Paul Steinberg author page

GRECO-ROMAN wrestling in today's grid, pairs of analogous gods crossing each other — fun concept for this lover of all things mythological. A shame that ARES and MARS didn't get a chance to go to war.

Why not, you might ask? Couldn't they cross at the A or the R? Yes, but I like Karen and Paul's choice to employ long names. POSEIDON, ARTEMIS, DEMETER, and DIONYSUS are hard to ignore during the solve, as they're some of the beefiest entries in the puzzle, whereas poor ARES and MARS might have gotten lost in the shuffle.

Fun touch to have IM SO DEAD crossing GRECO-ROMAN, too, considering how those old bastards' penchant for killing on a whim. That story of Apollo and Marsyas always spooked the heck out of me, not to mention Procrustes' habit of chopping off legs.

Not MEDIA SHY, were they!

Excellent bonuses woven into the fill, a la Athena. There's so much beauty in D LISTER, SNOW PEA, SPARE ME, TUMMIES, IMPASSE, which is a Sisyphean task in a grid featuring four pairs of crossing themers plus a central revealer. Every time you have one, two, then three corners done, whammo! That stone flattens you, and you have to start back up the hill.

There is some SSE EIN ESO and Zeus-forsaken MNO, but every crossword grid must have flaws or risk the wrath of the great goddess Cruciverba. We all know what happened to Arachne when she dared to risk perfection …

Such an apt revealer to breathe Promethean life into this puzzle.

REDUCING FRACTIONS is exactly the revealer I wanted! I'm so glad David pointed that out because it strongly pulls the concept together. I couldn't remember that term for the life of me, but now I can casually toss it around as I continue faking being a genius around my kids.

Neat progression, from 4/8 to 2/4 to 1/2. That sure was hard to see during my solve, though, and without a revealer, I missed the consistent steps until well after I finished.

Part of that was I was convinced the last one was 1/9, as in TOP (of the) NINTH, but TOP HALF does fit the clue. It's a shame that this themer didn't sing nearly as much as HALF-CAF. The layout is so constrained that it didn't take me long to search out and evaluate any other possibilities. I might have preferred HALF TIME and ON BEHALF (of), but not being able to include the (of) makes ON BEHALF half strange.

Interesting clue for VOODOO. I was only vaguely aware that it was a religion, and I had no idea it had Catholic influences.

Although SEAS is much more common in crossword grids than VOODOO, I found it almost as fun because of the delightful clue. "Naval gazing," indeed. And FORMAL's clue was hardly formal, misdirecting to a coin toss in [Calling for tails, maybe]. These touches were a big help as I pushed through my frustration.

I love the concept, and this would have gotten my POW! if some sort of REDUCING FRACTIONS revealer had been in play. Perhaps split it 8 / 9 in two nearby slots? That opens up a can of worms in grid construction, but it sure would have packed a huge punch.

★ You know what they say: the family that crosses words together never says cross words to get her!

Well, they should.

I loved seeing the three pics here: son, mother, and father, each contributing to the creation. I'll remember this one for that aspect alone.

Some great finds, too, especially those involving a space change. NO REG(R)ETS split into BERGERON and BERETS is excellent. And what a winner in DE(P)OSITION forking into PLUMPED / PLUM POSITION!

I didn't notice the Notepad until well after finishing, but I'm glad I did. I assumed that the circled letters had to be random because getting them to spell something out while adhering to the theme constraint and crossword symmetry would be near impossible. The key word is "near!" Spelling out SEPARATE separated this one from the pack.

All that, plus mid-length fill! Seven-letter slots often work best with boring entries like CHAPTER, so BIG NEWS, BODY ART, DETOXES, KASHMIR, MASCARA, PROGENY, TRILOGY add so much spice.

Entertaining discoveries all tied together with a solid meta-answer, put together by a family all contributing their parts? I could hardly ask for more.