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Consistent theme, all two worders where the second word starts with A, and is parsed into two separate words. TICKET A GENT made me chuckle, as did RISK A VERSE. Humorous images, especially if the GENT was ticketed because of risking a verse. SNIFF A ROUND was an interesting parsing find, too. (I tend to do that, much to the chagrin of my friends.)

STUDY A BROAD … oof. I'd much prefer to see crosswords uplift and entertain, providing much-needed distraction from the stress of life. First of all, calling someone a broad seems offensive to me. Then studying said broad ... as in ogling her? I uncovered this themer quickly, and I couldn't shake the icky feeling for the entire solve.

I would have liked just four themers, not just because of the abhorrence of STUDY A BROAD. Five gives a nice sensation of getting a lot for your money, but four would have been enough and would have allowed for nice smooth fill. Most of the grid was fine and even spicy, with some GALPALS, a PAPER CUT (ouch!), I MEAN IT.

But those big corners in the NW / SE. A single ACUTER feels odd. Then PENSEE … I remember agonizing over possibly using this in one of my puzzles, but decided against it, since Pascal's publication was "Pensées," in the plural.

There are some nice entries in those two corners, like MEDUSA, and IPHONE / GROUSE / HORNET / SWEDES (I love the "Sweden Second" spots). It's just hard for me to get past an oddity like ACUTER or PENSEE needed to hold it together. If it's some small dab of crossword glue like LIL or STE or ENS or UEYS, totally worth it, but …

ADAMA was hard for me — even after watching every single episode of "Battlestar Galactica." Crossing the unknown SCAG made it a total guess. Not sure I care for drug slang in my crossword, either.

I did love the clue for TRIANGLE. I can just imagine some jokester saying "It's right (there) in the Pythagorean Theorem!" That gave this math dork a big smile. Might even try that line myself ...

– puzzle by David Phillips

You had to look up DOUBLE DACTYL too? Whew, glad it wasn't only me!

It's a poetic form, with six syllables ... numbers one and four stressed? Appropriate for a poet's full name, EM-I-LY DICK-IN-SON.

So glad to get Peter's note. I had a sense something felt a hair unusual about the clues, but I couldn't place my finger on it. And overall, I thought the puzzle felt thin, like a quote puzzle with not a huge payoff.

I have much more appreciation for it, after learning that Peter made EVERY clue fit that double dactyl pattern! I wrote a single double dactyl for the tooltip (mouse over Dickinson's pic), and that took me 10 minutes. And it's not very good.

What still feels off to me is that the double dactyl is also know as a verse form; a specific pattern of … well, an example from Wikipedia better explains it:

EM-I-LY DICK-IN-SON seems to be more just the "dactylic dimeter." Jim assures me that technically, "double dactyl" refers to either the single line or the whole verse. (That's what I get for trusting Wikipedia.)

Nice and smooth grid, with bonuses in OSTEOPATH, ARGYLE SOCK, and USAIN BOLT. Sometimes (often) I have trouble with Peter's Fireball puzzles because of an esoteric person or two he allows in his fill, but everyone ought to know the fastest man on the planet.

I wonder if the MESSI / TBILISI crossing is going to cause problems. Not being a soccer fan, my forehead wrinkled when my friend Parker Lewis said he couldn't wait to debut MESSI in a grid. But solvers ought to know world capitals.

Loved the clue for THERE. Apt, for a poetry-themed puzzle: [Starter of limericks].

There once was a crossword about poetry … (any takers on completing this?)

I liked the touch of all the clues being in that same pattern; a task much harder than it might seem. It would have been nice to have some hint built within the grid to make that clear, though — I worry that many people are going to completely miss it. (Jim and I both did, at first.)

BTW, Peter has a Kickstarter campaign going (ending on Sunday night) for Fireball Newsflash Crosswords, a biweekly news-based crossword. Get "All the News That Fits Symmetrically" delivered by email. Check it out, and help push it over the edge!

– puzzle by Peter Gordon

I don't know if there's anyone better at clever cluing than Patrick Berry. His last few grids haven't had many marquee answers that are jazzy in themselves, but he's given us such great clues that the entries themselves don't need to sizzle.

I usually stop to write down standout clues as I solve a themeless, about two or three times on average. I stopped at least five times today:

• [Heady stuff] is a colorful phrase, and it describes a foamy ALE so well.
• [Takes the edge off] is also a great phrase, perfect misdirect for SANDS (as in removing a burr). Both of these don't require the giveaway question mark at the end of the clue, either.
• [Sharp club] made me think of a mace or some other weapon. Nope, a club of smarties in MENSA.
• [Indian bread] usually is NAAN or NAN or maybe even ROTI. Not this time, describing Native American currency, WAMPUM. I've seen a lot of plays on "bread" as a term for currency, but this one had a nice extra twist.
• When would a population go from one to two, to zero? In Eden, with Adam, then Adam + Eve, then both getting the boot.

I do like to see at least a handful of jazzy entries in themelesses, though. ASTEROID BELTS and SAUSAGE DOG are great, and even this pop music idiot knew some lyrics to SUMMERTIME BLUES. But MAD TEA PARTY … well, it appears to be the correct name, but it sounded funny to my ear as I solved. And QUEEN OF MEAN is a catchy nickname, but it does feel outdated at this point, especially for a feature slot in the puzzle.

Along with the more neutral BLEW INTO (adding a preposition rarely impresses me), and SELECTEE, I would have liked a little more zing in the long entries themselves.

Still, I was so entertained by the solve. Patrick is so good with his cluing.

– puzzle by Patrick Berry

Themelesses featuring interlocking 15-letter answers often suffer in their short fill — the grid skeleton can be so inflexible. You often need a flood of crossword glue to hold it together, or have some of your feature entries be more neutral than standout. I thought ML did well to keep her crossword glue fairly minimal, considering she interlocked SIX grid-spanners, while giving us some good feature entries.

I loved TRIPLE WORD SCORE plus its clue, the misdirectional [Red square] (lower-case S!). THE PLOT THICKENS is fantastic too, evoking images of a detective's or even criminal's musings.

ANYONE LISTENING — I wanted so badly for there to be an IS preceding it. Ah well.

Neat to get SHIRLEY CHISHOLM, along with her ground-breaking election to Congress in 1968. Honestly, I couldn't remember the spelling of her last name, so it took me most every cross. But I got a real lift from piecing it together, pulling out thoughts of the civil rights movement.

TAYLOR SCHILLING … I'm not hot on featuring celebs in themelesses unless they're megastars. I've watched two full seasons of "Orange is the New Black," but I still needed every crossing answer to work out her name. And even then, I didn't know what character she played.

I do like that the NYT is giving exposure to an on-the-cusp-of-greatness star, but it felt more like being educated than being entertained.

With so many long entries constraining the grid, it wasn't a surprise to get a few rough spots. Manuel NEUER? And that IS AT (feels awkward) / NHRA (tough acronym) / ARNO corner was inelegant. Areas near intersections of two long themers have huge potential to give a constructor fits.

I don't mind a little SGTS, VOS, EEGS, EPI, ARIE / ISLIP, but as a whole … Thankfully, ML managed to keep it mostly spread out, not too concentrated in any one region.

I appreciated the bonuses of IT'S NOT FAIR, HIGH SIERRA, and SPORCLE (a provider of quizzes). That last one may be rough for some, what with it crossing NECCO and TAYLOR.

Kind of a lot of proper names in all, making it feel heavier on trivia than clever wordplay. But still entertaining.

– puzzle by Mary Lou Guizzo

★ I'm such a sucker for any sort of science or math puzzle. Put in a W BOSON or a TITRATION CURVE or a GOLDEN RATIO, and you've made this solver elated (and probably pissed off many others). So even though the periodic table has been mined for all sorts of crossword themes over the years, I loved Tim's new twist. Fe (iron) found right within the EIFFEL TOWER … just as in real life! Another perfect one in a WEATHER BALLOON containing He (helium). Such a fun concept.

Not all of them worked that way, but there were still interesting connections. A LEPRECHAUN hoards gold. AEROBIC EXERCISE involves oxygen. A DAGUERREOTYPE uses silver, lithium is one type of MOOD STABILIZER, etc. Although these were a bit looser than Fe in the EIFFEL TOWER, all of them had enough of a connection that I enjoyed.

Nice mix of snazzy long fill and smooth short fill. I like how Tim used his long entries to help break up some of the monotony that can come with a bunch of 3-5 letter entries. Strewing FAKE IDS, SONNY BOY, LIL ABNER, STAKEOUT, EPIC HERO, ITS COOL across the grid made for great variation — never too many shorties all at once without getting some spicy long bonuses.

And the smoothness of the fill = excellent. A couple of minor ENL, ETD dabs of crossword glue, but I easily overlooked those.

Well, there was IL DUCE. Not loving Mussolini in my crossword. Although IDI / AMIN works his way in, as does STALIN. Hmm. Not sure why IL DUCE is worse, but I cringed at it.

BETHEL was my only other source of hesitation. It is an oddball word, but ultimately, as the lone esoteric word in the grid for me, I enjoyed learning it. I like learning a thing or maybe two from my crossword.

I would have liked all two-letter chemical symbols, as it's a bit too easy to work with O and U, but NUCLEAR REACTOR was so spot-on that I didn't mind. All in all, great entertainment.

– puzzle by Timothy Polin

★ Such a well-constructed puzzle. The fill is so smooth, so interesting — such a difficult thing to accomplish for a Monday puzzle.

Susie tells us "that's a wrap!" today (what, no one laughed?), riffing on different types of coats. Although all of the phrases were snazzy, I liked CITY SLICKER and CHEVY BLAZER the best for this theme, because those terms aren't related to the "coat" meaning. Amusing reinterpretations.

The others — BUBBLE WRAP, SUGAR COAT, DUST JACKET — all have regular usage that refers to some sort of coating, i.e. BUBBLE WRAP is used around packages. It would have been nice to get a few others like CHEVY BLAZER where there's a big change in meaning (can't think any off the top, though!).

This five-themer layout isn't easy, the nine-letter SUGAR COAT dividing the puzzle in half. Typically, that causes problems for constructors in the four corners of the puzzle, as those regions tend to be pretty wide-open. Not Susie! She starts out with proper themer spacing and carefully distributes her black squares, ending up with some delightful entries in those big corners: INKLING, BEESWAX, CD RACKS, and DRACULA.

And with such little crossword glue! There's EXT, LAC and FGS, but as a solver, it's easy for me to skim past those short and minor offenders. Okay, SST isn't great as an outdated initialism (supersonic transport), but it's easy to overlook the one goopy glob of crossword glue in otherwise stellar execution.

Given that the theme was all about protective clothing, I would have preferred RAIN HAT and BROGAN to not be in the grid; muddied the theme a touch for me. But that's a minor nit.

This is my kind of Monday puzzle. The theme isn't anything groundbreaking, but it made for a wonderful solving experience. Getting the aforementioned bonus answers, plus some more in RUGRATS, ACROBAT, OCEANIA, FOOTRACE — it all helped to evoke a ton of IMAGERY. Very well done.

– puzzle by Susan Gelfand

TALES, STEAL, SLATE, STALE, TESLA, and LEAST = SIX themers in total! Often, anagram puzzles can result in bleh themers due to the difficulty of finding good anagrams, but Freddie did a great job. CANTERBURY TALES and the crazy inventor NIKOLA TESLA are my favorites (I'm also a former engineer). And LAST BUT NOT LEAST in the last theme position is a beautiful touch.

At first, I hesitated on GOING STALE, as I'm used to hearing WENT STALE or GO STALE. (I'm very careful in adding different tenses into our word list, as sometimes a particular tense hits my ear wrong.) But after some thought, GOING STALE is fine. Many food items in my kitchen are in the process of GOING STALE right now.

Not only does Freddie use six themers, but all of them are fairly long — a ton of material to build around. An incredibly rough grid-building task.

The lower left is a good example of the problems that high theme density creates. Working around the starts of NIKOLA TESLA and LAST BUT NOT LEAST means that three down answers are already heavily constrained. I think the result is decent, but for a Tuesday puzzle, I worry that IZAAK crossing UZI and SKYE might give some solvers fits. As a constructor, you want to set solvers up for a fair win. I'm not sure this does that.

Same with KEPI / SISAL in the upper right. I know what a KEPI is because it was a themer in one of my puzzles, but faced with that intersection otherwise … oof, that would be rough.

A lot of crossword glue elsewhere: A MUST and TO THE as long partials, SSR, USTA, ASSN, LII, etc. = too much for one puzzle, especially when early-week, newer solvers can be turned off.

And NULLS ... nullifies, yeah?

Neat to get so many strong phrases using the anagrammed letters — I can't remember six that were this good in any other anagramming puzzle — but a heavy price to pay in grid execution.

– puzzle by Freddie Cheng

Three-letter words get their middle letter removed, giving kooky results. I got a smile out of WHAT'S UP DC? — anything Bugs Bunny-related makes this kid happy — and I loved TYRANNOSAURUS RX. Something so amusing about those "sad T. Rex" cartoons.

The others didn't do much for me. HOPPING MD was neither good nor bad. ZIP YOUR LP didn't make much sense. CHEW THE CD … not only does chewing a CD feel too over-the-top kooky, but CHEW THE CUD doesn't feel like a phrase in use. CHEW THE FAT, sure. CHEW ONES CUD ... maybe?

Some nice extras in the fill. Much appreciated that Paula went the extra mile to include four long downs, a tough task especially since she had to weave them through her five themers. INDOOR CAT, SOAP OPERA and AS WE SPEAK are quite good. MILLIBARS … if this mechanical engineer (who has his MS in ME) needed most letters to piece it together, it's going to be rough for others, methinks. Still, I liked it pretty well.

With five themers and so many long downs, it'd be hard to avoid using some crossword glue to hold everything together. All in all, though, Paula does a pretty good job of it. There's a NSW (New South Wales), UKE (who calls a ukulele a UKE?), ARTY (artsy, yeah?), and the tough IN REM, but this OLD SOUL felt like these prices were acceptable given all the goodies they made possible.

Themewise, I so badly wanted the removed vowels to go in A E I O U order. That would have been an interesting take on the "vowel progression" theme type. I did like that Paula removed each vowel exactly once. But to get them in O A E I U order felt inelegant.

If it were me, I'd have to include the hilarious TYRANNOSAURUS RX. But if the A E I O U order were to be followed, that one would need to be the second themer, requiring a 15-letter fourth themer using the O. That might be tough.

Ah, how often doth the gods of crossword symmetry rain on a constructor's parade …

– puzzle by Paula Gamache

Neat idea, to have WORK and LIFE balanced … on sets of black squares that look like balances! Along with WORK LIFE BALANCE (conveniently 15 letters long; a constructor's dream), plus WEIGHS and SCALES, it made for a pretty picture.

Jeremy is so good with his gridwork. One of his sticks in my mind as a favorite Sunday, partially because it required such incredible craftsmanship in incredibly jam-packed regions. Similar requirement in today's puzzle, what with so many down answers needing to work with each other on both sides of the scales.

Take the left side, for example. Not only do PIECE OF WORK, SAFE FOR WORK, REWORK, and NETWORK have to work (pun intended) together through TOO REAL and FRET, but PIECE OF WORK and SAFE FOR WORK have to coordinate all the way up to the top. So many constraints to work around.

The result is nice and smooth, although I did hitch on TOO REAL, wondering if it needs to be (ALL) TOO REAL. And I've seen NSFW plenty, but never SFW. In the end, both did seem passable, though.

Interesting long fill elsewhere in the grid, too. I particularly enjoyed MAGIC LAMPS, PHOTO OP, and BBC NEWS, especially what with that crazy-looking BBCN* four-consonant start.

VEGAN PIZZA … I wondered about that. It is a real thing, but I worry that it opens the door for the arbitrary VEGAN BURGER, VEGAN SANDWICH, VEGAN POT PIE, etc. And AS YOU DO sounded out of tune to my ear. (Maybe because I'm not a Brit.)

It did feel repetitive to have WORK and LIFE and then WORK LIFE BALANCE. Plus, the .puz file was coded with rebus squares of (WORK)(WORK)(WORK)(WORK) and (LIFE)(LIFE)(LIFE)(LIFE), whereas I really wanted them to just be W O R K and L I F E. The grid and answers (below) are adjusted to the non-rebus approach, which I think is more elegant.

Interesting visual concept, along with some great execution, given the dauntingly dense theme-packing.

– puzzle by Jeremy Newton

Twelve-letter answers are the bane of themeless constructors (along with 13s and 14s). Black squares are so precious in themelesses, and when you have to deploy six of them immediately, you sacrifice flexibility from the get-go.

Love DUMPSTER FIRE and VITRUVIAN MAN! (I built a themeless around VITRUVIAN MAN years ago, but I had so much trouble with the grid that I abandoned it. Stupid 12-letter entries.)

Another grid design element of note today: the big upper right and lower left corners. It's rare for constructors to try anything quad-stacked, even eight-letter answers, because they're so darn hard to make both smooth and sizzling. I thought Pavel did a nice job getting both of these relatively smooth — just STE and ACAN as prices to pay — but neither corner shined for me. I do like HABANEROs and IN STEREO, but nothing else stood out.

A common issue for these big quad-stacks; you tend to either get smooth or sizzling, but not both.

As a huge fan of John Nash, I loved GAME THEORY in the bottom stack. ARE WE ALONE was nice too, at least for us cosmic ponderers. There were some prices to pay in AGAS and ETERNE, but I enjoyed GAME THEORY so much that this corner would have turned out great in my eyes …

… except that I had already experienced ETOILE in the upper left corner. ETOILE (deep French) and ETERNE (only in poetry) aren't exactly related, but they felt like similar enough dabs of crossword glue — containing so many friendly letters for constructors — that having both didn't seem elegant. Ah well. GAME THEORY is still a game-changing entry for this solver.

TITRATOR … back in my day, we had to do all our titrations by hand. You kids have it easy with your mechanical TITRATORs, grumble grumble.

Overall, there was too much crossword glue for my taste — along with the aforementioned, there was ECU / SESS, TO TEN, the dreaded arbitrary EEE shoe spec, OLEO / KIP etc. (Though as a huge "Princess Bride" fan, I don't mind INIGO at all!) But that's one of the side effects of featuring 12-letter entries. Rarely easy, as those buggers can propagate problems all throughout a grid.

– puzzle by Pawel Fludzinski

GLORIA STEINEM and WHITE PRIVILEGE headline today's puzzle. I enjoyed piecing together a historic figure in GLORIA STEINEM. But WHITE PRIVILEGE … although I think it's an important concept more people ought to learn about, I wonder if some solvers will feel like the puzzle is trying to shame them. I wonder how I'd feel if I were white.

I liked the additions up top, WOOKIEES (yes, it's two Es, weird!) and ALT POP some nice bonuses. Not a fan of EFT ( a term for a juvenile newt) and LOT I, though.

Overall, a wide mix of entries I found entertaining — DRAMEDY, KEG STAND, VIRTUAL REALITY, OLD FLAME, OPEN WIDE, THE NERVE — along with some that didn't resonate with me. Not watching many cartoons these days, ADVENTURE TIME didn't do much for me, and although HOT TAKE is an interesting new term I didn't know, having to work so hard to piece it together wasn't super satisfying.

The level of crossword glue was just at my threshold. Along with the aforementioned, there was EME, OTT, and VAS. Thankfully these are all shorties and individually easy to overlook, especially since Natan did a nice job spreading them all out. But everything taken as a whole, I did feel like it was on the verge.

I really appreciated how many great clues there were; seemingly more than usual for a Saturday:

• The Biblical ARK had a "double standard" — two by two!
• Cool trivia that APHIDs are born pregnant. Neat biological advantage.
• Bows may be made in a SHRINE … not ribbon bows, but bows at the waist.
• [Lover of history?] is a great misdirection for OLD FLAME — a lover from one's personal history.
• TRAY is something someone may be holding when waiting … waiting on a table!
• [Soap box?] confused me, even after uncovering every letter. Ah, a TV SET is a type of box that plays soap (operas). Very nice.

So many clever clues! Wish all Saturday puzzles had this many.

– puzzle by Natan Last

TAKING THE FIFTH interpreted as "add the fifth letter of the alphabet, E, to base phrases, with kooky results." I enjoyed a good number of them: HOT CROSS BUNNY gave a funny image. OFF THE MARQUEE had a great spelling change (MARK to MARQUEE), as did TABLE TENNESSEE (TENNIS to TENNESSEE). ATTILA THE HONEY flips Attila amusingly on his head.

Sound change puzzles often don't do much for me, but I enjoyed today's results as a whole. Not every Sunday puzzle has to be (or should be) groundbreaking, and as a solver, I welcome sharp examples of tried and true theme types.

A couple of nice bonuses in the fill, TIDY SUM, AQUALUNG, FIRE AWAY, PRO TEAM. These good mid-to-long entries helped keep my attention.

I wasn't as hot on the short fill, though. It felt like everywhere in the puzzle, I got bogged down by an abundance of crossword glue. I stopped counting at about ten — ERNO, GTS, ADEE, ISTH, LEU, DEO, MST, and so on — and I still had half the puzzle to go. Way too much; dragged down the quality of my solving experience.

I admire that Alan strives to do more, consistently dipping under 140 words in his Sunday puzzles (this one is at 136). But it's so hard to do while retaining smooth fill. I don't feel like it's worth it, if you have to use so much crossword glue.

Usually, I don't mind if there are bits of glue dabbed over the puzzle — and Alan does well not to concentrate it in any one spot — but there's just so much in total that it felt like it should have been reworked for a smoother overall feel. Going up to 140 words would undoubtedly have helped.

Certain ones felt particularly egregious, too — the Maleskan ITER and ADOLF. Hard to save that last one with any clue.

It's rare that a sound change puzzle tickles my fancy, though, so I did appreciate the good quality and quantity of themers.

– puzzle by Alan Arbesfeld

★ I get nervous every time I see BERMUDA TRIANGLE in a crossword — it's been used so many times in various crossword progressions, often involving a square. What a pleasure to get the unexpected FINAL SALE next, and then TENNIS ACE. I enjoy when I can't figure out a Monday theme until the very end. POINT OF NO RETURN gave me a smile. What a fun way to interpret "situations where a return is not possible."

I also hesitated after uncovering ATTY, an abbr., to start the puzzle. But things turned around very quickly, getting YO MAMA / FUTILE / DOGSLED, all such fun answers. (I admit, I keep a spreadsheet of YO MAMA jokes that make me laugh.)

So much strong bonus fill past that, too. BLARNEY as an Irish term for nonsense, BRA SIZE, THIN AIR, THE FED, even GARGLE, such an amusing word. Don't forget the UNDEAD! Although there weren't any long bonus answers, Alan did so well by employing a huge quantity of mid-length bonuses.

And all of that with just some minor ENE, OCT, NOID! That last one stuck out more than the others, as "no I.D." feels shaky to me, but I do fondly remember "Avoid the Noid" commercials.

All in all, such an enjoyable Monday experience. A fun theme, a ton of great bonus fill, and not a lot of liabilities or odd entries to distract. Very well done, especially for someone still early in his construction career.

– puzzle by Alan DeLoriea

Damon plays on SALAD DAYS (a term from Shakespeare), using four men with last names doubling as types of salads. SID CAESAR I knew off the top. TOM GREEN vaguely stirred a memory (he's the guy that used to star in "The Tom Green Show," not surprisingly).

ORSON BEAN apparently has done a huge body of work both in film and TV.

I probably should know LEE J COBB, as he's had many major movie roles. More importantly, he comes up not infrequently in crosswords as LEE J — not a lot of options when you need a four-letter entry ending in J!

Interesting choice to cram the themers together toward the middle of the puzzle — usually the first and last themers go into rows 3 and 13 to maximize spacing. But sometimes, squeezing pairs together can make the construction easier. Today, it's like Damon only has to work with three (albeit long) themers.

It does allow for a novel grid layout, including a lot of 6-letter entries. DENALI, AW GEEZ, PAYPAL, I GUESS, PAELLA are not only great words/phrases but since most crosswords don't feature many 6-letter entries, these feel nice and fresh.

I wasn't so thrilled about some of the shorter fill, though. I probably wouldn't have minded that central RVER / SERE / ONT section if there hadn't been more AGT, ESAS, NEC, USD gluey bits elsewhere. Tough, working around a central 9-letter theme answer.

EWERS and EPEE don't bother me much, as they're real-life things, but I have heard grumbles about these. (My wife, who's much, much smarter than me, dislikes EWERS, as she knows the word only from crosswords.)

Puzzles featuring proper names — especially full names — can feel like a trivia contest. So to get some AMATI, BLY, DEY, MACAU, NGAIO in addition to the themers felt like a lot of names in one puzzle.

But all in all, some nice thematic finds, covering a range of salads. And quite a lot of great bonus fill — some great 7s in MANSMAN, MIC DROP, MOOCHER, HOLY ARK — albeit, with prices to pay for them.

– puzzle by Damon J. Gulczynski

The shaded answers say it all: every answer to a starred clue is a word with its letters in alphabetical order. I've highlighted them below in blue to help them stand out.

I had a tough time figuring out the "quote," as STARRED ENTRY didn't make sense at first. Seeing as the grid entries themselves are not starred — it's their clues that are starred — I struggled mightily to figure out what word could follow STARRED at 25-Across. Semantic and perhaps trivial, but I sure got stuck.

Not a lot of bonuses in the grid, but that's to be expected with so many "themers" to work around. Check out how interlocked the grid is, shaded or blue answers (below) crisscrossing all over the grid. I did enjoy RIYADH, such an odd *ADH ending. And BZZT! = one of my favorite short entries in recent memory. (I used to watch a lot — A LOT — of "Family Feud.")

An interesting combination of quasi-quote puzzle and word trivia. I would have loved to see some longer examples, but these six were pretty decent.

Hmm, it wouldn't be hard to write a script to see if there are longer words (or better yet, phrases) that follow this principle of alphabetized letters. How cool would it be if there were some that were of 8+ letters!

(Over the holidays, I got a neat wooden word puzzle from my mother-in-law. She thought it would keep me busy, given that there were 26^3 possibilities but only one solution. The next morning, I amazed her with the answer. A little Python script helped. Don't tell her that.)

– puzzle by Bruce Haight

This puzzle REDACTED, the FBI, NSA, and CIA "blacked out" (see grid below for details).

I immediately knew something odd was going on, given that 21-, 38-, and 55-Across had the telltale [---] indication of "no clue." But I had DOLPHIN FREE TUNA stuck in my head. And LOOSELEAF TEA, for some reason ... even though that makes no sense for [Student's note-taking aid].

I also wondered why these three orgs had been REDACTED in the horizontal direction, but not the vertical. Well, from a construction perspective, it would be at least an order of magnitude to do the REDACTED squares in both directions — it'd be as if those nine black squares were essentially white squares.

That might even be an impossible task, given how huge those swaths of white squares would be. Just that upper right corner alone … imagine that those "FBI" squares were white. Yikes, that'd be even tricky for a themeless grid, much less a themed one!

Speaking of that, Joel uses a themeless count, all the way down to 72 words (the max for a themeless). It allows for some great bonuses, especially in the upper right and lower left corners: STATICKY, PINE CONE, FOOT RACE, ALL IN FUN (REST AREA is a little drab in comparison). KISSED UP and SETH ROGEN were also fun bonuses.

Nice insider's nod to work in GLUEY, an adjective I often apply to entries like ANS, ITI, RNC (Republican National … Convention? Ah, Committee.). Joel does well to weave his puzzle together in such a way that it doesn't require very many GLUEY bits to hold everything together. Great craftsmanship that I've come to expect from Joel.

Some of the longer stuff wasn't super exciting, though. THE TRUTH felt partial-ish, and entries like SPRAYER, CONTEND, CRYING OUT feel like they do their job without adding much. Ah, the eternal trade-off of snazziness vs. smoothness in fill …

It'd have been great to get something a little more exciting than LOOSELEAF BINDER — maybe DATE OF BIRTH … which sometimes does get redacted! On that note, it was a little odd to redact the orgs themselves, not secrets they want to keep.

But all in all, some secretive fun.

– puzzle by Joel Fagliano

Neat mini-theme — did you catch the giant E made of INANE words? I've highlighted them below. Fun to parse INANE as IN AN E, accurately describing the shape.

Top-bottom symmetry is rare. Will has rejected one of mine where I've used up-down symmetry, saying that it just looks odd. (I tend to agree, looking back on it.) I like the novel image today's presents, but my left-right eyes want me to turn my head 90 degrees so that symmetry will be more pleasing.

At first, I wondered why Jacob didn't use regular crossword symmetry — or even left-right — by shifting the giant E one space over to the right. But that would have forced him to use a symmetrical answer to SENSELESS, requiring a Y???Y???Y pattern. I couldn't find anything that would work with all those pesky Ys.

Stupid crossword gods!

As much as I like the INANE IN AN E notion, I felt like EMPTY and SAPPY didn't quite hit home. Yes, both are in the thesaurus for INANE, but it would have felt much more powerful to me if somehow Jacob could have used ABSURD, ASININE, DAFT, STUPID, etc. (I didn't mind SENSELESS as much as Jacob did.)

Stupid English language, not conforming to what crossword constructors want!

I can see why Will ran this as a "themeless," as it would have felt like a very thin theme on a Wednesday or Thursday. And there were some nice bonuses like MADE TO LAST and ON THE SLY.

Themelesses are rarely done with left-right (or up-down) symmetry because normal symmetry allows for so many more long grid entries in general — the typical themeless uses a set of triple-stacked long answers in each corner, which left-right (or up-down) symmetry does not allow.

Jacob does well to get in four grid-spanning entries, but none of them did much for me. Along with some minor LPS, SRS, LTRS, ETDS, ETAS holding it all together, it didn't give me the same impact as a typical themeless.

Tough, when you have to work with that inflexible giant E formed in the center of the grid.

Wish the a-ha moment had been stronger, but I do like the creative thinking here.

– puzzle by Jacob Stulberg

Like Roland's others with similar grid designs, there are very few long (8+ letters) slots, but he does well with the ones he has: WHAT A JOKE crossing ZEBRAFISH, yes! Not only are both snappy entries, but each contains a rare letter. YOYO DIET and JIVE TALK are also fun (I'm fairly sure I've seen "Airplane" more times than you). And although BEST EVER and FINE TUNE aren't quite as nice, they're still solid entries.

Those 7-letter slots are so tough to convert to strong entries. Love AXL ROSE, and OUTTAKE is nice, with its good clue: [It could be a blooper], making me think about a bloop hit in baseball at first. But no other entries stood out on their own.

NAZI ERA … I appreciate the clue pointing out that this ended after WWII, but for me, crosswords are escapism. Not much fun to see NAZI ERA, even though it is a crazy-looking string of letters in NAZIERA. (Kind of looks like "nazier," i.e. more like a Nazi.)

It's tough to fill these sorts of big corners without dabbing on crossword glue, so it's no surprise that the upper right and lower left — the two more open corners — suffer more than the others. The grid flow is much appreciated, but man oh man does it make it tougher to fill those regions with smoothness and snazziness.

That DARIEN / ROSETTI / OUSE / TSE / IRVAN area felt particularly troubling. ROSETTI was already a tricksy misdirect, as I was 100% ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY SURE it was Antonio Salieri, Mozart's antagonist featured in "Amadeus." (You got me, Roland!) But, ROSETTI is a composer educated solvers ought to know. The other crossings, however … hmm.

Along with some random ASE, ERI, FLA, ENOTE (does anyone really use this term?), it was too much crossword glue for me in a themeless. Those big corners featuring a ton of 7-letters answers are so hard to fill.

But overall, a good workout, featuring a couple of strong long answers.

– puzzle by Roland Huget

SPOILER ALERT! Hopefully, solvers have seen all of these movies already. Thankfully, Grant chose ones with iconic not-really-surprise-anymore endings. Fun pairs, and I like how he presented them, making me work a little to uncover the pairs.

My head nearly exploded when I found out that SNAPE / KILLS DUMBLEDORE. I didn't have nearly as strong a reaction to seeing that EARTH is the PLANET OF THE APES, or that ROSEBUD is Kane's childhood SLED because I had already heard these spoilers long before I saw the movies, but these pairings all brought back some vivid memories.

(Experiencing "LUKE, I am your father" at age 9 ... whoa!)

To debut on a Sunday is a tricky business, as 21x21 140-word puzzles are so rough to construct. Grant has an even tougher job than usual, what with so many theme answers (highlighted below).

So it's understandable that Will let him slide by with a much easier task of 144-words. I did notice some NOL, IRAE, EAN, STYRO, ARU, USIA, UNHAP, etc. as I solved. But it wasn't much more than a typical Sunday puzzle, so good job there.

I often wonder if Will ought to let Sunday puzzles go to 142 or even 144 words. It'd open the Sunday arena to many more constructors; ones who shy away from the 140-word grid because it's really, really difficult. Just as long as I get a good amount of bonus fill to help hold my interest, I don't even notice that a puzzle has a high word count. I like the stuff Grant worked in: SET THE TONE, MARES NESTS, HEAD HONCHO, TAKE A BREAK, IDRIS ELBA (oh how badly I wish he signed up for "Pacific Rim 2" …), so it wasn't until I investigated that I realized the word count was well past Will's max.

It might have been nice to have the pairs of answers located closer to each other, so I didn't have to jump all over the grid with the cross-references. But that'd be awfully tough to do. And even though I usually groan at cross-referenced answers because of how they break up my solving flow, I liked how this technique hid the pairs in a sneaky way, making for fun discoveries of each pair.

A nice debut. Congrats, Grant!

– puzzle by Grant Thackray

★ Neil deGrasse Tyson! Fanboy SQUEEEE! (Sorry for breaking your eardrums.)

Huge fan of Tyson's — Jill and I watched all of his "Cosmos" remakes. In a time when science gets dismissed by all too many people, I love Tyson's efforts to educate and make change with humor. What a pleasure to get an amusing astronomy theme from him and Acme.

I had heard HEAVENLY BODIES before, in this [Total hottie?] sense, but the others felt fairly fresh. I particularly liked the more esoteric terms like STAR CLUSTER and GAS GIANT, showing off Tyson's depth in astronomy.

Did you understand the clue for RED DWARF? [Bashful?] refers to Bashful, one of the Seven Dwarfs — the one who frequently turns red. Concise, amusing, spot-on. Perfect!

There were a few rough aspects to the grid — the north, in particular, felt clunky. AIRE (suffix), ITSA (partial), AS BIG (quasi-partial) all in one area is not good. Adding a cheater square up there, perhaps at the A of AIRE, might have helped, while still allowing for PAYPAL. The overlap of LITTLE DIPPER and GAS GIANT does make things slightly tricky, but a section that unconstrained ought to be smoother, especially when it's so close to where most solvers start a puzzle.

At 80 words, this is over Will's usual max of 78. I don't mind that, if I get some nice bonuses in the fill. But aside from PAYPAL, there was only PUMICE, TWEETS, PSYCHO that added to the quality of my solve — not enough for my taste. No doubt that the grid construction is challenging, especially with five themers and a central 11-letter entry splitting up the puzzle, but I would have liked to see what happened if the three black squares after KNEAD were removed, allowing for a long down answer where AFAR and HOOVES are right now. Would have required moving around a ton of black squares, but even getting a single pair of great bonus entries can add so much.

That all said, when a theme shines, I don't mind grid flaws nearly as much. So happy to get this concept that's so appropriate to Tyson. Well done to Acme for bringing him into the NYT constructors' fold!

– puzzle by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Andrea Carla Michaels

The five taste sensations get spread through themers: SALTY, SOUR, BITTER, SWEET, and UMAMI. I've found that UMAMI isn't as well-known as I would have thought, but way back in school I did only learn about the four basic tastes. (UMAMI is Japanese, meaning roughly "savory.")

I learned the four tastes in a particular order, which I would have liked to see reflected in the themers: SWEET always came first, followed by SOUR, BITTER, SALTY. But that's not a strict ordering, so I don't mind the mixed-up order of the themers too much.

Impressive gridwork, considering that there are five 15-letter answers — rarely an easy task. In virtually every area of the grid, the down answers have to work through two themers, sometimes even three (UPTURNS, CHIMNEY, RIVIERA). So much inflexibility; so difficult to not have at least one section that's problematic.

I wonder if George and John started with the order of themers I mentioned, but realized that switching some of them around would produce better fill? If that's the case, I think that's a great decision, because the fill is so remarkably smooth for such rough constraints. Sure, there's the minor REL, ORA, ALTE, and the head-scratching IM MEAN (has anyone ever heard this uttered in real life?). But that's much, much less than I would have expected from a puzzle featuring five grid-spanning themers. Well done.

Overall, I wish there were something more playful to the theme. I'm not sure how else you could incorporate the five tastes into phrases, besides spreading them through themers like this. The first four tastes are easy — SWEET JESUS! for example — but UMAMI muddies the picture.

"There's no accounting for taste" feels just so, so ripe for wordplay! Accounting puns, anyone? Perhaps SWEET JESUS! or SOUR GRAPES or BITTER END or SALTY LANGUAGE could somehow be tied to accountants and audits? Maybe?

Maybe not, but this finance geek sure enjoys thinking about the possibilities.

– puzzle by George Barany and John D. Child

Three phrases literalized, TRICYCLE (tri CYCLE) presented as CYCLECYCLECYCLE, QUADRANT = RANTRANTRANTRANT, PENTAGON = GONGONGONGONGON. I've seen a ton of repeated word themes, i.e. JEOPARDYJEOPARDY = double jeopardy, but this is an interesting twist on the theme trope. I particularly liked GONGONGONGONGON, since GON is such an odd-looking chunk of letters by itself.

Would have been nice to get a progression from UNI to PENTA, but at least TRI, QUAD, PENTA gives a logical sequence. And Jeffrey brings up a good point about crossword symmetry. He would have had to go up to five themers, with the first being UNI+15 letters. Not many options for that, and something like (uni) FORMITARIANISTS would have been pretty dull.

It's okay with me to get just three themers instead of the usual four (or more, these days) if 1.) they're all snazzy and 2.) the grid features a ton of bonus entries. I liked some entries — ARE YOU IN, ANACONDA (always makes me think of the "Baby Got Back" lyrics), and even EVOLVE, KENKEN. Not nearly as much as I'd hope for given only three themers, though.

And RED CHINA … I know it's a historical term, but having heard this used as a SLUR for Asian folks, left me uncomfortable. (I've also heard it used against Korean and Vietnamese friends, which makes me laugh. Sort of.)

A couple of blips in APACE (odd word), MSEC (millisecond never written this way in real life), ANO, but not bad at all. I did struggle with CUTCO and ODETS, but thankfully the clue [Big brand of kitchen knives] made the CUT part of CUTCO gettable, once I did a *headdesk*.

PASTAS sure got an odd clue in [Nonmeat choices at a deli counter]? I fought mightily with that corner, as I thought it had to be TEMPEH or SOY or something with meat-like consistency. Feels like this clue could have been just as "accurate" if the answer had been WATER or COOKIES.

It's a reasonable puzzle, although I would have liked more themers or more bonus fill, especially given that Jeffrey is a seasoned constructor.

– puzzle by Jeffrey Wechsler

Sandy uses slimmed-down columns for theme answers that have an implied "thin" qualifier. (See grid below). 14-Down isn't MINTS, for example, but (THIN) MINTS. Same with (SLIM) CHANCE, (LEAN) CUISINE, (NARROW) ESCAPE, and (SKINNY) JEANS.

I particularly liked the ones where the answer in the grid made no sense until grokking the theme idea — CUISINE isn't a brand, but (LEAN CUISINE) is.

CHANCE and JEANS didn't work as well, as both could fit with their respective clues without the implied qualifier — a long shot does have a CHANCE, and some JEANS are form-fitting.

Some nice gridwork for a debut. It's tough to work with short theme answers, because that means you'll need a bunch of long fill elsewhere (due to the maximum word count limit of 78). That bottom left corner shines, with OMNISCIENT running through a RAINOUT, and some PINE TAR giving a baseball mini-theme. EXECUTE even gives us a bonus — a rare X. All that for the price of an OST = great craftsmanship, especially considering how hard it is to work with all that white space.

The upper left corner didn't come out as well in my eyes. TOOK HEART is good, as is ALA MODE and THINKER, but IDLER has a made-up feel, and PEER INTO is more neutral than positive (I have a hard time getting excited about phrases with a tacked-on preposition). And CARIOLE … it's a real word, but it wasn't satisfying for me to uncover, after working so hard to piece together every letter.

There were also a few HRS, PEU, COSM blips (that last one seems more major to me than the others), but some nice fill to help balance out those liabilities — PUT TO A VOTE, SHINDIG, TOURISTS stood out in my eyes.

I liked the creativity of using these thin columns, but the trick might have played better on a Tues or Wed since it came pretty easily and could even be (mostly) overlooked while still finishing. Still, always fun to see something kooky going on, deviating from neat little square boxes.

– puzzle by Sandy Ganzell

Mike mentioned to me that he and John had gotten three (or more now?) themelesses accepted, with a focused strategy: 1.) go up to 70 or 72 words, 2.) use a fairly standard themeless layout, 3.) focus hard on those four corners, packing in as many great entries as possible, and 4.) allow some gluey bits, just as long as it doesn't get to be noticeable. It's a strategy that's paid off well for them.

This one was almost exactly what I was expecting, given Mike's description. Love that ASTERISKS / CLIP ON TIE / RELAY RACE trio (ASTERISKS got elevated with a great clue referring to "qualifications" — modifiers, not resume points!). A bit of USS and ISSA (hard to ask solvers to know every congressperson) holding everything together, but oh so worth it.

I wasn't as hot on the opposite corner since CRINOLINE didn't mean much to me. I felt like it represented untapped potential for that precious slot — although I'd bet lovers of Jane Eyre and 19^th-century Britain would disagree.

Give what Mike told me, HEY BATTER BATTER was a nice surprise. Great feature entry right across the plate.

It can be tough to work in a grid-spanning central entry into a themeless, since its start and end reduces flexibility, constraining the triple-stacks it intersects. So I can understand why they decided to put that black square between STY and ICERS, to facilitate better filling. It'd be great to get another set of triple-stacks in those two corners, but it's much better to get just two great answers like LEVIATHAN and EYESTRAIN rather than try to strain your grid.

I was on the verge of feeling like AIS (partial), ICERS (is that a real profession?), and the aforementioned were too much, but they kept the glue spread out pretty well.

And with bonuses such as FBOMB and the amusing TWERK TWERP pairing, I quite enjoyed this 72-worder.

Sometimes themeless constructors (including myself) stretch too much, aiming for much more technically difficult 68- or 66-worders, but we'd do well to think about what these guys' approach brings to the solving experience. Looking forward to their next collaborations!

– puzzle by Michael Hawkins and John Guzzetta

11-letter entries can be tough to triple-stack cleanly, so HORROR MOVIE / AMERICAN ELM / NOBODY CARES with only a minor EMS to hold everything together = I sat back in admiration. Difficult task, strong execution.

Not having heard (or even heard of) "The LIFE OF PABLO" made this a tough solve for me. But I'm sure people with better music sensibilities will be elated by this marquee entry (maybe also by "We DEM Boyz" by Wiz Khalifa, too). Took me every letter to piece it together, and it didn't have much impact when I solved it. Maybe I'll listen and see what all the fuss is about.

Thankfully, I grew up with NOMOmania, HIDEO NOMO with that ridiculously awesome long windup. And although I don't watch "Entourage," I do know ARI GOLD from crosswords — ARI gets clued as [Agent Gold of "Entourage"] fairly frequently.

If you don't know all these featured folks, though, I think it'd be tough for the puzzle to resonate. Thankfully, it felt like all the crosses were fair.

Love, love, love BATTERY ACID as an entry, and its clue. Diner lingo fascinates me, and I had no idea there was offshoot lingo specifically for the military. (Off to an internet rabbit hole …)

Along with other great entries like ROE V WADE (although I wonder if that'll spark bad feelings in some), LAID AN EGG, ABOUT ME (for a bio), there was one innocent little clue that I thought stood out: [Joey of children's literature]. I've read over 800 middle grade and young adult books in the past few years, so I knew Joey Pigza right off the top. Except that the clue was referring to a baby kangaroo — specifically, the one from "Winnie the Pooh." Delightful!

I struggled with PESACH, a word I don't remember seeing before, but it being the Hebrew word for Passover, it seems fine. It's funny, though, how much one "odd" word can affect one's perception of a solving experience.

Strong grid execution, with little crossword glue necessary. I think this one might play well with a younger generation.

– puzzle by Sam Ezersky and David Steinberg

Oof, this grid was a bear. The skeleton alone nearly didn't come together, what with four pairs of long crossing answers needed. And we had to lay them out such that they didn't interfere with each other! Eight long themers is tough enough in a 21x21, but try intersecting pairs of them and cramming them all in. Not easy.

And then there was stupid old crossword symmetry to worry about. Tracy put together a good set of theme answer pairs to start, but we quickly realized that having to intersect answers at the E of RED each time was going to give us a symmetry nightmare. Specifically, the placement of the letter E within BLUE vs. GREEN was not good.

A few days later, it occurred to me that if we pluralized GREENS, we could make everything work. Tracy disliked the pluralization, though, and rightly so — a lone plural themer is inelegant. My a-ha moment might have come when eating HASH GREENS — er, (BROWNS) — which is much more natural in the plural.

Once in a while, the crossword gods throw you a bone.

The grid came together fairly quickly after that. I laid out about 20 skeletons before landing on one I thought would work. It also looked like we might be able to go down to 136 words so we could add in a whole bunch of snazzy material. But after a lot of back and forth, we came to the conclusion that it just wasn't going to be worth the crossword glue needed to hold those (not-so-snazzy) long fill together. I hate giving up on a tough construction challenge, but we decided it was the right thing to do. Going up to 138 words allowed for much, much cleaner fill, and still a good amount of KOHLRABI, TEND BAR, STOPGAP, RAZOR WIT, CATSUIT, I DOUBT IT, etc. sort of bonuses.

Such fun when a collaboration comes together like this, where we have to work like the dickens and struggle through so many problems. Finally getting across the finish line hasn't felt so satisfying in ages.

– puzzle by Tracy Gray and Jeff Chen

STAKEOUT parsed as S TAKE OUT, i.e. take out S's people tend to colloquially toss in. That first themer threw me for a loop — do people actually say ALLS I KNOW? (It does look cool as ALL SIK NOW.) But the other themers gave me a smile, especially HOWS ABOUT, which I use all the time. Fun concept.

Nice start to the grid, kicking it off with two Xs, so smoothly worked in. Along with YES MAAM, that's the way you want to start your puzzle! We do get an AMO soon after, but that's one I can easily overlook since it's a lone dab of glue in that region. (Solvers that are TYROS (newbs) could easily disagree, though — I bet AMO is odd Latin to some.)

As a 16x15 puzzle — wider than normal — it's expected that there will be 2-3 more words than in a regular 15x15. With a wide puzzle, some of us constructors stubbornly stick to the usual word maximum of 78, and I'm glad that Tom let his word count rise to 81.

Why? Because it's surprisingly hard to get down to 78 words or less in a 16x15 without compromising smoothness in fill, and I value smoothness so highly in Monday puzzles. Instead of little regions that are 3-5 letters wide, you tend to get ones that are 6 letters wide, like the upper right. Those are so much more difficult to fill than 5-wides.

Now, I don't like it when a puzzle goes to a high word count by eliminating interesting long fill, but that's not the case here. Tom is as good as ever with his long fill, highlighted by LUCKY YOU, TOP HEAVY, ODDS ARE …, TOO SOON?, IMPROV. If I can get this many nice bonuses, with so few dabs of ugly crossword glue, I don't care at all that the puzzle is technically 3 words above the max.

This felt like a tough theme to grok for a Monday — and I just couldn't imagine a stickler grammarian saying "S take out!" — but I like the innovative thinking. Some great examples of that colloquial extra S, too.

– puzzle by Tom McCoy