Tom Pepper author page

★ You had me at OH HELL.

Sometimes you can tell right away when a themeless is going to vibrate at your resonant frequency. Crossing HELL with HORCRUX feels like one of the Unforgiveable Curses, but in a Gryffindor way. I bet COOLIO would be cool with being thrown into the mix. Round it out with a TURING test, and I'll declare that I'm not a robot!

That made more sense in my head.

Huge middles in themelesses are the jumbo-size candy bars in my Halloween bag. It's so tough to work with a stairstacked set of five answers, and DUNK TANKS / XRAY TECHS are so ENDEARING. Tom GOT INTO IT! BLOCKCHAINS and CHINESE TEAS are not at all WHAT A DOWNER-worthy.

Smart layout, too. Note that once you figure out your middle (easier said than done, of course), you have a ton of flexibility in filling each of the four corners, mostly independently. This was so useful the first time I played with this type of themeless grid.

Take the lower left corner, for example. The 49-Across pattern is flexible enough to accommodate HANG ON A SEC, HOLD ON A SEC, HAN DYNASTY, VIDEO NASTY, so you can try each one in turn. Given that there are only two long slots and a handful of mid-lengthers, it's so important to make all of them count — brilliant multi-worders like MAN CAVES, ALOHA OE, and even a Z in IONIZER is an excellent result.

What with interesting clues like ACROBAT linked to the Greek for "walking on tiptoe," and ALOHA OE meaning "farewell to thee," GO WHOLE HOG is right. I don't know what kind of unicorn blood Tom is drinking, but I want some.

Tom, Christina, YOU'RE ON FIRE! There were so many entertaining entries that they eased the pain of having fewer-than-average long entries (only 11, as opposed to roughly 14). WEENIE ROAST, AIR FRESHENER, plus a mini-theme of EMAIL HOAXES / FAN THEORIES / TRUE OR FALSE? Definitely true!

Amazing work in the smile-inducing cluing. THERMOMETER isn't an exciting entry, but [Cold shower?] is Saturday-level punniness. That's shower, as in "a thing that shows."

The clues elevated the mid-length material, too. WINE BAR is already great, and when you play on "ports" as a computer port vs. a dessert wine, it becomes a star. SELFIE as [Something you reach out and take] + AMOEBA as [One confined to a cell?] = chuckles all around.

Even some of the short usual suspects were uplifted by sharp cluing. I've heard a lot of "pitcher" misdirects away from SALE, but [Pitcher's aim?] made me think so strongly of baseball that I couldn't unthink it. And what a great piece of trivia about the YETI. Apparently, you can actually secure a YETI hunting license, YET I still wonder if that's as much a hoax as the YETI.

Notice that if you "flip" the grid (along the NW to SE diagonal), this layout is essentially a standard "stair-stack." The flip gave a fresher feel, moving away from the tried-and-true themeless stair-stack, and it also generated an eye-catching visual. Not sure what the S S in the middle of the grid refers to, but it left me sans souci.

My main complaint was that the puzzle flew by much too quickly. Switching yesterday's and today's puzzles would have made them both stronger, better matching expectations that the NYT Saturday puzzle ought to be the hardest one of the week.

A ton of rare letters today — one J, two Qs, and two Zs are nothing to sneeze at. I'm glad Tom didn't force his way into a pangram. I'd much rather have a couple of rare letters worked in smoothly than endure a constructor's feat. (Although, I do know some solvers who dig pangrams.)

I loved how Tom worked in the J, TROJAN HORSE a great answer and JIBE a fine one. [Malicious "gift"] made me think twice, those quote marks so laden with meaning.

I also enjoyed that Z in CALZONE (yum!) and ZIPPER. Some might not be familiar with XYZ = eXamine Your Zipper, but I've needed that reminder many times in my life. Not these days, thankfully — once the lockdown began, the sweatpants came out!

The Q in SQUIB KICK / SHAQ could be tough for non-sportsball fans. Jim Horne didn't know SHAQ was called "The Big Aristotle," and SQUIB KICK mystified; a specialized football term (short kick meant to squirt through the defense).

The Q in IRAQI / AQABA ... IRAQI is perfectly fine, of course, but AQABA's population is about 150,000. One could make the case that solvers should know that Kirkuk is in Iraq, not Iran, and/or AQABA ought to at least sound familiar. I'd be sympathetic to those who judged ANABA as seeming equally if not more acceptable. Maybe fans of Carrie Ann INABA, perhaps.

Excellent clue for STEINWAYS, a major brand in grand pianos. Repeating grand in [Grands costing many grand] confused but then delighted me.

72 words is the max for themelesses, and given that everyone and their grandparents are submitting them during lockdown, the bar is extremely high. This one does have a couple of PSEC (usually written as "ps"), HOC (hard to clue without "ad" or "post"), and ASTANA (now Nur-Sultan). Overall, though, it's a solid construction.

I appreciate puzzles that solve better on paper than computer. With apologies to Mother Earth, there's something neat about a tip of the hat to good old paper.

Without the slashes in today's puzzle, my electronic solve was confusing, sometimes even frustrating. Hearing about Jim Horne's experience on paper elevated my view of the concept. It's neat (see grid below) how the backslash so clearly tells you that the doubled letters should be used in one order for Acrosses, and the other for Downs. OVERHEAD DOOR and BLOOD DRIVE look almost natural when presented like this.

It turns out that consecutive pairs of doubled letters within an entry are incredibly common. A quick program turned up hundreds of possibilities, and simple RegEx search on our finder located too many to display. Options are reduced by the constraint that there have to be pairs of entries, with the doubled letters switched, but even then it's not difficult.

Given the flexibility, I would have loved an extra layer, perhaps the doubled letters tied to something like DOUBLE O seven being a double-crosser? Or playing on TO (two) BE OR NOT TO BE? That'd BB a fun brainstorming session.

That said, Tracy and Tom did an admirable job of executing on this presentation, prioritizing colorful phrases for their themer choices, as well as working in wonderful bonuses like BUM A RIDE, TENOR SAX, ACID WASH, MOON PIES. Both are such pros that I wasn't at all surprised to encounter virtually no crossword glue. That's an outstanding display of craftsmanship.

Constructors of the world: note that Tom and Tracy wisely kept their word count at the max of 140. Don't be Icarus, flying too close to the sun with 138 or 136. A fantastic grid like this is imminently possible at 140, while 136 almost always requires serious compromises.

Overall, top-notch Sunday gridwork — everything I want in a Sunday NYT grid — but the concept left a lot of potential untapped.

I'm always on the lookout for devilish wordplay, and it usually comes in the form of "take a common phrase and repurpose it creatively." I got a delightful twist on that today, with the simple [Sent]. My first reaction was to roll my eyes. That could be anything! Delivered, mailed, postmarked, … oh! "Sent" as in the "elated" sense = ON CLOUD NINE! Such a devious trick, the sudden flip from annoyance to delight so memorable.

I also appreciated how Tom tweaked my perception of "add-a-preposition" phrases being generally neutral to dull. SCOOCH OVER is so much fun, as is DOGGED IT. Even SKATE BY has its merits. And don't get me started on SPIT IT OUT, which I often have to force myself to say to my three-year-old. (Both literally and metaphorically, sadly. Who drinks water out of a muddy kiddie pool? My son, apparently.)

Although most every entry was fair, several crossings felt treacherous. My wife, Jill, uses HARISSA often, and I'm a big fanboy of Zeno of ELEA. Don't get me started on Arthurian legends, so UTHER Pendragon gets a squee!!! from me, and I love Hitchcock's work, so Tippi HEDREN is great. I like KIR cocktails, and I've done enough crosswords to know that KOLN is something German.

Jim Horne navigated successfully through all three of those pitfalls! Yet he failed … at the Z of TMZ / ZAGNUT. He did grow up in Canadia, where the immortal ZAGNUT never thrived, and TMZ is the Jeff-Chen-level-of-lowbrow that mystifies decent people.

I politely nodded, sympathizing at Jim's plight (while posting to T-M-Zed about it).

As much as I adore "Ocean's 11" and phrases like BODY SHOT, ROLE PLAY, CRONUTS, I had to say THAT'S A SHAME about the booby-trapped crossings. I'd sympathize with solvers who finished with a wrong square or two.

I love the potential of this puzzle. Can't you see some poor kid, clapping his hands and jumping up and down as his dad gets home from work, saying, "Jake, I got you something! It's so much fun; you're going to love this MARBLE … rye!"

Disclaimer: I've never done that before.

Disclaimer to the disclaimer: it was a marble statue of me laughing at his despondent reaction.

SOB STORY, indeed.

Instead of technical analysis — the gridwork on a C.C. product is always strong, with little glue and some strong bonuses — I spent the time dreaming up ways to torture my kids.

Did I say torture? I meant tease, of course!

In a torturous sort of way.

Hey Tess! I brought you a …

• RATTLE … SNAKE! Bwa ha ha!
• TOP … sirloin! Tee hee hee!
• PET … peeve! Cackle cackle!
• BALL … gown! Ha ha ha … wait, what?

Now I have to buy my princess-obsessed daughter a matching tiara. Thanks a lot, C.C. and Tom.

More importantly, thanks a lot for the much-needed source of humor as I attempt to stave off insanity in this, my eighth week of self-isolation. Serenity now.

★ Such fun finds, words parsed to form state abbreviations + extra word for kookiness. Being an Emerald Stater, I loved kicking off with WASHROOMS = WA SHROOMS. I can't believe I've never thought of that! They were all solid, with VA MOOSE and CA NOODLES as highlights. VAMOOSE and CANOODLES are amusing words in themselves, and to parse them for even more entertainment was lovely.

At first, NEW AGER -> NE WAGER stuck out as the only phrase. But it's a neat find. I do wish that one or two others had been of this style, so it felt like more a mixture of words and phrases undergoing reparsation.

A ton of great fill, especially considering that Tom had to work around seven themers. Most of the juice came from the two parallel downs, ECHOLOCATE / WELCOME MAT + SCREEN SHOT / SEE IF I CARE. That's four out of four, perfectly chosen for snazziness.

Parallel downs almost always come at a price, though, because you have so many constraining pairs of letters jammed together. Was it worth AHL in the SW, and EIN / INI in the NE? I'm mixed. The crosses for AHL are all fair, but AHL will be tough (and weird-looking) for newer solvers.

Maybe it would have been better to put a black square at the L of ECHOLOCATE? You'd still have the juicy VENDETTA, and you'd also likely be able to squeeze more out of the PROTRUDE slot on the other side.

Tough call. I respect Tom's choice, even if it's not the call I'd have made.

It's so difficult to entertain a wide audience with an early-week puzzle. The theme has to be accessible but fresh-feeling, and the grid has to contain some pepper (appropriate for the author) but also allow newer solvers to complete the grid in a fair manner. I thought Tom hit all those marks.

★ Great wordplay today, with five PRO- words split up and given a kooky interpretation. What a clever revealer for these "professions" in PRO VOCATION! So much fun to get PRO TESTER as "a professional in testing," and then even more fun to get that spot-on revealer. Awesome solving experience.

At first I hitched on PROPOSER. Is that a real word? Turns out it is, especially when referring to Parliamentary procedure. I also wondered if a CURER was a real word (from PROCURER). Hmm. And it would have been nice if PROFILERS had been singular, like the other themers.

Then I decided I was being way too nit-picky and I should just sit back and enjoy Tom's finds.

A couple of nice bonuses, in PANORAMA / EARDRUM and YOURE ON! ANDERSON isn't as colorful to me, especially since the cross-reference made me jump around the grid, but it still works. (I have "Aqualung" stuck in my head now — thanks a lot, Tom.) I really appreciated Tom's effort in those two corners, since he could have easily put more black squares at the R of OPENER and D of DRIVEL and made his life easier at 78 (instead of 76) words.

In terms of smoothness, I didn't care for the ARA / HROSS / LIS section — three dabs of crossword glue glaringly concentrated in one place — but again, I liked the theme so much that it didn't bother me as much as it usually would. Anyway, this is a common region of stress for puzzles that utilize a central 11-letter themer — once you place those black squares at the sides, you take away a ton of flexibility.

Overall, such a joy to solve.

There's an interesting idea here, CIRCULAR REASONING MAKES NO SENSE BECAUSE (repeat ad infinitum) placed into a loop. I like logical reasoning puzzles, so an element of this theme greatly amused me.

I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had solved on paper. Having a clue which is neither across nor down — one lone "around" clue — is a neat idea, but it didn't translate well into the electronic version.

A few inelegancies:

• Starting the quote off-center felt funny. It would have been great to get it started in the top middle, or the top left. I believe either of those could have been possible, unless I'm missing something.
• For a theme based around CIRCULAR REASONING, I wanted the big answer to go in an actual circle. That's tough to do, but a square could have been better than a rectangle.
• LOGICAL FALLACY is a nice addition to the puzzle. BEG THE QUESTION feels like a tenuous connection. (ADDED NOTE: Jim does bring up a good point below.)
• Like in Stepquotes, the places where the long answer turns is technically "unchecked," i.e. there's no way to solve it out if you can't figure out the quote. That made the west and east sections so tough that I nearly didn't finish. Made it awfully frustrating to have just a few blocks left to fill in and no crossings to help me do so.
• How cool would it have been to have the four corners of the quote spell something? Not sure what might be — FLAW perhaps?

There were a few nice bonuses in CS LEWIS, SKI SHOP, LIVE CHAT, and those definitely enhanced the puzzle. And it's definitely an interesting concept — Jim and I discussed how we might catalog an entry of infinite length into our database. Overall though, I would have liked the elegancy level to have been bumped up somehow.

★ Loved this idea; three people who elicit "aahs," playfully nicknamed the WIZARD OF AAHS. One-word themers can often come out dull, but OTOLARI, er OTOLAYR, dang it! OTOLARYNGOLOGIST is a neat word. MASSAGE THERAPIST is a colorful answer as well. What a perfect pairing of 16-letter answers, both people strongly associated with AAHS.

I want to stress how much I liked this idea before I launch into my next paragraphs. Just the fact that I spent so much time thinking about the following shows how much I wanted this already neat idea to be the perfect crossword.

PYROTECHNIST. I was so convinced it was PYROTECHNICIAN that I thought rebus squares were in play. Maybe that IAN had been rebified? I had to force myself to enter the -NIST ending, my hands refusing to obey even at the very end. I totally get why Victor and Tom did this — at 14 letters, PYROTECHNICIAN doesn't match lengths with WIZARD OF OZ (10), THE WIZARD OF OZ (13), WIZARD OF AAHS (12), or THE WIZARD OF AAHS (15) — but it felt like a big compromise. Google does show 50K hits for PYROTECHNIST, so it's legit.

Ish.

Additionally, pyrotechnicians do elicit AAHS, but it's more OOHS and AAHS, with an emphasis on the former. This takes PYROTECHNIST further away from the other two themers for me, as the others are so strongly all about AAHS. I might have actually preferred just three total themers: OTOLARYNGOLOGIST, MASSAGE THERAPIST, and WIZARD OF AAHS right in the middle.

I appreciated much of the fill. Getting the long and colorful ILLUMINATI and OPENS DOORS goes a long ways to add zest. Not a fan of the old-school ITERS though. Those west and east sections are tough, what with having to work with two grid-spanning themers. The starts of OTOL... and MASS... combine with OPENS DOORS to make it a tough little section to fill, but I would have liked some massaging there to strip out ITERS.

It's rare that I like an idea so much I obsess about it this much after solving. POW! for me despite the minor shortcomings. Put a big smile on my face.

Fun start to the week, DIRTY WORDS starting three snappy phrases. FILTHY RICH, GREASY SPOONS, STAINED GLASS — great selection of themers! In-the-language, pleasing to the ear, all phrases I wouldn't hesitate to use. Love 'em all.

I also appreciated Tom's effort to incorporate long fill into the grid. Usually with four themers, I would expect at least one pair of long downs, but Tom's gone the extra mile to incorporate not just SHEEP DOG and USHERS IN, but WILL DO! and ARGYLE, making good use of his sixes. And seeing the up-to-date THE CLOUD, a nice touch, particularly relevant since xwordinfo has moved to the cloud! Hopefully nothing breaks, but let me know if it does.

I was slightly confused during my solve, as I had thought THE CLOUD and SPLIT PEA were part of the theme. That's a risk of using long across fill; solvers like myself will spend minutes trying to figure out what the heck is so dirty about SPLIT (don't ask, you don't want to know what I thought up). Yes, those two answers are shorter than the 10's, but they look awfully theme-y. I would much rather have two sets of long downs than a set of long downs plus a set of long acrosses — it's sometimes difficult to pull off, but that arrangement works better for my personal tastes.

Overall, it's a pretty nice grid. Lots of nice fill including YERTLE, but there are a few entries like AS NEW, ERN, OLEO, DER, EINE which combine to be not ideal. The NE corner looked pretty isolated, so I would have liked it redone to get rid of OLEO, but again, that's a personal preference. Out of curiosity, I investigated that corner to see if it would be easy or hard to redo, and it turns out the letter combinations (11D and 12D ending in O and U) make it not a cakewalk. It took me a while to figure out that IT'LL DO works much better than WILL DO, which seems like it will always have one trade-off or another. So not super easy to redo, as it turns out. Given how nice WILL DO! is, having OLEO feels like a reasonable price to pay.

Always the trade-offs in crosswords. I'm sure there's a way to get rid of ERN and AS NEW in that section, but it would likely be at the price of the nice ARGYLE and GENDER. So much work goes into gridding up a single crossword!

Excellent to have met Tom at the ACPT, and it's neat to see his work in print!

★ Clever WITT (Wish I'd Thought of That) idea and clean execution; a winner of a puzzle. CLOCK is incorporated in the center of the puzzle, and the clock number (in the proper position) needs to be added for the clue to make sense (DOZEN becomes TWELVE DOZEN, for example). Perhaps a touch on the easy side for a Thursday puzzle, but what an enjoyable five minutes of solving. Kudos to Tom and Victor.

The difficulty of the construction might not jump out at you because of the excellent execution, but this perimeter theme arrangement is a bear. Most recently, the legendary Liz Gorski did it on a Sunday puzzle and commented on the challenge. Such degree of interlock in the corners places high constraints on the grid, making each corner an individual nightmare to fill.

But Tom and Victor have done it well, even incorporating such great long stuff as SIAMESE CAT, SHIPSHAPE, DEATH STAR, and GO TO SLEEP. The SW corner is especially smooth, I appreciate how much care they've put into it. If AGRI is your only blip (and it's an awfully minor one) I call that a giant success.

To be sure, there are signs of the construction challenge in the AMIGA/GALOP area and the obsolete GMAC, but those are very small prices to pay. And I would bet Tom and Victor tried many other entries in place of I AM A CAMERA before settling on it. Note the alternating vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant (repeat) pattern, which often makes construction easier, especially when surrounding fill like SIDED exhibits the same pattern. I AM A CAMERA not a first-rate answer, but it does its job. Such is the difficulty in incorporating long fill with this sort of perimeter themed puzzle.

There are more nice puzzles coming up this week, but this innovative and beautifully executed xw gets my POW!