Oliver Roeder author page

I have a truly marvelous explanation of this theme which the margin is too narrow to contain!

I'm glad it's been almost a year since the last outside the grid puzzle — spacing them out helps keep the concept fresh. There are so many now that we've put together yet another puzzle page. Because our home page isn't enough of a link salad yet.

I'm engrossed in Ollie's new book, Seven Games, so kicking off the grid with (M)ATED tickled me. So many other fun touches, too, like ATARI not clued as the video game company, but the Go reference.

There's a trick to constructing a grid like this: instead of starting with a 15x16 grid (note that it's 16 tall, to accommodate perfect spacing of M A R G I N), start with a 17x16. Put M A R G I N in columns 1 and 7, then black out all the remaining squares in those columns. Proceed to fill as usual.

Because ANNOTATION and MARGINALIA are the only real themers, there's a ton of filling flexibility. I appreciated that Oliver took advantage of this to make some of his theme answers sing — ART TEACHER, PGA TOUR, DRY MARTINI — and squeeze a ton of color into the long fill. It almost has a themeless feel, with so much DR TEETH, B PICTURE, HOME TEAM, OPEN MRIS.

Because we've seen so many "write outside the grid" themes by now, it did feel thin in theme density. I'd also have liked something more playful, since MARGINALIA pointing to two M A R G I Ns in the margins felt repetitive. I'd have loved some riff on Pascal's note, or perhaps an extra layer, like MARGINALLY hinting at F R I E N D and P A I S A N in the margins.

However, there was a lot of fill to enjoy, including a devious 1-Across clue that fit perfectly with both MATED and MATE, the latter of which I confidently dropped in. And I can't recommend Ollie's book highly enough! If you thought that checkers was a silly kids' game, Ollie's piece about the world's greatest checkers player was a page turner.

I had the pleasure to hang out with Ollie at the ACPT a few years ago. I've rarely met anyone with such a wide range of interests — and who's so skilled at so many of them. He publicized Saul Pwanson's data and analysis about the Timothy Parker plagiarism scandal at 538, so the crossworld owes him a big debt of gratitude. Check out his book of puzzles, BTW. I've had fun trying to work them out. I'm still stuck on the first one, but I'll get it by the time I'm age 538.

I'm not simply being modest about my slowness. Exhibit B: I solved the OAT rebus squares, saw that they were arranged in a circular shape, and the revealer was CEREAL BOXES. Then I asked Jim Horne if he was bothered by some cereals not having OATs as ingredients.

"Are Cheerios — the circular cereal made of OATs — not as popular in America as they are in Canada?" Jim asked, trying mightily to allow me to save face.

It's a shame that Ollie didn't write a "For Dummies" version of his book.

I had a tough time with the south section, this finance guy only vaguely knowing Robert FOGEL, and MOILS not registering as a word. Along with THE GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) tough to see as part of a rebus, that nearly did me in.

I had to guess on RIALTO / BARI but got it right. Better to be lucky than good! I admire Ollie's audacity, picking longish theme answers in both Across and Down directions; for example, FIT TO A TEE and BLOATWARE. Made for some rough trade-offs in short fill, though.

I'd have loved CHEERIO as a secondary revealer, clued as [Brit's "ta-ta" … and a hint to the shape formed by six squares]. That's too much theme material, though. This is a rare case where I wanted the puzzle to expand into a Sunday grid, allowing more room for the secondary revealer, as well as even more long themers as strong as COAT OF ARMS.