Peter Wentz author page

There's a fine line between bold and aggravating, and I can't decide where ZXCVBNM stands. As I type it, that string of characters seems incredible! As I was solving on paper, though, attempting to picture a keyboard was … not.

Peter has such a knack for 68-word themeless construction. I appreciate that he usually tries to do something different, all the while upholding his incredibly high standards. Today, the grid pattern jumped out at me, the S S and pyramid blocks so mesmerizing. Fun to feature MONKEY BREAD crossed with DOUGHBOY, too.

I wasn't entirely sure what MONKEY BREAD was, and PEACE DOLLAR and SEA RATS also didn't register. However, the latter two were easy enough to piece together, both composed of recognizable words plausibly related to Lady Liberty and pirates, respectively.

Peter's themelesses often shine in their clever cluing, and today was no exception. Kicking things off at 1-Across, [First person?] is usually a clever clue for ADAM. Repurposing the phrase in a different way, getting at the first person to finish — the WINNER — takes things to a gold medal.

[Bags one might have when tired?] is the real winner, though. Talk about lateral thinking, making the connection from bags under the eyes to caffeine to TEAbags. Love it.

There was a lot of sparkle, evocative MAO SUIT, interesting trivia that Tatooine was DEATH VALLEY, and PRIDE PARADE. That last one is already a great entry, and making me misguess at June weddings made it even better. Along with his trademark 68-word clean-as-a-whistle construction — something few constructors can even achieve once — it's another solid Wentz offering.

Everything started out so well, popping in POP A SHOT without a second thought. I played so much POP A SHOT with my Little Brother (through Big Brothers) back in the day that I still taunt him about scoring so many points on him that he cried.

What, don't give me that EVIL LOOK! Tough love taught him to up his game. (Last time we played one-on-one, he schooled me, and this pop was shot.)

I struggled mightily after dropping in UPPED THE ANTE and stubbornly refusing to believe it could be UPPED THE GAME even after it was the only thing that worked with the surrounding entries. Not a fan of this entry — UPPED THE ANTE or UPPED ONE'S GAME, absolutely. UPPED THE GAME downed my solving experience.

I grew up in the Bay Area, but the SAC(ramento) BEE eluded me. I imagine that Kings diehards will get more joy out of SACBEE than this longtime Warriors fan. Which is a good thing, given how terrible the Kings have been. When your roster includes a guy named Kyle Guy …

Inspired clue in [Inspired stuff]. Literally, AIR is inspired! Not so inspiring is signing Buddy Hield, a talented but streaky shooter, to a four-year deal worth $94M.

I was baffled by [Sta4nce, for instance]. Great click when I finally pieced REBUS together. That's a 4 literally in STANCE = FOR (in) STANCE. Solvers might groan at this one, but I loved it. That is when I finally understood it (four hours after finishing).

Some fantastic entries like PIZZA PARTY crossing GAZPACHO. Not nearly as much zing as I expect out of a Peter Wentz themeless, though.

QUINCY JONES has tallied 80 Grammy nominations? Whoa! As a former jazz musician, I've always been impressed by the fact that he started out touring with the great Lionel Hampton at the age of 20. He's also a local Seattle legend, as he went to Garfield High School, just a few miles away from me. Where my kids might go to school one day!

As if that wasn't enough, how about working on "Thriller" with Michael Jackson? Or producing "We Are the World"? Dude is amazing on so many levels. Even if you somehow haven't heard of him, there's a Q and a J for the crossworld to enjoy!

I also enjoyed the other parts of the stair stack, TURN TRAITOR and CRASH HELMET colorful. Great work threading PEP SQUAD, HO CHI MINH, JIMMY DEAN, and KNOTHOLE through. That's a fantastic backbone.

Parts of the puzzle made me pause, though, something I'm not used to in a Wentz grid. I slowed at ORE MINER, and my Google-fu failed me, leading mostly to various Minecraft-y games. DOS-A-DOS I've sometimes plunked into my own grids, thinking it was DO SI DOS (the square dance term). I'm fine with entries like AFRESH even though they tend to draw a lot of stink-eye from solvers, but to also get ABLAZE and AGLEAM felt like it wasn't A-okay.

I also mulled over SI SI SI. A crossword editor asked me about SI SI not long ago if I thought it carried stereotyping undertones that were at least unflattering, if not racist. I'm far from the most enlightened person on this one (although ask me about AH SO, I've got something to say about that), so referred to others who would know better. But there appeared to be some valid concerns from at least some Latino solvers.

Finally, I'd never say DOLL UP to any of my female friends, especially not to my wife. Some might think I was trying to be funny, and my wife … would not.

Loved the clue [Far from a popular spot]. What a great way to make an ordinary entry like ZIT (ahem) pop.

Amazing grid skeleton, the stair-stack so brilliant. I had too many pauses the rest of the way to give this one any POW! consideration, though.

The Great Wall of Chocolate! This Taiwanese kid sadly approves of PF CHANGS' Americanized its offerings. Imagine the look on my parents' faces when they first let me order something at an authentic Chinese restaurant, and I ordered sweet and sour pork. My ancestors died a little that day.

I'm generally a huge fan of Peter's work, but a handful of entries didn't click with me today. I worked so hard in the NW, chipping away at ROCK … to get ROCK RIBBED? That would have been fine — it's a phrase in real use, albeit its last NYT appearance was in 1991 — but I already had struggled with DECKLE in that region. I couldn't remember CLICKHOLE either, making for a trifecta of "things that make you go hmm." Not ODIOUS, but not delight-inducing, either.

So many dog entries / clues! RAT TERRIER is fun, BEGGED as [Sought a treat], SKYES, MAT as a thick layer of hair.

Perhaps that's too catty an observation.

This Bruce Lee fanboy knew WUSHU — his mentor was a leader in WUSHU — but that's a toughie crossing URIEL. Smart editorial decision to hint at the rhyming nature of WU SHU, otherwise it'd be too easy to drop in ORIEL or ARIEL.

A lot of clever clues, as with most Wentz products. My favorite was a call "overseas" — that's over seas — for AHOY MATE. [Lines of code] had this wannabe programmer trying out ROUTINE, PROGRAM, PROCESS, etc. Great misdirect away from BYLAWS.

I have an incredibly high bar for Peter — he's won a ton of POW!s — so this one didn't quite measure up to his oeuvre. Still, enough to enjoy.

I'm such a big fan of Peter's work. He already has seven POW!s from me, and each new one raises his bar. There was so much to enjoy in this one, JESUS LIZARD a worthy feature entry. I spend a lot of time adding to and curating our Word List, so it's a rare occurrence when such a fantastic entry isn't already in there.

AIR JORDAN / NERVE BLOCK / JV SOCCER — such a delightful trio, so meticulously woven together.

He's so strong with mid-length material, too. He shines through yet again with BUG OFF, OEDIPUS, BELL LAP, FLICKR, KEY CARD, FAKE ID, CANDOR. Talk about squeezing every last drop of potential out of your mid-lengthers!

As with every Wentz creation, it's easy to see how much time and care he puts into his grids.

What's hard to see is that today's puzzle is a 68-word grid. More often than not, it's easy to notice a 68-worder (in a bad way), since run-of-the-mill constructors almost always have to drain out some color and/or add some glue to make it work. Not Peter.

I could have easily picked this one for yet another POW!, and most weeks I would have. That lovely PANDA from yesterday is still making me fanboy-squee.

There are minor issues, like CADILLAC MAN isn't memorable, and the NW / SE are sectioned off enough that I got trapped in both.

Oh, there is one thing that did make me peeved. I got to the last square, and couldn't figure out what to put in. How could POD possibly mean [Peeved]? I looked up both words in several dictionaries and got madder and madder that I couldn't understand it. Man, was I PO'd!

Oh. Right. Maybe I should have read Peter's notes more carefully ...

All those are mostly non-issues, though. Another stellar puzzle from one of the best in the business.

Another meticulous construction from Peter Wentz, a master at the 68-worder. It's so difficult to put one of these together without any crossword glue, but I couldn't find a single dab. Such unyielding craftsmanship is rare. There's only one other person who comes to mind — the great Patrick Berry.

A couple of excellent feature entries, too. CLAYMATION always brings me back to the first time I saw the "Wallace and Gromit" series. So delightful! Crossing that with NBA JAM — I still say "Boom shakala!" much to the chagrin of my friends, who then pretend they don't know me — makes for a fun middle.

And BANJO PICK crossing BIONICS! Think of what a great musician Steve Austin could have been if he'd only applied himself.

Not as much color as I'm used to out of a Wentz grid, though. PEA JACKET and ASA GRAY sounded vaguely familiar. PLASMA TV got pulled down by the "obsolescent" tag in its clue (really, these are outdated already?). ON ITS END took up a valuable long slot, and I tilted my head and gave it the side-eye.

A CLAW HAMMER isn't just called a hammer?

I struggled mightily with SVEDKA, too. I'm not much of a drinker, but SKYY, Absolut, Finlandia, Grey Goose, Ketel One — I see those in bars frequently enough. Maybe Svedka's marketing team has been hitting the bottle a bit too much.

I loved the clue for DEBT. A matter of great interest, indeed — get it, interest? As in, interest you have to pay when you take out loans? Huh. I worry that this one won't interest as many people as it should.

Sometimes I worry that my critiques, always pushing for cleaner grids, have made some constructors go too far the other way. I'm all for a bit of imperfection here or there if it means more color and pizzazz in a solving experience.

★ The 68-word themeless construction is a tough task, and Peter is one of the masters at it. It is so hard to produce a 68-word product that shines with brilliant color while not causing hitches due to crossword glue. I advise newer constructors — heck, even experienced constructors — to stick to 70 or even 72-word grids, since the 68-word task almost always requires some trade-off (usually blah answers or a whole bunch of gloop).

Featuring 16 long slots within a 68-worder is usually asking for trouble. Taking up that much real estate, you're bound to leave potential on the table, needing to fill a couple of these slots with neutral entries. But AVERAGE JOE. DATING POOL. DEANS LIST. JUMBOTRON. PORTHOLES. What can you point to as a meh-only entry? Talk about IM ON A ROLL, CANT LOSE!

There could be questions about ALAN HALE. Not for this huge "Gilligan's Island" nerdboy, though.

Okay, you might argue over SKIN GAME. The Skins Game is common in golf lingo, but what is the phrase in the singular? The dictionary defines SKIN GAME as "a rigged gambling game, a swindle." Huh.

Great clues, lifting my already great solving experience to the heavens. ERNIE as the orange half of an iconic duo. (Raise your hand if your first thought went to the Trumps.) AB NEGATIVE misdirecting with [Type least likely to turn up in a hospital]. Not a healthy specimen who hardly gets sick, but the least common blood type.

And having spent a lot of time in the DATING POOL before meeting Jill, [All available options?] made me laugh. Such a great use of the word "available."

No doubt, this was a difficult puzzle, harder than most Fridays. Took me a long time to gain a toehold in the big NW corner. But the fact that I had to work hard to uncover such a slew of great entries only made my successful solve that much sweeter. Easy peasy POW!

I had much internal debate over this one. I loved it, and it was initially my POW! choice. There were so many great colorful entries and clever clues, INTERNET RADIO such a surprising and satisfying a-ha for [Pandora's domain]. I was sure it had to do with evils, Pandora's box, etc. Brilliant!

And a WAR MOVIE bringing box office bombs? Yes! This is the kind of stuff I'm used to seeing in a Wentz masterpiece.

SWISS MADE as [Watch words?] = fantastic repurposing of an everyday phrase.

Here's the thing, though. Having read "Between the World and Me," I plunked in TA NEHISI COATES right away. I felt so smart! And smug! I'm well-read! Brilliant! No doubt that he's an important contemporary writer.

But if you haven't heard of him — and I wouldn't blame you, as he's nowhere as famous as Ralph Ellison or Maya Angelou — it's impossible to figure out his name. If you don't happen to know ERIC BANA, that crossing is doomed. Same with a BRIS (where a mohel does a circumcision).

I also happened to know HART CRANE, but only from crosswords. I thought I was too lowbrow to have read him, but Jim (an extremely well-read person) didn't know him either. Boy, was I glad to hear that! Made me feel not quite so uneducated.

That's all to say that along with KT OSLIN (I knew her, Jim didn't), it felt like a lot of tough names. One or two toughies is fine, but too many of them and the puzzle feels like it's trying to educate rather than entertain. I'm much more in the latter camp than the former, so all of this made me rethink my initial POW! consideration.

I still really enjoyed the solving experience, especially since there was a lot of Wentzian color, with STAY AT HOME DAD, SPARE NO EXPENSES, ID NUMBER. It's still probably my favorite puzzle this week. I just wonder if it's aimed too strongly at people like me, and potentially off-putting to large chunks of the NYT's solving audience.

★ CROWD PLEASER indeed! Such a solid example of a stair stack themeless, Peter hitting on all marks.

A great stair stack starts with that oh-so-important middle triplet. CROWD PLEASER / PLAY THE PONIES / THE LEGO MOVIE provide so much zazz. Yes!

Then the NW / SE stacks — POP A PILL / AMAZONIA, and WHATS APP over SNAP CHAT = good usage of those slots.

And finally, where many stair stacks fall is in the SW / NE corners, so hard to execute on once the stair stack is fixed in place. THE CURE / PHONE SEX plus STARBASE / BEDTIMES = excellent work.

And of course, Peter is such a great gridder that he wove everything together with little to no crossword glue. Some will argue that ENO gets way too much expose for his level of fame, but I think he's crossworthy enough. And RNS might be hard to figure out if you don't know it (registered nurses).

I did wonder if POP A PILL was as on point as "pill popper." But ultimately I thought it was a solid 1-Across.

I also don't love THE CURE crossing THE LEGO MOVIE, at THE, but it's not a deal-breaker.

Terrific puzzle from one of the top themeless constructors around. It's not easy to work with 68-word grids, and Peter does it so elegantly.

Who would have known that so many phrases would have this property, that they start with two letters that stand for something, but those two letters also commonly stand for something else? Neat! PC LAB isn't "personal computer" but POLITICALLY CORRECT LAB.

Both Jim and I were befuddled by ANTE MERIDIEM DIAL. Neither of us knew what "Morning zoo" was (in the clue) — apparently, it's a common type of radio format? Huh.

I was doubly confused because I was SURE that the "a.m." in times was ANTE MERIDIAN. Drat! I've been getting that wrong all these years. It's confusing because the word ANTE MERIDIAN does mean "before noon." But a.m. is technically ANTE MERIDIEM.

Few of the resulting themers made me laugh, unfortunately. It's a lot of real estate taken up by stilted-sounding entries.

Thankfully, Peter is a strong constructor, and the solid grid made for a good solving exercise. Very few gluey bits, only ignorable AMOCO, SEM, FLA kinds of things. I did wonder if the RENATA / EVA crossing was fair. Is RENETA / EVE plausible if you haven't heard of either person? Probably not, but I'd sympathize with disgruntled solvers getting that square wrong.

Jim likes puzzles where you have to figure out the theme in order to solve the puzzle (or at least to finish it quickly). I appreciated this one from that perspective. I struggled mightily for a good solid 15 minutes without filling in a single themer, so it was a great relief when I finally figured out what was going on, sailing easily home after that. That was pretty cool.

Peter produces such remarkably smooth, clean themeless grids. Even more impressive, given that he's been generally working with lowish word counts. This 68-worder ought to have more than just EMS and GRES holding it together, but somehow, Peter weaved everything together such that you can't see any of the seams. Impressive craftsmanship.

I like when a puzzle has at least one feature entry that has a shot at being memorable. For me, something like SAY THE MAGIC WORD, BABY GOT BACK, or ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE makes a puzzle stand out in my head. This grid didn't have one of those for me.

But I can see the argument for the other side, that the latter two entries aren't as broadly appealing as the first, that themeless entries ought to stick with timeless entries that most everyone can figure out, like QUIET TIME or SHOPAHOLIC.

Different strokes.

I did enjoy most of the long entries, MBA DEGREE crossing NBA GAMES particularly pleasing. But there were others that felt a bit dated like I AM AMERICA (over 10 years old now, whoa!), and ERICA JONG, whose "Fear of Flying" was published almost 50 years ago.

Now, Peter and Will did elevate a lot of the entries via great clues. A FOAL gets up and running in a couple of hours = brilliant! Innocently repurposing "up and running" in a literal way is genius.

I didn't understand the MBA DEGREE clue at first — why would you need an MBA to get boarded? Ah! It's not a doctor's boards. It's a Board of Directors. This one wasn't as strong for me, given that there are many board members who aren't MBAs, so it felt like the clue needed a giveaway question mark. But it was a good attempt.

I wonder how many people will write to Will, pointing out his "error," that DOCTORS DON'T NEED AN MBA!

(If you write to me with that, I'll politely put it in my spam folder.)

A beautifully smooth piece of work, if not so snazzy as to stick in my head.

★ A triple of MAJOR LABELS / DARE TO DREAM (love it!) / LITTERBOXES with a funny "kitty corner" clue makes for a great centerpiece. Getting DART GUN, EGO TRIP, EASY RIDER, and THE BEEB (nickname for BBC) running through it makes it outstanding.

Stairstacks like this depend on the NW / SE corners to give extra sizzle, and Peter delivers on both counts. VOODOO DOLL was my favorite entry, and the awesome "sticking point" clue made it even better. POWER LEVEL was a fun one for this huge "Clash Royale" player (giant + night witch is my deck of choice).

Not as wild about TAKE AIM AT in the other corner — felt more neutral than an asset, given that added preposition — but ONE AT A TIME makes me imagine some poor bureaucrat imploring people to wait. And BRAKE FLUID is pretty good.

Stairstack puzzles can finally eke out a bit more juice in the SW / NE corners, but this is a tough task, given that these corners are already constrained by that middle stair stack. CAPITAL M was good, especially since it misdirects to the ENVELOPE in the Gmail logo — sneaky that both are eight letters! — but DIGICAMS and LOAN OUT didn't do much for me.

I normally love THE FEDS as an entry, but the minor dupe with THE BEEB nearby felt inelegant.

Such a smooth puzzle, maybe just INCANT a bit of an odd duck. So few constructors can get so much snazz packed into a 68-word grid without relying on any short crossword glue as a crutch.

Overall, another beaut from one of my favorite themeless constructors.

★ A few years ago, the movie "V For Vendetta" wowed me. Love it when you go in expecting very little and come out amazed. I was vaguely familiar with GUY FAWKES MASK beforehand, but now I think about it all the time. Must be the times we live in …

Enough of being a downer! Great themeless, with feature entries everywhere. BADA BING starts it off with a bang — a great expression, plus the name of Tony Soprano's hangout in "The Sopranos." EPISODE I was such a terrible movie that the entry was almost depressing for me to see (*shaking fist at George Lucas*), but BODY SURF and ARMS DEAL helped redeem that top corner.

(Something amusing about DIMWIT running through EPISODE I … where's the Jar Jar Binks emoji when you need it?)

Not being much of a TV watcher these days, HODA KOTB didn't come easily. But I do think she's more than crossworthy. And that bizarre -OTB ending makes for such an interesting grid entry!

USB PORT and GRAY AREA + BB SHOT and ODDS ARE … = excellent entries everywhere.

And Peter is so good about his craftsmanship, not willing to use any crossword glue if at all possible. I sailed through, coming away with a feeling of elegance in design.

The one hesitation I had before giving this the POW! was FAIR SEX. It's an outdated term and made me wince a bit. I appreciate the attempt at making fun of itself with the [Dated women?] clue, hinting at the old-timey, fustiness of the term. But I'd prefer to leave out of the grid completely.

All in all though, a highly entertaining solving experience. It's so tough to achieve both perfect cleanliness in short fill plus a ton (10+) of long, strong entries, but Peter hit both marks.

Another solid themeless from Peter, one of the best in the business for my money. I appreciate how he chooses his feature entries not just for how cool they sound or how bizarre they look in the grid, but whether they can take a clever clue. AFTERSHAVE is a snappy entry in its own right, but it's so ripe for tricksy wordplay. [It hurts when you rub it in] had me fixated on various insults. That's the type of innocuous misdirection a great wordplay clue ought to achieve.

I have very high expectations for Peter's puzzles these days, and several entry/clue pairs didn't disappoint. ORAL PHASE! Love it, even more so with the deviously brilliant misdirect in "nursing" — very different than the hospital nursing I was thinking about!

JAY GATSBY as a party host and THE BIG BANG made for terrific entries, too. Toss in some IN CAHOOTS, BASE METAL, HONEY WINE, and that's a solid puzzle.

But even as a chemistry wonk, BOYLES LAW isn't super interesting to me; certainly not nearly as fantastic as the IDEAL GAS LAW. (An old chemistry teacher had PV NRT as his license plate, which I secretly thought was awesome. Especially when he carefully taped in an equals sign in the space!) Still, though, I'm not sure how big a chunk of the solving population would appreciate even the IDEAL GAS LAW. (Heathens!)

And a few other long entries more took up space than shined. KNEEHOLES, for example … that's a real term? (Google says yes.) I appreciated the misdirect toward "office openings," but since I didn't recognize the term, the cleverness got lost on me.

Peter is so good in terms of keeping grids smooth that I was thrown a bit by the ASLAN / LESH crossing — I'm not convinced that ASLAN is a name all educated solvers ought to know. (Even less so for Phil LESH.) I could understand the need to accept this crossing in a more ambitious themeless grid, but it's harder to take in a 70-worder. Just too much possibility for solver dissatisfaction, finishing with an understandable error.

Not up there with my favorite of Peter's puzzles, but still a solid offering.

Wide-open middle! So cool to see the three stair-stacked acrosses (HIT THE BRICKS atop SPACE TOURISTS atop PHONE SERVICE), with so many long down answers running through it. The grid breathes so well; the solving flow so pretty, so many ways to get into each section.

Love the pairing of HIT THE BRICKS and SPACE TOURISTS. Talk about getting out of town! I wasn't familiar with THE MECHANIC, but BRIMSTONE, NOISEMAKERS, CLASS ACT, DOG PARKS = such good usage of those long down slots.

CLASS ACT and DOG PARKS particularly shine — not because they're better than other entries, but because these corners often leave unfulfilled potential on the table within this kind of stair-stacked design. Peter does almost equally well in the opposite corner, with PITFALL / SHOO AWAY / PONYTAIL, even a TOY CAR to boot. A stair-stacked set of acrosses can make these corners inflexible and a bit blah to ugly, but not today.

Peter's grids typically are so snazzy and ultra-clean, that AWAG, THORO (do people actually use this?) and even IOC stood out a bit. They'd be virtually ignorable for most anyone else, but Peter has set an incredibly high bar for himself.

I don't mind a double dose of THE in THE MECHANIC and HIT THE BRICKS — it's such a common filler word — but getting a third in THE JONESES felt like too much. Maybe it would have been different if it had been with a shorter entry like THE FED or THE UN, but …

Peter did a great job of incorporating some rare letters in the south, that J and X worked in so smoothly. Usually, a tiny region's job is to be ignorable and not stand out with crossword glue but to get some JIM Kirk, TOXIN, even RATTY and YAY ME makes that corner a real asset to the puzzle.

It's so tough to achieve both sizzling and smooth in a wide-open 68-word grid like this. PHONE SERVICE didn't do much for me, nor OMELETTES, nor SHOO AWAY. Might not seem like too much wastage, but those take up some prime real estate. Still, I'm in agreement with Peter — well executed overall.

My first reaction mirrored Peter's: beautiful middle, CONDOLEEZZA RICE crossing COLD HEARTED / GINGERBREAD / BAR MITZVAHS. Those tricky Zs + a smooth, crossword-glue-free zone = a real winner in my book. I know some people have their issues with Condi, but there's no doubt in my mind she's crossworthy. Nice to see her clued as one of the first women breaking Augusta National's old boys network.

These types of big-center puzzles often result in so-so fill in the corners, because 1.) so many black squares tend to get spent in isolating the middle and 2.) the NE and SW corners don't have much room for long material. Peter does well to work in MEATHEAD and CARJACKS.

I wasn't as much a fan of IN AN HOUR, BY A NOSE, SAME OLD, though. The first has an arbitrary feel, the second is partial-ish (WIN BY A NOSE is much better), and the third requires an inelegant "when repeated …" Some potential left on the table in these three slots.

I also didn't care as much for the upper left and lower right corners as I did for the middle. As much as I like rare letters — X and Z up in the NW and J + 2 Ks in the SE — there were so many tough names. I like a few proper names usually, and maybe I should have known some subset of J COLE, JONI Ernst / Alan COLMES, Ilia KULIK, BABALU, BILLY ZANE. But to get them all concentrated into two small sections made for tough, unsatisfying solves for me, especially when the curious ADMIX got thrown into the mix.

It was also a surprise to see NEWS DESK crossing NEW. I *think* there's a case to be made that NEWS / NEW don't share etymology, but it feels inelegant at the very least.

Overall though, a stellar center of the puzzle, plus some extras here and there — SLOPE clued using the math formula y = mx +b, hooray! — still made for a lot of fun.

★ Beautiful grid from one of the best in the business. Peter has such a knack for assembling snazzy, colorful entries in a way that doesn't require much — if any — crossword glue. Sometimes themeless constructors tell me, "But I only needed to use four little gluey bits!" (I say this myself at times.) Years ago, that would have been good, perhaps even exceptional. But now, it's tough when the bar gets set by constructors like Peter, who finds ways to make vivid puzzles with virtually no glue.

It's a slightly different take on the usual themeless pattern, with Peter "turning the corner" up in the NW and the SE. It's hard enough to create a triple-stack of great answers without many gluey entries. It's even harder when you run a 7x3 chunk straight through that triple-stack. And it's still harder yet to do this without resorting to 1.) ugly short answers or 2.) neutral answers that just take up space.

The NW is just jaw-dropping. SPIFFED UP / PHNOM PENH / ALEX ROCCO is a strong triple (I didn't remember who ALEX ROCCO was, but as a lover of "The Godfather," a clip of Moe Greene made him come immediately to mind). And to run SPARE ME / PH LEVEL / IN EXILE — three colorful assets — straight through that stack = no wastage of potential at all. Converting so many intersecting slots into prime material is incredible. Plus, two Xs up there!

Okay, some might balk at fMRI (functional MRI). I knew this immediately through my pharma background, but I can see why it might elicit grumbles. Thankfully, that starting F is easy to get through the crossing entry, and MRI should be known to most all.

Excellent work in the opposite corner, too. This nerd loves NERD ALERT (I'm making a siren sound right now as I wave my arm in the air), and getting JOYRIDE and MAE WEST through that stack is good stuff. ALL OVER is more neutral, but getting two strong answers running through the PALMOLIVE / AREA CODES / NERD ALERT stack is hard to do. I wasn't quite as taken with this corner since AREA CODES has been used many times in crosswords, thus taking away from its impact. But still, great work.

It's not perfect — TOEJAM made me slightly gag, and SKEE-LO was tough even given my fascination with rappers — but there's so much strong material and clues. Even something as innocuous as [Non-PC sort] meaning "not a PC but a MAC USER" is a highlight. Great stuff all throughout.

P.S. In craps, ELEVEN and seven are called "naturals." I dig craps terminology.

Very nice puzzle that I would have picked as the POW! in many other weeks. Peter is so strong at taking full advantage of his long slots, converting them into colorful entries, while keeping his grids almost completely empty of short gluey entries. It's like those beautiful 3-D Chihuly glass installations, where you can't see any of screws or wires holding everything together, and you wonder how the heck he achieved it.

Peter is also really good at pushing and pulling at his grids in order to generate a couple of extra long slots. This "stair-stacked" center arrangement — BIODEGRADED over CAMDEN YARDS over JUDGE WAPNER — is something that many constructors can execute on. But how many stretch that middle section so that they can add MADE WAR, ONE NAME, and IGGY POP to an already juicy center? That's a great way to give the solver even more than they expect.

There's so much nice material packed into this grid. ERYKAH BADU (even this pop culture idiot knows some of her music) intersecting the central stairstack, and IVORY TOWER / NOSY PARKER running off of that? Wow, that's impressive. And on the opposite side, BUTTERBEER from Harry Potter (always something I wanted to try) with I SMELL A RAT is excellent work.

And to end the puzzle with SRSLY, texting shorthand kids these days use, that's fun. Gives the puzzle a little freshness.

The only region I thought had a little missed potential was the upper right. LIMEADE(S) has been in crosswords a bunch of times so it feels a bit stale to me, and AVERTED is a fine word but nothing I'd count as an asset. There's also ADDRESS BAR ... that feels fine, but perhaps not stellar. And I sort of know KID ORY because I played trombone for 20 years, and I *think* he's gridworthy, but I wouldn't count him as an asset.

Finally, sectioning Peter mentions does make construction immensely easier, able to tackle one portion at a time. It does cut off the NW and SE more than I would like, with just two entries connecting each section to the middle of the puzzle.

These types of items are picky; not things I would even mention for most other constructors. But just like Patrick Berry, I have to employ extremely high standards for Peter's puzzles, otherwise I'd give almost every one of his the POW.

Famous ad slogans, "corrected." Neat finds; so many companies using grammatically incorrect slogans. I liked the ones which created ridiculous-sounding phrases. Funny to imagine a poor marketer arguing why DO YOU HAVE ANY MILK would make for a bad campaign.

The others were so similar to the base phrase that they didn't do very much for me. I found it more fun to have a completely ridiculous "correction." Additionally, THINK DIFFERENTLY and EAT FRESHLY had the same correction — and they were the first two themers I uncovered. I wasn't a fan of that duplication.

I was befuddled by YES WE HAVE THAT. Something like "We got that" sounded vaguely familiar for … Office Depot? Kinko's? Ah, it's Staples, and it's "Yeah, we've got that." The rest of the themers were very familiar to me — I wonder if this one is an outlier, or if I'm just not tuned in at all to the office supply sphere.

Some nice fill as I'd expect from Peter — STAR JONES, RETRONYM, JOSTLE/FJORDS, BODES WELL, etc. helped keep up my interest level. Peter's spot-on when it comes to Sundays being very tough to cleanly fill — we'd rarely see AH SO, SKED, MST, etc. in one of his themelesses. Still, it's strong gridwork.

A couple of things that might be confusing:

• LEED apparently stands for "Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design."
• How is BACON [Earnings, so to speak]? Think of "bringing home the bacon."
• Who the heck is ALIG and what is "Booyakasha!"? Inserting the space to make ALI G might clear that up. (I can't stress how much I loved this clue!)

Colorful and clean grid. It starts as a standard layout, with triple-stacked 10s in each corner, but Peter goes one step further by weaving in a few more long answers. As with any Wentz puzzle, there's a ton of strong entries, my favorite being the ones that feel like fresh, grid-seeding ones: STIFF DRINK, AD AGENCIES (both in the same stack!), BREAK RANKS.

Peter does such a great job of selecting colorful entries that are amenable to clever clues. AD AGENCIES is already a fantastic answer, but [They get spots out] makes it stellar. ("Spots" referring to commercial spots.) Makes for a great a-ha moment upon figuring it out.

That top right corner is so beautiful and snazzy. STIFF DRINK / NO SIREE BOB / AD AGENCIES, with FRESHENS and DENTYNE running through it all is so impressive. (If only FRESHENS and DENTYNE had been linked by clue!). Even more impressive is to do it all with just the minor KBS (kilobytes, usually just seen as kB). Love that corner.

I enjoyed this puzzle more than an average Friday themeless, but I have such a ridiculously high bar for Peter (who for my money is one of the top five themeless makers today). I get spoiled by seeing so much fresh, snazzy new material in his puzzles that getting AVERAGE MEN in the SW is a bit of a letdown. AVERAGE JOE sounds so much more snappy.

It's totally ridiculous to nit-pick about a single entry being a bit neutral though. Any themeless so cleanly executed — what other liabilities are there besides KBS? — with great material like AUDIOPHILE, VOODOO DOLL, ENGINE ROOM with its nod to Star Trek's Scotty, READY SET GO with a devilish [Starting line] clue, etc. is way above the general average.

Always a joy to see Peter's byline — his standards are so high, always striving to work in not just good long fill but great, colorful, entries that are both modern and understandable by a wide range of solvers. Today, he starts with a huge number of long (8+ letter) slots: 18 of them! On average, themeless constructors employ 12-14 slots and then have to work extraordinarily hard to make sure very few are wasted with just neutral, blah entries.

A good conversion rate today, with such goodness as THE KINKS, EASY AS ABC, FLAPJACKS, and the modern RAGE QUIT. Funny to think about gamers throwing their controllers across the room and storming off.

And there's a well-known ultimate Frisbee cheer based on EL CAMINO: the front is like a car, the back is like a truck, the front is where you drive, the back is where you ...

Huck. As in, launch the disc downfield. Was that not what you were thinking?

Although there are no real clunkers in the grid, Peter does let a few neutral entries slip in. I've noticed that more and more constructors are leaning on the "word + preposition" type entry to fill long slots, and those aren't as interesting to me. FESSED UP I really like, but SWARMS INTO isn't quite as zesty. Toss in BASHED IN — crossing INS — along with HAD IN, and I find that set of answers even less interesting.

Peter's grids are always so clean. SONE is an esoteric unit of measure, but what else? WNYC is fine for a NYT puzzle, and some might complain about a bridge reference in NO TRUMP, but this bridge lover gives it a big thumbs up. A couple of local elementary schools have started bridge programs, which teachers have reported to increase mathematical ability, logical reasoning, memory, partnership, and more.

Bridge is clearly the answer to our education crisis.

So a good number of assets today, but not an astounding number as I might expect from a Wentz themeless. Still, a clean puzzle and an entertaining solve.

Super solid offering from one of the best in the themeless game. Peter starts with an ambitious 16 long slots (entries of 8+ letters), and what a start. When you're working with that many long entries, it's tough avoid some of them coming out flat, but I count 12 strong entries. My favorite is ZIPLINES, the next best thing to climbing if you're going to be in a harness. And AL JAZEERA has great Scrabbly letters.

I appreciate how Peter's been working hard to transform his mid-length material into assets as well. WELL OK is a fun one, as is BIG TOP. RON PAUL is another good one, the politician cleverly staking a claim to the anagram. GULLET is not just an amusing and colorful word, but when paired with a clue as great as [Food channel], it's a plus for the puzzle. (Think of "down the gullet!" and channel = a passageway.) I love it when a clue so innocuously deceives.

Of the four longer entries that I thought were neutral, SNAPPED TO stuck out for me. I would usually count that as an asset, painting a vivid picture of a person jolting. But crossing OPTS TO made it feel a bit so-so, and the feeling of angst grew when I encountered TRIED TO and RAN TO. I don't mind these ___ TO, ___ OUT, ___ AT, etc. phrases in moderation — they're awfully handy to solidify a grid — but like Peter noted, four TOs in a 15x puzzle is maybe two too much for four me. Er, for me.

Some other great clues:

• ESSAY is something written by Salon — did you get tripped up by the capital S of Salon cleverly disguised at the beginning of the clue?
• Neat moment of realization, that a NOSY person indeed pays too much interest.
• FRAT PARTY is not only a great entry but the clue made it even better. (Frats get "rushed" by initiates.)

If it were any other person, I might have picked this one for the POW. The four -TOs complaint might seem ticky-tacky, and really, it probably is. But my bar is set higher for Peter's themeless puzzles than for most every other mere mortal.

As I've come to expect from Peter, a beautiful grid chock full of zesty entries, with just a couple of glue dots to hold it together. Very impressive start to the puzzle, HATCHET JOB / YEAH IM SURE / ESKIMO KISS in a super clean corner. And TAKEI of Star Trek and "Oh Myyy…" internet fame! As if I didn't already love TAKEI for being one of the only Asians I saw on TV growing up, his transformation into Internet megastar elevates him to one of my favorite people on the planet.

ONE HR is an interesting entry. On one hand, it could be inelegant since it involves an abbreviation. But what a crazy string of letters! It stalled me out in that corner, as I was sure that it had to be something like ONE PM, which I've seen many times (and personally disliked) before. I certainly like it better than ONE AM, but is it a liability or neutral? Not sure.

I typically would give a fantastic grid like this the POW!, but something felt off to me. Upon reflection, I think it's the cluing — such missed opportunity; so much potential to clue TAKEI in a spicier manner. Same with OFFICE BOY, HATCHET JOB, ESKIMO KISS and FREE CLIMB, which all got definitional clues. Granted, FREE CLIMB is niche enough that maybe it needed something out of Webster's, but even that is fairly well inferable, yeah?

And as much as I like efforts to get STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields higher priority in education, cluing it with a fill-in-the-blank feels like it gives STEM short-shift.

Granted, there are some very nice clues. [Something to keep a watch on] is clever for WRIST. But for such a well-executed grid, I would have loved to see more clues of an equal level of excellence. It's a tough balance — clues that are too clever can cause confusion, if the answer isn't widely known. But I'd rather err on the side of throwing caution to the wind, perhaps producing some head-scratching but also some real oohs and aahs.

Interesting dilemma in themeless creation — if an entry is as fantastic as HATCHET JOB or FREE CLIMB, but it requires a dictionary definition because it's not well-known enough ... is it a fantastic entry after all?

★ Loved this puzzle. Perhaps I'm simply on Peter's wavelength (although he's younger, a much better Ultimate player than this recently retired handler, and makes much more colorful themelesses — harrumph), but this grid sang to me.

Let's start with the raw quantity of assets. I count (roughly) 18, an amazingly high number. Typically I enjoy a themeless if it has ten assets as the very least, and the NYT averages 12(ish). I'm in awe of how smoothly Peter worked AFFLUENZA through that pair of MOONWALKS / PIZZA PIES. Beautiful but very difficult way to up one's asset count. Same goes for HONEY BEAR running through TAX CHEAT / WORKHORSE / HOLE IN ONE.

With such a high asset count, I'd expect some liabilities on the ledger making this possible. Sure, there's XKES, and … ETD? LTR? Let's put the liability count at two, since those last two are so minor. An (assets — liabilities) count of 16? Takes sky-high expertise to make this happen. I'm satisfied when that (assets - liabilities) number is over ten, so 16 is just silly.

And Scrabbly letters: the JQXZ count is four, pretty high. Dare I say, Peter has already broken my CROSSWORD UNHOLY TRINITY (CUT) principle? Damn you, Wentz!

I don't like to give unbalanced reviews — there's almost always some good and some not so good in any puzzle — but I feel like I'd have to stretch to ridiculous nits to say more about the puzzle's drawbacks. Maybe say something about how THE FED (great answer) isn't really a market leader (or shouldn't be, more accurately) so should have a question mark? I could have used a few more clever clues, perhaps something about PIZZA PIES being a "toss-up," or an interesting bit of trivia for a HOLE IN ONE?

Eh, forget it. With the sizzling grid and clues like ASNER referencing Lou Grant, KNEE PATCH extending the life of pants, not the length, and TAPS echoing Eine kleine Nachtmusik, I near 100% loved this puzzle.

★ Ah, I love seeing Peter Wentz's name on a crossword byline. He has a great sense for what's colorful in a grid — a difficult concept for many constructors to develop. Almost all of his themeless puzzles manage to work in a snazzy set of entries, and some of them are as close to my perfect ideal as I've seen. This one from 2012 is on my personal list of all-time favorites.

I really appreciate how Peter isn't okay with resting on his laurels, but instead pushes his envelope. The best part of XWord Info for me is corresponding with all the constructors, and I absolutely love when someone comments about striving for growth. Even better is when that impulse is spurred on by the desire to give the solver a better quality product. So seeing Peter's notes about trying for four quality "seed" entries did it for me.

This grid has its minor flaws, the SNO / FRA / ESL kind of stuff (TEC doesn't bug me at all), but look at the goodness that it allows for. The center in itself is fantastic, NOODLED AROUND being such a fun, colloquial phrase. Thirteen letter entries are often very difficult to incorporate in both themed and themeless puzzles, so it's neat to get this treat. Having it sandwiched by THE WHO SELL OUT and JIMMY SWAGGART was both fun and a funny juxtaposition. JIMMY SWAGGART NOODLED AROUND... I need say no more.

Grids with 13-13-13 (or similar) middle arrangements can be a little dry, as that can stop up many puzzles with the heavy constraints. Peter deploys his black squares wisely though, isolating the SW and NE corners so they can be filled with strong stuff, same goes for the NW and SE. Segmenting one's grid to work with subsections often makes filling much easier.

Oh yeah — there was THE WOMB. I didn't care at all for that entry, which opens the door for just about any THE ___ entry, i.e. THE BOOK, THE PEAR, THE DOOR. I'm a big fan of entries that can stand by themselves like THE STAND (Stephen King's book), but I'd prefer to show THE WOMB THE DOOR.

Finally, two clues I loved. [Round stopper, for short] had me thinking about bathtub plugs, the ace of clubs (defensive "stoppers" are very important in contract bridge no trump contracts), even food items that stop you up. Ahem. I've said too much. Great misdirection from the real answer... a boxing round. And [Merrie Melodies sheepdog] may seem like a pedestrian clue to many , but for me it brought back fond memories of Sam and Ralph, the sheepdog and coyote, clocking in and out of their "day jobs."

Very nice work today. G'night, SAM. G'night, Ralph.

Pete Wentz! One of the younger constructors whose themelesses I always look forward to. I know I can expect several fresh, new entries and a clean puzzle when I see Peter's byline. What I particularly like about his WENTZIAN puzzles is that his vibe is almost always contemporary without feeling forced.

For example, look at the beautiful VELVET ROPE: new entry which evokes the image of a bouncer moving the rope back and forth at an upscale club. Beautiful entry. And the clue, even better! It took me a long time to figure out that it wasn't referring to the queue of people but the actual line of the VELVET ROPE. Beautiful stuff.

Another up-to-date entry came in the sneakiest of ways. [Alternative to cords] and BLUE????? led me to plunk down BLUETOOTH, the cordless protocol between smartphones and their accessories, etc. Pretty impressive to lay down the relatively BB KING and LIES ON to draw you right into the trap of thinking about Bluetooth.

The SW did give me slight pause, as I have very high expectations out of Pete's work, similar to what I go through with Patrick Berry, Josh Knapp, Doug Peterson, Brad Wilbur, David Quarfoot, Kevin Der, Ian Livengood, and Mike Nothnagel's (among others) work. TOO TOO feels like an outdated term, and right above THE ASP from Little Orphan Annie made it feel especially old. It would be one thing if THE ASP was a classic character, but I only know him through constructing. The ????SP is awfully constricting, after all — really no other options for that pattern. So I went back to figure out Peter's dilemma, and it could not have been easy. Getting KATE MOSS and KINESCOPE are well-worth plunking down, but it forces THE ASP. And once that goes in, not many other better options are available in that SW.

Check out the beauty that is POPE LEO X. LEO I, LEO X, etc. have been used so much in crosswords, but to get the full POPE LEO X is pretty awesome. Hard to believe that in all the time the crossword has been around, Pete has the honor of debuting the entry. POPE LEO and POPE LEO XI have both been used in the NYT, but not this important POPE LEO X and his role in the historic events around Martin Luther.

I usually don't notice excessive use of plurals, but I did pick up on that diagonal row of S's from MCS to KITTENS and beyond. Tough, wide-open section to fill in the middle and Pete has some great stuff in there, using his 7's wisely (FAT CATS crossing KITTENS!) but all the S's are a slight tick.

Finally, what beautiful cluing today. My favorite is the repurposed [High beams] which makes you think about cars and their high beams. But no, they're literally high beams = rafters. Ingenious.

Part of the next generation of xw constructors, Peter fills his themeless puzzles with fresh, contemporary fill. Entries like WHATS UP G?, JOE BOXER, SEX SELLS and WHIP IT (would've been fun to clue it to the recent Drew Barrymore roller Derby movie) feel like they're evolving the NYT crossword, helping to attract and draw in a new wave of solvers. Very fun solve today.

I'm fairly sure there will be some grumbling about some of the very entries I found snazzy, WHATS UP G in particular. A friend of mine we call "G-money" so although it took me almost a minute to parse WHATSUPG properly, man oh man what a smile I got when I did. But I realize plenty of people, even after looking up WHATS UP G will be asking "What's up with that" (G)? Now see how fun that is? Okay, fine, we'll agree to disagree.

Interesting point about the solve: as I was going through it, I had the sense that maybe this was not one of Peter's most current constructions. Typically I associate Peter with very up-to-date fresh new fill and little to no SCHMUTZ in his work, so seeing the I LUV / SADO / UDE region made me pause, wondering what was going on. It made so much more sense to me after reading Will and Peter's notes.

A final note, an apology to a constructor I collaborate with, John Verel. He one day mentioned how great an entry FAZOOL would be. I politely said I wasn't sure if that would be all that interesting an answer. But what a great clue for FAZOOL today, relating to the Dean Martin rhyme with "fool". Shows what I know!

Great to see a constructor talk about his/her development and see it in action. Another one of his earlier this year is one of my favorites.