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"Name that Theme" felt like it was going to be a breeze today. Kicking things off with SPACE NEEDLE? Yes! It was so great to see our local landmark featured. EIFFEL TOWER next? Ah, this is easy. LANDMARKS, done!

Next is sure to be New York's EMPIRE STATE BUILDING. San Francisco's GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. Sydney's OPERA HOUSE. Along with a revealer of LANDMARK EVENTS! Man, I am so smart!

FERRIS WHEEL?

There's a famous Chicago landmark called the FERRIS WHEEL? Sure, I'll buy that. (Considering I once confused Wyoming and Wisconsin. That was last year.)

Wait. WORLDS FAIRS? More like WORLDS FAILS, in my case.

I like the concept of "iconic architectural features from WORLDS FAIRS." I was so badly expecting a third city landmark, though. I do think it works overall, but FERRIS WHEEL broke the expected pattern in a jarring way. I bet it would have felt fine if the puzzle kicked off with FERRIS WHEEL instead of ending with it.

I overlooked EPCOT until Mike pointed it out. It is billed as a "permanent World's Fair." Strange to have it present but not clued along thematic lines, though.

Such solid debut gridwork! I appreciate how careful Mike was with his short fill. Editors would have a hard time pointing out anything here, except perhaps EWW, which is tough to figure out the correct spelling since there is none. I did wonder about UNFREE, but the dictionary helped free me of my unfree notions. A legit, if not everyday word.

Love the color of BRUTE FORCE (like my coding and writing skills) / ALL TERRAIN and SO-CALLED / NICE IDEA, too. Great use of those long spots. Given Mike's level of care in his short fill, I'd suggest next time attempting a higher level of difficulty. Take out the black square between OLES and WOO, for instance, see if you can work in another pair of sizzlers without compromises.

Strongly executed debut.

– puzzle by Michael Lieberman

If Ross ever decides to open up a restaurant, I'm there. Different ales, ice, a wide SHOT SELECTION, along with a banana SPLIT doused in beef stock? Considering my lunch consists of "whatever the kids didn't eat yesterday, dumped into a bowl," that's right up my alley.

I did wonder, is MOOED related to the theme somehow? Because of the banana SPLITs? Usually, I would applaud such a fun clue as [Participated in a stock exchange?] — cows are stock that MOO — but it's so close to STOCK OPTION. I generally don't care if words in clues duplicate those in the grid, but the gist of this clever clue is too similar to the theme concept.

As always, nice gridwork from Boss Ross. STAYS SANE is so important these days, EXPANSION teams are fun, SO SUE ME and ILL PASS are great conversational phrases. Not easy to achieve so much sparkle with five (mostly) long themers. Working in some STONER YAHOO mid-length stuff helps, too.

You could complain about BSIX as something never written like that in real life, and a couple of EPS (bygone initialism) ESME (not in school curricula nearly as often as "Catcher in the Rye") XER (partial-ish; requires a fill-in-the-blank clue), but I bet some editors would give some of those a pass.

And maybe OFF PUT off-put you (as did the description of my lunch bowl), but the Oxford dictionary seems to think it's not off-putting.

I love the idea behind this one, and if it had felt less of a mish-mash than Jeff's lunch — even if it had been tightened to three alcohol-related ones — I'd have given it some POW! consideration.

– puzzle by Ross Trudeau

★ I used to hate Chinese New Year as a kid. The red envelopes were awesome, but when the teacher would make the Asian kids stand up and say what year we were born in, I cringed. Year of the dragon was the dream, followed closely by the tiger. Heck, I'd gladly take horse. Dog. Even rooster or snake would have been passable.

After all the laughing would subside, the teacher would clear her throat and try to research what wonderful traits Zodiac pigs exhibited. Let's see … the emperor summoned all the animals, and 11 showed up. Just as he was about to call it quits, the pig squealed in. Turns out the rascal got hungry, ate some trash, then fell asleep. Lazy, disgusting, boorish. Great.

Things would always go downhill from there, until I realized I could fool the throngs of non-Asian kids by telling them I was born in the year of the T. Rex.

Fantastic to see the Zodiac honored today with a well-disguised set of OX terms. I did wonder if STEERS was the proper plural of STEER, but Dictionary.com says it's correct. Solid job obfuscating STEERS, BULL, and CATTLE in colorful phrases.

Also great is the tightness factor. What other themers could work? There is STOCK OPTIONS, but what else? No phrases start with COW that use it in a different sense.

Extremely impressed with Ann's gridwork! With four themers, I expect constructors to deliver at least four pieces of strong bonus fill, along with little to no glue. Ann hit on both counts, going the extra mile with CHEESE GRATER, FIRESIDE CHAT, along with SCENARIO, ELOQUENT, ENIGMAS, GALILEO, and more.

A 72-word grid is not for the faint of heart, usually requiring some themeless expertise to make it work. Beautiful big corners in the NW and SE! No secret to executing on a FIRESIDE CHAT / ELOQUENT / REDSTONE (not a Minecraft player, but the two words were easy enough to figure out) triplet. Few constructors have the patience for all the iteration needed, though.

I would have preferred this puzzle to run on Chinese New Year, but it's still an impressive debut. While the theme is tried-and-true "hidden synonyms," I thoroughly enjoyed the nod to the heritage that I've slowly come to accept, as well as the outstanding debut gridwork.

– puzzle by Ann Shan

Such a solid Thursday, everything a standard rebus should be. The main criteria:

• NBA JAM gives a strong rationale for rebusizing NBA.
• The long theme phrases are excellent, with NBA always breaking across words. Bonus points for NBA breaking across all three parts of SUSAN B ANTHONY! I'd totally vote for her as the new Jerry West silhouette.
• Crossing answers are also solid, a bit longer than the minimum of SINBAD or DUNBAR. FANBASE is also relevant to the NBA, bonus points for that.
• Four rebus squares spread nicely across the grid, leaving no region untouched by rebuses.

I also appreciated Blake's gridwork, working in color with ALLEYCAT, POTSHOT, PASSPORT, ICHIRO for us Seattle homers, even HUBCAPS RIBEYES are fun. A rebus that accomplishes both criterion #2 and #3 sometimes fall down in the area of grid color, but that was far from the case today.

A couple of standout clues, too. POUTED's clue gave us a "bit of lip," UFO appropriates the song "Space Oddity," and my favorite, PINBALL using the term "bumper-to-bumper." Delightful wordplay.

I've done so many rebuses in my lifetime that one with four of the exact same string of letters won't stand out for me. A near-perfect example of this standard theme type, though.

– puzzle by Blake Slonecker

Jim Horne and I had a fun time discussing this one. Both of us are jazz musicians (he a real one, me a fake one hearkening back to my playing days two decades ago), so we both dropped in FAKE BOOK without having to improvise. It might take more time to understand than LOOKBOOK, but it'll probably resonate when I tell you that a FAKEBOOK lists out melody and chord progressions so you can sort of "fake it." Neat to get this debut entry from a musician!

Jim argued that AKIRA KUROSAWA might qualify as one of the most influential movie directors of all time. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I tried to watch "The Seven Samurai" but made it seven minutes before putting on "The Magnificent Seven" yet again. It's impressive that KUROSAWA was named Asian of the Century, although I contend that if Bruce Lee had been one of the seven samurai I'd have watched a lot longer.

Editors tend to prize multi-word entries, since they tend to run more colorful than one-worders. FLAGELLA is a fascinating word, though, and when you give ECONOMISTS a clue that tells it like it is, that's fantastic. I keep in touch with one of my econ profs from business school, who freely admits that those who can't do, go into econ.

Quite a bit of impressive cluing. Riffing on "trace element" for STENCIL is so clever! And the standout: [Plant that may yield oil]. Talk about spicing up a one-word entry; such a clever misdirect away from an oil REFINERY!

Fine debut grid, the smattering of AUS LIS NES PSA YRS easily pushed to the side by the sheer quantity of brilliant clues. I generally like more multi-word entries than this one has, but the devilishly clever wordplay helped make up for it.

– puzzle by Sridhar Bhagavathula

I like the innovation in this 68-word grid, spreading out long answers much more than usual patterns. As I solved, I wondered if there might be fewer than average long entries, but no — 14 is just about right. More typical themelesses concentrate all their color in the four corners, so I enjoyed getting dashes of TAG TEAMED, HIDDEN TALENTS, ADOBE READER, CORNY JOKE, OPERA SOLO, POTATO BATTERY, IM SUCH A JERK (great colloquial phrase!), HIGH HORSE spread throughout.

I wondered if non-Trekkers would know BRENT Spiner, who played Lt. Data on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" — great cross-reference for us android fans, perhaps not so pleasant for non-dorks. I asked Jim Horne (who doesn't watch as much sci-fi as me) if he knew Spiner, and he paused before saying something to the effect of "yes, but only because he was in a play I directed." After 15 years of hanging out with Jim, I'm continually amazed.

I also wondered if the crossing of CAROL ALT and RITA ORA (my wife alerted me that this is someone I ought to know since ORA is very useful for constructors) was fair. I like that they come from different walks of life and time, though, increasing the chances that someone will have heard of at least one of them.

I'm usually the one doing the kvetching, but this time, Jim flagged two entries: THE COLTS and CORNY JOKE. Along with several other constructors I know, Jim's not a fan of "THE ___" phrases, as the THE feels superfluous. And CORNY JOKE felt corny to him. He asked me my opinion, and I sheepishly admitted that they were both high on my list of the puzzle's assets! So much of themeless assessment is so subjective.

As always, excellent craftsmanship from Sid. A 68-word themeless presents such a tough task of offering both smoothness and sizzle, and Sid hit on both counts. Next to no dabs of glue while offering a little something for everyone.

– puzzle by Sid Sivakumar

When I work with a new constructor, they often give up after a few back-and-forths after realizing that die-hard persistence is needed to spark a crossword idea. If they do stick around through my first rounds of feedback, most of them lose hope after we find a previous puzzle that's too close, or if we decide we need to regroup and shift direction to generate a stronger a-ha. I try to help every polite person who comes to me, but few people make it through to a published product.

Celeste is not only one of the few that gutted her way through the process (across dozens of different ideas), but we clocked in at two months of theme brainstorming for this one.

We had started with Celeste's proposed LONG TIME NO SEE and a few others, which like the seed of something interesting. A few more like TEE OFF TIME and UNEASY FEELING … but I had an uneasy feeling that this felt too similar to something I'd seen recently. Research ... alas.

We were on the road to scrapping it, but Celeste gave it second life with a few new possibilities, including one phrase with two missing letters. That smelled interesting, but we couldn't come up with enough in-the-language phrases that worked similarly.

One morning a few weeks later, I was in charge of a morning that involved rejected waffles, much crying, and a stray poop (don't ask), making me wonder how I got into such an unenviable position. Unenviable position ... wait a second! Silver linings of having young kids!

I appreciate how willing Celeste was to roll up her sleeves and dig into the grid filling. A 140-word Sunday is daunting, but once I broke it down into smaller, more tractable sections, she tackled each with gusto, taking feedback with open ears.

I often tell constructors that it takes about 20 ideas to generate one solid seed concept, and even that one doesn't always gain traction. I love it when someone doesn't quit when things get tough. Congrats to Celeste for pushing through to the finish line!

– puzzle by Celeste Watts and Jeff Chen

I'm friends with one of my b-school econ profs, who also happens to be a novice crossword solver. Not only SUPPLY and DEMAND crossing in the iconic pattern, but PRICE on the Y-axis and QUANTITY on the X-axis? Perfect for him!

Throw in ECONOMICS and ADAM SMITH, and this is the puzzle the economist in me has wanted to make for ages. Several constructors over the years have proposed various SUPPLY / DEMAND concepts, but none of them has felt nearly as strong as this one. Bravo, Eric!

(For non-economists, the SUPPLY line shows that at higher prices, producers want to produce more. The DEMAND line demonstrates that at higher prices, there's less purchasing interest (excepting luxury goods). The intersection of these two lines is the equilibrium point at which the market settles.)

Eric deployed a huge number of black squares in the middle so he could make everything smooth around those fixed SUPPLY and DEMAND letters. Smart thinking. Even with UTOPIA as a bonus, the center is beautiful — with a fantastic repurposing of California's "Golden State" moniker!

I'm impressed at how well he executed on the giant SW and NE corners. Not only are they huge regions, but they both have a themer plus two fixed letters apiece.

Twelve fixed letters cause so many constraints that there have to be trade-offs. Today, that was an excess of proper names. I vaguely recognize Philip AHN from "Kung Fu," but crossing him with CHOPRA could be a minefield for newer solvers. I'll be curious to see if my old econ prof can solve this one or not. He's not a sci-fi fan, so SMAUG may cause him to give up as well, but those crossings feel fairer.

I imagine this puzzle could generate some pushback on ADAM SMITH being featured — the "invisible hand" is ideologically divisive, to say the least — but as a believer that capitalism is the worst of all systems, except for all the rest, I thoroughly enjoyed this offering.

– puzzle by Eric Bornstein

★ Fantastic debut! Will Shortz isn't taking many "hidden words" puzzles these days due to oversupply, so you must present an amazing one to catch his attention. It has to go above and beyond, and that's exactly what Simon did:

Length of finds. Four letters is about the minimum since three letters are too easy to work with. To find a six and two fives is fantastic work. Even the three …

Quality of phrases. The consecutive vowels are a bit tricky, but AIK is much less daunting than URABUS. When you can fit AIK into KUBLAI KHAN, one of the most auspicious leaders of ancient history, that makes up for the shortness.

Spanning across all words within the phrase. HAD NO HOPE isn't terribly exciting — not as much as FALSE TEETH, with its delightful clue about coming out at night — but when you span H ON DA across all three words, that made me stare in admiration.

Revealer. REVERSE works, although it's more overt than clever. I'd have loved to brainstorm for something more playful, like around cars having to BACK IT UP or something.

Tightness. Not 100% necessary, but when you can make people realize that there are virtually no other themer options, that makes your puzzle stand out. After 30 minutes of searching, all I could find was PORCINI MUSHROOM and HYDROFOIL, and the latter doesn't pass the "spanning" criterion.

All this with amazing gridwork. I eternally pound the table, yelling that with four themers and a short revealer, you're obligated to present a fantastic grid with an excess of bonuses and zero glue. There's no reason not to. Simon wove in FLEABAGS, THE BOXER, PLACEBO, TENTACLE, SNEAKER, all while demanding that his short fill never be compromised.

Tremendous debut, making me appreciate a tried-and-true theme type all over again.

– puzzle by Simon Marotte

I say, "I'm probably overthinking this, but …" so often that I'm surprised it's not a meme. Jim Horne and I chat every week by phone, and I can always see him sitting up and rubbing his hands together every time I utter those five magical words. This week:

JIM: What confused you?

JEFF: It's probably clever, a SPOILER ALERT. But aren't the TOO MANY COOKS the spoilers? So they've already been spoiled?

JIM: No, the word SPOIL is what comes next in each saying. The very next word. Thus, a SPOILER ALERT is perfect; such devilish wordplay.

JEFF: But in that case, it should be SPOIL ALERT. It doesn't make sense as—

JIM: (hysterical laughter)

Once I solved SPARE THE ROD, I had that vague sense of unease that I would receive a flood of irate emails. I appreciate that Will Nediger acknowledged this landmine. I don't know that it's considered universally harmful and wrong, though — there are people with strong opinions on both sides.

Fantastic grid, amazing extras in IRISH PUBS / SPORTS BAR (although I wondered if there was a secondary theme in here), HOT TAKE, and fun mid-lengthers like OEUVRE and SVELTE.

I botched MESHUGA, guessing MESHUSA (sounded like Methuselah? Wasn't he a little crazy?), but that's the clue's fault, not the grid's, since both SLOB and GLOB aptly rhyme with "blob."

There's a fine line between clever and stupid, and this puzzle falls well toward the side of clever, with me heading the other way. It's such a great concept and presentation (once you stop overthinking it), but a shame that SPARE THE ROD is a lightning rod of controversy.

– puzzle by Nancy Stark and Will Nediger

I don't mind Seattle winters, but they drive my wife to despair. Even though DARKNESS AT ONE PM would be an exaggeration, I think it's what my wife perceives. Thank goodness we're SPRINGing FORWARD soon!

I liked Leslie's plays on two familiar figures of speech, FIVE (to SIX) O'CLOCK SHADOW and BURN THE MIDNIGHT (to ONE A.M.) OIL. Clever use of mirror symmetry, too, making possible a theme set of 15 15 15 13 (note that they're all odd in length; that's the critical element).

My lack of familiarity with DARKNESS AT NOON was probably yet another hole in my knowledge base. I asked two highly well-read people, Jim Horne and my wife, if they recognized it. Both of them said something to the effect of "… yeahhh …" Maybe throw in a few more h's. Made me wonder, why not use another colloquial NOON phrase?

Blew my mind that after 30 minutes of searching, the best I could do was HIGH NOON or SHANGHAI NOON. I'm a big fan of the "Rush Hour" pairing of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, but him and Owen Wilson ... yeahhhhh.

Some delightful clues. I was stuck in the northwest corner, [Signs of something moving?] befuddling me. Ah, TEARS show that someone's been moved! Crossing that with [Crow native to the Midwest] is diabolical. I ran through all the types of blackbirds I knew (two) and thought it had to be a Native American reference. Ah, SHERYL Crow was born in Missouri!

I should explain two entries. DESI confused me because I'm used to cluing it as DESI Arnaz, but it's also a term for some peoples of the Indian subcontinent. And SINE of pi is zero, when expressed in radians, which is … yeahhh, you don't care.

I found the overall concept too straightFORWARD and easy to figure out, but I enjoyed the apt use of the two colorful base phrases. I might have had a stronger impression if Leslie had gone with HIGH ONE AM (nine letters is also possible in this mirror symmetry layout) and clued it as the phrase (not the movie) to make all three themers more consistent.

– puzzle by Leslie Rogers

QUINCY JONES has tallied 80 Grammy nominations? Whoa! As a former jazz musician, I've always been impressed by the fact that he started out touring with the great Lionel Hampton at the age of 20. He's also a local Seattle legend, as he went to Garfield High School, just a few miles away from me. Where my kids might go to school one day!

As if that wasn't enough, how about working on "Thriller" with Michael Jackson? Or producing "We Are the World"? Dude is amazing on so many levels. Even if you somehow haven't heard of him, there's a Q and a J for the crossworld to enjoy!

I also enjoyed the other parts of the stair stack, TURN TRAITOR and CRASH HELMET colorful. Great work threading PEP SQUAD, HO CHI MINH, JIMMY DEAN, and KNOTHOLE through. That's a fantastic backbone.

Parts of the puzzle made me pause, though, something I'm not used to in a Wentz grid. I slowed at ORE MINER, and my Google-fu failed me, leading mostly to various Minecraft-y games. DOS-A-DOS I've sometimes plunked into my own grids, thinking it was DO SI DOS (the square dance term). I'm fine with entries like AFRESH even though they tend to draw a lot of stink-eye from solvers, but to also get ABLAZE and AGLEAM felt like it wasn't A-okay.

I also mulled over SI SI SI. A crossword editor asked me about SI SI not long ago if I thought it carried stereotyping undertones that were at least unflattering, if not racist. I'm far from the most enlightened person on this one (although ask me about AH SO, I've got something to say about that), so referred to others who would know better. But there appeared to be some valid concerns from at least some Latino solvers.

Finally, I'd never say DOLL UP to any of my female friends, especially not to my wife. Some might think I was trying to be funny, and my wife … would not.

Loved the clue [Far from a popular spot]. What a great way to make an ordinary entry like ZIT (ahem) pop.

Amazing grid skeleton, the stair-stack so brilliant. I had too many pauses the rest of the way to give this one any POW! consideration, though.

– puzzle by Peter Wentz

I've had the pleasure of working with John and getting to know his stylistic preferences helped me today during my solve. He's a big fan of colloquial phrases, and NOT IF BUT WHEN and I MEAN, COME ON! both popped.

I appreciate his efforts to broaden the spectrum in his work, providing something for everyone. Some won't know the allegory of PLATO'S CAVE, but what a great clue! I've read about Plato's cave and seen "The Matrix" dozens of times, but I've never connected the two.

Great to get some clever wordplay in clues, too, something John and I spend a lot of time on when we're co-cluing. [High on the job?] describes a quarter of Seattle; what a fun way to describe one's CAREER BEST. And an OVEN TIMER being "dingy" … think "ding-y." Ha!

I spent one career in BioMed, but I'd never heard the term BIOTEXTILE. It does appear to be in (heavy) use these days, so perhaps it came into more frequent use after my time.

John once told me a story about seeding a themeless with VBS. That was a total head-scratcher to me — it stands for "Vacation Bible School" — and provided John a hard lesson about Will Shortz's dislike of initialisms that aren't uber-prevalent (because there's no way to infer the correct letters). I did notice quite a bit of religious entries and clues today, in APSE, EDEN, Holy SEE, EVENTIDE, even the "heavenward" clue for LOFTS. It wasn't enough to turn off this agnostic, but I could see how it might be too much for some.

There's a lot to love here, the great SALT MINE metaphor, ANGORA CATS with differently colored eyes, the ROMAN EMPIRE with an evocative quote about going from gold to rust and iron. The constructor in me had a hard time overlooking all the AFBS AMOR BCE EPS MTN in a 70 word themeless (max allowable is 72), but I still had a ton of fun, especially since I like John a lot, and his personality shined through.

– puzzle by John Guzzetta

I used to be such a fan of MAD MAGAZINE. It'd be the first thing I picked up at the library when I was younger, and even in college, I'd go to local bookstores and chuckle at the political spoofs instead of doing my poli sci reading. It was so irreverent, so playful, so much pure entertainment.

I don't remember AL JAFFEE nearly as much as Sergio Aragones, but I was able to claw out a few memories — he's the guy behind the iconic fold-in! Art imitating art.

Neat that he wrote gags about all these things that came true. I wish the predictions had been amazing, though, like "The Simpsons" predicting Trump's presidential win. Foreseeing SNOWBOARDING or a THREE BLADE RAZOR isn't nearly as jaw-dropping.

AL JAFFEE OF MAD MAGAZINE felt like an oddly-connected revealer. Why not use the two of them as separate entries? They both stand nicely on their own.

Loved the clue for THE SMURFS — such a perfect repurposing of "blues ensemble." JOB INTERVIEW also shined with its punny [Hire calling?]. Great way to make your longest bonus fill shine even more.

As I expect from Jacob, solid gridwork, but I wished the entire solve had been kookier, side-splitting, more devilish — more like MAD MAGAZINE. There were so many dry clues for dry entries that the entire thing bogged down. It's so important for any Sunday puzzle to contain at least half a dozen wicked-sharp or smile-inducing clues to keep a solver's interest through the experience. For a Sunday puzzle built around the craziness of MAD MAGAZINE, it's that much more critical.

– puzzle by Jacob Stulberg

★ What do GOLDEN EAGLE, RATTLESNAKE, and PRICKLY PEAR have in common? They're all on the MEXICAN FLAG? What a delightful discovery! This is an instance where I'm ecstatic to be stumped at "Name That Theme." Now that's an A+ a-ha moment.

All four themers being exactly 11 letters, how fortuitous! Perhaps Crucivera, the Greek goddess of crosswords, has a Latin(a) counterpart.

I appreciated the other touches echoing the MEXICAN FLAG, too: PINATAS — with an awesome misdirection clue, [They get smashed at parties] — and SIESTA. It's rarely easy to work in mid-length material that reinforces theme without muddying it up. Philip's efforts here are a big success.

I did hesitate before giving this the POW!, since AWN and ALEE are entries called out on editors' spec sheets. They're the glue types that I often hear newer solvers complain about, giving them a reason to ditch the crossword and do something else.

I'd also have liked fewer 3-letter words — Rich Norris over at the LAT rarely allows constructors to go over 20 since these shorties can make a solve feel choppy. I'd have asked if Philip could take out the block between AWN and ERE while upping the smoothness factor. I'm not 100% sure it's possible, especially without losing the color of BOHEMIA and BASE HITS, but it'd be worth the effort.

Memorable debut!

– puzzle by Philip K. Chow

ICED TEA: "iced" is slang for getting offed. Dang, that's cold!

I'll show myself the door.

I laughed at several themers. AX DODGERS, now that's a reason for hazard pay. And I've seen so many superhero movies during quarantine that center around some important object (think: the Infinity Stones). Why not an URN OF EVENTS as part of Java Man's origin story?

Seriously, I'm leaving now.

I have a tough time keeping the -nym terms straight, ENDONYM, ANONYM, EPONYM, TAUTONYM, etc. AUTONYM is on the easier side if you remember that AUTO- is the prefix meaning "self." Etymology, what a GODSEND!

I didn't understand the clue for REO, so I looked up the pronunciation. Apparently, REO Speedwagon took its name from the REO auto but took the incorrect pronunciation R-E-O. I wondered for way, way too long if the clue was getting at REO's similarity to OREO, but it's referring to RIO. My apologies to Ransom Olds.

ODIUMS is a type of entry that Will Shortz tends to ding for being an odd plural. I've had several grids (rightfully) kicked back for things like ANGSTS; words might be technically correct but sound strange in the plural.

It's tough to impress these days with themes involving removing a common letter, especially when there are so many possibilities, making it seem like any word could work. TASK, THEN, TOUR, TRAP, TWIN, etc. However, I appreciate that the colorful revealer is a perfect reason for chopping off those Ts, and that Lindsey picked a few themers that made me smile.

– puzzle by Lindsey Hobbs

-ON and -EN celebs, reimagined as -IN' verbs. I listen to a fantasy basketball podcast where the host uses a fake MICHAEL BOLTON intro so that one doubly amused me. Funny to imagine Michael Bolton boltin' across the basketball court.

Neat to see JANET YELLEN featured, the first woman to be Secretary of the Treasury and also the first woman to be Chair of the Fed. It's also fun that she hardly seems like someone who would be yellin'. It's the kind of humor where you call a bald dude Harry. (Or Jeff.)

Loved the clue for PINATA. We had another delightful clue for PINATAS earlier in the week, and this one amped up the deviousness. "Hanging around at a party with swingers" is so clever!

I didn't get the STOAT clue's wordplay at first because I have a hard time keeping straight animals I never see in real life. Nice a-ha when I looked it up, recalling that the STOAT is a relative of the weasel. What a weaselly pun!

I appreciated that Pete kept the names in the fill to a minimum. I often see a ton of (really angry) complaints about name-based themes, that it's not a crossword but a trivia contest. More names might have helped Pete fill certain regions more smoothly, the SW corner, for example, but I like the trade-offs he made.

It would have been great to see at least one minority, so at least this minority solver could develop more of a connection to the puzzle. It's hard to say how difficult it would be to think of one with an -EN or -ON ending that transmogrifies into a workable -IN' ending, though.

– puzzle by Peter A. Collins

I helped a constructor rebuild a MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING puzzle a while back, but today's is the version I wish we had thought of. What a clever idea, to literally surround six NOTHING blocks with synonyms of MUCH ADO! Tom has some of the neatest crossword ideas of anyone in the crossworld, so it's such a pleasure to see him back in the saddle after a hiatus last year.

Note how consistent he was in his orientations, the synonyms always starting in the west and traveling clockwise: FRACAS, FUSS, HUBBUB, UPROAR, STIR, RUMPUS. I don't think it was necessary to place all the bubbled words symmetrically, but it added a touch of elegance.

That did necessitate some trade-offs, though. SSRS at the top of your grid isn't a great way to headline, and there was enough ABBR ISR OFA STS YRS — all things called out on editors' spec sheets — to bog me down. Will Shortz recently mentioned that he's shying away from puzzles that have themers making patterns in grids like this, because of the glue they force. It's so difficult to fill around fixed shapes.

I took a lot of organic chemistry, but I couldn't remember anyone ever calling it ORGO. Makes sense, though. ADDED NOTE: Reader Larry Byrd, a retired prof. of organic chemistry, says that he never used the term when teaching — it was always "O-chem" — but his former students now use ORGO exclusively in their text messages. Thanks!

I loved getting THE ROBOT, some yummy SCHMEAR, and even ANAGRAMS, with an homage to crosswords of the past. Helped to make up for some of the short glue I had to wade through.

Fantastic clue for NEST. That's a structure put together by a crane (bird), not a crane (machine).

Such a magnificent concept; the perfect way to execute on this idea. Neat way to stack MUCHADO/ABOUT/NOTHING, too. If there had been fewer shaky parts of the grid, it would have been a POW! for sure.

P.S. Solvers on the NYT app should enter NOTHING or just N into the blank squares. Thanks to reader Jeff Doyle-Horney for the tip!

– puzzle by Tom McCoy

OKAY, ILL BITE is a fantastic colloquial phrase. I like the clue even better, evoking an image of my kids suspiciously wondering why I'm offering them delicious blueberry "ice cream" (that's mostly blended spinach).

COCHLEAS, what an amazing clue. Jim Horne mentioned a while back that he loves clues that feel impossible at first, but then everything dawns upon you, that you just might be able to figure it out. In this case, I didn't know the Latin word, but thinking about what part of the ear looks like a snail did the trick.

(I checked a few dictionaries, which all listed COCHLEAE first as the plural, but COCHLEAS is also acceptable.)

MISE EN SCENE is a trickier one. EN SCENE is easy enough to grasp, but knowing that MISE means "putting" in French is tougher. Good term to learn if you plan on going into dramaturgy (the art of dramatic composition).

Also in the category of "stuff Jeff didn't know" (genreally a big category), NINON. I spent one career in product design, mostly in plastic, metal, and electrical engineering, but also including the use of many fabrics. Hadn't run across NINON, which seems to be an upscale material.

I wondered if WINSOMER is fine or more a "roll-your-own" -ER word. Could I use it in a sentence? "My children are winsomer than yours"? I wouldn't say that, but mostly because they spit blueberry ice cream into my hands.

Some great clues, LEEK my favorite. I'm going to ask my French friends down the street for some "poor man's asparagus" and see what they say. My favorite, though, was [Places to bear witness?] — as in to witness bears. Hilarious!

– puzzle by Kameron Austin Collins

Emily could have had a Constanza moment after presenting [Animal that produces eggs once a year]. I was convinced that it had to be some trait of marsupials or other set of animals I didn't fully understand. It's ... the EASTER BUNNY?

Emily: That's it for me!

The rest of the puzzle was icing. I can't remember being so utterly delighted by a clue/answer pair in months.

But wait, there's more! [One helping you find a cab?] — I knew there was something fishy going on because of the question mark. Still, I got a huge smile when I figured out it was a cab(ernet).

EARGASM is such a funny word. It was just a few years ago that Will Shortz told me he'd never use DROP THE F BOMB in a crossword, and today we've hit a climax. So to speak.

I didn't get two clues at first. I had to piece together HABITAT letter by letter, because it didn't seem to match [Element]. If you still don't get it, think about "out of one's element."

SIRS tricked me in a different way, as I was sure the "old-fashioned" hinted at "Maleskan crosswordese" so must be DIRK (a type of knife). I'm still not sure why SIRS is a letter opener, not "Dear SIRS," but I was at the tail end of the letter-writing generation, so definitely no expert.

I appreciate that Emily pushed her envelope, dipping into 68-word territory, not an easy task. There was a good amount of ALTE ENT RES SMEE TES that bogged me down — not uncommon, given all those common letters so useful for themeless constructors.

Overall, though, a solid construction with a bevy of fantastic long entries, Muhammad Ali the TRASH TALKER, the colloquial CAN IT WAIT, a fresh CONTENT FARM, and PET STORES with a funny clue. My daughter asked if she could try a dog biscuit the other day. I'm sure a good parent would have said no.

– puzzle by Emily Carroll

The title, MORES, doesn't make sense if you're a boor who's always pronounced the word with one syllable. Can't imagine who'd be so uncultured as to do something like that, just because the word looks like it should rhyme with "smores." Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go buy marshmallows and graham crackers.

Some fun spelling changes, PARK to PARQUET and CASH to CACHE much more interesting than the straightforward addition of ET, like BUFF to BUFFET and BID to BIDET. Sound addition puzzles are so common that a feature like kooky spelling changes is so welcome.

There's something so amusing about an UNSOLICITED BIDET showing up at one's door. I'm curious what Mark Rober would have that package spray ...

I did wonder about the DEAL to DELAY sound change. Pronunciation differs across the country, so perhaps DELAY is more "deel-ay" to others. It sure jarred my ear, though.

Debuting with a Sunday is so difficult, and Julian's gridwork is amazing. Not a dab of short crossword glue anywhere, hardly an entry even the pickiest of editors could flag. It's not rocket science, but it is a matter of testing and iteration, which is incredibly time-consuming if done properly. It's clear that Julian put in the work to polish, polish, polish; changing patterns, adding cheater squares (like the black square at the end of MUST) when necessary, to achieve maximum smoothness.

Sunday puzzles are so big that it's so important to inject humor, liveliness, spiciness into the clues throughout the grid. It only takes half a dozen or so, but Sunday puzzles often fall down in this regard. Julian did not. I ticked off six amazing clues as I went:

1. SCOT playing off of "first person"
2. REF clued with a funny heckle
3. ALLEY OOP as a literal "pass up"
4. AFT riffing on "Back in the USSR"
5. ONES testing your keyboard knowledge of where the exclamation point lies
6. APPLES not related to Bob Hope, but to the hopes you have when you bob for APPLES!

Top-notch execution, so impressive on a Sunday debut.

– puzzle by Julian Kwan

For a while, I got obsessed with survival shows. For a while, it was Bear Grylls, but then Survivor Man came onto the scene. Les Stroud out there, all by himself, with only a FLINT. Then it was a single MATCH. When ratings dipped, he stripped it back to just some TINDER. I kept wondering what the natural conclusion would be — starting a fire with a MATCHBOX CAR? I'd watch that!

I hitched at the end, wondering why a MATCHBOX would be a FIRE STARTER. Or was that supposed to be a MATCH, overlooking the fact that MATCHBOX is one word? I spent a long time debating the merits of something like MATCH POINTS vs. an entire MATCHBOX of matches being better in the wild—

Somewhere, Les Stroud is crying.

AMARO crossing AMI right off the bat could be fraught with peril. Both of these entries are so constructor-friendly, alternating vowel-consonant, and common letters to boot. However, if you don't know much French and aren't a drinker (one spirits aficionado I asked said that AMARO is niche at best), it could be a killer crossing for newer solvers. At least a clue like ["Who ___ to judge?"] would have helped.

Over at Crosswords with Friends (Zynga), they've done studies to measure retention, and one of the things they've noted is that if someone can't get 1-Across, there's a good chance they won't continue. I wouldn't apply that wholesale to the NYT solving audience, but I think it's a principle to keep in mind when constructing.

I did enjoy a lot of the great TRIPWIRE, LAS VEGAS / PLAYDATE (what a combination!) bonuses. The slightly odd SYNTAXES plural and LPS were reasonable prices to pay.

Tight concept, hard to imagine any other possible themers. I'm curious to see what the solver feedback is like for that NW corner — elated because you're an AMARO drinker? Angry because you got that crossing wrong? Pleased to learn something new? Unsatisfied because AMARO looked like it couldn't possibly be a correct string of letters? I bet Will Shortz would hear all four responses, but what would be most interesting to me is in what proportions.

– puzzle by Daniel Grinberg

I've seen this concept a few times, all the way back to 1994, but the added zing of EXTRA CHARGE is a fantastic extra layer. That's the type of bonus that you need to make a standard theme type stand out.

The meaning changes in PASS to PASSION and MILL to MILLION are excellent; drastic modifications. Funny to imagine anyone having a PASSION for being BOARDING a plane in this day and age …

I did pause at AUDIT to AUDITION, as they seemed related. I managed to sweep that aside to continue with the rest of the puzzle, but it kept eating at me. It turns out they share etymology, both derived from Latin for "a hearing, a listening." I still appreciated the image of an IRS applicant being tested with crazy number questions, though.

Back when I was hiring for my pharma startup, I used to ask techs how they'd add up the numbers from 1 to 100. I was looking for creative or even simple solutions, anything from putting the numbers into an Excel spreadsheet and summing to doing Gauss's trick of (1+100) + (2+99) + … (50+51). Learned a lot about candidates who started mumbling, "one plus two, that's three, add three is six ..."

Nice to get some rarely-seen-in-crosswords CARPORTS, MID-MONTH, DRY SALTS, PUMPS GAS, although I'm not sure if any of these are going to make anyone pump a fist. I more appreciated Farrah FAWCETT and MALCOLM as excellent uses of mid-length slots.

With four themers, today's standard is to have a perfectly clean puzzle, and there was too much ANON AZO BORA ON UP XER. Part of the issue is that threading long bonuses through the middle of the grid isn't usually as effective as placing the long downs in the usual spots — connecting BAND and SIRI, for example.

Overall, not a standout execution, but I did appreciate the impact of that great revealer.

– puzzle by Dan Schoenholz

★ So amusing to think about Mario going down the runway, trying to out-pose the Minions. I didn't fully appreciate the concept at first since it seemed like you could pick any costume and find dozens of toons that wore it. As I drilled down, though, how many toons wear denim overalls? I'm deep in the midst of cartoonland — for my kids, not me! — and I could only come up with Wreck-it Ralph and Bob the Builder.

(I admit, I have an affinity for Wreck-it Ralph. So misunderstood.)

The others were even tighter. I couldn't come up with anyone but Popeye and Donald Duck for the SAILOR SUIT. All I could think of was Buster Bluth, who will sadly never win WHO WORE IT BETTER, but who's a winner in my book.

Fun echo to the theme in [Runway model?] = AIRLINER.

Great bonuses in BLIND SPOT, WHITE SEA, STRESS OUT. It's amazing what a megastar GAL GADOT has become in such a short time — she blew me away in her 2017 "Wonder Woman" role. A shame that the reviews for the sequel have been so negative.

Also appreciated were the fun touches in the clues. LAT confused me for a long. time, until I realized that there was a period after long. As in longitude! And I know a lot of people who can blow a lot of hot air, but VENTS do that as well.

Neat concept, one that grew on me. It kept calling me back to take a second and a third look, which is one trait of a great puzzle.

– puzzle by Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau

The English language is chock full of interesting oddities. I came across "kangaroo words" a while back; fascinating. Then Will Nediger one-upped that concept in an MGWCC guest puzzle; blew me away with his sheer genius! What's next?

There are well-documented variants of kangaroo words; several lists have been compiled. Most of the words aren't that interesting because they're short, easy to discover, or the antonyms aren't exact. I like the ones Alex picked, solid examples. ANIMOSITY to AMITY is my favorite because the letters in AMITY are spread throughout, much harder to discover than FEASTING to FASTING.

Intricate gridwork, rarely easy to execute on six themers. One might think that spacing them out, every other row, is optimal, but it can be extremely tricky. Stacking pairs can be easier, but there's something more visually pleasing about this every-other-row presentation.

Alex did amazing work in the middle of the puzzle, where problems usually arise. Not a drop of glue in sight. Having the flexibility to swap ANIMOSITY, COURTEOUS, EFFECTIVE, and WONDERFUL — as well as FEASTING and PRURIENT — gave him great latitude to try out different arrangements.

I wondered if EFFECTIVE would have been more effective where ANIMOSITY sits since the double-F can be easier to grid around when isolated. Here, it seems to have forced UPLIFT and thus YALU. It's not the worst offender, but the category of "constructor-friendly foreign rivers" gets a lot of eye-rolling from solvers.

As a musician, I loved the OCTAVE clue. It took me a few re-readings to understand what it was getting at, but singing "Some … where, over the rainbow" gave me a great a-ha, noting that both "some" and "where" are the same notes, one OCTAVE apart.

Great clue for GRAINY, too, referring to pics of the Yeti. Those touches go a long way toward making a solve playful and entertaining.

– puzzle by Alex Eaton-Salners

Daniel has upped his cluing game in a big way. I'd previously noted his technical excellence but a dullness in his cluing, and it's clear that he's spent a lot of time working on that deficiency. I ticked off eight entertaining clues, more than average for a Friday, and that elevated my solving experience a ton.

CAULKED is a perfect example of fantastic misdirection. [Filled in some gaps] immediately made me think about telling the full story about something. Not needing a telltale question mark makes it so devious! It's referring to a literal process of CAULKING in some gaps.

Repurposed phrases that require a question mark can also be effective. DESERT OASIS as a [Place for a hot date?] and MOAT as [Water under the bridge?] are so fun, using literal interpretations of these phrases. The a-ha isn't as strong because the question mark lets you know right away that something's up, but these two clues are excellent.

Love the clue for SAD FACE, using the emoticon. I wonder when the NYT will start using emoji in crosswords?

INBOX is often clued in a straightforward way. I love the fresh take — even if you don't know "INBOX zero," what an easy introduction to a fun, recent term.

The "erudite words in clue" category can be tricky since you risk making solvers feel dumb. I vaguely know what "provenance" means, but I do know my superheroes! I figured it had to refer to origin stories, thus had to be radiation or mutation. Ah, STAN LEE, the creator of many superheroes! Clever.

Great grid execution, as I've come to expect from Daniel. Such technical skill, filling out this tough 66-worder so cleanly. It's easy to create triple-stacks when you nibble away the corners with black squares, but connecting them with a central spanner (THESIS STATEMENT) ups the difficulty tremendously. I don't mind all the cheaters, not when it allows for such grid-filling flexibility.

If I'd connected more with SERGEANT BILKO or RED OAKS — I bet there will be some folks who love these entries — this would have been my POW! pick for sure.

– puzzle by Daniel Larsen

Back before things shut down, Mike and I used to go out for a drink every once in a while. Super fun to talk shop, and since he works at one of the local library systems, he gives great recs — sometimes before the book is officially released! His last one was "Dark Matter," which blew me away. (I could use another rec, Mike!)

At our last meet-up, he ribbed me, riffing on my own admission of having a lot of holes in my knowledge base. Today, it was ISHTAR GATE. And THAT'S ON (me). I struggled with the PICAROS crossing, only vaguely familiar with that word, staring at that last square for ages. I never thought I'd say thank goodness for the movie "Ishtar"!

CAMERA SHY is much more my speed. I love this type of entry because it's tough to figure out where a word break might occur (one reason why editors prize multi-word phrases). I figured it had to be CAME ___. Came … ready? Such a sharp a-ha moment when the clue's misdirect dawned on me. My daughter is "out of the picture" whenever we try to Facetime with relatives. If she's not making Calvin faces, that is.

One thing I do know something about is superheroes! Or so I thought. I plunked in AGENT for [Word with field or sales], and then sat on THE AGEN??RS for the longest time. Marvel's "Agents of SHIELD"? I knew it was popular, but not that popular. Never mind that AGENT couldn't possibly cross AGENTS. Ahem.

CROWS NEST is a colorful entry, and its clue lifted it even higher (ha). "... look sea" is so punny. BACK FOR MORE is a great colloquial phrase, and its clue also elevated it. ("Agents of SHIELD" has few redeeming qualities, but somehow I'm unable to stay away.)

SATS might need some explaining. [Senior moments?] hints at high school seniors, not 55+ old seniors, and some call the SAT the SATS. It was too loose for me since there are tons of moments in an HS senior's life, but it mostly works.

The lower-right corner treated me like kryptonite, affecting my overall impression of the puzzle, but looking back at the puzzle as a whole, there was a lot to enjoy.

– puzzle by Michael Hawkins