Matthew Stock author page

A year ago, Caryn and I batted around SOMEDAY. MY PRINTS WILL COME, trying to do something interesting with it. I enjoyed the humorously wistful imagery, but it didn't feel like enough to build an entire puzzle around. We ended up going in a completely different direction, but I hope that someday she gets a chance to use it. Perfect title for a cozy mystery featuring an impatient detective.

I appreciated that this was more than a run-of-the-mill homophones puzzle, featuring NCE to NTS. It felt too familiar, though, some detective work turning up several ancestors and one predecessor. It's unfortunate that Paula's used two of the exact same themers, but realistically, only a tiny fraction of the solving population will even have an inkling of past puzzles. Still, it's a point of pride in the construction community to renew rather than rehash.

I did enjoy the two new ones — NO CHANTS IN HELL would be a truly hellish fate for my daughter, who loves to sing at the top of her lungs, bless her soul, but with a decidedly unblessed tone deafness. We're gently working on that.

Curious choice to clue OTTO to OTTO Porter Jr., whose claim to fame is his repeated underperformance sinking many of my fantasy basketball teams. Not that I still hold a grudge.

Great to have the TINSELTOWN sparkle along with Bill Watterson's CARTOONING (not so much "The Family Circus") to help keep up interest, especially for those solvers who might not even notice the NCE to NTS extra level.

★ Five fun (animal) + (pace) themers — a fast and furry-ious WITT (Wish I'd Thought of That) moment!

It's also a tight set. Can you think of any other possibilities? I've done a Thanksgiving Day TURKEY TROT 5K, but that duplicates FOX TROT. I spent a dog day wracking my brain for a single other phrase that would fit the pattern, but after mumbling "monkey jog, pig shuffle, puppy scamper," my wife was not a happy camper.

AND all the themers are arranged in order, from fastest pace to slowest?

When people ask me what I mean by "extra layer" — as in the competition is so fierce these days that you need something extra to stand out — look no further. Such smart use of mirror symmetry to achieve this feat.

For the sake of balanced analysis, I'll point out that some SGT ORO AERO AMAN could have been massaged out by adding cheater squares at the second T of TOURIST and the first E of ENDEMIC, but there's a case to be made that these are worthwhile costs for the benefits of TOURIST, SAND ART, CAPRESE. And that Jeff's nitpicking is endemic.

At first, I wanted some revealer to tie it all together neatly. The best I could come up with, though, was ANIMAL STYLE. Not only does that not fit neatly, but animal style fries are the opposite of neat.

Ultimately, the theme stands on its own with no revealer, and with such elegant execution, it's such a standout.

Erica and Matthew's clue for CALCULATOR WATCH was so Johnny Be Goode! Playing on a "time machine" could only have been improved by riffing on "obsolescent" more — something like [Time machine from the past?]. Then again, past and future are merging, as my kids are both oddly begging for "play time" on my calculator watch … I HAVE TO ASK and I GUESS SO are both appropriate responses.

Standout clue in [That's just the way it is], a literal description for STATUS QUO, disguised as my standard parental response. Similarly beautiful trick in [What's the Word?], playing on SCRIPTURE as the "word of dad." Er, God.

A ton of clever cluing today. Other highlights:

Servers working around the clock? Surely, it had to be a dig at Amazon's lack of care around their service center employees! Nope, that's their DATA CENTER computer servers, which will likely unionize via ChatGPT any day now.

[High lands] is an oldie for MESAS, but it's still a goodie.

I was surprised to hear backlash around DATED UP a few years ago. Dating up in my marriage is one of my greatest con jobs. I mean, accomplishments! Tough to predict what will raise hackles.

Interesting choice to clue CARLOS to Carlos Boozer. He was on one of the USA Olympic teams, but last played in the NBA a decade ago, and his chances of making the Hall of Fame are slim. Do I have any latent spite that he underwhelmed on one of my fantasy basketball teams?

[Noncommittal assent].

A wide selection of clever clues and some fun entries. Nothing incredibly fresh, but the blasts from the past are appropriate to CALCULATOR WATCH, indeed.

OPPOSITES ATTRACT crossword constructors. There's something so alluring about finding entries containing opposites, and OFF / ON A LARK, BIG / LITTLE LIES, LEFT / RIGHT AWAY, and OUT / IN FRONT are solid examples. They're all themer-worthy phrases, and it's neat that LEFT RIGHT AWAY uses the meaning of RIGHT so differently.

It's elegant to have the themers isolated out in front. It makes them so easy to notice — you don't need to circle or highlight them, even for early-week solvers.

Although this is a great presentation for newbs, I fondly remember some more complicated offerings. I enjoyed having to suss out hidden opposites and the creativity involved with embedded opposites.

Interesting fill choice in TAME IMPALA. It's not my jam, but it's easy to suss out the two recognizable words. I'm sure fans of the group will appreciate the inclusion. Early-week solvers will appreciate the explanatory clue, too.

Uno ESOS or OSO, ICI or there, no biggie. Three is a lot, though, from a single category in many editors' lists to avoid. DO NOT feels partialish as well, and the ETHNO prefix isn't great. Are these worth the double-double bonuses in SUPERFOOD / SOUR BEER and LATTE ART / TAME IMPALA? This sounds like a Buzz Beer advertisement!

I'm sure this won't be the last time we see OPPOSITES ATTRACT, but this is a solid early-week version of it.

Break it up! LUCKY BREAKS = lucky objects broken across grid entries. The fresh term SESH (slang for "session") is inside HORSESHOE — talk about a lucky break!

NUMB / ERSE / VENOM works, although ERSE is called out on many editors' spec sheets since dictionaries list this word as "dated." Scottish/Irish fiction fascinates me (Read The Scorpio Races!) so I'm fine with it, but it's not the best to highlight. A shame that symmetry didn't allow for NUMB / ERS / EVENED. I might have pushed to flaunt symmetry (the horror!) for this purpose.

NUMBER SEVEN ... them's the breaks for those of us from different cultures. Being Taiwanese-American, I go both ways with lucky numbers, but I draw the line at lucky bird poop.

I loved how wildly HORSESHOE broke across ABHOR / SESH / OEUF, so much so that I hardly minded OEUF, also called out on specs sheets everywhere. It'd be fun to brainstorm, trying for similarly wild splits like SHOO / TIN / GST / AR.

RAIN / BOW and SHAM / ROCK fill out the concept. It's a shame that they split mundanely along syllabic lines.

It felt jarring to break lucky things. Would UNLUCKY BREAKS create a stronger a-ha? VLADIMIR / RORSCHACH, MOCHA / INLET / TERSE, etc.

A couple of great cluing touches helped liven the solve. Even this baseball non-enthusiast enjoyed [Left base?] as THIRD. And it's so hard to enliven common entries like DOE and ATM, but [Mommie deer-est?] made me laugh, and [Where bills get passed] misdirects so well toward congress.

"Broken words" puzzles tend to suffer from start-and-stop syndrome — there are a ton of short words by necessity — but there was enough to keep me engaged, especially with the ingenious last themer split.

Programming challenge! Finding phrases in the form of X Y Z, where X = (Z minus an L) isn't Herculean, but nor is it trivial. Results of my program:

• BACK IN BLACK
• FIGHT OR FLIGHT
• PAY TO PLAY

That's the very definition of a tight set! The fact that no other possibilities exist lends a touch of elegance.

Since it's easy to tweak computer code, I tested out other variations on this TAKE AN L idea. While LEGGO MY EGGO or OOMPA LOOMPA were interesting, they didn't have enough other possibilities to flesh out their sets.

What is the bizarre-looking TAKEANL, you might ask? I asked the same question when BEQ debuted it back in 2020. I still have not heard anyone say it in real life, but I run in either the 50-year old crowd or with my kids. My son's 6-year old soccer teammates would have no idea that they took an L last week, even though they kicked it into their own goal eight times.

Some vocab and proper nouns today that aren't commonly seen in the crossworld. I was all ready to alert Will Shortz about a typo in a clue, but Grammy-winning Anderson .PAAK has a cool stylization in his stage name. Younger folks might have trouble with the NIETO / SPUTNIK crossing, but I was happy that my basic Spanish and interest in the history of the space race came in handy.

Although I didn't connect with the theme idea because TAKE AN L isn't in my wheelhouse, the tightness of the set — and the fact that the middle words didn't repeat! — piqued my constructor's interest.

Rebus! FOUR CORNERS explains the FOUR CORNERS states spread to the corners of the grid. I wondered at first why the Four Corners states were so oddly separated from each other — isn't the interesting thing about them that they meet? — but the alternate interpretation of them being in the grid's four corners is different and fun.

There are few constraints to work with — only FOUR CORNERS, plus the four rebus squares — so there's huge potential for sizzling, smooth fill. Matthew didn't disappoint, his well-honed construction skills shining through.

The most impressive factor was that he managed to work the four rebus squares into not just one fantastic entry apiece, but pairs of fantastic entries. LEAN O(N M)E would have been fine by itself, but having that NM also in IRO(N M)AN = an Avengers Assemble moment.

(To clarify, ON ME would have worked, but it's so much more boring than IRON MAN.)

But check out what else he worked in: TRIAGED, FLOTUS, POT ROASTS, FILL ME IN, PINE TAR. That's not just great material in the four corners, it's from coast to coast.

The FOUR CORNERS region has been riffed on many a time, from one that mimicked the actual geography, to a beautiful UTAH STATE idea, to many more. I enjoyed today's creative interpretation, although having the rebus squares in rotationally symmetrical spots (shift the UT down one, the NM to the left, and AZ up and to the right) would have been an elegant touch.

Last year, Christina Iverson asked me to go in on a themeless featuring YOUR OTHER RIGHT. I loved, loved, loved that as a seed entry. The NYT team ultimately thought our final product didn't make the cut, but I was still happy to see it debut today. Such a smile-inducing phrase.

It will be when my kids finally figure out left vs. right, that is.

I admire the attempt at a LEFT / RIGHT mini-theme. Great that LEFT is on the left, and RIGHT is on the RIGHT, too. The phrase WHAT ELSE IS LEFT, though … I'm sure it gets said, but I wouldn't strive to seed a themeless with it. I'd have adored the mini-theme if it had been something like YOUR OTHER LEFT and THAT AINT RIGHT.

There are only 12 long (8+ letters) entries in the puzzle, some of which are one-worders. There's nothing inherently better about multi-worders, but editors seek them out since they often bring the heat. RESCUE DOG is excellent! ELECTIVES isn't as strong.

Of course, not all multi-worders are created equal. TIRE FIRES does appear to be in the language, but the Wikipedia article only has a short reference to today's slangy usage.

The cluing helped elevate the solve, Matthew and Nam Jin's time and effort show through. MASSEUSES is pretty good for a single-worder, but when you get tricksy with [Their customers lie for them] — wow, what a delight it becomes! The same goes for the everyday TOOTHPICK, a literal "stick in one's mouth."

Well above average in cluing delight. Even with the sky-high bar for 70-word themelesses, an adjustment to the mini-theme, and it'd have been in POW! territory.

Editors don't take many repeated word themes these days, because as you might have guessed, they're too repetitive. Once you figure out that you have to double the first word of each entry, the jig is up and the puzzle is done. Given the genre's decades-long history, it takes a lot to attract editorial attention, but doubling up doubled-up themers with strong execution goes a long way.

(You had to know my obsessiveness would force me to write code to find other possible entries. I found about a dozen more, including SAME OLD SAME OLD, NEW YORK NEW YORK, AND SO ON AND SO ON …)

It is incredibly difficult to stack themers. Stacking five pairs of them — one of which is 16 letters long!) — is asking for trouble. I'm amazed by the grid's clean execution. I can only imagine how much shuffling must have happened; thankfully all those 10-letter theme entries are interchangeable.

I bet only 22 out of 222,222 solvers noticed that the grid is 22x22. Neat touch, given the DOUBLE DOUBLES theme.

Great decision to put MONACO, MONACO (Monaco city, Monaco principality) up top. I was sure I knew what was going on after uncovering SISTER SISTER, but the oddity of MONACO MONACO made me doubt myself. Helped to retain the aura of mystery, at least for a little while.

I was able to jump to each long Across slot and fill in the answer right away, which usually makes my solving experience a huge disappointment — the puzzle is over before it even started. However, overcoming the MONACO MONACO hitch and still whizzing through made me feel smart today, like I could imagine running with the Tyler Hinmans and Dan Feyers of the world one day.

★ Such a cool grid pattern! At first, it looked asymmetrical because those L-blocks looked like they were going every which way, but once I tilted my head 45 degrees counterclockwise, all was right in my crossworld again. I enjoy diagonal symmetry, and the L-blocks look like little arms and legs of a person jumping up and down for joy. Super cool.

A lot of debut entries, too. None boast of cutting-edge freshness, but oh, the clever, accessible clues! MATH TESTS indeed have their own problems — and solutions! HEAD FAKES in basketball get defenders moving the wrong way all the time.

Even shorties like ERASE were elevated with amazing wordplay. [Off the mark?] isn't an adjective, but a verb + noun. Brilliant stuff.

Saving the best for last, an ordinary NAIL FILE becomes so much more with the bland-seeming [Digital tool]. In today's day and age, I go straight to the digital/analog meaning every time, and I give up the slow clap when I finally realize it's the "fingers as digits" meaning yet again.

I did have to put down the puzzle and return to the upper right, such a tough corner. Everything is fair, but I couldn't make myself buy TGIF as a [Freedom cry, for some], since freedom cries are nothing to pun about. Everything finally fell when this art idiot realized that maybe he could guess at Bosch's "The Last Judgment." When in doubt, guess something with common letters, alternating consonant-vowel. Appropriate that the puzzle fell because of the fall of EDEN.

All this goodness in a squeaky-clean grid? Matthew's jumping-for-joy grid art describes my solving experience so well.

PARLOR TRICK, what a delightful title for a PANCHINKO puzzle! I stepped inside a PACHINKO parlor once during a business trip to Tokyo. I immediately clapped my hands to my ears against the deafening din of metal balls plinking to the background of electronically-generated background beeps. Even then, I couldn't help but watch through the window, mesmerized by the random paths of those steel BBs.

I wish the O balls weren't circled. Once I got the first few, I figured the rest might also be Os, and that was that. I'd have enjoyed uncovering the path much more, like in a repeated I string puzzle from years ago.

The grid is immaculately clean, nearly free of gluey short fill. That's an amazing feat, given that even the most experienced constructors need some gloops to hold a Sunday 140-word puzzle together. Even more impressive, given that the Os take away so much flexibility, "triple-checking" so many squares (having to work with Across, Down, and diagonal directions).

There's usually some trade-off required though, and there was some tough vocab sprinkled throughout. I can figure out (ish) what an ISOPOD and a PHONEME are from etymology. ALVEOLAR … related to alveoli? Sort of. Ish. The SACHER torte tasted vaguely familiar to this "Great British Bake-off" fanatic. Not so much Giovanni Battista TIEPOLO or the kitten's TOE BEAN.

I appreciated the effort to do something different, and even more so, visually appealing. High marks for replication of the PACHINKO experience, along with some dings for the mixture of way-too-easy and incredibly difficult aspects of the solve.

Fantastic clue for the headline entry, WIRELESS CHARGER. [Modern source of juice] ... given that Matthew and Sid are two headliners of crosswording's new wave, I figured it must be some superfood I'm too uncool to know about — a secret menu item that you need to ask for while flashing the Generation Alpha decoder signet ring. Juicy clue, indeed.

EVIL EMPIRE, what a image-laden phrase! This huge "Star Wars" dork hitched, since it was called the Galactic Empire, not the EVIL EMPIRE. Some even argue it wasn't totally evil, but who are we to argue with Wikipedia?

And who could forget Reagan's ominous EVIL EMPIRE speech?

Oh, right. Generation Alpha.

Spotted in the same region as EVIL EMPIRE: WARCRAFT, I DARE YOU, RED ALERT, TELL NO ONE. Difficult to RELAX with such a menacing build-up.

I was much more enamored with the clever cluing that made boring entries like GUESTS sing. I, unfortunately, know many, many people who can be friendly while patronizing. Thanks, but please don't patronize my store!

I tripped on the SAME LOVE / RIMA (tough foreign VERBIAGE) crossing, so I looked up the Macklemore song. (Our local cookie shop features a Mackles'more — the owner is friends with him!) Glad I did, because apparently, this song was groundbreaking for LGBT+ rights issues. I wish the clue had even hinted at this. I fear that some solvers will gloss over the entry as just another song.

I appreciate how both Matthew and Sid have pushed the envelope of inclusiveness, trying to do so in a way that encourages instead of being teachy. I could have used more of their voices today, as the puzzle felt like an average Friday. Still, I'm glad that SAME LOVE is now in my knowledge base.

We've seen a lot of rainbow puzzles over the years, and this one is an excellent addition to the mix. DOUBLE RAINBOW perfectly describes what's going on; the colors in ROY G. BIV all doubled within vertical theme answers. Also, a couple of great phrases. BABY YODA is such a nice way to work in the double-Y.

Perfect use of mirror symmetry, too. Some editors are staunchly set on regular (180-degree rotational) symmetry, only allowing left-right when absolutely necessary. It's hard to imagine how to pull this one off using regular symmetry.

Seven sets of fixed placements is a daunting filling task, and Vaibhav and Matthew did well. There's something pleasing about the regularity of the doubled letters spaced out every other row. Excellent deployment of black squares to separate the themers, too.

Perhaps BOWSAW, HALVA, and YELENA are tough, that last one especially because it crosses NINOS. As a diehard Avengers fan, I recognized Black Widow's given name, but it didn't come easily. I love HALVAh with the final H, although it does look like several sources list it without. Taking a second look, it seems fine either way since it's a transliteration.

Regular readers will have already guessed that Jim Horne burst into cackling laughter when I wondered if the seven pairs of letters could have been more arc-like instead of a caret. Regular readers would also be surprised if I didn't delve in to see if that was possible. After two hours, I did find a way, but only by spreading out the seven pairs so RR and VV were in columns 1 and 15, which destroyed the every-other-column pattern. Arc shape or every-other-column pattern? I prefer the former but can see the merits of the latter.

Overall, a fantastic puzzle. This would have been an easy POW! pick if the rainbow (and my head) hadn't been so pointy.

★ I love so many things about this puzzle. Such bang-up theme phrases, lending a feeling of recency and freshness. CANNABIS OIL is a big business in Seattle these days. POLITICAL ACTIVISTS is such a sparkly phrase. RACHEL MADDOW's celebrity crossword was the most viewed puzzle in XWord Info's history. DUAL CITIZENS is another standout. Huge props for such fantastic selections.

Even more so, given the theme constraint! ART and LIT are easy to work with, but CHEM, CALC, LATIN, not nearly as much. I appreciated that Priyanka and Matthew broke the shaded letters across words of a phrase for almost all themers. ELITE STAT(U)S was the lone outlier, but it's a saucy phrase, which helps make up for not being like the others.

The meta layer was too obvious — within a few letters, I could tell the circled letters were going to spell CUT CLASS — but it's an apt extra layer to elevate the puzzle. Perfectly describes what's happened to all the classes hidden in the theme phrases.

I also appreciate that Priyanka and Matthew didn't try to do to much with their eight-themer grid, sticking at 140 words. Yet they still managed to squeeze out a lot of juice, taking full advantage of their many mid-length slots. AHI TUNA, EN GARDE, IT WAS ME!, SON OF A …, SAMOVAR, STAND UP comedy, the TIBETAN Dalai Lama — it added so much spice to my solve.

JUDO GI is something that some editors have frowned upon (same with KARATE GI), but I'm a big fan of this entry. Maybe you don't know what it is by name, but you've definitely seen many of them. And TSAI Ing-wen as the first female President of Taiwan is definitely crossworthy. I'm hopefuly that Taiwan's emerging democracy continues to work past its rocky start.

"Hidden words" themes are falling out of favor in crosswords, but as with any tried-and-true genres, an extra layer can make a puzzle sing. This concept, similar to one by Paolo Pasco that also delighted me, is something I'd be happy to see more of in Sunday puzzles. Encore!

A rare sighting of diagonal symmetry, only the ninth in the Shortz era. Three have employed it for grid art reasons, my favorite evoking BENJAMIN FRANKLIN's kite. One explained it using a mathy SYMMETRIC MATRIX rationale, two more were Joe Krozel's ultra-low-block-count pair built on the same grid design, leaving only two other random themelesses.

Why don't more constructors use diagonal symmetry? It opens up new possibilities, with long answers intersecting each other in places we usually don't see. MELTING POT crossing WALL TO WALL at the L, CHICAGO BEARS setting off GLITTER BOMBS (reminds me of the flashy Jim McMahon days) — these are individually possible in themelesses with regular symmetry, although they would call for much different layouts.

One reason to shy away from diag sym is that not all editors enjoy non-standard symmetry. There isn't a searchable repository of LA Times themelesses, but I'm 95% confident that Rich Norris hasn't published more than a tiny sprinkling (if any?). In an era when there's a drenching oversupply of themelesses from constructors and a minuscule pool of publishers, it's hard to give anyone a potential reason to say no.

I'm glad this one made it through the gauntlet, the visual effect strikingly different. Aside from aesthetics, this diagonal symmetry allows for a different distribution of long/short entries. Matthew features a whopping 20 slots of 8+ letters, way more than the average of 12-14. Getting so much DO NOT EAT, PR AGENCY, LEGO MOVIE, LIONS MANE was a treat.

I wasn't as wild about some of the wastage, DETACHES, IN RETURN, SESTINAS, STEADIES more neutral than assets. Along with the side effect of requiring more 4- and 5-letter entries than usual, giving a start-and-stop feel to the solve, it didn't wow me overall.

What did impress was the number of great wordplay clues. [Ground shaking stuff?] is in Clue of the Year territory — as in PEPPER that's ground and shaken on salads. Standing O for that!

I'd love to see more unusual symmetries in themelesses, but I can understand why constructors (myself included) are hesitant. Given how many themelesses I solve, I relish being treated to the PEPPERy spice of life.

A couple of perfect "off brand" examples today, the SPANISH ARMADA no doubt an "old navy." The big winner was [General mills?], changing the meaning of "mills," as in "puppy mills." Funny to think of MILITARY ACADEMIES as places churning out legions of yapping generals.

OLD MACDONALD as a "jolly rancher" didn't work as well, since nowhere does the song describe him as full of good cheer. If anything, I'd imagine him as tortured as he tries to get all his work done amidst the cacophony.

(Speaking of noise, check out "Clarkson's Farm"—entertaining, but it also gave me an appreciation for how hard farmers work. Especially while having to deal with all of Clarkson's noise.)

Fantastic fill in GOD COMPLEX. LEGAL FEES enhanced my solving experience, too. Even HEPTAGONS, which I typically wouldn't consider great fill, became just that with the interesting trivia. Curious why the 20 pence coin would be a HEPTAGON — wouldn't it make more sense for a 7 pence coin? Brits!

Also, a handful of excellent wordplay clues. [Help when writing a letter] made me think of handwritten letters to family members. Great misdirect away from STENCIL, which helps in writing a (single) letter. Repurposing "rough patch" for THICKET was equally brilliant.

I get a lot of mail from people telling me to quit putting so many damn names in my puzzles. I sympathize with their plight, so I try to keep my own puzzles to mainly words and phrases, but there's validity in the other school of thought. LAYSHIA Clarendon is no doubt crossworthy, as the first openly transgender WNBA player. I appreciate that there's no teachiness to the clue — it's simply a fact, and one that some solvers will love seeing in their crossword. If that's not you, that's okay. As Erik Agard (USA Today crossword editor) says, if today's puzzle isn't for you, maybe tomorrow's will be.

I enjoyed the concept, creative thinking to come up with a lot of on-point examples. The telltale lack of capitalization in the theme clues and the giveaway question marks reduced the impact, though. Maybe some sort of headline-ish ALL-CAPS approach could have produced bigger ahas?

Solid "stairstack" offering, with some great long entries running through that central triplet. This nerd enjoys hearing people say NERD ALERT when I walk into a room (how did my kids learn to do this, by the way?), and EDELWEISS is not only a memorably defiant song from "The Sound of Music," but it's surprisingly tricky to weave into a grid, with its W.

My first impression of the solve was that it was a bit macho for my taste, given MR WORLDWIDE, Scorsese's MEAN STREETS, and the curious nickname "Big Donkey" for Adam DUNN. I'm not going to ask.

However, there's a lot of content that balances this. I loved the fresh clue for EXES, referencing the Cardi B lyric. NIKE clued to the Goddess, not the shoe. DRESSY. All of this helped dilute the testosterone.

I dug the wordplay and fun throughout the clues. AISLES was the big winner, playing on "long division." Literally, an aisle is a long division (of seating sections)! ETSY clued as a site for "crafty sorts" is amusing. And that Doris M. Smith quote, "Arguing with a fool proves there are TWO," is so witty.

Beautifully smooth puzzle, but for a 70-worder, there was potential left on the table with TOP STORIES and DATA FORMAT not doing much for me. Both could have risen to highlights if they didn't have such straightforward clues. For example, STAIRWELLS isn't exciting by itself, but misdirecting with "a lot of steps" sure elevated it.

Get it? Elevated? Because it's a stairwell? Heading up?

Or more aptly, heading down, like this joke.

★ I love the aesthetics of the unusual black square "canes" — reminds me of a CANDY CANES puzzle Mary Lou and I did years back. And from a constructor's point of view, it also allows for juicy quasi-sectioning of the grid. Once you get a rough idea of what the middle might look like, you can start to work on each of the four corners independently. That's so valuable, allowing you to segment the grid into smaller, much more manageable chunks.

There were so many fantastic long entries jam-packed in, starting with FILL ME IN, hearkening to the great Ryan and Brian podcast. Check it out when you can; they're fun to listen to.

I just finished "Money Heist" and am going through serious withdrawal, so I loved uncovering HEIST FILMS. EVIL EMPIRE nearby could have made the puzzle's tone too dark, but cluing it to the sci-fi trope made it sing.

I had to laugh at my sheer stupidity, putting in UMM for a sound chewing on a pencil and thinking that GENERATION ALPUA was some gen-alpua term that made fun of people like me. HMM, indeed. I didn't know that they moved from Gen-Z to Generation ALPHA, but I have to admit that it's just a hair more logical than my thinking.

Speaking of making fun, BOOBOISIE's clue felt ... bad. The term amused me to no end years ago, a flagrantly offensive portmanteau of boob and bourgeoise, but I worried that it could feel like it was thumbing its nose at solvers, so I made sure to clue it to the source (Mencken). The clue today felt ... insulting? Condescending? It's okay if I call myself a boob, but not if you do. So what if it's true?!

DONK gave me a smile, as my son often donks his sister on the head. I shouldn't laugh, but if you can't laugh, you cry. Hopefully, the DONK / TRINI cross didn't bam-boob-zle anyone.

Although I had a few reservations, there was so much to love; so many vivid long entries are carefully woven together, a feat of construction. Even when you lock down a possible middle like EVIL EMPIRE / GENERATION ALPHA / HEIST FILMS, one or more quadrants don't cooperate. Amazing that Sid and Matthew were able to wrangle them all so smoothly.

Plays on KARAOKE BARS, phrases ending with "bar" punnily describing a song. Kicking things off with FLY ME TO THE MOON as "space bars," i.e., musical "bars" about space, gave me a friendly start. I'm not good with pop music, but I listen to a ton of old-school jazz. Sinatra doesn't exactly qualify, but I've played Count Basie's FLY ME TO THE MOON dozens of times.

Not so much luck with POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME or DANCING ON MY OWN, but the themed hints gave me a leg up. You might ask, who the heck pours sugar on candy? If you don't know, you don't have young kids. Although Robyn was new to me, DANCING ON MY OWN is perfect for [Singles bars?].

It struck me that all the featured performers are from pop — no R&B, soul, rap, K-pop, Tejano, etc. More pointedly, they're almost all white.

I figured there might be some reason I didn't understand, and I didn't want Matthew to feel called out — I worry that this tone of communication results not just in zero results, but negative ones, by making people defensive and thus causing them to entrench further — so I reached out to him. We had a useful discussion about the dilemma of being a newer constructor, trying to do everything to get published amid an ultra-competitive field. Sometimes that involves guessing at what might be deemed "mainstream" or "widely accessible" to Will Shortz, and going with what seems like the safest route.

Don't misinterpret my comments as absolving the NYT from responsibility. I think they should have kicked this one back, to better target a broader range of their solving audience. I'm only trying to help a newer constructor to not feel skewered, especially because he clearly regrets the issue, and to shed light on a common problem among newer constructors.

Additionally, Sundays are in such high demand; I'd encourage constructors to take chances. They won't always be successful, but constructors that keep to tried-and-true paths aren't memorable.

Some delightful clues, always such a benefit to help buoy oneself through a full 21x21 solve. WATER as something that's "well-kept," things you lose as you age as HAIR—I mean, IDEALS. And [Did a little lifting]! No giveaway question mark required, a mischievous misdirect toward pumping iron, away from PILFERING.

Solid debut Sunday. If he could do it again, I'm confident Matthew would choose a set of songs that tickled a wider range of solvers—or at least one tune that spoke to different customer demographics. Don't let that take away from his above-average Sunday gridwork: little glue, plus a few strong STAR PUPIL IM ALL SET bonuses.

Basketball theme! For us fantasy basketball nerds, this is our time, this is our puzzle. My friend and I have Lonzo Ball on our team, and we debated mightily over Zion Williamson. He's a man playing among boys, yes, but he hasn't been able to replicate his fearsome defense from his Duke days, and he craters free throw goal percentage all on his own. We ended up spending that money on Ben Simmons, who gives us prized assists and even rebounds, plus notching steals and even a few 3s. Free throw percentage is still a worry, but—

Fine, I'll talk about the puzzle!

Unless you want to hear about my punt-two-categories-and-float-five-of-seven philosophy?

Neither did my wife.

I enjoy NBA analysis — not the games, but the analysis, mind you — not surprising given my obsession with over-evaluating everything. I appreciated Matthew's effort to tighten the theme with THE X Y pattern, but it didn't quite work, since I expected THE HORNET'S ___. (Isn't "The Horent's Nest" a thing?) If you're going to go for tightness and consistency, make sure to go all the way.

It's a shame my hometown Warriors aren't representing, especially given Curry's return to dominance. (THE) WAY OF THE WARRIOR? Only works inelegantly; sigh.

With only three themers, I'm glad Matthew opened things up, aiming for a ton of great bonuses. SAY CHEESE and DRAINPIPE work well, and HIT THE WEIGHTS / CUTE AS A BUTTON are great. I bet one more pair is possible, perhaps removing the black square between CHIC and PRICK. (There's a Freudian pairing!)

It'd be interesting to open up the theme to all possibilities, entries like OLD SCHOOL JAZZ (Stockton and Malone), ROCKET LAUNCH (Charles Barkley pogoing over taller players for a rebound), SPUR OF THE MOMENT — will someone please tell my co-manager that we're not going to take a chance on picking up the Spurs's Patty Mills, for God's sake, his ceiling is so low, oh right, you stopped listening.

Fine puzzle, although like this commentary, it may appeal to bball fans much more than everyone else.