Sam Buchbinder author page

Indeed, we're OFF TO A GOOD START this week with an uplifting "disguised synonyms" theme. They say that if you use more positive words in everyday speech, you start to feel those things. KIND, JUST, UPRIGHT, NOBLE? I could use more of any of these in my life.

Excellent job with the themers. Even as a musician — as a cellist, nonetheless! — I would have dismissed UPRIGHT as a possible themer. Great find in UPRIGHT BASS. The former jazz trombone player in me loved KIND OF BLUE, too. I must have listened to that album 500 times now.

All the synonyms are so well obfuscated, their meanings changed in each phrase. KIND is used to mean "sort," JUST as an adverb, and UPRIGHT as in "standing." I didn't know the etymology of NOBLE in NOBLE GASES, so it was fun to learn that it's derived from a German term meaning "inert."

Perfect layout of the four long Downs, Sam alternating MINECRAFT / ART EDITOR / DUMBWAITER / CAN YOU SEE for proper spacing. Trying to get a long Down in the middle would be much harder since you would have to thread it through three themers.

Solid short fill, too. I did hitch at the upper right since ULAN's spelling is outdated, and DAHS isn't the most newb-friendly entry, but otherwise, no PEEVEs. (Except DEATH — thank goodness the theme is uplifting enough to balance this out.)

It's not easy to excel in such a tried-and-true theme category, but Sam did most everything UP RIGHT.

"What connects these random things?" themes are among my favorites. It's so much fun to slap yourself in the head when there's a simple one-word revealer that clarifies the connection. It's even better when there's a great phrase that serves that purpose. LET'S PUT A PIN IN IT is fantastic, helping solvers realize that one might put a pin in a VOODOO DOLL, CLOTH DIAPER, or a BOWLING LANE.

And I loved the expanded thinking, putting a P.I.N. into an ATM. That's the kind of creativity that makes me stand up and clap.

I enjoyed the theme so much that I daydreamed about what other things you could put a PIN in. JEWELRY BOX would work. WRESTLING RING … not so much.

How about PASTRY DOUGH, with a rolling PIN? In golf, the flag in a hole is called a "pin." These two might have dulled the a-ha moment though; tougher to make the connection to a PIN.

Today is a rare case where I'd have liked "less is more." An ideal presentation would give three or four vastly different PIN meanings, followed by (LETS) PUT A PIN IN IT. Starting off with VOODOO DOLL and CLOTH DIAPER using similar types of pins, unveiling the revealer, then following with new definitions of PIN … I'm not sure if it's genius that it kept me guessing, or if it's inelegant.

I also wasn't wild about some of the compromises that five themers demanded. There wasn't anything egregious, but the pile-up of minor ACU ELO WTS kind of glue became noticeable. Reasonable trade-off to get the delights in POOL PARTY, HUMAN RACE, ONION RING, but it left me with a slightly MALADROIT sensation.

Fantastic idea; would have gotten my POW! with a few different choices.

A ton of debut material today! Not only is CENSUS DATA a fresh, interesting phrase, but that clue sizzled. [Gathering that occurs once per decade] … some sort of deca-Olympics? A changing-of-the-decade New Year's party? Nope, that's "gathering," as in DATA gathering. Wickedly clever way to create an a-ha.

[Bishop's group] ... CHESS SET? CLERGY? No …

RAT PACK?

Ah. Joey BISHOP was a member. I bet some solvers in my parents' generation had a delightful a-ha.

Will Shortz generally avoids politics in crosswords, but it's not fake news that OBAMA BIDEN perfectly alternates consonant-vowel. Huge boon to crossword constructors!

Not all debuts are created equal, though. CUT A DEAL, yes. SAWERS … cut that out! Even CNN POLL made me pause, sounding a bit arbitrary, but then I realized how much I'd seen it in the headlines recently.

CAFTAN or KAFTAN? To my surprise, KAFTAN is listed first in the Wikipedia article. I admit I was wrong, oh K?

Kind of an older feel with STOOLIES, Yogi BERRA, Steffi GRAF, and of course, Joey Bishop. Thankfully, enough interesting material like TV REPORTER / NEXT PLEASE, ROB A BANK appealing to my love of Money Heist, and PHONE TAG / CUT A DEAL to not leave a BAD TASTE.

Early last year, friends and I submitted assorted Olympics puzzles to various venues, and we surprised to hear back that there were already too many accepted and on file. Guess we ought to have made 2024 Olympic themes instead!

I'm mixed on the upcoming Olympics. It's wonderful to see top athletes come together to compete at the highest levels. I also wonder how it might affect Japan's pandemic.

I'm also mixed on today's themers running through a backbone revealer of WOMEN's GYMNASTICS. On one hand, it's a feat of construction. Getting four themers to intersect the spine — with symmetrical pairings — gets a technical score of ten.

It's even more impressive that Sam was able to get (mostly) snazzy themers! KIT KAT BARS are some of my favorite candy bars, IN THE VAULT is an awesome metaphor, and GLASS FLOOR gets an evocative clue.

This nerd would have loved PHASER BEAM, though that wouldn't have allowed the fantastic OSCAR NODS.

Not so fun was figuring out the theme within a minute of starting. I much prefer a delayed a-ha moment. Perhaps "flipping" the puzzle — WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS in the middle row, the four themers running vertically through it — would have helped.

Great bonuses ... almost too many. I love entries like NBA MVP, HIT IT BIG, GREEK GOD, THAT'S A LIE; entries I enjoy seeing in any puzzles. They almost overwhelm the theme though, making SEALED BEAM pale in comparison.

Sam stuck the landing on a routine involving a high degree of difficulty. The choreography of the solving experience left a bit to be desired, though.

The IRON CROSS is such an awe-inspiring feat of strength. One of my life goals is to hold an IRON CROSS for five seconds, but given that I start shaking uncontrollably after opening my arms about 20 degrees, then collapse into a puddle of sweat … it may be a while. The world record holder's nickname is "Muscleball," and he looks the part!

The finance wonk in me loved kicking things off with ECON MAJOR. Crash course … get it? Economic crash? Too soon, given the pandemic-induced bankruptcies? Yeah, maybe so. Still, a valiant attempt at humor, even if it tweaks some noses.

I loved that ON TOP OF THE WORLD / SPACE STATIONS cross. Now that's a way to seed a themeless! Sam's original clue would have made it even better, at least for all us nerds out there who dork out over issues like artificial gravity induced by forced rotation.

Okay, maybe not for mass audiences.

Those crossing features create some structural difficulty, though, forcing big corners in the NW and SE. Whenever you have a triple-stack intersecting another one — ECON MAJOR/MANO A MANO/OLIVE PITS weaving into EMO BAND/CALICOES/ONION DIP — you're bound to have some compromises. In the NW, CALICOES and ONION DIP don't do much for me, more neutral than positive, but that's fine.

The SE didn't hold up as well, with ARMATA / DYER / OTOES and the boring STEEPS IN. If it ain't one corner, it's the symmetrical one. Shake your fist at Crucivera, the goddess who demands symmetry!

Along with more neutral wastage in TORE INTO, US TEN (rarely written like this outside crosswords), ESCAPED / ARRESTS, there was some potential left on the table. That'll almost always be the case with a layout like this, though, and the overall impact of ON TOP OF THE WORLD / SPACE STATIONS helped overcome these issues.

We all know that Will Shortz is a table tennis fanatic, playing every day religiously. (What's he doing all day while quarantined? Working on trick shots, I bet.) But he has a dirty little secret: he's a bowling nut. Completely obssessed!

I jest. Maybe. Three bowling puzzles — this one, a rebus, and a Sunday visual puzzle — within the span of roughly half a year? Perhaps Will just loves the fashionable shoes.

For regular solvers, today's puzzle might have felt repetitive, but I did appreciate that my previous experience enabled me to drop in TURKEY without hesitating. I still had to look up what a TURKEY was (a guy who wears bowling shoes out in public — I'm talking to you, Seattle hipsters), but I didn't give it the side-eye this time!

At first, I wondered why Sam didn't place the themers in sequence. Jim Horne and I discussed in great detail how to describe this theme and eventually decided that it's because there is no sequence. Never mind!

I couldn't get my head to shut up after Jim and I de-Zoomed, though. It finally dawned on me that there isn't a sequence ... but there is an ordering. Worst result is a SPLIT, then a SPARE, a STRIKE, and best of all, a TURKEY.

Order in the alley!

Intersecting the four themers with BOWLING ALLEY is mildly interesting. It's amazing that Sam got it to work — with the four bowling terms all starting their phrases! However, I'd prefer a more standard grid layout (all themers horizontal), using worst to best ordering, for a neat and tidy presentation. That would have also allowed more flexibility so that every themer could stick to the singular.

To be clear, Sam's choice is valid. Along with stellar gridwork (bonuses like DRUMPAD and BOO BIRDS just to start) and meticulous attention to detail (only some ETAT RTE YDS), I could see some solvers asking, "What the hell is Jeff's problem?"

I'm happy to answer, if you have ten hours.

If you're looking for distractions while house-bound, check out Pongfinity, one of my favorite YouTube channels. They take on all sorts of ridiculous challenges, including playing with chopsticks, a la Mr. Miyagi. I'm hoping their next challenge is to play with a bowling ball!

I may be watching too much YouTube during this shelter-in-place ...

The most experienced themeless constructors often eschew 72- and 70-word grids, since they present little challenge to build. Place long answers in each of the four corners, make sure you can stitch them neatly together, and you're done!

(It's not that easy, but it doesn't require nearly the iteration and care of a 68-worder.)

I wish more (most) themeless constructors would stay at the 70-word level since it's such a sweet spot. It allows for a lot of colorful fill without requiring many trade-offs. LOVE POTION, SMELL TEST, OPERA COATS, PR AGENCIES, I NEED A LIFT and more, for the NOMINAL FEE of an ETE? Yes, please!

It is hard to stand out in the 70-word space, though. All it takes is a few minor dings. ETE is one, STYE can annoy some solvers (both in real life and in crosswords), LATEN is a bit of an odd duck.

Then you have to take into consideration the overall vibe. As much as I enjoyed the self-deprecation of IM THE WORST, a couple of entries gave me pause when taken in total. I don't love being reminded of TERRORISTS these days, and with a GAT crossing a LEGMAN crossing BIGAMY, it's a bit unpleasant. I'd much rather have unicorns, mermaids, and princesses in my daily diversion.

(My 5-year old daughter seems to have affected my world view.)

Overall, a well-executed puzzle that might have garnered some POW! buzz with a bit of massaging. I wouldn't fault others with different personal preferences for picking it as a standout.

I'm getting hungry, with a DRINK, CHIPS, SANDWICH, and COOKIE neatly hidden in the grid. Sam did a great job of choosing themers that camouflaged what was going on — I particularly liked kicking things off with IN THE DRINK (slang for "overboard"). By the time I hit SMART COOKIE, I knew the theme, but I liked how the puzzle was able to hide its hand until near the end.

I did hitch a little at LUNCHBOXES, though. I wondered at first if it was necessary. Then I tried to imagine how a drink might fit into a lunchbox. Are those little metal boxes big enough to fit cans? Took me a while to remember that kids usually take along … juice boxes? Juice pouches? I wondered if LUNCH would have been a better revealer, if one was necessary.

A lot of fun material in the grid, TACO TRUCKS a favorite lunch destination for me. SNOPES gave the puzzle a fresh feel too, and YOSHI pushed the vibe even younger. I feel for the older generation who might have a rough go with the YOSHI / SNOPES / DYNE intersections, though. The DYNE is a legit unit of force, hinted at in the word "dynamometer" (device to measure engine output), but it's still a toughie.

Curious choice, Sam picking PITCHES WOO for his puzzle. Since Sam's a young guy, I wondered if this term is making a comeback? Sort of an ironic usage among the Gen Y crowd?

I'm rooting for GENO Smith of the Jets to become a Hall-of-Famer. Right now he's riding the bench behind Ryan Fitzpatrick, but he has so much potential to become a crossword staple, with his beautifully alternating consonant-vowel pattern. I can't upgrade him on the XWord Info Word List quite yet, unfortunately.

Fun idea with great themers hiding what was going on. If the reveal had been punchier somehow, this would have been in POW! contention.

This is one of my favorite types of early-week themes, phrases which seem to have nothing in common but are tied together in a surprising way. I enjoyed uncovering BROKEN BONE, VOLLEYBALL, DINNER TABLE, and ALARM CLOCK, wondering what the heck the revealer was going to be. Neat to find out that they're all things that can be SET.

WERE ALL SET felt slightly awkward to me, but it does get across the general idea. I wonder if a shorter entry like GET(S) SET could have made for a more spot-on revealer? It does provide the last element in a symmetric set — 10/10/11/10/10. Without it, that 11-letter DINNER TABLE is all by itself.

That DINNER TABLE does cause some grid difficulties. Sam uses "Utah blocks" (look at those chunks of five black squares on the sides — look like a certain state?) to break up the grid a bit, but he still has to deal with fairly wide-open corners, plus tricky spots all over the grid where two themers interact.

I don't think anything in the grid is unfair, but the excess of tough proper names might give beginning solvers a rough go. MAIA isn't something I recognized even with all my Greek myth interests, MYA is tough for us pop music idiots, RHEA Perlman hasn't had a major achievement in a while, etc. I think they're all reasonable crossings — maybe RHEA / KEA is iffy — but there are so many of them.

Sam did work in some nice bonus material like TEAPOTS, IM BEAT, BEETLES, which isn't easy given the theme density. It wasn't quite enough for me to be able to overlook all the gluey bits though — when your NW corner already contains some NIK/EEN/NEN plus the repetitive sounding IN ON IT / IN OIL / NOT IT ...

Still, it's a neat idea that kept me guessing until the end. That's more than enough to keep me entertained on a Monday.

A visually represented ROULETTE wheel, fun! I liked seeing EVEN / ODD and BLACK / RED in the themers too, covering the bets most people think about with roulette.

I also liked the big swaths of white space in the four corners, giving the puzzle a themeless vibe. I imagine that was more of a by-product of having spent so many black squares around the center, but still, it gave Sam a chance to work in juicy fill like BASS ALE and NICE TRY. Strong mid-length fill.

Big spaces often come with compromises, and it's not ideal to get AN IN and SANA (Rich Norris doesn't accept this spelling of SANAA) in one corner, and a smattering of A PAR, OSH, ENO … I'd actually be okay with that amount of glue, but when you toss in ABEAM, it's harder to overlook.

My favorite types of puzzles are the ones that spur my brain on. How cool would it have been if the black squares in the middle of the puzzle were in the shape of a circle? As it is, those black squares form sort of a figure 8. Not very roulette-ish.

Making a more circular pattern of black squares would have meant the center would be much harder to fill, but I would have been forgiving of a few more compromises to get it. I wasn't too happy about getting a variant (TIPI) and more importantly ETTE when the theme is ROULETTE (the "ette" in "roulette" is a diminuitive for "roue," or "wheel"). Give me a circular pattern of black squares and I'd happily brush those concerns aside.

I would have also liked BLACK and RED to be opposite, and EVEN and ODD as well — makes for a better feeling of symmetry. And while I'm ticking off a wish list, how cool would it have been to dot the grid with some black squares and some red ones! Sigh, technology not keeping up with the times …

Overall, a very nice idea and some strong mid-length fill. Several gluey bits here and there, but on the whole, an enjoyable solve.

Debut! And such a fun one. I love the ambition. Working with four grid-spanning themers is hard, as that necessitates a lot of down entries crossing two themers. To add in two interlocking 7's (DOROTHY and HEROINE) plus OZ is reaching for the stars.

Loved the OZ reveal and how it's at the end of the YELLOW BRICK ROAD. Hard to believe that no one's thought of executing this theme like Sam did.

As with most audacious constructions, there are trade-offs. Good thing I had vaguely heard of ZAC Efron (a person I follow on Twitter is obsessed with him), because the Z of ENZI is not at all inferable. There are a few more spots that felt pretty crunchy to me, but that's bound to happen with these layer upon layers of constraints. I was actually surprised to see that there weren't more glue entries necessary.

Take the NE and SW corners, for example. Because Sam had to deploy so many of his black squares around the center of the grid, he was forced into using big, wide-open corners. And for a first construction, they're not too shabby. GROUPONS is a fresh entry (although we'll see how long Groupon stays in business). CGI and SSNS are perfectly fine by themselves, but amassed with ENID and ARA makes for a bit of inelegance. Tough to fill these themeless-like spaces with quality and smoothness.

Finally, what a nice SE corner. Not easy at all, considering OZ sits diagonally and Sam had no flexibility in YELLOW BRICK ROAD's placement. To work in KLUTZY is not at all klutzy.