Robert Logan author page

Day five of "Gotta JET" (Jeff's expressions of thanks)! I've had the honor of working with dozens of new constructors, and it's been a pleasure collaborating with Robert. I'm always impressed at his tenacity, never giving up in the face of the ridiculously-low NYT acceptance rate (around 3-4% these days). "Grit" is by far the quality that's most correlated with success. After years of grinding away at it, one of our early products finally made it into the Wall Street Journal last year.

I'm also appreciative of being proven wrong over and over again. One of my most common pieces of advice has been for newer constructors to focus on the types of crosswords facing greatest demand and lowest supply.

The one area I advise: stay away from is themelesses. Everybody defaults to themelesses, because it's so hard to arrive at a fresh, smart theme. With a strong word list, you can punch out a passable 72-word themeless in minutes. With some guidance, an NYT-quality one might only be a matter of days away. The acceptance rate for themelesses is so much lower than the overall average, and only two or three outlets take them, so why even waste your time?

It's great that Robert followed his heart, because I'm proven wrong yet again. The doses of humility keep me grounded, and that's a wonderful thing. I frequently tell people, "what the hell do I know" and "just one idiot's opinion" — perhaps one day everyone will realize that I'm not just joking around.

I've so greatly enjoyed working with so many people over the years — not as a mentor, but more as an equal partner in collaboration. I'm thankful to people like Robert who give me these opportunities.

Super cool grid design! Those black pyramids lend an 8-ball feel, and the clasping arms from the sides are so evocative. Check out our Grid Art page for more.

[Turnovers on a football field, maybe?] is a great way to kick off (ha) a Saturday puzzle. The question mark tells you that it's not FUMBLES or INTERCEPTIONS, but what could it be? Such a mischievous way to hint at cheerleaders doing CARTWHEELS down the sideline! HOME REMEDIES isn't as fun, especially given the straightforward clue, but DOUBLE DOG DARES is playground-level fun.

I wasn't as enthralled by the opposite stack. EPICENTERS had the start of a clever clue, but [Places to find faults] doesn't misdirect much. Tough to figure out something sharper … perhaps [Focus of a fault-finding mission?] That doesn't work either, but it would be fun to brainstorm. Riffing on "shake" might be fruitful, too.

Robert wasn't kidding about a 62-word grid. Here, he pinched up the top and the bottom to make them more tractable, but that makes the middle much tougher. I'm not up on my cabinet members, but SUSAN RICE certainly has cred. VASO is a perilous crosser, but it's hard to imagine SU?ANRICE filled in with anything but an S. ATWT isn't great, and PANAMAS is an odd way to refer to panama hats, but it all works reasonably well.

Even after uncovering HANG GLIDERS, it still took me a while to figure out the clue. "At the bar" … because HANG GLIDERS hang onto a bar? It's tenuous, but it does work. And "a few drafts" is clever. All in all, it's almost brilliant.

Generally a smooth solve, with a couple of places to find faults.