Seth A. Abel author page

It is so difficult to make a themeless based on a "tic-tac-toe" pattern of interlocking grid-spanners. (The nine intersecting letters elicit a tic-tac-toe-like feel.) This type of backbone presents such a rigid skeleton, often forcing ugly short fill, dull long fill, or most commonly, both.

I'm amazed at Seth's technical masterpiece — not a single short entry that all editors would call out as subpar. Several longer entries that could be considered assets. too: MANGANESE, ACAI BERRY, GETS RICH. (MCMILLAN for we Sonics diehards!) I've tackled several tic-tac-toe themelesses and never gotten to this level, with so few compromises. Bravo!

A couple of fantastic marquee grid-spanners, too. Show of hands from parents, how many have said I MEAN IT THIS TIME more than a hundred times? Hard to take seriously, indeed.

I'm not a Siri user, but HERE'S WHAT I FOUND is a fine answer. I enjoyed "well LAH DI FRICKIN DAH," although it didn't resonate with XWI's resident Canadian. Perhaps it's a regional or national thing.

I usually don't like similes starting with AS. That dude is THICK AS A BRICK, yes. That dude is AS THICK AS A BRICK … who's the brick now? (Usually me, in both accounts.)

Typically I don't mind arbitrary-feeling ONE ARM or THREE CAR. Both in one puzzle is two much.

It's hard to pack a huge quantity of juice and enjoyment into a tic-tac-toe themeless, so this one didn't stand out for me compared to the Friday average. High marks for technical achievement, though.

Oft-quoted quotes that were never spoken by said character ... and no ILSA LUND / PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM? Sacrilege!

And GORDON GEKKO isn't someone whose bad side I'd want to be on. You're living life on the edge, Seth! Mr. Gekko might not have ever said GREED IS GOOD, but he sure did a lot of other bad stuff.

Seth is right — there are a lot of famous misquote compilations out there. Too many; it risks the puzzle feeling like a listicle.

But I do like the ones he picked out; all good pairings of famous lines and famous people who said them. It could be argued that EARL OF GREYSTOKE is a toughie, but the word GREYSTOKE has been used in movie and book titles enough that I think it's fair game.

This is a great example of why the 140-word maximum (on Will's spec sheet) is a bad thing for solvers. As soon as I opened the puzzle, the sight of those big swaths of white space in the NW and north worried me. Those are of themeless-grade difficulty to fill — plus, you have the constraints of having to work with fixed themers! No Bueno.

See: ABLUR, ITY, TYRE. Not a good way to kick off a solving experience, even with MACHISMO adding color.

Up next, SOIN, MRE, PEES, SOYS.

As much as I love OSMOSIS and TORNADO, it already felt like a compromised, inelegant product, and I had just begun.

I understand Will's steadfast adherence to the 140-word max. In theory, that forces constructors to work in some long bonuses, and not just pack a puzzle with a flood of boring, every day 3-5 letter entries. In real practice, though, even some of the most experienced constructors can't pull off a colorful, clean 140-worder.

I had heard all of these misquotes before, so the puzzle played more like a Wikipedia article for me. But I imagine there will be solvers who learned one or two new things today. If the grid had been improved — maybe by going to 144 words, or by using only the misquotes as themers, thus allowing for lower theme density — it could have made for a better solving experience.

We've seen a lot of ANAGRAM puzzles in the NYT, including ones where the anagram describes the entry, but these particular ones were fresh and new to me. "Bag manager" is apt for a GARBAGEMAN. And a SYCOPHANT sure can be described by "Acts phony." It's too bad that the "a" is necessary for "A trails nut" being a NATURALIST, but that's minor.

I did hitch on THE HILTON. "Hint: hotel" is apt, yes. But how does it fit with the other three? I'd have much preferred a fourth "profession," or at least a word that describes a person's behavior, like SYCOPHANT. THE HILTON gave me a jarring feeling of "this one is not like the others."

Some great clues helped elevate the solving experience:

What could possibly measure miles in meters (besides people demanding that we switch to the metric system)? Ah, CABS have meters for this. Great misdirect.

[Mother that might have a beard] is definitely a GOAT. I couldn't have possibly first thought of the mothers that I know. Ahem.

Why can't I have a place where people yell "JEFF!" when I enter, a la NORM from "Cheers"? Funny to think about NORM being the "norm" of average guys.

Some nice bonuses to offset crossword glue — GOGO BAR with OENO, SPREAD EM with IT AT and TAI. I prefer slightly cleaner gridding work, but I can see Seth's perspective. IT AT and TAI are at least easily gettable for solvers; why not pay those prices for the colorful SPREAD EM?

Solid idea to use anagrams to describe their entry. It would have stood out much more for me — especially considering how many of these there are (calling Anagrammatron!) — if the four themers had been more tightly linked.