Yaakov Bendavid author page

From come-ons plastered on billboards to disclaimers and warnings in tiny print or read at lighting speed at the end of radio ads, we're inundated with ad and packaging copy. So why should the Sunday crossword be an exception?

I hope solvers enjoy the alternate definitions for some familiar phrases in this, my 6th NY Times puzzle.

One clue/theme entry I would have liked to fit: [Disclaimer on a poker school price list?] DEALER PREP EXTRA.

And one clue that didn't get in with the entry that did: [Audition notice encouraging forgetful actors?] CONTAINS SMALL PARTS.

My NYT puzzles have all been Sundays, and I've been asked ‘why only Sundays?'. Well, before embarking on the actual construction, I spend a lot of time gathering theme entries and possible clues, and I want to have 20 or more candidates from which to choose 6 to 9 entries that pair up and allow for a nice-looking grid, clean fill, and clever/funny clue-answer combinations. Having phrases up to 21 letters as opposed to 15 for a non-Sunday puzzle gives me many more phrases from which to choose.

Thanks to Will and Joel Fagliano for their editing and patience through two revisions.

Once again, I'm thrilled to be published in the NY Times, my 5th puzzle.

In my previous puzzles — all Sundays — I never had as few as six theme answers, as in today's offering. Having only six meant I could spread them out more, and I had much more fun/leeway filling in the non-theme answers. I love choosing interesting or rarely-seen long non-theme answers and then filling in the shorter answers around them. Among the 17 non-theme answers of 8 letters or more, we have BED OF ROSES, AGITATING, COMO ESTA and LOVE NEST.

DAIRY GODMOTHER was the seed; my original clue — which made my family laugh — was "She might make you a cheesecake you can't refuse." The clue was changed by Will, keeping it one hop away from the original phrase instead of two.

My first idea for a clue for SCIENCE DICTION was "Exceptional quality of Sir Patrick Stewart's Captain Picard," but you'd might have had to be a Trekkie to get it; I think Will's Stephen Hawking clue works quite well.

The first few versions of the puzzle — there were over 20 — had a 7th theme answer stretching across the middle row, but I found that it made everything too crowded and led to very weak fill (and something like 24 3-letter words). It was clued "Lament of the Best-in-Show runners-up at Westminster" with the answer: WE HAVEN'T THE DOGGIEST. Pity I couldn't fit it in since coincidentally the puzzle appears the same week as the Dog Show. Thanks to XWordinfo, it has seen the light of day.