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I've seen a lot of FRUIT-filled crosswords, from top to bottom, but I enjoyed Finn's additional layer, BEAR FRUIT = parents bearing children with FRUIT last names. Playful way to elevate a theme. It's a shame that THE FRUIT OF ONE'S LABORS wouldn't fit. I imagine this theme category will continue to be fruitful and multiply—

Okay, I'll stop!

I couldn't remember who wrote "Heidi," so I was relieved to uncover the theme so quickly. HALLE BERRE looked vaguely correct, but as soon as I saw PROFESSOR PLUM, my crossword brain kicked into gear. Of course, I knew it was Johanna SPYRI; only a moron would think it was BERRE and SPERI, haha!

Stop snickering, you.

I liked that Finn wove in something for everyone, hitting the oldies with the Time WARP, 80s AXL ROSE, contemporary DUA LIPA. If you don't like pop music, how about some FIGARO?

I wonder how controversial CRAPPY will be. I heard some grousing and even shock about last week's NO FRIGGIN WAY. I personally loved it, which as always, shows how much I friggin know (including what score I should assign for CRAPPY). I doubt all editors will be as willing to allow it as Will Shortz.

Great bonuses in the southwest corner, I REPENT so vivid and GI TRACT looking so oddly like GIT RACT (a division of GitHub?). And in the opposite corner, the TAQUITO TRUMPET is a cousin of the piccolo.

(Not really, but it should be.)

I've seen too many of these to have much PASSIONforFRUIT, but I did enjoy Finn's spin, cluing these characters to their parents having BORE FRUIT.

– puzzle by Finn Vigeland

I hadn't heard of the STONEWALL Inn until five years ago. Horrifying, that raid leading to so much violence against members of the LBGT community, but it's inspiring to see all the pride parades that have cropped up since then. A subject well worth commemorating for Pride Month.

The theme might elude some folks — those who nod that yes, there are HEADs in a graveyard, and that the centerpiece of a ring is a GEM. Nope! Well, yes. Sort of. Let me explain already!

This is a "perimeter puzzle," where all the answers around the edge are affected the same way. In today's case, the word STONE is implied at the end of each theme entry. Not HEAD, but HEADSTONE, not BIRTH, but BIRTHSTONE, etc.

These puzzles are notoriously difficult to fill since you end up working inward from four corners and have to knit those sections together in the middle. More often than not, one corner refuses to cooperate with the merge, and you have to start all over again.

This is even more difficult when you feature a central revealer like STONEWALL. Solid debut work, with a lot of interesting fill — HYSTERIA, OPEN A TAB both echoing the STONEWALL Inn and riots — and not too much BOL CRAT DTS stuff.

I would have liked a revision in the middle, though, with SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) crossing FATWA crossing FEN. Verges on unfair.

Will usually doesn't allow corner black squares on perimeter puzzles, so the SW and NE corners don't feel as elegant as they could have been. Additionally, CHERRY (STONE) isn't worth the price of the tightness Jesse mentioned. OLIVER or BAKING would have been much better.

Overall though, a solid entry in the annals of Pride Month puzzles.

– puzzle by Jesse Goldberg

I was so confused — and then utterly delighted — the first time I ran across a doubled-word rebus. I was barely familiar with the idea of two letters in a single square, and doubling them to form ZOOM ZOOM was so cool.

Doubling has been played on many times over the years, including one doubling perimeter answers and also a neat (DOUBLE O) 7 visual. As if I weren't seeing double enough, one earlier this year double-doubled!

It turns out this theme style goes a long way back, including a 1995 by Fred Piscop.

I appreciated that Kyra and Sophia added in DOUBLED DOWN, a perfect way to explain what's going on (DATES is really (DOUBLE) DATES, OVER is (DOUBLE) OVER, etc.). That adds a lot of meat to their puzzle.

Also great to be treated to fun entries like AY CARAMBA and IDIOMATIC.

I would have liked more out of the themers, though, as ARRAIGNS, REEMERGE, ESSENE, ADDS don't add much pizzazz. I also worry that the AY CARAMBA / PAYA crossing could be rough — AY CAROMBA / POYA might look fine. Even as a lover of curry (the spicier, the better!), I had to look up PAYA.

DOGGO similarly confused Jim Horne, who's not nearly as cool as we young hipsters watching YouTube videos about doggos. Huh? Nobody watches YouTube anymore? Bah. I'll stick with it as long as there are doggos and OTTERMANS.

(That DOGGO / LOGIA crossing might dog you, and I'd sympathize.)

I wasn't sure if I'd seen ECO-SAVVY in use, but there are tons of products and companies touting how ECO-SAVVY they are.

There's a construction trick you can use for a theme like this, where you start with a grid that's two columns wider than usual. It takes away some of the magic if I explain it fully, but those of you who want to pull back the curtain will likely be able to figure it out.

– puzzle by Kyra Wilson and Sophia Maymudes

★ I might have given this puzzle the POW! based on one clue alone: [A child who's lying might make one]. In my house, that's EXCUSE. DIVERSION. PUPPY DOG EYES. LIE. Yes, LIE would duplicate the lying in the clue, but some kids double down on the lying, based on the theory that the emphasis makes it more believable. Great moment of discovery (and relief) when it turned out to be SNOW ANGELS, something my little angel-devils love doing in winter.

Jim Horne and I discussed the puzzle, and he commented that END IN TEARS didn't sound like an in-the-language phrase.

*sounds of muffled laughter*

In my world, things END IN TEARS roughly 62 times a day. Play a game? End in tears. Eat some food? End in tears. Start to cry? You get the picture. Perfectly pitched to this parent's psyche.

DON'T JUDGE.

There wasn't quite as much juice in the grid as I wanted, with TAKES AIM AT and OVERRATED a bit overrated. So much great cluing, though, the wordplay with [Hardly a long shot] hinting at a PUTT = delightful. Even better, my brother and I were discussing hot pot meals last week, so the misdirection away from the KILN gave me a huge smile.

– puzzle by Nam Jin Yoon

Everything started out so well, popping in POP A SHOT without a second thought. I played so much POP A SHOT with my Little Brother (through Big Brothers) back in the day that I still taunt him about scoring so many points on him that he cried.

What, don't give me that EVIL LOOK! Tough love taught him to up his game. (Last time we played one-on-one, he schooled me, and this pop was shot.)

I struggled mightily after dropping in UPPED THE ANTE and stubbornly refusing to believe it could be UPPED THE GAME even after it was the only thing that worked with the surrounding entries. Not a fan of this entry — UPPED THE ANTE or UPPED ONE'S GAME, absolutely. UPPED THE GAME downed my solving experience.

I grew up in the Bay Area, but the SAC(ramento) BEE eluded me. I imagine that Kings diehards will get more joy out of SACBEE than this longtime Warriors fan. Which is a good thing, given how terrible the Kings have been. When your roster includes a guy named Kyle Guy …

Inspired clue in [Inspired stuff]. Literally, AIR is inspired! Not so inspiring is signing Buddy Hield, a talented but streaky shooter, to a four-year deal worth $94M.

I was baffled by [Sta4nce, for instance]. Great click when I finally pieced REBUS together. That's a 4 literally in STANCE = FOR (in) STANCE. Solvers might groan at this one, but I loved it. That is when I finally understood it (four hours after finishing).

Some fantastic entries like PIZZA PARTY crossing GAZPACHO. Not nearly as much zing as I expect out of a Peter Wentz themeless, though.

– puzzle by Peter Wentz

The title OLIO — a crossworld insider's term for a mixture or mismash — doesn't do this puzzle justice. It's such a jaw-dropping grid, those diagonals neatly aligned as if this were a magnetic field. Great first impression.

Some flashy long material, too. A typical themeless features about 12-14 long slots (of 8+ letters), whereas this super-sized one sports 24 of them. That's about what you'd expect, given that a 21x grid has about twice as many squares as a 15x, but it's still such a huge quantity of long slots to work with. Awesome stuff that's new to the NYT crossword:

• RETAIL THERAPY (I so badly wanted to debut this evocative entry!)
• LINE-ITEM VETO
• NOT EVEN CLOSE
• EYE ROLLS

Nary a trace of crossword glue, either. If ECONO, MER, NEET are the only entries a certain annoyingly picky blogger who wishes he could get a funny nickname like the BIEB (Justin Bieber) can point out … Incredibly clean.

There was a lot of potential left on the table, though, with a lot of long slots taken up by neutral material:

• PROPELLED
• ENTERTAIN
• SUSPENSE
• ENTICING

Not the most suspenseful or enticing of entries, especially given that editors prize colorful multi-word entries. A fun clue can elevate them — PROPELLED literally so, with [Catapulted, say] — but they're not even close to something like NOT EVEN CLOSE.

Along with a ton of mid-length filler through the middle like HEDGED HOGGED BONDED WINKED COOLED WORKED BINGED, it's not my favorite of Robyn's work. As visually pleasing as the black diagonals are, the grid design doesn't do Robyn any favors.

I haven't been a fan of the themeless Sunday, but I've softened my stance over time. It is challenging to present brilliant themes week after week, so an occasional themeless puzzle can help fill the gaps. I'd much rather have a snazzy themeless than a dull theme.

– puzzle by Robyn Weintraub

Drum (roll) please ... It's time to play NAME … THAT … THEME!

1.) PRIVATE EYE

Letter homophones! EYE, YOU, SEE—

2.) PAY IT FORWARD

Uh … hold on—

3.) HOTEL CALIFORNIA

Whaaa? Wait, I got it! Private + pay + hotel = Donald Trump!

Bzzt!

4.) HIDDEN CAMERA

C, I told U it was Donald Trump!

Bzzt bzzt bzzzzzt!!!

I enjoy getting stumped, when there's a reasonable chance I could have figured it out. EYE roll, FORWARD roll, CALIFORNIA roll, CAMERA roll—let's ROLL WITH IT (add ROLL to a word) indeed!

It's not as satisfying as an earlier ROLL puzzle, because this one boils down to "words that can precede X," a theme type that's at the end of its life cycle. There are so many types of rolls — barrel roll, egg roll, jelly roll, crescent roll, rainbow roll, and on they roll — that it's too easy to produce dozens of themer possibilities.

Still, I enjoyed the phrases Erika picked. PRIVATE EYE is great, PAY IT FORWARD is a beautiful sentiment, HOTEL CALIFORNIA such an earworm, HIDDEN CAMERA no doubt laden with imagery.

It's a shame that there's no long bonus fill. Getting rid of the black square between OBIE/SETS and/or EVE/OLAF and/or PLAYA/ANNE is usually a reasonable way to achieve that.

Last time PLAYA appeared in a crossword, I heard much consternation that it "wasn't something I should have to know." I understand how annoying it is when a crossword makes you feel stupid — happens to me all the time (and not just because I am stupid) — but PLAYA is a real word, and it's in place names like PLAYA del Rey. That said, crossing it with two toughies in UPCS and TARO does seem unfair.

I love "clue echoes," when the same clue is used in different ways. [Popular berry] and [Popular Berry] for ACAI and HALLE, that's a winner!

Entertaining debut offering; I enjoy when Name That Theme beats me fair and square. Sigh, I was on such a roll.

– puzzle by Erika Ettin

ELVISH LIVES! I haven't been so amused by a letter-addition themer in ages. Take a colorful phrase, change it to generate a hilarious image of Galadriel and Legolas in upswept pompadours? Yes, please!

I've seen PARIS to PARISH and IRIS to IRISH many times, but TENNIS to TENNISH delighted me. Quite an accomplishment, given how many letter-addition puzzles I've done over the years. Bravo!

Chris is a grid master, so it's not surprising to see him tackle one of the toughest challenges in all griddom: the 72-word themed puzzle. It's easy to make a themeless at 72-words when you're freestyling, i.e., you have no constraints. Fixing four long entries into place while staying at 72 words is another story completely.

Much of Chris's work is successful, in that he gives us nice bonuses in DERIVATIVE, VIBRATED, I CAN'T NOW, SELTZERS, DITHERED. (STEVE YOUNG elated this Niners diehard, but he might do nothing, or less, for non-sportsball fans.) Additionally, there are barely any gluey bits — it could be argued that TBEAM and ACA are (more than) fine to some.

However, there's a disconnect between the simplicity of the theme and the complexity of the fill. The puzzle played wildly difficult for me:

• NIECY / NASH crossing ACA almost did me in since I remember ACA only as Obamacare.
• I vaguely remembered that cosine is the DERIVATIVE of sine, but I shamefully put in DERIVATION. I've turned in my nerd card.
• I couldn't remember if it was KERI or TERI Russell, and Erik Satie appears in crosswords enough that I thought SATI was the writer. And I call myself a writer!

Even though I enjoyed two of the themers immensely, having to fight at a Friday level of difficulty clashed with the early-weekness of the theme. It's like reading an alphabet book from ACA to ZOYSIA.

It's tough to impress me with a letter-addition, but I might have considered this for the POW! if it featured easier-breezier 76-word fill.

– puzzle by Christopher Adams

Fun grouping! It never occurred to me that BACKSEAT DRIVER, COUCH POTATO, and ARMCHAIR quarterback are related. It's too bad that ARMCHAIR FANTASY BASKETBALL GM isn't in the language … yet!

STOOL PIGEON didn't exactly fit, since the first three relate literally to the item you sit on. BACKSEAT DRIVER is all about a person giving instructions while sitting in the backseat, whereas STOOL PIGEON doesn't directly involve sitting. Still, it does work for the theme.

Second day in a row with a 72-word themed puzzle. This one was much more successful, the easiness of the fill meshing with that of the theme. One could make a case that MACCHIATOS is tough to spell correctly, but Wednesday solvers will likely have encountered HEP and LOA many times before, so there's little ambiguity.

Similar for ELIE — his letters are so constructor-friendly that he's in crosswords all the time — crossing BARBARELLA.

I enjoyed Byron's use of VELVEETA, that all-American goop that tastes so darn good even though I know it's SOLEMNLY killing me.

TIRED BLOOD is a bit of an odd entry — usually that phrase is used in clues for anemia, not the other way around — but it's figure-out-able.

Overall, not a completely bang-on theme set, but the ultra-low word count, featuring bonuses pitched at the difficulty level of the theme, helped elevate my solve. It's a rare case that the 72-word themed puzzle is a wise decision, but bravo to Byron for his success today.

– puzzle by Byron Walden

I dearly want tricky, rule-bending puzzles on Thursdays, but many solvers vociferously disagree. Will Shortz has a tough job, trying to cater to such a wide range of tastes. He did a fine job straddling the line today, with a theme that seemed easy enough on paper, but one that put up an enjoyable fight.

It didn't take long to uncover RENAISSANCE FOUR, given how familiar my son has forced me to become with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. FOUR from "fair" felt easy enough, too, so I worried that this would be yet another Thursday that disappointed.

Not so! That "air" to "or" sound change wasn't as simple as I thought. Even after solving MUSICAL CHORES, it took me a hot minute to figure out the CHORES from "chairs" change. And then I sat back to admire the neat transformation involving a big spelling change.

The huge winner for this sci-fi dork: aliens shouting there's NO TIME TO SPORE! Worth the price of admission all by itself.

Sheldon didn't go down to 72 words like Byron and Chris earlier this week, but he did use some tough vocab that you might expect to see in a low-word-counter, ANTRUM in particular. However, for a Thursday puzzle — with a surprisingly difficult-to-grasp theme concept — it syncs well.

Yes, some solvers won't know what ANTRUM means, but it's (just as valid) as ZOYSIA, and given the day of the week, encountering something one doesn't know isn't uncommon.

I frequently ride Will about running Thursday puzzles boringly simple themes, making them not worth the Thursday effort of fighting with tough clues. On paper, I should have criticized him again today, but I enjoyed the crunchy solving experience, the themers more difficult to make sense of than I would have imagined. Well done to both Sheldon and Will!

– puzzle by Sheldon Polonsky

Solid "stairstack" offering, with some great long entries running through that central triplet. This nerd enjoys hearing people say NERD ALERT when I walk into a room (how did my kids learn to do this, by the way?), and EDELWEISS is not only a memorably defiant song from "The Sound of Music," but it's surprisingly tricky to weave into a grid, with its W.

My first impression of the solve was that it was a bit macho for my taste, given MR WORLDWIDE, Scorsese's MEAN STREETS, and the curious nickname "Big Donkey" for Adam DUNN. I'm not going to ask.

However, there's a lot of content that balances this. I loved the fresh clue for EXES, referencing the Cardi B lyric. NIKE clued to the Goddess, not the shoe. DRESSY. All of this helped dilute the testosterone.

I dug the wordplay and fun throughout the clues. AISLES was the big winner, playing on "long division." Literally, an aisle is a long division (of seating sections)! ETSY clued as a site for "crafty sorts" is amusing. And that Doris M. Smith quote, "Arguing with a fool proves there are TWO," is so witty.

Beautifully smooth puzzle, but for a 70-worder, there was potential left on the table with TOP STORIES and DATA FORMAT not doing much for me. Both could have risen to highlights if they didn't have such straightforward clues. For example, STAIRWELLS isn't exciting by itself, but misdirecting with "a lot of steps" sure elevated it.

Get it? Elevated? Because it's a stairwell? Heading up?

Or more aptly, heading down, like this joke.

– puzzle by Matthew Stock

★ It warms my heart that at least one younger person remembers HE'S DEAD JIM. I can't describe how ecstatic I'd be if some Millennial or generation Alpha constructor used REDSHIRT, clued as [Poor sap destined to die in a "Star Trek" away mission].

I loved, loved, loved the summery vibe, with BOSTON POPS playing its annual July 4^th concert, SPARKLERs eliciting I'M AMAZED, pounding in TENTPEGs at a campsite, eating MACARONI salad at a picnic. I enjoy mini-themes in my themelesses, but most of them are simply two related entries. I'd love to see more like this, with so many connected elements!

Other fun entries in PLAY DIRTY, JURY RIG — been watching too much "Money Heist" and "Imposters," Brooke and Brian? — and even mid-length entries like CITADEL and ASTERIX elevated my solve.

ROBYN FENTY was a complete mystery, so I was relieved that every single crossing was unambiguous. I'm curious how many Rihanna fans could correctly spell (or even name) her birth name.

The PRESS BOX clue … it's getting at the press corps covering the field (of sporting action). I like the intent, but it wasn't as satisfying as [One with a train, maybe]. Once you uncover BRIDE, it's not hard to make the connection to the train some brides trail behind them.

What a fantastic way to clue TIL! I have some N.K. Jemisin on my TBR (to be read) list, but "How Long Til Black Future Month?" is such a provocative title that it's now at the top of my queue.

For a 70-word themeless, the bar is so high that I'd usually balk at even the minimal ATA DIA STD TELE, but there was more than enough color to offset these minor blips.

– puzzle by Brooke Husic and Brian Thomas

I poke so much Canadian fun at Jim Horne, XWord Info's resident Canuck, smirking at how the most American of Americana doesn't resonate at all with him. Like ... our vitriolic political battles. Millions without health care. A country divided. Hot dogs. U-S ... eh?

There was another Canadia-themed puzzle that tickled Jim last year, and it was so fun to hear him speak so fondly of it. During today's solve, I delighted in imagining the smile on Jim's face.

As a grid art fanboy, I also smiled for myself. It's not a perfect Maple Leaf (compare and contrast to the image here), but it's recognizable(ish) even without the puzzle title. Let's go with … impressionistic? Pointillist? I'm no artist, but I know art when I see it. And I say let's go with it.

It was a little too easy at points — able to fill EH into every pair of bubbles once I got the first two — and way too hard at others. That southeast corner nearly did me in, not knowing LESLIE HOPE (and thinking of my beloved Leslie Knope), along with the incredibly tough clue for EARSHOT. I get what it's going for — not a mountain range, but within hearing range. With the maple leaf sectioning off the corner, I'd have appreciated (much) easier cluing.

However, there was a lot of spot-on wordplay, like E-READER being a [Novel convenience?] and "pidgin English" repurposed for COO. Along with some great entries like TAUTOLOGY and FREE HEALTH CARE (although, is that really a thing, asked this American), I give it an EH! for effort.

(The two themers Stephen left out: RAISE A LITTLE HELL and THE HANDMAID'S TALE.)

– puzzle by Stephen McCarthy

★ If I can Name That Theme in one entry, I'll usually wonder what's the point of doing the rest of the puzzle. After hitting CURDS AND WHEY, I figured it had to be either WHEY homophones or "things that nursery rhyme characters ate." After uncovering AI WEI WEI, it was clear which.

To my surprise, I loved the rest of the puzzle! Acme's first three themers alone would have felt boring, since this theme has been done before (many times across different venues), but adding in AI WEI WEI helps, and ZIMBABWE is a stroke of genius. I'd have never thought there could be five different WAYs (ha) to spell that sound, all in fine words / phrases.

I did hitch on AI WEIWEI, a tough name to piece together. I'm sure there will be grumblings that he's not "Monday-accessible," and I'd usually be right there. The theme does help with the final WEI, at least. And all the crosses are unambiguous and fair. Still, polling a bunch of my (highly educated, well-traveled) friends, some of whom are Taiwanese or Chinese, only one had heard of him.

The fill was hardly a SNOOZE. It's easy enough to impress with long downs, and THE ALAMO and WIIMOTES do just that, but it's the mid-length material that dazzled. I loved starting with ABACUS, especially with that fun clue. I don't expect to see clever wordplay on a Monday, much less something that doesn't require a telltale question mark. [Something you can count on] is both entertaining and accessible.

Following that with WATUSI, ENTRÉE, IAMBIC, EL NINO, BOGART, AZORES, LADY DI, DAY SPA = top-notch work. Doing all that with only minor ATTN IOC ISR makes it even more impressive.

This isn't rocket science but more a matter of careful layout, adjustments based on testing different skeletons of black squares, and heavy, heavy iterating. Acme / Doug did it extremely well today, helping prove my case that even with five themers, nearly every crossword should be held to this highest standard.

If you like Doug's work, BTW, maybe check out *cough cough, shameless self-promotion* one of his latest releases.

– puzzle by Andrea Carla Michaels and Doug Peterson

Twenty years ago (!), my brother insisted that I read this book that he loved, all about wizards and magic items and giants. I was hesitant, since it seemed like a pap rehash of fantasy tropes. "Just read the first chapter …" he said so innocently.

Now, after reading all the books at least four times each, listening to Jim Dale's audio books, consuming fan fic (and even spurring me to write books of my own), attending midnight release parties dressed as an elven Hagrid, drawing a lightning bolt on my son's head at his birth, having the Slytherin nurse taken so aback that she hit me with a Stupefy spell right between the eyes …

My reality might best be described as "fluid."

While I do think J.K. Rowling could have used heavy editing (me too, apparently) for "The Deathly Hallows," that trio of magical items — the Resurrection STONE, the Invisibility CLOAK, and Elder WAND — made for a compelling plot device. I enjoy how Owen's puzzle made me relive that last book, my mixed senses of elation and grief during the last scene.

A bone to pick: the trio of items should have been presented in proper order of "The Tale of the Three Brothers." Potterheads know that the story starts with the first brother asking for the Elder WAND, the second the Resurrection STONE, and the third and most clever brother the Invisibility CLOAK to hide from Death! I pottermorely demand —

Hey, stop expelliarmus-ing the keyboard out of my hand!

Long story short, as a die-hard HP fan, I loved this crossword (even though it would have been much timelier ten years ago). I have a feeling it'll be tough for Muggles to appreciate. Thankfully, Owen (interning for Will Shortz right now, what a cool job!) wove in those excellent bonuses, PHOTOBOMB, ALL STARS, SOFT TACO, LOSE SLEEP spaced apart perfectly.

And who knows, maybe this puzzle will spur some folks on to pick up one of the books.

Just read the first chapter …

– puzzle by Owen Travis

MISDIRECTED is a fun bit of wordplay, hinting at directors who did things totally wrong. "My Left Foot" becomes MY RIGHT FOOT, "Knives Out" the much less interesting KNIVES IN, etc. I enjoyed how the simple OUT to IN flip made me imagine an incredibly dull script about a painfully shy assassin.

I wonder if the fill will be divisive today. I love RAPA NUI, another name for Easter Island (or its indigenous peoples), but the last time it was in a crossword, man, did I hear a lot of grumbling.

HANGUL might be similar. I recognize this term because one of my next-door neighbors is Korean, and she mentioned it the other day. I probably should have known it before then, but my obliviousness in many things Asian makes my mom wring her hands. Crossing it with a pop star, even one of SHAKIRA's fame, might create a trap for some.

Speaking of traps, I enjoy walking around with my identical twin brother, waiting for someone to comment that we look alike WHAT, YOU THINK ALL ASIANS LOOK ALIKE, DO YOU?

I tend to prefer entries that won't cause as much conflict (I'm an inveterate conflict avoider, except when I'm with my troublemaking brother) like BLANK CD, STYMIE, and BIOPICS, but there's an argument to be made that mine is a non-descript pablum approach, whereas including HANGUL will absolutely elate some solvers.

Enjoyable wordplay with MISDIRECTED, although the opposites were too easy to uncover and didn't produce enough of a comedic effect.

– puzzle by Finn Vigeland

I'm a huge fan of mirror symmetry. Something about it appeals to my sensibilities — perhaps it's some primal echo to the left-right symmetry of the human body? It's not for everyone, a few people telling me how much they hate it. More accurately, how it pains every fiber of their existence. As for editors, Mike Shenk at the WSJ dislikes it, Rich Norris at the LAT enjoys it, Will Shortz appreciates it but abhors up-down symmetry. Hard to please everyone!

I appreciated this FISHHOOK concept as a "starter Thursday." A friend of mine recently got obsessed with the NYT XW, and she confidently gets to Wednesday but is intimidated by Thursdays. I'll point her to this one and see how she does. The fish bending into fishhook shapes isn't a difficult concept to suss out, but it sure produces a pretty visual.

I thought they'd be ridiculously easy to fill in after GOLDEN SPIKE. No sir! I read [Drink that might be served with a metal cup] and confidently filled in MOSCOW MULE. (From a non-fisherman perspective, if perch and sole and char are fish, mule probably is too? Doesn't it all taste like chicken, anyway?) Great misdirect away from MILKSHAKE.

I was only vaguely aware of the UPANISHADs but it helped a lot that I knew the last four letters had to be some type of fish. I don't like being forced to learn things when I simply want to be entertained, but the crossings are fair. I would have preferred PHYLICIA RASHAD because she was so incredible in "Creed," but I imagine a lot of Hindu solvers will delight in seeing UPANISHAD in their crossword.

I prefer trickier, harder-to-figure-out Thursday themes — not including FISH / HOOK and leaving me to figure out the concept might have increased my fun — but there's merit in providing a wide spectrum, including ones that might hook (sorry) people looking to break into tough Thursday territory. Well-executed grid — especially around those hooks that take away flexibility in filling — and an aesthetically pleasing one, at that. At least, for us left-righters. Sorry, 180-normative and diagonalites.

– puzzle by Blake Slonecker

Two triple-stacks … connected by a vertical grid-spanner? And another grid-spanner across the middle row? That's some feat of construction!

The top stack is a winner. I haven't read A WALK IN THE WOODS, but CALL ON THE CARPET is a fun idiom, and THE BACHELORETTE sure seems to spur on much Twitter noise.

RUSSIAN ROULETTE is common in themelesses, particularly triple-stacks. It doesn't have perfect vowel-consonant alternation, but there are so many common letters that it's incredibly useful.

SLEEVELESS DRESS is similar. Once Will Shortz commented that entries like STRESS TEST are "kind of cheap" in themelesses, because that plethora of RSTLNE letters isn't much fun for solvers to uncover. I do think SLEEVELESS DRESS is more colorful than STRESS TEST, but Will's comment echoed in my head today. Luckily, CARE TO ELABORATE elevated the bottom stack, a conversational question loaded with meaning.

I enjoyed the solve, but it wasn't a standout. Perhaps it was the flood of RSTLNEs — see SLEEVELESS DRESS, TESSERAE — or the dryness of the cluing. EUCHRE did have a top-notch (and timely!) clue, disguising trump as Trump, pushing solvers toward Trump named in lawsuits, and the like. I wish more were that clever.

I did enjoy hearing Daniel's inner nerd coming through with Jason ISAACS playing Lucius Malfoy and Iron Man's ARC reactor, though, and it no doubt was a feat of technical construction.

– puzzle by Daniel Larsen

Jim Horne and I had a curious exchange on RIDE OR DIE. Neither of us is in the target demographic, so we both flailed mightily at this. My first guess — RIDE OR PIE (hey, I was hungry) — wasn't apt, considering it would make the security company APT. RIDE OR LIE, that sounded better as an ALT solution. RIDE OR UIE, that had to be it! You know, the person you RIDE with … until you have to make a UIE?

Wait. Was the problem at ADEN? RISE OR LIE made surprising sense. Get off the pot or poop out!

Then Jim posed an even more wow-are-we-out-of-the-loop question. Doesn't the clue fail to match the entry's part of speech? There's no way RIDE OR DIE (doesn't it sound like the tagline for the next Die Hard sequel?) could be a noun.

Apparently it can!

So this one didn't grab me right off the bat, but thankfully there were some sizzlers afterward. I go for short runs. I even go for long runs. Not the television kind of run, though. Fantastic misdirect for MINISERIES! SEEMS a lot more than LEGIT, indeed.

Does ADULT SITE seem legitimately like a [Firewall target]? Jim and I debated this one. It's something firewalls block access to. Isn't a virus or malware more a "firewall target"?

Jim wondered about MARIO PARTY, whereas I laughed at his out-of-it-ness. Right before this old-school gamer rushed to the MARIO PARTY Wikipedia page and get the updates on my woefully out-of-touch Super Mario Bros. knowledge base.

Jim pointed out the cleverness of the TRASH TALK CLUE … until I pointed out that there's usually not a lot of pregame TRASH TALK at bball or NFL games. Boxing weigh-ins, sure, but those aren't "games." Jim proceeded to trash talk my analysis, so I told him he would have to ride or pull a uie.

In sum, never listen to Jeff. Instead, focus on the great things in a puzzle, like that fantastic quote from ANGELA Davis. We should all be so brave.

– puzzle by Sophia Maymudes

Talk about repeat offenders! Interesting concept, taking a word that can be split into two words, then tagging on each half again to make a kooky phrase. I enjoyed ELON ELONGATES GATE most, because it reminded me of a variation on a theme. Seems like we should see an Elon Gate pretty soon, given all the kooky stuff he's up to.

At first blush, it felt too easy to come up with hundreds of possibilities, making this theme not that impressive. Digging into the weeds, though, it's a tough task. Coming up with words that can break into two valid parts is easy, but sifting through all the possibilities would be a huge time-suck. Look at the criteria themers must meet:

1. Target word must be a verb.
2. Both halves of target word must be nouns.
3. The entire sentence must make some semblance of sense.
4. The entire sentence ought to elicit a laugh.

All of Michael's themers hit at least criteria 1-3.

Thankfully, I did grin at many clues — easy to tell that Michael spends time crafting his clues, keeping in mind how he has to entertain solvers through a huge Sunday canvas. Three beautiful clues:

• CEVICHE as a "raw deal," that's perfect!
• The CYCLOPS in The Odyssey sure had a critical eye for Odysseus to poke out.
• Perfect repurposing of "dead giveaway" to point to a person's ESTATE. It's a bit morbid, but it was so spot-on.

The theme pattern seemed vaguely familiar, but I doubt many people will remember that old puzzle.

The repetitive nature of the theme made it too easy to fill in the themers and risk people not bothering to finish the rest of the puzzle. It'd be a shame if people did that because Michael showed some strong gridsmanship. Not a flood of bonuses, but enough BEATS ME CAMPARI CONGRATS material to easily outweigh the minor ANON ANS ESSes. That's an accomplishment, for a 21x21 140-word grid.

(The answers to the clues mentioned in Michael's notes: REP REPLACES LACES, ANN ANNOUNCES OUNCES, and BRO BROACHES ACHES.)

ADDED NOTE: Unfortunately, the detail-oriented NYT editors "fixed" the clue for 70-D, MISSPELLED, in the print version. Many people consternated to see the correct "fuchsia and turquoise"!

– puzzle by Michael Lieberman

I could almost see Jim Horne smirking over the phone as we discussed this one. My thought process went something like:

• X(ER) THAN Y phrases, okay.
• But wait! A clever revealer, ITS ALL RELATIVE.
• Jacob has come up with some brilliant themes. I'm sure I'm missing some extra layer. I can't be overthinking this!

(snickering)

• RELATIVE … is that playing on a double meaning? RELATIVEs must be in the phrases!
• Let's see … maybe your LIGHTER uncle, the stereotypical HOLIER THAN THOU great-grandma—
• What are you laughing about?

(oh, a joke I heard earlier this week)

• Wait! LARGER THAN LIFE—surely LIFE is related to RELATIVE.
• AIR, THOU, and LIFE … is that the holy trinity?

(holy something, all right)

The revealer is a great phrase, but I might have instead preferred a fourth themer that fit the pattern, perhaps FASTER THAN LIGHT, OLDER THAN DIRT, WORSE THAN USELESS, etc.

I enjoyed the mid-length bonuses, PAD THAI one of my lunch favorites, and MAHATMA solid too. It would have been nice to get a little more, though, especially given how Jacob's gridwork has historically been. Take out the black square between INCH and EXIT, or there might be possibilities for long downs at 3-Down or 11-Down.

Solid Monday offering, if teasingly Stulbergian. Perhaps his extra layer ... was that there was no extra layer! Out-clevered yet again.

– puzzle by Jacob Stulberg

I've had plenty of people propose STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN themes, with an escalating STAIRWAY, but every time it's seemed too thin. Other people have floated HIGHWAY TO HELL concepts. After solving today's puzzle, I smacked my head for never putting the pieces together!

Amusing juxtaposition creating such a pleasing visual. STAIRWAY and HIGHWAY even intersect! I enjoy imagining the meeting point, the doomed (me included) riding the down escalator, pleading with the smug souls rising up to HEAVEN.

Impressive debut gridwork. These types of diagonal themer puzzles are so difficult to execute on, and they become much harder when you cross your diagonals. The keys to making it work are 1) putting black squares as close to that crossing as possible, and 2) sectioning it off from the rest of the puzzle as best as possible. The storm-looking pattern of black squares did the job nicely.

This did leave Matt with fewer-than-usual black squares to deploy around the perimeter. Even working with big swaths to fill in the SW and NE, the puzzle still clocks in at a whopping 84 words (78 is the usual max). I didn't mind so much, because there was some great RADIO NOISE, ABOVE BOARD fill, but my solve did feel start-and-stop choppy. Part of that was due to the extreme number of 3-letter shorties — 29 of them! Will Shortz usually starts to balk at 22, and Rich Norris at the LAT has a hard cap of 22.

Awesome visual of the crossing WAYS. Having CROSS / ROADS as a final kicker made it even more fun. Such an entertaining and memorable puzzle would win my POW! in most weeks.

– puzzle by Matt Frederick

Fantastic find, upside-down CIRCLE inside MiCHAEL CRICHTON. It's hard enough to discover a five-letter word spanning across parts of a phrase, so a six-letter one is like an order from the great goddess Crucivera to make a puzzle around it.

Something fun about I HAVE NO CLUE being a themer, too. I have no clue … OR DO I?

Wait. It does have a clue. But somehow this feels sort of meta-theme related ... self-referential?

It is true that I usually have no clue.

I did have much more than a clue about the theme, unfortunately about a minute into my solve. [Author of "Jurassic Park"] at 3-Down led me to immediately fill in MICHAEL CRICHTON. I enjoy playing "Name That Theme," so brainstormed for another minute before wondering if the revealer would be SHAPE UP. Felt like the puzzle might be irrelevant.

But no! Glad I continued, because Kate did a fantastic job peppering in spicy entries everywhere. All-Down themer layouts often lack pizzazz, because it's hard to work in long Acrosses without them looking like themers. With those telltale circles though, even this anal technician had zero wonderings if UTAH STATE was thematic. That entry, plus SEA GLASS, Kate's hilarious PLUMPEST musings, and HOT SECOND make for a hot quartet.

Working in CHATTY, VAMPS, STROLLS, SHUT UP makes it far from HUMDRUM. This is a fantastic example of fill elevating a solving experience.

I did find it odd that OVAL didn't break across words — Will Shortz rarely allows this, since the other words in the phrase don't pull any theme weight — but what a colorful entry, FLAVOR OF THE WEEK. It's so fun that I might even prefer it over FILL A VOID, which does adhere to Will's criteria.

It's a shame that none of the other SHAPEs are as long as CIRCLE, since four-letter "hidden words" don't seem nearly as magical. Excellent work overall though, Kate's gridwork giving a huge added lift.

– puzzle by Kate Hawkins

I tried to read a "Peanuts" book to my kids. After the barrage of confused questions about how Snoopy can balance on the top edge of his doghouse, why the dirt cloud rises so high around Pigpen, and what noise exactly Charlie Brown's teacher makes, I threw my hands up and yelled "Aaugh!"

SHAKING MY (HEAD), indeed.

YOU BLOCKHEAD was a fun revealer for this old-school "Peanuts" fan. I'm curious to see if Millennials will be baffled. Now who's square?!

Right. Square, as in BLOCKHEAD, that's me.

These days, rebuses are such a tried-and-true theme type that you need a strong rationale for squishing those letters into a single square. BLOCKHEAD — HEAD squeezed into a BLOCK — explains things well.

Repeated rebuses used to be the norm, but these days, I prefer variety. My solving experience dimmed after I encountered my second HEAD, making me realize that I'd be looking for more of the same. An extra layer — perhaps synonyms for "bathroom," like LAV and LOO and WC — might have given me a stronger, more memorable a-ha moment. I can see the appeal of this straightforward approach for newer rebus solvers, though. Rebuses can be tough to suss out, so repetition would be useful for those verging on Thursday territory.

Nice selection of themer phrases, HEADS WILL ROLL my favorite. It would have been nice to get stronger crossing Down answers, since PIN(HEAD), GOT A(HEAD), (HEAD) WEST aren't nearly as juicy as SHAKING MY HEAD. It's tough to do this with the HEAD placements at the sides of the grid, so a phrase like BANNER (HEAD)LINE would have given some room to work in some great Down rebus phrases.

That said, this layout did allow Danny to work in great long bonuses, and what fantastic results! All over the grid, I kept encountering a wealth of riches, from TEA ROOMS to MOON RIVER to NOT SO BAD to EYELINER to STAGEHAND to BIRIYANI (if you've never had it before, what are you waiting for? Yum!). Danny could easily have taken the easy way out and broken up TOLERANCE at the R, or TEAROOMS at the first O, and I'm glad he didn't. Such excellent bonuses woven together with virtually no crossword glue.

Not a standout rebus, but strong debut craftsmanship.

– puzzle by Danny Lawson

Some great debut entries! CAN WE TALK, MINIMOONS, MEET CUTES, MAGIC ACTS; all so colorful. Love them!

Fantastic clue for TABLE LEGS, too, playing on "four on the floor." And I'm not an aficionado of OPART, but wow, the "Shadow Play" image seen here is mesmerizing.

MALE PRIVILEGE leads a ton of unfairness in the world, even in our beloved crossworld. Authorship has heavily favored male constructors, and the situation got a lot worse in the 21^st century, notably in themelesses (look at the chart's Friday and Saturday columns). Only recently have efforts to course-correct been effective — last year was the first time in the Shortz era that a themeless day of the week was over 30% female.

I'm encouraged by the efforts of Erik Agard (USA Today), who assembled a crack squad of mostly female constructors. David Steinberg (Universal) has also done some spot-on theme months, notably a month of all female constructors. I've also been impressed by the thoughtfulness of his recently hired assistant, Amanda Rafkin, in her feedback and suggestions for improvements on my submissions.

Hopefully we all can continue working to make gains, striving for equal representation of male/female voices. It's not only a social issue, but a business one as well. Crossword solvership is equal — maybe even skewed more female — making a strong case for the NYT to redouble efforts to tamp down MALE PRIVILEGE.

– puzzle by Scott Earl

John and Brad! I love these guys, John one of the founders of the Boswords tournament, and Brad editing for it. During a historically rough time, when a ton of people needed a lot of diversion from the woes of the 2020 world, these online competitions provided a huge amount of entertainment.

Themelesses featuring grid-spanners often live or die on the quality of those marquee entries. Some of today's resonated strongly for me. I've said I COULD EAT A HORSE many a time, and I sarcastically often ask my daughter, CARE TO ELABORATE? regarding her various experiments in straight-faced lying.

It's unusual for me to solve a themeless that has feature entries new to our XWI Word List. John and Brad debuted three today! I couldn't piece together THE MUDVILLE NINE at first, but I eventually pulled Casey at the Bat out of the corners of my memory.

I filled in ___ SATISFYING and pondered, what could the first word be? Given that my kids turn into demons when given bubble wrap, I figured it had to be CHAOTICALLY or ANNOYINGLY. Perhaps I had a typo and the entry was SERENITY NOW? I had to mull over ODDLY SATISFYING, but I ended up deciding it was an oddly satisfying entry.

DRIVEWAY MOMENTS didn't click until most of the letters were in place, but what a self-explanatory, descriptive term. That is, unless you have kids who notice you drive up and bang on the car window yelling WHAT DID YOU BRING ME.

I appreciated that John and Brad didn't stop at those five grid-spanning entries, but laid out six more long entries. This math dork loved the CALCULUS clue, misdirecting with "has its limits." Fun to see it near SUM TOTAL, too.

Great clue for PRESS ONS. "Digital applications," as in fingers = digits.

There were some compromises, like SALE TAGS not doing much with that long slot, and some ATTY EAN HIES ORIG to hold everything together, but I enjoyed picking up those new long phrases, easy enough to make sense of.

Perhaps I'd get some MOMENTS if I parked in someone else's DRIVEWAY …

– puzzle by John Lieb and Brad Wilber

★ At first, both Jim Horne and I were underwhelmed at first by this concept. Colors of the rainbow have been played upon so many times over the years, including the first puzzle of the Will Shortz era,. The title seemed to give away the game, and quickly uncovering EVER(GREEN) TREE didn't help.

Plus, EVER(GREEN) TREE made this yet another addition to the "turning themers" trope that Will has largely stopped taking. I did appreciate that GRAVITY'S RAINBOW made for a strong rationale for pulling the colors down, but it wasn't enough to overcome my "meh" moment.

And Ross / Lindsey didn't even bother to put the colors in ROY G BIV rainbow order! Starting from GREEN, trickling down to YELLOW and BLUE … what is this, a Dali painting? I mean, how hard would it be to start with RED …

Oh, wait. It does start with RED when you think about left to right order. Look, there's ORANGE next, YELLOW—

Wait. Are the ordered colors …

... in the shape OF A RAINBOW?

I hope paper solvers don't miss this extra layer, because it elevates this puzzle to a sky-high level. The shape isn't perfect (see the grid below), but it's close enough to still be jaw-dropping. Amazing visual for the solver in me, and this technician wouldn't have though it could be possible to lay things out so masterfully. It's rare for a puzzle to appeal to both parts of my personality so strongly.

I fear that there will be many who don't notice. It would have been great to include a revealer at the bottom, something like ARC that could explicitly point to what's going on.

Exceptional puzzle. This is exactly the kind of shot in the arm that the NYT Sunday crossword has been needing. Big idea, amazing execution, interesting grid entries and clues = a huge win.

– puzzle by Ross Trudeau and Lindsey Hobbs