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That northwest corner is sooooooo impressive. Almost no one tries an 8x4 themeless region, because it's too tough to get both colorful and smooth. Who would be crazy enough to run a 7x4 region through an 8x4 — along with a long entry as good as STRESS EATS? Check out how much great material David packed in: BIG SPOON, LOGROLLS, BOLO TIE, GAG REEL, STRESS EATS, and even OIL RIG. Yowza! Well worth the price of the unsightly I REST partial. Nice bonus to have POOP deck and ORLOP (that's a thing, apparently) deck right next to each other, too.

Pretty nice work in the opposite corner too, considering the constraints. Seeing things like ETOILES (deep foreign vocab) and ONE TO TEN (felt kind of arbitrary) is more what I'd expect from a giant L-shaped region like this, but to get FIRE SALE and RATS NEST, with only ESOS as a price to pay is a good result.

Snazzy lower left. BMX BIKE has that lovely BMXB start, and TEAR GAS / BAR CAR make for excellent additions to that corner. The one oddity was IN GAME. Tough to swallow — I couldn't force myself to believe that was "a thing" — but apparently it is. Huh.

HOT DOGGER anchored the final corner, and I particularly liked how it echoed the nature of some BMX BIKErs.

I had to really think about why yesterday's themeless struck me better than today's. As a constructor, I really admire the tremendous challenge David set for himself. But there were enough entries that made me hitch — GOOD REASON was another where I wondered "is this good or not?" — that the solving experience was more one of admiration for the construction feat rather than the pure joy of the solve. There were some feature entries today that I've seen several times already, like RATS NEST and ORATORIO, as opposed to debuts like yesterday's HACKATHON.

Still, there's something to be said for very nice piece of ambitious construction work. Kudos!

– puzzle by David Woolf

Common names of newspapers, smashed into single squares to make literal PAPER JAMs. I had to double-check my interpretation, as the first one — PRESS — didn't quite resonate. But quick searching revealed that yes, there's the Detroit Free PRESS, the Daily PRESS, etc.

As always, C.C. incorporated a ton of lively fill into her grid. I particularly liked PASTICHE, SALSA BAR, ICED LATTE, SANTA HAT (crossing SAINT NICK!), all long, vivid entries. Hugely elevated my solving experience. (I wasn't sure what ICLOUD, DETECTO, or HD RADIO were, but sure enough, they are real things.)

She also did a nice job with her theme entry choices, THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL and WHAT IN THE WORLD particularly strong. The only one I wasn't sure of was FIRST PAST THE POST. Apparently it's so common it even goes by FPTP.

I would have liked the grid to flow a little better, the NW and SE corners only connected to the middle by a pair of answers apiece. This sort of segmentation does make grid filling much easier — much easier to tackle a Sunday-sized grid section by section. The flow would have been much better if a couple of black squares had been shifted or eliminated to open up one of the long diagonal lines of black squares, but that would have made it much harder to just work on those corners in isolation.

It's a common trade-off. Given how juicy C.C. made those big corners, chock-full of great material like PATOOTIE, SWAN SONG, BIOMASS, CANUCKS, NO PROB, I think it's a reasonable choice.

And SHONDA Rhimes! I just finished "Year of Yes," very interesting read. I do wish the crossings had been easier — if you don't know that unusual name already, you might end up with SPONDA / TOSP or SKONDA / TOSK. I'd much rather people get that square undoubtedly correct and then have the interest to look her up, rather than get an incorrect square and come away with a sour first impression.

Overall, I would have liked a stronger "hey, these are all newspaper names!" moment, but the great long entries made my solve fun.

– puzzle by Zhouqin Burnikel

★ LONDON BRIDGE is FALLING DOWN today, with a neat visual and a great selection of themers. I've been dying to work SOCIAL LUBRICANT into a puzzle, so it was really fun to see. STAND ON ONES HEAD, LONG STEMMED, and WENT OVER THE EGDE are all nice too.

I like when a puzzle lulls me into thinking I know what's happening, and then it throws me for a loop. Working quickly through LON to DON, I figured this had to be a word ladder. What a pleasure to get SOCIAL LUBRICANT as a sizzling entry, and even more so when I realized the next trigram wasn't DOT or DEN or something.

And what an entertaining visual, LON DON BRI DGE actually looking like the bridge broke up, Tacoma-Narrows-style, and sections plummeted in sequence from right to left. Love it.

Nice bonuses in RV PARK — excellent use of a six-letter slot — ACTING OUT, STATE SEAL, NY GIANTS, SHOWCASE, even ARABIC with its crazy clue (see Jim's note below). Great extras made the solve even more enjoyable.

There were a few questionable spots, ones that made me hesitate about giving this the POW! XKES is a toughie, basically random letters. Thankfully Jacob made all the crossings straightforward.

That SUZI / ZWEIG crossing … I guess it's fair, since what other letter could look more reasonable? I briefly considered SUKI / KWEIG, but that looked strange. I do like the Scrabbly Z, but oof, that caused me a moment of panic.

Were those two rough patches worth the price all the great extras? I did like all the bonuses, and given that Jacob had to work with five long themers, some signs of strain were to be expected. Going up to 76 words could have smoothed out those two crunchy spots — the end product is not as novice-friendly as I like to see in a Monday — but I'm okay with Jacob's decision.

I really enjoy getting something a little different on Mondays, and this fit the bill. Very entertaining.

– puzzle by Jacob Stulberg

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.

– puzzle by Sam Buchbinder

Interesting take on an initialisms puzzle, this one based on A* W*, tied together by the A AND W revealer. Some nice theme entries, centered on ARIZONA WILDCATS crossing ABIGAIL WILLIAMS. That latter one wasn't familiar to me, but it was interesting to learn about her role in the Salem witch trials. If you thought your teenager was a problem child, at least he/she didn't start a mass witch hunt! Crazy that she might not have been even a teen when she helped instigate it.

Kind of curious that AFIRE and WICCA are toward the bottom of the grid, where the kindling would go. Making a bit of a statement, hmmmmm, Mike?

For such an interlocked, theme-packed grid — with wide-open corners — it's amazingly smooth. I kept expecting SWEE, ASA type bits to pop up everywhere, but besides those and a RENT A, it came off well. Yes, ATIVAN and GRAZ (second-largest city in Austria) are toughies, and some people complain about random popes like ST LEO I, but all are legit. And I bet ATIVAN is much more common than most solvers might think.

It would have been nice to get a few sizzling long entries in the fill, but getting a couple of BARRETTE, IMMOBILE, MAGNOLIA entries was good. Reasonable trade-off to keep the grid on the smoother side, at the price of not very much jazz.

There's an interesting mismatch in play today. Almost any initialism puzzle is going to be early-weekish, since once you get the gist of it, it gets a bit repetitive. But the grid layout and construction is so late-weekish, given those big upper right and lower left corners. Along with the GRAZ and ATIVAN toughies, I couldn't figure out if I thought this was an interesting mix, averaging out to run on Wednesday, or if it would have been better as an earlier-week puzzle with an easier-to-solve grid.

Not the most mind-blowing theme, but I sure enjoyed learning more about ABIGAIL WILLIAMS. My daughter will be about that age in a decade — maybe I better hide my copy of "The Crucible" before she gets any ideas.

– puzzle by Michael Dewey

Neat idea, MIDSIZE used as a rationale to put the "sigh" sound in the middle of phrases. I really liked how Tim found four distinct spellings of that sound, CY-, PSY-, SI-, and SCI-. And I can't argue with SEMPER SCI-FI!

My poor wife, who has to tolerate me teaching our kids KFL (Klingon as a First Language) might beg to differ.

Funny stuff, that SEMPER SCI-FI. CLIP CYCLOPS was also fun, as it had a cool -PCYCL- string, and the picture of a CYCLOPS getting a trim was amusing. BILL SINAI was my least favorite, as it didn't evoke any humorous imagery. Humor is subjective. (As is crossword analysis.)

Tim often employs high theme density, so he gets a chance to go a bit hog wild with his wide-open grid today. At just 72 words, Tim left himself a lot of long slots, filled with goodies like ALI BABA, DON JOHN, LOCAL AD, RIBMEAT — MAN OH MAN what a PANOPLY of bonuses!

There were a few I didn't care for as much, like BATTLER, which didn't hit my ear quite right, ORINOCO, which felt like it was taking up space (look at that perfect vowel-consonant alternation making it so drool-worthy for constructors) and GILL NET, which made me feel like I was choking. But the good handful of extras is much appreciated by this solver. I even liked DENZEL (who doesn't?), and KANJI (it's a common Japanese term) was a real treat.

A bit of RHUMBA (is that really a variant? it looks so believable) and ROS Asquith, a bit esoteric even for this children's book writer, but to get so much good material with so little glue into a low-word-count grid is nice work.

I bet you a buck that Tim tried to get MIDSIZE over where 44-Down (ASSAILS) is. It's a much more elegant place for the revealer, but I also bet having a terminal Z would have made things tricky. All those Ss in ASSAILS sure are more conducive to that edge spot.

Stupid English language. Qapla'!

– puzzle by Timothy Polin

What a northwest corner! I know it's not going to play as well for everyone — just us awesome dorks who know every line of "Star Wars" and "The Princess Bride" by heart — but to get JEDI MASTER and MIRACLE MAX in one area, along with ALOHA STATE? With no real crossword glue? Inconceivable! Perhaps my favorite themeless corner all year.

A lot more great material all throughout, too, the puzzle playing to lovers of all things fantasy. JURASSIC (I mentally said "Park" afterward), TOY (Story) BOXES, even an EWOK. So much fun for us escapists.

I wanted so badly to give this the POW! but had enough hesitations that I couldn't quite do it. The first issue popped up immediately when I saw how sectioned-off the grid was. As much as I loved that NW corner, it choked off into the middle, and I had to squeeze through three more openings to complete the puzzle. Some people don't care about this sort of issue, but I strongly prefer to solve a single 15x15 puzzle rather than five mini-puzzles only kind of linked. It's also much, much easier to construct a single stellar corner with a choked-off grid than a wide-open, interconnected one.

The other issue started showing its head in the middle of the puzzle, with OLA. That's not a terrible entry, although it's not great, as an uncommon suffix. IN A ROW felt a bit partialish to me, and then I struggled with DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution?). I was prepared to brush those gluey bits aside, but then there was EERO in the SW, and a concentration of SMU, STOMA, OTOS, with the puzzle ending on SNERD.

Now, all of those things are real, no doubt. I don't have any problem with any of them, although they are ones I shy away from when I construct, since they're crutches given all those common letters. But when there's so many of them, my stupid constructor's brain can't ignore the total effect. Not as elegant as I like to see.

But that's way too many words dedicated to the negative. Overall, I had SO much fun storming the castle with this one!

– puzzle by Robyn Weintraub

Eye-catching grid pattern, all those black squares connected in geometric patterns. I was hoping the sideways Ts would relate to a few entries somehow — ah well.

Nice grid-spanners in IM WAY AHEAD OF YOU and LIMOUSINE DRIVER, with its great clue, [One with a long stretch to go?]. Took me a while to realize that "stretch" was slang for "limo."

Some other colorful long answers, too: THE PIANO, FREEMIUM, and PAY AS YOU GO not far away. Nice duo, those last two!

It can be tough for single-word entries to shine (OVERLOUD, I'm looking at you), but I loved GENDARME. The clue tying it to "Les Miserables" puts it over the top for me, making me reminisce about all those crazy emotions I had when I first saw the musical. Great stuff.

Fun to have a French mini-theme, too, what with DÉTENTE, ROTISSERIE, and LE MONDE, all nice answers. And how cool that LEMONDE and LEMONADE are so similar! I sense a crossword theme in there somewhere …

Ah, if it hadn't been for the odd SMIT. NEET, REG, ANON, and ERNO (Rubik) feel pretty minor to me, and ONE NO is something I read about nearly every day in my beloved Bridge Bulletin. Okay, I admit that the last one is iffy (and that I wish we were back in the day when bridge was America's most popular game. sigh). SOR is … the Soroptimists? Took me almost ten search queries to figure that out. (Whoops, it's short for "sorority." Thanks to Nancy Shack and Dave Glasser for pointing this out!)

My first impression after solving was that there wasn't that much crossword glue, but when I count it up, it's a pretty high number. Julian does well to spread everything around, never concentrating too much in one spot, which helped to camouflage it all.

It'd have been nice to get more grid flow — that diagonal line tends to split the grid in half — but entries connecting the halves were pretty easy to get. And I liked how the grid presented so much great long material in concentration. To kick off the puzzle with STRAWMAN, THE PIANO, IM WAY AHEAD OF YOU, TOSS A COIN blaring like headlines was a neat effect.

– puzzle by Julian Lim

This puzzle gave me quite a few entertaining moments. First, the title is perfect — MOVIE DOUBLES hinting at the doubling of one letter in a movie title for kooky effect — and more importantly, Michael created some really funny themers. I particularly liked how AMERICAN SNIPER to AMERICAN SNIPPER flipped a serious image into a comedic one. A SHO(O)T IN THE DARK made me picture a poor photographer who keeps on getting told to just get the shot … even though there's no light. And HOMME ALONE turned a cutesy kid-flick into one with French subtitles. Very nice.

The only one that didn't do much for me was A STARR IS BORN, since I've seen lots of plays on STAR -> STARR. And it would have been nice for every movie be a blockbuster — HOT PURSUIT didn't get a very good critical reception or make much at the box office. Still, the visual of a crack squad staking out owls was pretty funny.

Michael did a nice job of adding in bonus fill, JOLTIN' JOE right above IRON AGE a standout for me. CRISIS MODE, GIANT SQUID, GALAHAD, and SOPHISM were great, too.

I wasn't as much a fan of ICE TRAY — isn't it usually ICE CUBE TRAY? — and SOB SISTER ... don't guys write sentimental features as well? There seems to be an outdated implication baked into the term that I don't care for.

I also noticed a good amount of crossword glue as I went, things like OJO (Spanish for "eye"), TIAS, AERO, AGS (attorney generals), PARAS, SSGTS, SSA, OSS. And the PEETA / EDOM might be a killer for some. Even though I loved the "Hunger Games" books, PEETA (one of Katniss's love interests) is a tough one for me to remember. It felt like quite a lot.

Overall though, I thought Michael did a remarkable job with really funny theme answers. That's no mean feat — most of the time I find kooky-themer Sunday puzzles not amusing enough. Because of that accomplishment, I might have tried for less sizzle in the fill in order to smooth out some of the rough spots. But I can respect the desire to work in great JOLTIN JOE-esque material.

– puzzle by Michael Ashley

★ Easy-breezy, smooth puzzle with a fun theme — creatures with a monster in their names — everything I think a Monday should be. At first I didn't get why GIANT of GIANT SQUID fit into the concept, but a quick headslap came after recalling the GIANTs in fairy tales, Harry Potter, etc.

Did you notice Patrick's elegant touch, two airborne animals in the top half of the grid, and two undersea ones in the bottom half? Love that! And I can imagine an ordered sequence, with a VAMPIRE BAT flying high, a DRAGONFLY closer to the ground, a DEVILFISH swimming not too deep, and a GIANT SQUID lurking in the depths. Absolutely perfect.

Nice bonus entries, too. Patrick uses the "long downs" approach with RUTABAGA (I'm not sure why, but it's such a funny-sounding word) and OFF NIGHT, a typical way to incorporate longer fill. Working long bonus fill into the across direction can be trickier, since those answers tend to have a lot of overlap with themers. Some very good choices in STALLION and BEATNIKS, and both are integrated so smoothly. Throw in a little NOONDAY, ITS TIME, and BAROQUE, and this solver got a lot more than he expected out of a Monday puzzle.

Such a smooth solve. I didn't care for ORONO, since it's a pretty small town and constructors tend to lean on it due to its vowel / consonant alternation, but all the crossings are fair. I debated whether ARIEL should be known by NYT solvers, but what else could that R be?

Normally I don't care for fill that's related to the theme, but it was fun to get a little STINE in the grid. For those in the know, he's been called the "Stephen King of children's literature." Perfect for this puzzle!

Although I'm a total wuss when it comes to anything remotely scary, I really enjoyed this puzzle.

– puzzle by Patrick Merrell

Sound-change puzzle, H- to CH- used for kooky effect. I got some smiles from IM OUT OF HERE becoming IM OUT OF CHEER. Funny to think about a cheerleader running out of juice on the sideline. Took me a while to realize that CHEESE SO FINE was derived from HES SO FINE — apparently an oldie from the Chiffons? — but I had a laugh thinking about CHEESE SO FINE as a marketing slogan posted at a deli.

ARTIFICIAL HEART to CHART didn't do as much for me, but humor is subjective. (Perhaps it reminds me too much of a slide presented at one of my wife's old jobs, where this finance guy — no joke — flipped his chart upside down halfway through his presentation when he realized he wasn't making sense.) And HANES UNDERWEAR to CHAINS UNDERWEAR … the base phrase feels slightly contrived in order to fit the puzzle.

I really liked the huge spelling changes though — neat how each of the base words becomes something so different, rather than just tacking on the letter C, i.e. HAT to CHAT.

Sam and Doug are two of my favorite people in the crossworld (Doug was in Seattle a month ago; always a treat to see him in person; somehow we found ourselves way out in Kent, WA at 1 in the morning, don't ask), and their fun spirits usually show up in their puzzles. Today, we get GEEZ / ZILLION, TABLOID, HAIR GEL, and SHAM WOW! Not an OFF DAY at all; great bonuses right in line with their personalities.

A bit of a missed opportunity to clue NOT ME as that ghost Dolly and Jeffy blame on everything in Bil KEANE's "The Family Circus." Ah, Jeffy, that little scamp! (How is it that TFC is still in print?) I'd bet that Sam or Doug, if not both of them, thought of that while cluing.

Nice clue pair in OHIO and PERU both homes of Lima (Lima, Ohio being the lesser-known of the two cities, of course).

All of this executed so smoothly, with just an ANON here and an ASST there. Super minor dabs of crossword glue.

I always look forward to seeing these guys' byline, and today was no exception. Entertaining solve.

– puzzle by Samuel A. Donaldson and Doug Peterson

Everything came together so nicely for this low word-count grid ... except for an unfortunate ??N?V pattern at the left side of the grid. ANNIV came immediately to mind, but I didn't care at all for that abbreviation. I did some brainstorming and wondered if there had been a famous queen, Anne the Fifth (ANNE V)? Came as a complete surprise to me that there's a very popular model named ANNE V.

Should I have gone with ANNIV? I debated this one for days. ANNIV felt so ugly, and the more I read up on ANNE V, the more crossworthy she seemed, having risen to the highest levels of the modeling world. And it's kind of cool to have that bizarre ANNEV string, not knowing how to parse it. I had a feeling she would be a toughie for many, so I tried my best to make the crossings very easy, so she wouldn't hold up people's ability to achieve a correct solve.

Still hard to figure out if I made the right decision. I'm sure there will be some who disagree, but I'm equally sure that there would have been grumbling (probably more so) about ANNIV. I could have also gone with just four themers, but that seemed too thin. Given that it's a pretty straightforward theme type, I felt that having five themers would help give the puzzle a meatier feel.

Always the trade-offs!

– puzzle by Jeff Chen

Some fun finds, phrases where one word is contained in the other. I'd seen ALE in PALE ALE and AVERAGE AGE used in a similar way before, but GARBAGE BAG and especially WHOOPIE PIE gave me a smile. I've never had a WHOOPIE PIE before, and I don't even know what it is, but hoo boy do I want one. What a great name.

I liked that Don and C.C. found so many themers, packing the grid with interesting wordplay. I didn't care for some as much as others, though. INSTANT TAN feels a little off to my ear — SPRAY TAN or FAKE TAN sounds better — and MADE MAD doesn't seem quite like a crossworthy entry.

Then there was EARTH ART. The Wikipedia article is titled as "Land art" (not that Wikipedia is a definitive source), and all the pictures of show a type of art I've never seen before. It was fascinating though, to get exposed to something I'd never experienced. Some of the art is amazing!

Pretty darn smooth grid, considering how many long entries Don and C.C. had to use in their fill. Since so many of their themers appear short in the grid (PALE ALE only takes up four spaces, for example), they had to rely on much more long fill than usual to stay under the 78-word maximum.

So many 7-letter entries, all around the corners — and pretty much all of them are solid to excellent! RAW BARS / ORIGAMI / STAN LEE / DNA TEST are all lively. They do rely on a tiny amount of crossword glue — OCS = officer candidate school, TNN = channel of the past, OEO = Office of Economic Opportunity — but it's all pretty minor and inconsequential. Well done.

Neat idea and solid execution. If all the themers had been as strong as WHOOPIE PIE, this would have been the POW! As it was, having so many themers, some which were a bit blah, sort of watered down the impact for me.

– puzzle by Don Gagliardo and Zhouqin Burnikel

When I become my generation's great writer, what adjective will people use to describe my style? "Chenesque" sounds wonky, and there happens to be a couple of billion Chens in the world, making it a bit unspecific. I suppose I'll have to settle for "brilliant." I'd accept "magical."

HEMINGWAYESQUE is so descriptive and spot-on. Really liked it, especially since it reminded me of Byron Walden's ZOLAESQUE-seeded themeless puzzle back in the finals of an ACPT (was that featured in "Wordplay?"). And to get the fun BARGAINING CHIP, along with TRANSGENDER right above Sojourner Truth's AINT I A WOMAN made for a fantastic heart of the puzzle.

The periphery was pretty good, too. Not sure how AOL RADIO compares to other services, or if it's kind of outdated, but DOG PARK was awfully nice.

Similar story for the rest of the corners. POUND CAKE makes my mouth water, but INQUIRE OF felt like neutral filler. IN JOKE, yes! GO NEAR, kind of sketchy. That last one is *probably* fine as a lexical chunk, but it's neutral at best to me.

I liked EREADER (although its super-friendly letters is starting to make it a popular crossword entry these days), but COLD OPEN … I enjoyed discovering what the term meant (jumping straight into the show without an opening sequence), but it doesn't have a lot of spark for me. More of a "hmm, that's interesting to learn."

Generally a well-constructed grid, although GARI was a hard glob of glue in my eyes. It's a tough call — it technically is an accurate word, but in the many hundreds of times I've gone out to dozens of sushi places, never once have I heard it called GARI. When someone wants more pickled ginger, they just ask for ginger, yeah? Now, that little GARI is critical to holding the fantastic skeleton of long answers together, so I ended up doing my best to overlook it in the end. But finishing the puzzle guessing on that G was like finishing a sushi dinner on a piece of uni — sea urchin is a taste/smell/texture I haven't acquired yet.

Overall though, a great skeleton of long answers, with a couple of nice entries spread around the perimeter.

– puzzle by Natan Last

I admire people who can make good, low-word-count themelesses without using cheater squares. These extra black squares are a tremendous tool that I often employ — I would have found it so tempting to put a black square where STRONG POINT and SCRAWLS intersect, because those extra squares make it so much easier to construct lively, smooth grids. Each pair of cheaters makes the task maybe 10-20% or so easier.

I personally use them liberally, and I generally don't think they hinder a grid's visual appeal, unless there's a whole bunch of them. (Compare today's grid to yesterday's.) Most of the time, I encourage newer constructors to use more of them, because the end product is almost always better. But there's something striking about a Spartan grid like today's, when it comes out this smoothly.

Now, there are a few head-scratchers like RONDELLE and the DRAGONET, along with some neutral space-filling entries like EXAMINEE, RUNS LOOSE and AT A COST. But there are also many colorful ones like MODEL ROCKET and STRONG POINT right through the middle, crossing the lovely AD SPEAK / WATERMELON SEEDS / TABLOID (over MORONS!). What beautiful work in that center.

Another interesting point from a constructing perspective: check out the relative amount of sizzle between the NW vs. SW corner. They look so similar, but they're worlds apart in terms of constructing difficulty. A stronger result in the NW than the SW comes as no surprise.

Why? Because while the beautiful NW corner only really has to work with WATERMELON SEEDS, the SW corner must coordinate with both CAMBODIANS and MODEL ROCKET. That extra layer of constraint greatly reduces flexibility, so instead of great answers like THAT'S HOW and TV DRAMA, we get more neutral EYE TEST (used a lot in crosswords), UNCLOAK, PRACTICE, LALANNE.

It's a common trade-off — more interconnectivity means less flexibility.

I thought Mark did a really nice job with his grid, given his non-use of cheaters. It would have been interesting to see if a pair or two of extra black squares might have given us a little more great RATHOLE and STEPKIDS kind of material.

– puzzle by Mark Diehl

EMOTION is parsed as E-MOTION today, an E shifting place inside a word for kooky effect. Fun and perfectly apt title! Some worked well for me, GREAT SALT LEAK and MINUET HAND providing amusing visuals. And as a San Jose native, I enjoyed seeing the Sharks' TEAL spotlighted in A TEAL OF TWO CITIES.

I wasn't as fond of MATE MARKET, which seemed surprisingly like MEAT MARKET — so much so that I wondered if MATE MARKET was actually a themer or not. And BALANCED EDIT felt more like a real editorial term than a funny result. I wonder if Will, as an editor, bust a gut when seeing BALANCED EDIT? Humor is indeed subjective.

I always enjoy getting hints of Tomness in his puzzles. Before I got comments from Tom, I would have bet $3,141.59 that the clue for HAL — if you shift all the letters once, you get IBM — came from Tom. Cha-ching! And that clue for IN CODE — a simple substitution where A = 1, B = 2, etc. — also expressed Tom's voice.

As always, Tom does a nice job with his grids. I liked the bonuses of SANTAS LAP, PRO BONO, even the single-word but colorful MARTINET / AUTONOMY. Not as wild about the ICE BUCKET challenge, but that might just be my personal Facebook oversaturation a while back.

I wondered if I might have missed some extra layer, as I've been known to do in the past, since Tom has Sunday skills in the top 10% of all constructors. But alas, I couldn't find anything.

Because the theme concept is so simple, and so many words would work with this simple "E shift" idea, I wanted something more. I would have liked even something as straightforward as "all themers contain exactly one E." There's no hard and fast rule that there can't be extraneous Es in the themers, but it would have provided for an elegant touch.

– puzzle by Tom McCoy

I really like "what do these things have in common" puzzles when they provide for a satisfying click. BENCH WARMER and a DEAD BATTERY are both vivid, in-the-language phrases, but how could they both be part of the same theme? When they're NON-STARTERs! Very clever.

I didn't care as much for LAST LAP and MAIN COURSE. They are NONSTARTERs of course, but so are every other lap, as well as soup, salad, dessert, etc. They don't have the "dang, that's spot-on!" feeling I got from BENCH WARMER and DEAD BATTERY.

So much to like about Damon's grid. His last themeless had too much crossword glue for my personal taste — I try to stop enumerating at about 4 or 5 instances — but this one had the smoothness I seek out of a Monday. Very minor ENC, ATMO, TAI, ENS, all of which are easily gettable and common enough in real life to hardly even notice.

ILANA was a mystery to me, but that's not surprising since I don't have a lot of time to watch TV these days. She certainly seems crossworthy, given the critical praise and popularity of "Broad City." As a constructor, I welcome her friendly vowel-consonant alternation to the crossworld with open arms!

And all the bonuses were much appreciated. Just two long entries in OK CORRAL and PIE CHART, but both are excellent. The real standout quality was how well Damon used his seven-letter slots. ART DECO, PAGE BOY, LAPTOPS = LUCKY ME! So much goodness elegantly worked in.

I know I'll get questions about the LAST LAP / LAPTOPS duplication. Yes, two LAPs is usually a no-no, and it feels inelegant, but it didn't really bother me during my solve. I personally would have redone the LAPTOPS area because of this, but I don't actually care that much about these types of issues. The two instances have different etymologies (I think?), and there's no hard and fast rule about this sort of thing.

Overall, strong execution with so many great bonuses. If all the themers had been as spot-on as BENCH WARMER and DEAD BATTERY, it'd be an easy POW! selection for me.

– puzzle by Damon Gulczynski

MIDDLE NAME = themers with NAME hidden across two words. Excellent finds in ARIZONA MEMORIAL and CAPTAIN AMERICA, the latter one of my favorite superheroes. Fascinating, his struggle to find his place in a modern world that's left his WWII-era persona far behind.

Five long themers makes for a tough construction. I like ML's efforts to spice up the grid with bonuses, even in the face of such a difficult task. DRAGSTER is great, and GOTHIC is image-evoking. I wasn't a fan of ZIP DRIVE, since those are 1.) outdated and 2.) don't have the groundbreaking quality of something like FLOPPY DISK.

BAD GIRL also made me hitch, as did ONE REED. The former is laden with all sort of negative connotations, and the latter isn't something I've ever heard in my 20 years of orchestra. DOUBLE REED for oboes and SINGLE REED for clarinets, but ONE REED felt iffy at best.

With so much going on, it wasn't a surprise to see some gluey spots. The north section, already having to work with VIETNAM ERA and BARCELONA METRO, became even tougher with the addition of BAD GIRL. That forced an AA ending in ABAA. And with a tough AQABA / QOM crossing plus the pluralized AVAS, it's a lot in just one little place.

The west and east sections are where you'd usually expect signs of stress in a puzzle featuring so many long themers. The east turned out okay, with just the IDIO prefix as glue, but the west has both ABRA and TROI. Both are reasonably fine by me personally, since I'm a Trekkie, but it's not unusual to see this type of crossword glue when the ends of long themers have to work together.

It was good to hear from her that this puzzle is from three+ years ago. Her constructing skills have come a long way since then.

I personally like "word hidden in phrases" puzzle more when there's some extra layer — using different but related words, a really incredible single word, a revealer that's really funny, etc. — but ML had some nice finds, especially CAPTAIN AMERICA, and the MIDDLE NAME revealer was apt.

– puzzle by Mary Lou Guizzo

★ 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.

– puzzle by Tom Pepper

I used to think there was a finite number of palindrome sentences, like MADAM, IM ADAM. Imagine my surprise when at the ACPT one year, there was a palindrome-writing contest! Will (Shortz) even gave the people a constraint to work with: they had to incorporate at least one X. (There might have even been another constraint, too.) I was impressed that both contestants were able to come up with something in the limited time (10 minutes?) that actually sounded like a real sentence. Pretty cool.

Alan came up with four palindromes I had never seen before, with some good results. EMUS SAIL, I ASSUME evoked a funny image, not just of an emu sailing, but of someone making the curious statement. And NO WAY, A PAPAYA WON! made me think about awestruck fans at some sort of fruit Olympics. Funny stuff.

What there really ought to be is a punchline contest. A TSAR, A NUN, and A RASTA walk into a bar … man oh man, I can't wait to find out what happens! At first I thought that palindrome was the weakest of the four since it's not a complete sentence, but adding "walk into a bar" makes pretty much everything funny.

Nice effort to work in some long fill, without resorting to very many compromises — not an easy accomplishment when all four themers are grid-spanners. I would have expected the NE and the SW corners to be the gluiest places, given that the ends of two long themers have to work together, but Alan does well in both places. Okay, ERODENT is a little wonky, and we see counselor TROI for the second time this week, but I like this trade-off. IT'S A DATE and JUBILANT in symmetrical spots is a ton of fun.

Alan could have easily placed black squares at the second U of CAUCUSED and the A of BROADWAY, making his life easier, but those are both nice answers, worked carefully in. A smooth final product, especially considering all the constraints + the bonus entries.

I can't wait to see what punchlines people send me! I'll be waiting at the bar.

– puzzle by Alan Arbesfeld

Not a surprise to get more triple- and quad-stacks from MAS. I really enjoyed the quad. I COULD EAT A HORSE is a fantastic entry, and SLEEPLESS NIGHTS is good too. The only one I had a slight hitch on was PURSUE THE MATTER, which felt somewhat arbitrary. There's something too unspecific about it for my taste.

And it's held together with less crossword glue than I'm used to seeing in a quad. ALL UP and IS SET feel like iffy partials ... but perhaps passable. All of the TETE / AAHS / RTES / I AM NOT entries are very minor — I wish they hadn't been so concentrated, which made them feel like they stuck out when in close proximity to A HAIR — but an argument can be made that A HAIR is akin to the commonplace A LOT. As a whole, the quad held up well for me, when compared to other quads in recent memory.

I'm mixed on whether it was worth it to include two triple-stacks in the grid in addition. As much as I liked LAID IT ON THE LINE and TESTED THE WATERS, even this finance junkie got bored with INTEREST RATE CAP. And given the glue necessary to hold the quad-stack together, it was unfortunate to get more of the DET, A WIRE, I LET variety.

I found myself wondering what could have been if MAS had broken up the TESTED THE WATERS slot, and attempted to give us two sizzling grid-spanners without resorting to any crossword glue. But perhaps some people love INTEREST RATE CAP, or just the visual impact of that huge white space in the bottom.

Overall though, I like when constructors try new things. It was surprising to see that MAS hasn't ever done a triple/quad/triple stack puzzle before.

– puzzle by Martin Ashwood-Smith

Love the long entries anchoring this one: GRAVITY'S RAINBOW and YOU'RE DARN TOOTIN'! The latter is such a fun phrase to say, and although I haven't read the former, what a great book title. If the fact that it won the National Book Award wasn't enough, apparently there's a mysterious device at the center of the plot called the "black device." And heck, I'll go read it just based on the catchy title alone.

Fun pairing up top of MICKEY D'S (slang for McDonald's) and IN AND OUT. The latter isn't that exciting a phrase to me — more of a space filler — but I enjoyed how it hinted at IN-N-OUT Burger. SURE, SURE was also good, although it felt a notch below YEAH, SURE or YEAH, RIGHT. (I'd also accept the heavily emphasized SUUUUUUUUUURE, which I use all the time.)

The bottom stack was fun as well, the colloquial GUESS NOT and DRUM SET framing the triple of EBB TIDES / CLOSE ONE / SEWER RAT. They're all thumbs-up answers, and there's nary a gluey bit in sight. EBB TIDES didn't excite me on its own, but what a clever clue to elevate it — [Rollback events] had me thinking about store sales where they roll back their prices.

A couple of other bonuses here and there, BOGART my favorite of the mid-length answers. A close second was IMBIBE, because of the amusing clue. ([Lift one's spirits?] refers to a literal lifting of a distilled spirit.)

Overall, a high level of smoothness, really just a LAN and a TSE (ERTE bothers some, but I think he's made a big enough mark in art to easy be crossworthy). Hardly a hiccup during my solve, and I really appreciated that. I would have been fine with a touch more glue, though — maybe one or two more bits — in order to get a few more entries that sizzled like MICKEY D'S. It would have been awesome if RINSE OUT and IN AND OUT had been swapped out for top-notch answers, for example.

– puzzle by James Mulhern

As we always do, Ellen and I brainstormed for weeks for this one, eventually landing at a spot very different than where we started. The concept of OVER and UNDER phrases, sitting literally over or under their target thing, is a little straightforward for my taste, but Will reminded me last year that a huge chunk of his solvers tend to prefer fairly straightforward themes (read: ones that don't mystify them).

That comment caught me completely off-guard back then. Personally, the NYT crossword first grabbed my attention when someone showed me all the crazy, creative ideas constructors incorporated. But as I thought more and more about Will's comment, I started recalling some of the feedback I've gotten over the years. I've heard from a good number of solvers who finished some of my puzzles — without ever understanding what was going on!

It serves as a healthy reminder that I sometimes try to be too clever for my own good. When more than just a handful of solvers don't figure out what the theme is, that's on me, not on them.

Here's hoping that this one walks the fine line between cleverness and allowing the solver to emerge victorious, with a warm glow of satisfaction.

– puzzle by Ellen Leuschner and Jeff Chen

Wait. Someone actually listened to me?

I liked this one a lot. Simple theme — NEWS, TRAFFIC, WEATHER, SPORTS the typical parts of a MORNING SHOW — yet I didn't know what was going on until close to the end. On Mondays, I often play a little game, trying to guess as quickly as possibly what the theme is, and I enjoy when I don't immediately figure it out (as long as I actually do figure it out at some point!).

Beautiful northeast corner. Absolutely loved the AL GORE RHYTHM (oh right, ALGORITHM) / TOP SECRET pairing, along with just a TRI / EMTS as very, very minor prices to pay. That "parallel down" structure is so hard to do, so pulling off two great long entries with virtually no crossword glue is dynamite.

Some other bonuses in JET LAG, IN A SECOND, even a SMOKER standing outside a building. Very nice to get these extras, when John already had a toughish task incorporating five longish theme answers.

You have no idea how relieved I was when read John's note about a 74-word layout including RETUSE. I already struggled with ENVOI and HESS crossing BIER (clued as the funeral stand, not the German word for beer).

Why is ENVOI problematic for me in a Monday puzzle? I think of my experience when starting crosswords, and also draw from friends' initial impressions of crosswords. Most anything is fair game when the crosses are easily gettable (the beauty of crosswords!) but shortish entries that smell of "weird word you might never see outside of crosswords in your entire life" tend to leave a bad impression.

Now, I like learning a thing or two. I didn't know what a GOAT RODEO was outside of crosswords, but what a cool term! ENVOI is something I can plunk in now without any letters because I do a lot of crosswords, but it gives me more of a sense of something that crossword constructors rely on, rather than giving solvers much pleasure.

But overall, nice start to the week.

– puzzle by John Guzzetta

★ THIS ROUNDS ON ME! Er, THE ROUNDS ON ME. Hmm. I've never actually heard anyone get up and declare either one, but the former is the way I imagine it happening.

Jeb (John E. Bennett) and I live pretty close to each other, so we meet up occasionally to talk shop. When he mentioned this one to me, I smiled — great minds think alike! I actually like his interpretation better than mine, what with 1.) the pretty circle, or "round" formed by the drinks, and 2.) the fact that all of his are alcoholic beverages.

I also appreciated his touch of GIN and STOUT, ones that can easily be clued not as the drink. As Jeb mentioned, that did hide the theme for a little bit.

I always worry when I see diagonal answers, since it's so tough to construct around them. But I like what Jeb did in the top left corner a lot. It is true that he had a lot of flexibility, being able to use any six-letter alcoholic beverage, but he made SHERRY work so nicely. DEATHS did give me a pause, since it's a bit of a no-no to include downers like this, but needing virtually no crossword glue to hold a section like this together is great work.

The bottom left exhibits a few of the usual traits I'd expect out of a section with diagonal answers — not surprising, given how open the corner is compared to the top left. I did like TRAIN CAR, HOT MEALS, even GIMBAL (sue me, I'm an engineer). I didn't like NNE/ACAP/PCT/ERST holding it together.

A different type of compromise in the bottom right. The short stuff is all fine, but the longer stuff ... RETESTS is a bit iffy, and EAGEREST feels more than a bit iffy. Working around these diagonal answers, if it ain't one thing, it's another.

Given the degree of difficulty here though, I enjoyed the final result despite my initial hesitations, especially that pretty ring of drinks, and the theme felt uplifting. I like it when a puzzle leaves me with good spirits.

(rim shot)

– puzzle by John E. Bennett

Debut! I had the hardest time figuring out what was going on, but it was ultimately a fun discovery. SHOW SOME LEG hinted at three leg parts hidden in themers: ANKLE, CALF, THIGH. I've highlighted them below so they stand out better.

SHOW SOME LEG … it's spot-on as a revealer, no doubt. It did have an odd vibe, or at least a fusty feel to it, though. For me, it evoked an image of construction workers hooting at passing women to SHOW SOME LEG; not a very appealing visual. I was glad to read Scott's explanation — gentlemen displaying their stockings as part of a historical greeting is a lot of fun. I wish the clue could have had referred to that, but it wouldn't have quite worked since that was "show a leg," not SHOW SOME LEG.

That aside, I did enjoy the themer choices. Fast Times at RIDGEMONT HIGH always brings a smile to my face, and TROPICAL FRUIT is fun too.

I also liked how Scott worked hard to incorporate some good long fill, entries like UMA THURMAN, BEATS ME, FINAGLE, helping to build his STREET CRED as a newbie constructor.

There's a smattering of crossword glue holding the puzzle together, not unexpected out of a debut. I don't mind a little ENERO or ERNE here or there, but they get more noticeable for me when they're crossing. And if you have an ERNE, I'd much rather not call attention to it with a cross-reference (to EAGLE).

Reasonably smooth overall though, Scott wisely using some cheater squares to make his life easier in the middle section, between TROPICAL FRUIT and RIDGEMONT HIGH. ITS SO isn't great as a five-letter partial (the clue tries to hide this — it's not fooling anyone), but what would typically be a tough section to fill comes out well.

I would have loved the puzzle if 1) the leg parts were in visually correct order, i.e. THIGH to CALF to ANKLE, and 2) there was a revealer that didn't make me feel a little uncomfortable. Fun idea, though.

– puzzle by Scott Yut

Neat concept, but difficult to explain. Four answers have "ghost" implied: (GHOST) TOWNS, (GHOST) WRITTEN, (GHOST) BUSTERS, and (GHOST) STORY. None of the letters in those words show up in the down answers, i.e. COUR(T)IER becomes COURIER. Finally, all the old words such as COURTIER are legitimate words (or word-ish).

Whew! Make sense? If not, I've done some highlighting in the grid below to try to make the principle clear. I've also fixed up the answers below so they match their respective clues.

I liked some of Milo's finds, HOL(Y) LAND to HOLLAND the standout. That's the type of discovery I marvel at, such a dramatic change — a colorful, long answer turning into another solid entry. COURTIER to COURIER is also good, but there's something about a two-word to one-word transmogrification that's so neat.

This type of construction feat is very difficult. I've done it once before, but it took so long to create that I doubt I'll do another like it. Milo has an even more difficult task, given how many ghosted letters he has to work with. It's especially difficult around those seven-letter entries — that's so many connected answers that have to be worked in!

Given the challenge, it's no surprise to see a few clunkers in the affected regions. I thought the NE suffered most, with IS WAR and MIN(T)ER, and the T BAR to BAR change isn't much a change at all. And as much as I loved HOL(Y) LAND to HOLLAND, having the awkward THR (from TH(O)R) took away from that region's appeal. There's also some awkward ASORT, RNDS, PRES spread around, not to mention CDI, ARD, AMU, etc.

Overall though, I liked the novelty of the ghosted words. Fun and tricky concept, appropriate for Halloween.

– puzzle by Milo Beckman