short fill that's uber-accessible to newer solvers. There's nothing at all wrong with EDIFY, but EBOOK is so much less a pain in the annus to remember.

Doing something fresh and different, like with the peace sign emoji, is fantastic. What gets Maggie my POW! though, is her superb execution.

★ Such a fresh vibe! CONTENT CREATOR speaks to my YouTube obsession, including a fantasy basketball analyst who happens to be a SNEAKERHEAD. I'm not into shoes, but watching Josh's excitement about his latest purchases is fascinating.

Although I stick to black coffee, the idea of a MATCHA LATTE is tempting. Aside from my dislike of matcha's bitterness. And the entire lactose intolerance thing.

NO MAKE UP MAKE UP is not something my daughter believes in. More like NO ... MAKE UP! MAKE UP!!!

Fantastic clue for TACO BAR, riffing on a Shell filling station — beautiful "hidden capital" trick to disguise the lower-case "s" of a taco shell. The clue is not entirely accurate, given that on our last taco night, the kids filled their taco shells with nothing, then refused the eat the shell. Talk about intolerance.

We've seen BRAS in crosswords hundreds of times, and many times the entry has gotten a clever clue. I've never been so pleasantly mystified, [Wireless support providers] pointing me directly at CenturyLink holding me hostage. The last time we had an outage, CenturyLink was more like [Wireless support witholders].

My primary goal as a crossword solver is to complete every box correctly. I won't always be familiar with every entry, but this is the kind of freshness that makes being forced to learn something new worth it. An entry like NO MAKE UP MAKE UP is so self-explanatory!

It's been over ten years since I exited my startup, and I've begun to itch for entrepreneurial action. MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS epitomizes the startup mentality, smashing through norms, creating new paradigms … as well as tweaking your sanity through ridiculous hours and stress.

Maybe I'll wait another year or two.

I enjoyed the novelty of a "breaking" theme using a broken revealer. I appreciated that placing the first halfway up top didn't give away the game, making me wait until the very end.

Will Shortz usually shies away from this type of repeated-circles theme, because once you fill in one set, the rest fall immediately into place — as does the theme concept. Still, Maggie chose three solid phrases that didn't repeat the TH___ word. There are other options for TH*ING, but many of them would have created a repeat with THE, or THAT'S.

I would have loved if the concept had been pushed as hard as a startup team pushes boundaries. Something like breaking up GIZMO and DOODAD in GLITZ AND GLAMOR and DOOMSDAY DEVICE, perhaps? The predictability of TH/ING in triplicate felt more like an established business than a nimble startup creating something jaw-dropping.

I wondered about the mini-theme, trying to figure out what "The Princess Diaries" had to do with startups. Reading Maggie's comments made me appreciate it, giving me a sense of her personality imbued into the grid. I'd love it if the NYT ran a short statement from each author next to their byline.

Not everything worked perfectly, but I appreciated the iconoclasm; Maggie breaking a crossword norm to aptly vibe with her theme.

★ Hang on a second … is how my friends used to describe my bouldering at my old CLIMBING GYM. My V6 fails were almost as amusing as Margaret's delightful concept today, HANG IN THERE punnily applied. I loved the variety of hanging a COAT, hanging around in a MAN CAVE, and of course, hanging (or, in my case, falling) on holds at a CLIMBING GYM.

Since the word "hang" has essentially the same meaning when applied to a COAT CLOSET and an ART GALLERY, I wondered if there was a fourth definition Margaret could have played upon. JURY BOX would have gone over many solvers' heads — describing a hung jury as a "hang" would give most everyone hang-ups.

And I'm glad no gallows humor was employed. Ahem.

Wise choice in MAN CAVE for the "hanging around" meaning. In what other enclosed spaces do people usually hang around? REC CENTER seems too active. HOOKAH BAR is too specific. I can't think of a single better choice than MAN CAVE (or SHE SHED) — well done!

Standing O for the OVATION clue. I was baffled, trying to imagine what types of instruments or accoutrements are common in concert halls. The wording of [A big one might be standing in concert halls] is such themeless-level wordplay but still figure-out-able for newer solvers. PINCH ME, it's a dream to see this level of deviousness in a Monday puzzle!

Speaking of that, great bonuses in DEMO TAPE, MARATHON, and ARM REST. Using long bonuses in the "pinwheel" layout of themers can muddy up what is theme and what is not, but in today's case, it's hard to imagine how a MARATHON as a place where any sort of hanging around is happening.

Unless you count my hangdog expression in distance races (those days I've since left in the distance).

Such a playful idea that had me baffled until the very end.

I amused myself by imagining a group of SORORITY sisters doing the Asian SQUAT. Now that would be memorable!

One thing I appreciate about Sophia's puzzles is that this 50-year-old learns something in a gentle, even fun way. Both RIDE OR DIE and SORORITY SQUAT meant nothing to me before solving her puzzles, but I was able to suss out all the individual words, thus not interfering with successful solving. I've added those two terms into my vocabulary, just in time for Gen alpha to cringe at me for trying too hard to be on fleek.

Same goes for TINY HOUSE. It didn't seem like an in-the-language phrase as I solved, but the two words made sense with the clue. Turns out it's not only a fascinating movement but one that Jill and I might look into down the road (if only as an excuse to get rid of all the kid crap littering our home).

And talking about gentle, TED LASSO! For those who haven't been introduced to the uber-uplifting football-turned-soccer coach, what a feel-good show! We were skeptical about adding yet another streaming service to our roster, but I have to hand it to Apple+. In this day and age, I want as many sources of optimism in my life as possible, and TED LASSO is a big one.

I do crosswords to bliss out in escapist fashion, so it's a big mark of success when a constructor can get me to learn something new with a smile. Not only wasn't I peeved by all the new terms, but it also made me happy and optimistic that young constructors could figure out how to connect with at least one solver from a much different generation.

I loved uncovering MATCHING PJS. When I was single, I vowed never to subject my friends to this sort of nausea-inducing sight, but these days, I might never take off matching footie PJS (much to the chagrin of my neighbors, who are already taking up a collection to replace my 20-year-old-more-holes-than-clothes wardrobe).

Initialism puzzles are overdone so it's important to add some extra level. P* J* alone has been employed many times, a quick search for some possible themers turning up a similar 2009 puzzle. MATCHING PJS has such potential to do more; such life in it. There are surprisingly many P* J* phrases, so brainstorming ways of having them all match would have been tremendous fun.

PETER JENNINGS, POPE JOHN, PRINCESS JASMINE, and PETER JACKSON in matching footies?

Holiday card of a family eating PAPA JOHN'S with PAPAYA JUICE on a PRIVATE JET?

Neither does the theme poetic justice, but it'd be so entertaining to work toward that perfect way of playing on "matching."

Great clue for PRIVATE JET. The wordplay might not be readily apparent — the 1% refers to a one-percenter by wealth. Neat to see such cleverness early in the week.

Although this didn't rise from the initialisms pack, MATCHING PJS is a memorable entry; so fun.

SPOILED BRAT, HEAD BANGER … I can Name That Theme in two entries, boo-yah! The third themer had to end in FRANK. What FRANK sells school supplies, though?

Said the dad who forces his kids to reuse the leftover school supplies from my college days I've carefully hoarded for 30 years now.

I was speeding through the puzzle until I ran over that nail, SSS is right. Given that my daughter's eyes sparkle for anything that sparkles — there's a lot of pained blinking at my house — I suppose I'm doomed to get to know the LISA FRANK catalog. Ah well, that logo is ... memorable?

Every Friday, we get pickup from our local burger joint, and by Wednesday, my son keeps asking if it's French Fry Friday yet, his agitation growing if the answer is no. He always orders a hot dog, which seems to calm him down. Talk about a THERAPY DOG.

Fun theme, tied together by SAUSAGE LINK. I'll admit this confused me for a hot minute, wondering what the SAUSAGE synonyms linked to. A THERAPY DOG MINION is not a thing, but it should be.

A middle nine-letter themer creates big corners, always tough to fill. Lovely use of those mid-length slots today, MARSHAL kicking things off, along with IRELAND, EMBASSY, MACRAME, INDIANA/STOOGES/MAGNETS. Nothing flashy, but so many solid entries added heft to the solve.

Not so hot on PHLEGM. For those of you with a six and four-year-old, you understand. I'd much rather wade through a bit of metaphorical NGO TAI ENE glue than actual goo. My household is responsible for approximately 43% of nationwide tissue sales.

Easy-breezy theme, neat that there aren't many (any?) other SAUSAGE synonyms that would work so perfectly — BRAT, BANGER, FRANK, DOG are all disguised so well. I'd almost rather use MISSING LINK as a fifth themer, and give no revealer, so the set is complete. That, or aim for a later-week puzzle, adding in an extra layer by somehow playing on the LINK part of SAUSAGE LINK (perhaps SPOILED BRAT PACK, THERAPY DOG EARS, etc.).

CATCH PHRASE, ooh, that's such a juicy phrase, eagerly waiting to be mined for crossword wordplay. How about [What's uttered when a detective nabs her quarry?]? Or something that a quarterback yells, to alert his wide receiver?

It took me a few minutes to figure out Margaret's intention because the clue misled me. It's hard enough to follow the sentence fragment "… the opposite of the answer to each starred clue …", and even harder to make the leap that this isn't referring to the full theme answers, only the ends. I was sure that SUMMER FLING was supposed to be the opposite of a CATCHPHRASE somehow.

The basic idea is straightforward: FLING, PASS, PITCH, CHUCK are antonyms of CATCH. What would a more accurate clue be? Perhaps [Popular expression ... or what the opposite of the last words of each answer to each starred clue is?]

Oof, that's hilariously difficult to understand.

What would have generated a sharper a-ha moment, then? Not sure, but since the "opposite" concept feels unrelated to CATCH PHRASE, perhaps NO CATCH [Baseball ump's ruling, and a description of the ends of …] would have been better. That'd have been more of a Monday theme, but that's probably where it belongs.

Solid gridwork, for a debut! I admire Margaret's audacity, intersecting all three themers in a criss-cross pattern. It did necessitate some trade-offs around those intersections. See OVI OPA.

She also worked in more bonuses than the average debut constructor, so much SIMPSON ALICE PAUL PENNILESS WET DISHRAG REMEDIES made possible by the unorthodox themer layout. Again, there were some prices to pay, but only the lower right, with AGA and EES, felt like too much in any one region.

Although the theme concept didn't click strongly, I enjoy it when debut constructors try to twist norms.

ADDED NOTE: A few folks have pointed out that the theme could be construed as opposite = THROW PHRASE, with wacky SUMMER FLING meaning a throw during summertime. That makes more sense!