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I haven't laughed so hard at a themeless entry in a long time: UP THE WAZOO! It might speak to my juvenile-at-heart personality, but it's such a funny thing to say. Along with POLICE RAID and STATE SEALS — with a delightfully obfuscating clue about where Delaware and Minnesota have farmers — it's a fantastic triplet.

I appreciate how careful Ori was in putting this grid together, too. Perhaps some will balk at SO RARE, but I'm okay with that song title. At least it's two recognizable words! Excellent craftsmanship, taking such pains to polish up the grid with elegance; so little crossword glue.

Speaking of two random words:

BLACK MIRROR. I've heard the title before, and a few friends gush over the show. I don't know how popular it is, but at least if you don't know the series, you can use the crossings to fill in what will be two recognizable words.

ICEBOX CAKE. I'm a huge "Great British Bake-Off" fan, having watched every episode of every season. I didn't know this term, though. Again, at least CAKE ought to be familiar. (ICEBOX refers to the fact that it used to be chilled in an ICEBOX, in olden days.)

LIVER EMOTE. I knew newscasts were trying to get jiggy wit it, go all modern and social media-y and all. I had no idea that they were commonly using emoji now, much less liver emoji. I bet they use these ... when they're presenting bad news, since, in myth, the liver was the organ ripped out of Prometheus every night?

(I kid. But I also got stumped by the wombo-combo of ICEBOX CAKE / LIVE REMOTE.)

Solid work, great craftsmanship. It felt too niche in places for me to give it POW! consideration, but I can see how a BLACK MIRROR fan might vehemently demand that I reflect upon my decision.

– puzzle by Ori Brian

★ David is so good at so many areas in crossword construction. Today, he flexes his mid-length muscles, showing how densely he can pack the goodies in. Check out this list of great 7s:

• AC MILAN
• APPLE ID
• BEAR HUG
• CAT POSE
• CHIMERA
• CINEMAX
• COLD ONE
• DATA SET
• DR HOUSE
• KIBBLES
• NOXZEMA
• OH, ITS ON!
• PINE NUT
• ROAD HOG
• THE ABCS
• USB PORT

Sixteen excellent 7s, all in one themeless? Unheard of! Along with very little crossword glue, it's a masterful creation. It is so tricky to balance color and cleanliness in this style of grid, and David didn't have to make hardly any trade-offs. (OERSTED is pretty tricky, even for this physics nerd.)

POW!

As a side note, I personally love SCHMUCK, which would bring my tally to 17. But Rich Norris at the LAT long ago warned me that he'd never allow this in a puzzle, as it's vulgar, like using PENIS or SCHLONG as fill. I did have hesitations, but it looks like the NYT has used it a couple of times now in regular stories. I'd be curious to hear if it does offend people.

– puzzle by David Steinberg

I was so confused by ARM CHILI. I'm a big spice guy, so I thought I simply hadn't heard this slang term for completely bland chili. I didn't even bother to look it up before shrugging and moving along.

D'oh!

I almost didn't tag it as a bogus answer to keep it out of our database. It's actually supposed to be (ONEAL)ARM CHILI, with Shaquille ONEAL "ejected." That's a great find!

(MESSI)AH COMPLEX is another excellent discovery. It's impressive to uncover longish names within themers, such that the resulting phrase is amusing and not just nonsense. AH COMPLEX sounds like it applies to frustrated crossword puzzle solvers!

Not as hot on THE T WILL SET YOU FREE and P OF ADMISSION, both more nonsensical / random strings of letter-words. Maybe Babe RUTH and Jerry RICE fans will disagree.

What with the flood of theme answers, I was impressed at Natan's execution. A good number of long bonuses — CAFFEINE FIX and FIJI ISLANDS standouts — with not that much crossword glue. I bet he spent a ton of time trying different placements for the four superstars' names, moving them all around the grid.

Speaking of so many themers, I got confused several times during my solve. A penalty, a kooky themer, and the ejected superstar — times four! Perhaps that's why I dismissed ARM CHILI as a normal phrase I just hadn't heard of.

(Better than the alternative explanation, that I'm an idiot.)

I would have preferred a simpler approach: not including the penalties, especially since HELMET HIT felt off (it's usually referred to as a HELMET TO HELMET HIT). This would have also allowed Natan to place the superstars close to their respective theme answer, to minimize the distraction of having to jump all around the grid. It would have been much better to have ONEAL and ARM CHILI nearby, for example.

Overall though, I liked the concept; above average on the cleverosity scale for Sunday puzzles.

– puzzle by Natan Last

INFO in OUT IN FORCE? What a clever find. Great themer choices in general — TIN FOIL HAT, YOU'RE IN FOR IT NOW, BRAIN FOODS are all so snazzy.

I like Ali's clean execution on this simple theme type. I'm always impressed when a debut flows so smoothly, hardly a hitch to be experienced. Newer solvers might carp about ÁVILA, but the crosses are fair. Beautiful place, too, apparently.

Considering the solid craftsmanship, I'd love to see Ali push the boundaries a little next time. I'd much rather have simple themes paired with grids that err on the side of clean (vs. colorful) — makes for a better newb solving experience. But even with five themers, both are possible.

Maybe try taking out a black square between INN and PINUP. Perhaps even the one between ULNA and KNAVE. There isn't much pizzazz in the fill besides SKI BUM and P DIDDY, so a couple of long slots could have jazzed up the joint a ton.

Overall though, a fine debut. Not an exciting theme type anymore, what with the same word repeated over and over, but excellent themers + smooth fill = a puzzle I'd happily give to out as a starter.

– puzzle by Ali Gascoigne

★ Loved this one. I use the phrase SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN all the time, but I've never made the leap to "what three words, when said together, sound like a synonym for PLAN?" ARE + AINGE + MINT = arrangement = Jeff being envious of Erik's versatile and wide-ranging mind.

Bang-up execution, too. All sorts of goodies in FRY BREAD, the IMAC PRO, a summer SHANDY, UP AGAINST IT. Talk about an INSTINCTUAL feel for strong execution!

I did hesitate on MID-JUNE — feels like it opens an unwanted pathway for randos such as EARLY WINTER, EIGHT ELEVENTHS, who knows what else. But a nice save on the clue, referring to the commemoration of the abolition of slavery. (I believe it's referring to Juneteenth?)

I've seen a lot of "last words in theme phrases form a maxim" puzzles. But this one adds such a welcome twist; a clever extra layer that makes it stand out. Excellent work all around earns Erik yet another POW!

– puzzle by Erik Agard

Uniclue! There have been enough of these, that the NYT production team seemed a bit blasé about it when I got pre-release notes. What a pleasant surprise to get a twist, a raison d'etre that I doubt I'd have ever thought of. Every single square that starts both an across and a down answer shares a clue — but the across entry is in ENGLISH, and the down is in ESPANOL.

I've tried my hand at Uniclue constructions, and they're a bear. Not only do you have paired themers everywhere, but some of them have to intersect. And on top of all that, because most of the themers are short, you're going to need some long fill to stay within the max word count of 78.

I have a feeling some solvers will complain about the crossword glue, and I acknowledge that the slurry of ALTE IRT ASCH OCS etc. isn't fantastic. Nor is ADORER or NIBBLERS. HALLOO, HELLO?

But the direct experience of working with this theme type (and failing miserably, I might add) makes me appreciate Queena and Alex's execution. It's not realistic to expect a Uniclue puzzle to be perfectly clean, and for me, the payoff was worth the prices I had to pay during my solve.

Not to mention, they even managed to work in a couple of strong bonuses. I NEED A NAP + TELESCOPE + RING TOSS isn't a total KNOCK OUT, but that's pretty darn good long fill for the limited long slots available.

Hilarious clue on TEAPOT, too. Left holding the bag, indeed. *rimshot*

When working with an established tricksy theme type, it's important to do something a little different. I count this one a success.

– puzzle by Queena Mewers and Alex Eaton-Salners

Darn it, Morton stole my punchline!

It's been a while since we've had a "letters outside the grid" theme. I appreciate that Will spaces them out for bigger impact.

I had a dickens of a time even finishing the puzzle, as the random GO positions made it so tricky. I usually love tricksiness, but wow, was this the uber-tricksiest. Several themers gave a great payoff — CHICA(GO), TAKES TWO TO TAN(GO), (GO)SLINGS in particular. But as a whole, I was left with a feel of inelegance.

Why? Some themers formed regular words/entries without GO, like (GO)SLINGS. Some didn't, like AGESA(GO). GOODNIGHT IRENE didn't resonate with me, not nearly as much as CARMEN SANDIEGO. And why eight GOs? Why some in long answers, some in shorties?

I know, I overthink things way too much. But it is what it is.

This would have been POW! material for me if the grid had looked innocent, all full of themers like SLINGS and CHICA. As it was, it felt a bit haphazard.

Still, a great mental workout, trying my darnedest to remember where those GOs were. Probably will play much more strongly to paper solvers who don't need a square in which to type GO. Kind of nice when a puzzle comes along that makes you appreciate pencil and paper!

– puzzle by Morton J. Mendelson

You think Mike likes portmanteaus? FUNEMPLOYED and MATHLETES today, with HACKTIVISM and STAYCATION in his last themeless? Hmm!

I'm partial to MATHLETE, myself, having been one (and wishing I were still good enough to be one). I mostly hear the others in a jokey way though, almost cringeworthy. I much prefer colorful multi-word phrases, such as CLAIM TO FAME, READY ROOM (Jean-Luc Picard fans unite!), FLAT BROKE, LOVE LETTER. Those feel much more timeless.

I remember the first time I SAW (II) WADIS in a crossword. My reaction was far from FOR THE WIN (something the kids say these days — or what they used to say, by now?). I've softened over time. It's kind of an interesting term, albeit specialized. Makes for a good party trick when you want to show off your trivia.

While I prize jazzy, multi-word phrases in themelesses, I also appreciate when a cool single-word entry dazzles, like IMPRIMATUR. I admit I wouldn't get this one right on a vocab test, but it made me feel good that I recognized the fancy-pants word.

All in all, not quite enough color in this one for my taste, along with a couple of (admittedly very) minor CES ESE HMS dings. It's tough — the bar for a standard 70-word themeless is so high these days.

– puzzle by John Guzzetta and Michael Hawkins

I'm a big fan of Ryan's wide-open constructions. This one, with a football-ish shape in the center, reminds me of another one of his I loved. It's so clean, just an ENDO as a minor dab of crossword glue needed to hold such an audacious construction together. Great craftsmanship.

Some top-notch feature entries, too. Loved TORCH RELAYS and DESSERT CASE crossed by BUSH LEAGUE in the center. ID BRACELET / BOOK REVIEW anchoring the NW, GOLDEN BEAR / ESPY AWARDS in the SE, even a bit of DIATRIBE in the upper right? Nice to get a little something everywhere you look.

Because I'd already seen a similar grid pattern from Ryan, my expectations were pretty high. I had a couple of hitches in TWO TONE CAR — apparently that's a thing, but it doesn't resonate strongly for me — and SCULPTED ABS, which felt not as solid (pardon the pun) as SIX PACK ABS or WASHBOARD ABS. I know that they mean slightly different things and that SCULPTED ABS is a real thing. But the other two phrases sound so much snappier.

A bit of an ick factor with BAYONETING, too. It's a real word. A pretty unpleasant one, though.

A couple of clues elated me, while I felt like some others needed explaining:

• NINE is a small square — three squared, to be exact!
• How is FIVE an orange ball? Hmm ... it's the orange ball on a pool table?
• [Field of flowers] is so innocent, so fun, referring to the field of BOTANY!
• [Off] isn't as innocent for LESS. Yikes is that tough, not in a fun way. I *think* it's referring to the "minus" meaning of both?

Overall, a fine piece of craftsmanship. It didn't hit my ear quite as well as Ryan's last one, but it still made for a satisfying and challenging solving experience.

– puzzle by Ryan McCarty

I struggled to figure out the commonality between all these random tongue twisters. It's kind of neat that FIVE TIMES FAST is a bit tongue-twisting in its own right. I wish there were some unifying factor that tightened up the theme, though.

Been a long time since I've heard tongue-twisters, and I did appreciate that all of these were new to me. It was surprisingly fun to (try to) say REAL RARE WHALE five times fast. I thought I'd have no trouble, but boy was I wrong. Same with SHE SEES CHEESE SHEEZE SEIZE BAH!!!

Not sure why SHOE SECTION is tough, though. Seemed easy to say five times fast. Maybe it's because it's only two words to remember, while all the others are three?

Sunday 140-word constructions are tough, so I think Lee did pretty well. I like the cheater black square just before TIER, which makes filling that region so much easier. (Same with the one just after ANT.) I'd have welcomed two or even four more, helping to smooth out things like ADAR / ADORER, AN ACT, or COZ.

That last one probably is the product of the Z's allure — it wasn't worth it to me, as COZ feels bizarre, but I can see the other side of the argument, that rare letters spice up a solve.

I can't remember another tongue twister theme (is that a tongue twister in itself?), so points for the novelty. Sure would have been nice to have something to tighten things up though, improving the feeling of "a bunch of unrelated tongue twisters thrown together."

– puzzle by Lee Taylor

Basketball nicknames are awesome. Whoever thought up Dr. Dunkenstein was a genius. But my favorite is for an entire college team that featured Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon and "Clyde the Glide" Drexler. How could you not want to be a member of Phi Slama Jama? CHOCOLATE THUNDER is right up there — Darryl Dawkins was a dunking machine. If only I could get a MONIKER featuring my hops!

(It would have to be a very short nickname.)

Straightforward Monday theme, VANILLA SKY, CHOCOLATE THUNDER, STRAWBERRY BLONDE making up NEAPOLITAN ice cream. The second and third themers are snazzy choices, spicing up the joint with some highlight-reel jams. Too bad VANILLA SKY was such a terrible movie. Tough to pick anything else that features VANILLA though, without going right at the flavor of vanilla, i.e., VANILLA BEAN, VANILLA SHAKE, etc.

Jason Williams' nickname of "White Chocolate" is close, but no cigar. Ah well.

Solid gridwork, for the most part. Loved getting some extras in OLYMPICS, BIG BANG, TAPIOCA, MONIKER — jazzing up a straightforward theme can elevate a puzzle mightily.

Howard did a nice job separating his themers will wise black square placements. But it's hard to work with two central 16s. The west and east sections are usually trouble, what with so many down answers having to work through them. See IAL in the west, and ELAND / LAN in the east. I don't mind the former, but the latter feels like a trap for newer solvers. Esoteric animal crossing a tough initialism = no bueno!

What could have helped: separating the west and east from the rest of the puzzle a little more, by shifting black squares around. See how the east has to work with BIG BANG, ARGYLE and MONIKER? That's asking for trouble. If the price is just an IAL, it's passable. Not so much for that ELAND / LAN pair.

Nominations for Jeff's nickname are now open. Please, no "Yellow Chocolate."

– puzzle by Howard Barkin

★ 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.

– puzzle by Tom Pepper

Ross ain't joking. As soon as I opened up the puzzle, I girded myself for crossword glue and entry weirdity. Pleasantly surprised to not get much of either. There's some ALAI, USS … hey, that's it? Impressive!

And looking back on the grid as a whole, there's MARSUPIUM, NOOVE NUSE (that's a Canadian province) … it's better than I had thought. A lot better. Perhaps it was the oddity of MARSUPIUM that threw me for a curve? It's funny how a single entry, especially a long one, can tilt one's perspective on a puzzle as a whole. Judging an entire crossword by its worst or most bizarre entry isn't fair. Not in the slightest. But impressions are what impressions are.

I generally like TITTLES and IT BANDS (except when I have trouble with my tight IT BANDS stemming from long-distance running). I didn't like them as much today though, because of MARSUPIUM.

Darn you, first impressions!

I wonder if not shooting for lower than the moon (ha) would have been better. Maybe SYZYGY as a shorter revealer, which would have gained Ross a ton more freedom in picking his long across themers? Granted, that's also a word some would consider bizarre. Such a cool string of letters, though!

Loved the color of BARISTA as fill, plus its fantastic clue — a BARISTA doesn't serve any average joe, indeed. Give me my soy extra hot no foam latte, please!

Strong crossword concept, and a valiant attempt at executing with a ridiculous amount of theme material. Almost pulled it off. Almost.

– puzzle by Ross Trudeau

Jeb and I meet up a couple of times a year, and it's fun to brainstorm with him. He showed me one built around OUT OF ORDER SIGNS, but he had flipped pairs of sign words, i.e., WANTED HELP and WAY WRONG. I didn't find that interesting, but there was something about the revealer that tickled my fancy.

Several weeks and several hundred anagrams later, voila! I liked the image of a "Fawlty Towers" imp or Bart Simpson scrambling road signs. It amuses me to think about people confusedly driving past a sign reading DECAL ODORS.

Well, amusing, until they ran off the ROAD that was CLOSED. Ahem.

I almost always do the grid skeleton work in collaborations, but this one was all Jeb. I hesitated at his layout at first, especially considering how many down answers had to work through the first two themers (in the north region of the grid), but he made it work pretty well. Always interesting to see another constructor's process — I would have shoved SPEED LIMIT all the way to the right to create better spacing. Pleasantly surprised to see that it all worked out. Just took a few back and forths to figure out best options for each region after that.

We were hoping that this would run on a Wednesday, as I want more out of a Thursday theme. If you're gonna toil away at a tough solve, the payoff better be good! Hopefully at least a few of the anagrams were amusing enough to be worth your time.

P.S. Jeb and I have a much more juvenile taste than Will. Our submitted anagrams:

DONE ROTTEN

TEPID SLIME

GREASED PET

DECAL ODORS

– puzzle by John E. Bennett and Jeff Chen

CRAZY RICH ASIANS! The book was hilarious. I was so glad that they didn't cast Tilda Swinton to play one of the lead roles. Not all movies make for great crossword feature entries, but this one had mass popular appeal, bringing in the megabucks. NYT solvers should have at least heard of it.

Solid craftsmanship, especially for a debut. Impressive that I hit barely a dab of crossword glue anywhere. I love this careful approach, no trace of the all-too-common "good enough is good enough" attitude I see in newer constructors. Way to go, Wyna!

Fun connection between T NUTS and T SLOT, too. Amusing to this mechanical engineer who's used many T NUTS in his lifetime.

Some good color: CATFISHES, FOSSILIZE, OOPS SORRY, and the highlight, WIN AT LIFE.

I would have liked more jazz overall, though. When you feature a 15-letter entry, you run the risk of 1.) not having many other long slots, and 2.) not using the ones you have to their fullest potential. INSANELY takes up one of those precious 8-letter slots for example, and it doesn't do much for me. SALSA DIP, too — I eat a lot of salsa, some dip, but SALSA DIP, not so much.

Sometimes in these cases, the mid-length fill can help. BROTOX is a funny asset, THE RIO is good too. MOSTEST is amusing, ALL PROS solid. WOODMEN ... meh.

As Wyna, Erik, Will all mentioned, there was so much separation, three mini-puzzles barely connected. No bueno; made for a choppy solve in which I got stuck in each of the three sections. It's frustrating to dead-end so many times like that. I'm glad that Will let it slide for this debut, but I'd be just as happy if he put the kibosh on it for the future.

Overall though, impressive debut. Looking forward to seeing how much juice Wyna can pack into her next one.

– puzzle by Wyna Liu

Appropriate that there are three Xs in this grid! MANSCAPING is innocent enough in some senses. Trimming unwanted chest and back hair for cosmetic appearances — sure, it's a little icky, but it's a part of life for many. Then there are the other senses ... don't Google it without your adult filter on. There are some things you can't unsee.

At the symmetrical location to MANSCAPING is DOMINATRIX? Yikes! The images of the MANSCAPING the DOMINATRIX would do ...

DOMINATRIX was one of my favorite entries of the puzzle, especially considering the clever clue. You whipper-snapper! Not the innocent kind, either!

Along with PANSEXUAL, this one has an edgy feel overall. Some edginess is good for the NYT.

I appreciated the three Xs — it's not hard to work a single X into a themeless, but two can be tough, and three insanely difficult to do well. Seamless today, Often, I feel like constructors convince themselves to do bad things with crossword glue in order to work in those rare letters. Andrew and John did very well in this regard.

Speaking of crossword glue, even the dabs they used weren't that bad. And CEE was a win in my book, a great clue referring to the third character to appear in Macbeth. That's a letter character, not an actor!

Strong work overall. A ton of great entries like HOTLANTA, MINOTAUR, STAR WARS, THE AMISH, CARPACCIO, along with very little crossword glue. That's A LOT TO ASK, and Andrew + John delivered. If it hadn't been for my own squeamishness around one entry, it would have been in POW! contention.

– puzzle by Andrew Kingsley and John Lieb

David riffing on the common complaint, that you have to know trivia to do crosswords. Today, you do!

A lot of elegant elements, starting with the six Trivial Pursuit wedge colors, placed in a perfect circle. Check out the colored-in grid below — so aesthetically pleasing.

I also liked that we got a trivia question from a certain category, using that category's color as an answer. Here's the list:

• Geography = blue
• Entertainment = pink
• History = yellow
• Art and Literature = Brown
• Science and Nature = Green
• Sports and Leisure = Orange

For example, note how the blue rebus square involved the DELAWARE BLUE HENS. Nice touch.

Also note how many elements David had to work in:

1. Six rebus squares
2. Those six rebus squares, placed regularly along a circle
3. Six trivia questions (symmetrical in length)
4. Six answers to those questions — placed to work with the rebus squares!

With so much going on, it's no surprise to get some crossword glue, and some oddballs like ULYANOV. But the bigger surprise was that it wasn't more.

(And it's kind of meta to get weird trivia like Lenin's real last name, inside a Trivial Pursuit puzzle!)

The trivia questions themselves weren't all that interesting or challenging, so this one didn't rise to POW! consideration. But overall, an interesting concept along with good craftsmanship on a tough set of constraints.

– puzzle by David Kwong

★ I love playing the "can I guess the theme" game on Mondays. A perfect early-week theme is obfuscated until the very end, where a revealer gives me a delightful a-ha moment. My observations through my solve today, along with timestamps:

1:24 — NIGHT-NIGHT. Theme is doubled words? Hmm, that'd be boring.

2:05 — WHITE WEDDING!

(singing) It's a nice day to … START AGAIN!

Oops, gotta get back to it.

2:16 — NIGHT / WHITE … rhymers with different spellings?

2:58 — MUSHROOM BALL? Let's put the theme game aside and figure out WTF a MUSHROOM BALL is.

(down the internet rabbit hole) Wow, those look delicious!

3:31 — Scratching my head. How could these three themers possibly be related?

4:24 — Hit the revealer, CAP AND GOWN.

4:26 — Wha ... ?

4:32 — Uh ... buh?

4:37 — More head scratching.

4:46 — Re-read the clue for the fourth time. Still nonsensical.

5:05 — Jeff is getting angry!

5:31 — AHA! Happy dance! NIGHT cap, WHITE cap, MUSHROOM cap. NIGHT gown, WEDDING gown, BALL GOWN!

Great twist on the "both words can precede X" theme type. Fortuitous findings — I wouldn't have believed it possible. Huge kudos.

And great gridwork too. Enough bonuses in SUNSCREEN, OBNOXIOUS, COPYCAT, DATASET. Not much crossword glue in ETH MATA SNO. This is the way to execute on a Monday grid, folks. Don't be afraid to go up to the max of 78 words. Don't try for anything flashy. Focus on a clean, smooth grid, and work in a couple of strong bonuses. Pro stuff right here.

POW! Congrats on joining the club, Leslie, and looking forward to more from both of you!

– puzzle by Leslie Rogers and Andrea Carla Michaels

Embarrassing how long I stared at COLD SOBBER, trying to figure out what the base phrase was. (Before I hit the revealer, mind you.) I took it as a personal challenge to decrypt the theme, from a single themer!

Fail.

COLD SHOULDER was my first thought.

Then COLD SLOBBER. (Can you tell I have a two-year-old?)

In the interest of full disclosure, I even considered OLD SOBBER. Wasn't that a sad movie where the dog dies?

Even sadder, when I hit the revealer, it still took a minute to figure it out — my mind went back to COLD SLOBBER. (GET YOUR FINGERS OUT OF YOUR SLOBBERY MOUTH, JAKE!)

TO BE OR NOT TO BE has been played upon many a time for crosswords, including a clever rebus that came immediately to my mind, but I can't remember one exactly like this. There aren't that many double-B words that form other words when single-B-ified, so it's a tidy theme set.

I did find it odd that CHINESE CAB AGE was the only one that required parsing, but that's a minor ding.

Another interesting aspect of this puzzle is that it's one of the few containing repeated words. TO BE / OR NOT / TO BE — the question is, how many other puzzles have had repeats?

Not many.

I didn't find this one as interesting as other repeated word themes since this is more a by-product of a decision that facilitated easier crossword gridding. TO BE OR NOT TO BE could have been placed as one entry in the middle row, which would have been more elegant. But a central 13 is tough to work with, especially what with two other 13s to work around too.

Given that there's already a good amount of crossword glue needed — note AMAT squeezed in a tough section between themers, for example — I'm okay with the splitification, considering that keeping the full revealer together would have made things even messier.

Curious to see the next novel implementation of the famous quote!

– puzzle by David Alfred Bywaters

I hit EDU early on in my solve — seemed like an odd place for a revealer (pointing to the fact that the starts of the themers are names of schools). Gave the game away even before it began.

But wait! This is a Walden. He comes up with some of the most creative ideas in the crossworld. What if … THE ENDS OF THE THEMERS ALSO HAD SOMETHING IN COMMON! There was bound to be a SECOND revealer down at the bottom!

Took me a while to figure out, but here it is: OIL.

Do you see it?

I'll give you a moment.

WESSON is a cooking OIL. When you JOSH, you might be using an OILy tone. BEANS are cooked in OIL. English DUCHESSes often make their money from OIL.

Et voila! Or should I say, et v-OIL-a!

I almost had you, didn't I?

I enjoyed this theme, but the implementation less so. No doubt, stacking long themers — like BROWN AND SERVE and DUKE AND DUCHESS right atop each other — is a construction feat. And there weren't nearly as many compromises as I would have guessed. Just INDS / TUES / RES in that top stack is great work.

But all the machinations to get everything to stack, plus working around six themers, took up so much real estate that there was no room for a well-placed revealer. For a theme like this, you need a revealer, or you risk too many solvers not figuring it out. Saying the a-ha before the puzzle even starts saps away all the fun.

And DRAKE AND JOSH didn't do anything for me — old Nick show that lasted for only four seasons? Why not eliminate it, sticking to five themers, laid out in a more traditional way, with EDU down at the bottom? Or better yet, some sort of SCHOOL revealer. How about running four themers vertically, and finish it off with a flourish using HIGH SCHOOL (get it, the schools would literally be high in the puzzle?) as a revealer?

I did like the "tightness" — amazing that Byron found so many "(school) AND X" phrases. And I appreciate efforts to break out of traditions, as they tend to become ruts. They don't always work, but creative layouts like this do help spur on the evolution of crosswords.

– puzzle by Byron Walden

Spot-on revealer, CHARACTER ACTORs describing people who played a person whose name was a single letter. I didn't buy it 100%, as no one faithful to the comic books calls Professor X just "X" — blasphemy! — but for crosswording sake, I let it slide.

Note the chunks of three black squares in the SW / NE; interesting choice. It makes construction easier, allowing for more space between themers, but I'm not a fan of the resulting visual. So many black squares!

It would have been very tough to construct around themers in rows 4 6 8 10 12 — just a single row of space separating them. And it would likely have meant that there wouldn't have been as much bonus fill. Just getting the darn thing to work would have been hard enough.

I like much of Sam's bonuses — yay for THE BEAN! — but I'm not sold on it all as a whole. As a Harry Potter fanatic, I love the PENSIEVE, a great play on words. (It's a big bowl you dunk your head into, to see memories.) But ...

• GAMER TAG. Okay. Two words that make sense of the clue when joined.
• TECHBRO. BRO is a swaggery dude. TECHBRO, a BRO in TECH. Similar to the concept of a BROGRAMMER?
• DUDETTE. I've heard this thrown around, but I'm not sure if it's always a compliment?

Freshness in crosswords is good. But too much all at once can feel overwhelming; even turning solvers off. I've gotten the hate mail to prove it!

Overall, I appreciated the solidity of the theme concept. But the execution, while fine in most objective regards, didn't personally speak to me.

– puzzle by Sam Trabucco

I enjoy when constructors can place related entries within the same stack. Having a BAHAMA MAMA at the ALOHA TOWER? I don't know what's in a BAHAMA MAMA, but what a lovely tropical image it all evokes (especially after last week's eight inches of snow here in Seattle.)

A lot of long slots in this grid design — 16 (!) of 8+ letters. Daniel did well in his conversion rate, most all of these long entries good to great. Freshness in PROM DRESS, DIETARY LAW, ADDED SUGAR. And I appreciated that there wasn't anything that made me feel out of the loop, old, or just plain stupid. I like that Daniel aimed for broad appeal.

Out of the 16 slots, I counted only three that were just so-so: OVERTURE, EPISODES, SNAP OPEN. The first is debatable, maybe elating some classical music buffs. Perhaps EPISODES could have been elevated to asset-land with a clever clue, but [Installments] didn't do anything for it. And the last — tough to get excited about a +short word like OPEN, OUT, AT, etc. phrase.

So you're probably asking, 13 of 16 long slots converted into assets, not that much crossword glue (ERLE RPI EOSIN) — why not a POW!?

Short answer is because I'm annoying.

Long answer:

1. ATHWART a-thwarted me up in the north. What a bizarre word, in a precious mid-length slot.
2. EOSIN is another toughie. I recognize the word from having been in biotech, but it's going to look wrong to many others.
3. I've seen BAHAMA MAMA in many other themelesses in other venues because its consonant-vowel alternation is so constructor-friendly. This is so unfair, and something very few people will recognize or be affected by. (I told you, I'm annoying!)
4. Ultimately, the bar for 72-word crosswords is so high that one has to be near perfect to garner POW! attention from me.

But overall, it's a strong offering. I bet if Daniel had figured out a way to get rid of ATHWART or EOSIN — easier said than done — I'd have put it in the POW! running.

– puzzle by Daniel Nierenberg

I can just see Sam tweeting about his puzzle today — MWA HA HA HA! indeed.

(What's with the extra HA on MWA HA HA HA? Have I been doing it wrong all these years; my arch-enemies still waiting for me to finish my diabolical laugh? Darn it.)

Some fun new entries, AARP CARD and NISSAN ROGUE my favorites. I wasn't a fan of the straightforward AARP CARD clue, but it's still such a source of entertainment when friends post their mixed feelings about receiving their AARP CARD in the mail. It's an alert that you're old, but hey, the deals!

Longtime readers might be surprised that I dug NISSAN ROGUE so much. Isn't it one of those things that if you don't know it, it's not going to do much for you? Yes, but I imagine marketers sitting around a table, brainstorming car names. "What's gonna sound cool and awesome and edgy?" they ask. "Ooh, let's call it the ROGUE!"

Ah, marketing.

ORPHAN BLACK was one that fell into that "it's fine but didn't do anything for me" category. Thankfully it is two recognizable words, as is NISSAN ROGUE, but I've never seen the show, so it's tough to get excited about. And when you have to clue an entry in a long, dictionary-like way ...

(Doug Peterson and Sam Donaldson are going to kill me because we had breakfast a few years ago and they gushed about ORPHAN BLACK, but I still haven't gotten around to trying it out. Next on my list, I swear!)

I'm sure some will say that TMZ LIVE is an awesome and edgy show, but I could barely recall what TMZ was. Again, a bit too niche for my taste. I realize that I might be (probably am) in the minority here, considering the number of Google hits TMZ LIVE gets.

ZIKA VIRUS isn't something I want to be reminded of in my daily diversion, but I can see how it's a worthwhile crossword entry.

Overall, a lot of nice stuff worked in, the mid-length material helping to spice things up: MEERKAT, RIOT ACT, SEX TAPE, IRON MAN, MIRANDA all great.

– puzzle by Sam Ezersky

Notice how every other letter in REINDEER form the word RIDE? Combining them to make a REINDEER RIDE -> WHAT ARE THE ODDS indeed? That's a world-class WITT find — Wish I'd Thought of That!

PROTEST POET was nice too. Amazing to have a natural-sounding phrase work in this way. I did an alternating letter puzzle a long time ago, but these finds are way better.

The others didn't do as much for me, as the phrases felt forced. FOOTNOTE FONT is perhaps a thing, but arbitrary-sounding. SMALL TOWN SALON, too. THE FARM TEAM — if only someone had made a movie with that title, but baseball teams don't call up from THE FARM TEAM. IS NOT TOO INTO wouldn't fly in a normal crossword.

Still, it's a tough enough constraint that coming up with seven of them — fitting symmetrically! — is an astounding feat. Color me impressed, even given that I already have Erik in my short list of top crossword constructors.

Strong gridwork, too, as to be expected with an Agardian effort. I enjoyed ILLUMINATI, AWKWAFINA (what a great stage name!), CHEWBACCA, DEVIATION, NATIONAL TV.

I hitched slightly in the PRETORIA / GAOL (Jeff is getting angry at Microsoft Word for continually auto-correcting this to GOAL) / AGRI / RPI area, but ultimately, NYT solvers ought to know how to spell PRETORIA.

Great idea. Dammit, WITT! If even one or two more themers had felt less forced, it'd have been an easy POW!

– puzzle by Erik Agard

★ I take a second look at every crossword I write about, so I can remember what the constructor did well or what could be improved. Occasionally, I change my mind after that second look.

It's rare that I give something a third look and unheard of for me to change my mind after that third look. Appropriate that it happened today, given the TRIathlon theme!

My first impression was that CYCLING stuck out as the only hidden word. RUNNING was by itself, and SWIMMING had the -LY attached. Felt inconsistent.

Second impression: it was neat that Peter managed to find three solid 15-letter phrases using these three sports. There aren't many options with any of them, at least none that gives away the game immediately (SWIMMING POOL, RUNNING LAPS, etc.)

I wouldn't have thought more about it, but Jim mentioned that he thought this was a great puzzle. Took me a while to see his thinking, but I gradually came around. Here are a few reasons:

• All the bonus fill: CD SINGLE, COLD FEET, AD NAUSEAM, US STEEL, even COEQUAL, is interesting.
• Minimal crossword glue: maybe ILIE and RIAL will be tough for newer solvers.
• Some great clues, a treat for a Monday. There's a duo named "Peter and Gordon"? Indeed! After doing so many of Peter's puzzles over the years, this tickled me.
• Z and X worked smoothly into the east section. It can be tough to integrate two rare letters into a tiny region, but Peter did it well.

A lot of love about this one, especially since I used to be a triathlete back in the day. I might have considered mirror symmetry (with themers in rows 3, 6, 9, 12), but I respect Peter's decision to put TRIATHLON in the usual "revealer" position. I didn't mind it not having a symmetrical theme partner (at least, not after my third look).

Solid work.

– puzzle by Peter Gordon

JOINTs represented in the grid, showing them as they're bent. REEFER, DOOBIE, FATTY, BLUNT … oops! That's something different.

Audacious to use eight JOINTs, plus the revealer. Working around a single bent themer is hard enough, but eight is asking for trouble. I knew I was in for a rough ride when 1-A was [Some foreign river].

Oh wait, was that 10-Down? SOMME foreign river indeed!

But I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't a flood of crossword glue; more like a splattering. Alex was careful to not have a concentration in any one category — some foreign rivers, outdated names (MINOLTA ICHAT), initialisms (PTL RPI), foreign words (RAITA, KNUT). Something for everyone!

I would have liked something more elegant — perhaps fewer joints, but placed in anatomical order? An example: NECK to SHOULDER to HIP to KNEE to ANKLE. That would have felt more planned, instead of an etude in building up construction skills.

Don't get me wrong — it's a ridiculous feat of construction to work so many JOINTs into a single grid, without using an entire bottle of crossword glue. Heck, there's even RUN A TAB and OAK LEAVES; solid bonuses.

But overall, it felt more like it was done for construction's sake — is this feat possible? — rather than for solver pleasure.

– puzzle by Alex Vratsanos

Neat theme — FOREWORD is just before AMBLE in the grid. You might even say PRE-AMBLE. And a PREAMBLE is a FOREWORD!

AUGURY comes right before DICTION in the clue list. AUGURY = (PRE)DICTION.

DICTATE = (PRE)SCRIBE. (Prescribe can mean "dictate"? Apparently yes, as in "state authoritatively or as a rule.")

EARLY = (PRE)MATURELY.

Four solid examples. It reminded me of Matt Gaffney's excellent metapuzzle in the WSJ, which used a similar concept in a pleasing range of ways.

Will's gridwork is so solid. It's tough working with four paired themers since each one immediately forces two black square placements (one in between pairs, and one at the end of a row). That might not sound like much, but in grid design, flexibility is the name of the game.

I imagine Will switched the order of his four themers many times (and shifted them left-to-right / right-to-left) to find a layout that tested well. The craftsmanship shows, nary a gluey bit to be seen (some say AGAR is subpar, but I think it's fine). To get some BEER NUTS, HANDPICKS, RAN SCARED, GLASSWARE is the cherry on top.

This one garnered POW! consideration. If it hadn't been for Matt's masterful puzzle, as well as another related NYT puzzle from only a few months ago, it could have been a winner.

– puzzle by Will Nediger