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It's rare to find a crossword niche. It's even rarer to be one of the few people who have mastered said niche. Ryan is not only the creator of this "tilted football" wide-open, low-word-count themeless style, but the one and only master. It's amazing how many fantastic entries are packed into that humongous center — without any dabs of crossword glue!

I'd be happy to work in BALD TIRES, LOVE SEATS, DIRTY RICE, THE OLD VIC, WATER HAZARD, EAR TRUMPET, SCOTCH EGG into a themeless. To do so in the middle of a wide-open center is jaw-dropping. I rarely have the sense of not knowing where I would even begin on a construction, but this is one of those cases.

Not only that, but there are half a dozen brilliant clues. [Popular camp assemblies] had me thinking of sing-alongs. But marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers get assembled into S'MORES all the time.

And part of a diplomatic address had to be referring to an embassy mailing address. What a great a-ha, realizing that MADAM can be a diplomatic way to address someone.

The question mark tipped me off on [Places where things are all tied up?] but that didn't take much away from the humor of boats being tied up at MARINAS.

Even the common ABS got elevated as a focus of "middle management." It's been over a year since I went climbing …

I now better understand Ryan's feats because I've spent hours breaking them down, developing tricks that can help replicate his results. That still doesn't take away from my appreciation for his artistic and technically amazing feats. To pack in so much juice while never allowing yourself to use even a single drop of crossword glue = superstar. In most weeks, this would have easily gotten the POW!, but great themes don't come around very often.

– puzzle by Ryan McCarty

I came across P-trap = POTTY MOUTH first, and my hopes shot up. A Sunday grid is so big that needs a great theme to carry me all the way through, and this concept was so promising. Trap is slang for mouth, P-trap = phrase that starts with P and points to a mouth. Perfect!

GARDEN APARTMENT worked, too, although I wasn't sure what a GARDEN APARTMENT was — a flat with a garden outside? Apparently so! Easy enough to understand.

E-bond … even though my finance guy brain said, "does not compute," I vaguely recalled that term from a dark corner of my crossword memories. Ah. A series of bonds sold to raise WWII funds. Even though ELMERS GLUE fits it perfectly, not knowing what an E-bond was right away made it tough to enjoy.

C-sharp = COMPASS NEEDLE. There are sharps containers out there, but the connection from "sharp" to "needle" isn't as strong as I wanted. Feels like with all the musical notes, some other option would have been stronger. There are other C- phrases, too, like C-section, C-clamp, C-ration, etc.

Although the theme didn't hold my attention, the grid SURE DID! Excellent bonuses, so much AUTOTUNERS, ARTY-FARTY (artsy-fartsy feels more in use, but both are listed in dictionaries), NEW DEALER, SIREN SONG, and a lot more. It's not the cleanest grid in the world in terms of short fill but experiencing all those long bonuses was valuable.

Men in Black is one of my favorite classic movies, so repurposing that to describe GOTHS gave me a big smile.

Great concept that might not have hit its full potential, but I appreciated that Dan worked in so much else to enjoy.

– puzzle by Dan Schoenholz

★ I've seen plenty of FEE FI FO FUM puzzles, even one with a neat vine visual, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed today's. What a creative way to hide those syllables — I would have thought it impossible to camouflage FUM at the end of a phrase. Not only does the phrase have to end with the letters F U M, but it has to exhibit the FUM (not "foom") sound too? Ain't gonna happen.

I'll admit, I was skeptical at the pronunciation of PARFUM. Given that my five years of high-school French resulted in approximately 2.3% mastery of the language, I thought I'd better look it up. Sure enough, it's absolutely perfect. It's so elegant when a themer has one and only one option.

Top-notch gridwork, as I'd expect from a gridmaster, such snazzy bonuses in ORGANIC FARM and MYTHBUSTERS, along with A PRIORI (don't worry, I don't know what it means either, but like you, I pretend I do), HOT BATH, ATHENA, PUEBLO.

Ross hasn't been submitting solo puzzles for a long time now, so I bet that

1. this one's been sitting in Will Shortz's queue, and
2. Ross would go back and redo the southwest corner to remove ONEA / change ADONAI to make that region more newb-friendly.

I don't mind them since they enable MYTHBUSTERS and HOT BATH, but I'm sure the perfectionist in Ross could now find an alternative fill that was almost as sparkly without any early-week prices to pay.

Jim Horne and I discussed whether GIANT as a revealer would have generated a bigger a-ha moment, but given the potential confusion around PARFUM's pronunciation, I like the Monday overtness.

I appreciate the new and clever way of executing an established theme.

– puzzle by Ross Trudeau

My house is full of candy stashes, filled with treats I take from my kids at night. What, why are you giving me the stink-eye? They don't remember it, I get my fix, and they're only vaguely petrified of the Candyman, who I blame for any disappearances they do notice.

Yes, I have started a psychiatry fund for both kids.

We just had a candy mash-up, but I enjoyed Nina's different take. I hadn't thought about how many candy brand names are insulting. DUMDUMS, sure, but BUTTERFINGERS, GOOBERS, AIRHEADS, SLO-POKES … Big Candy is not only poisoning us with sweetness, but insulting us? Why do we allow this?

What can I say? I want candy.

Curious themer layout. Will Shortz usually asks that no part of the grid have zero theme. Here, the first and last four rows contain zero theme material — that's more than half the puzzle.

It'd be more typical to start with AIRHEADS in row 3 and place GOOBERS in row 5 or 6, but that has drawbacks, too — an 8-letter themer in row 3 can lead to a huge swath of white space in the northeast corner that can be challenging to fill.

Funny to have JUUL in a candy-themed puzzle. Reminded me of the candy cigarettes I use to put behind my ear as a kid.

That would explain a lot.

The cluing was exceptional, so much great wordplay for an early-week puzzle. [Fit on a hard drive?] — fit = fit of anger — is so much fun. CANARY's clue might confuse some newer solvers but think about "of mine" as "inside a coal mine." Devilishly clever; hopefully, not much STALE AIR went over solvers' heads.

And a NEST being "sticky," as in "stick-y," is punnily groanworthy.

Well-executed debut, virtually no crossword glue, with some great bonuses in NATURIST, TAG TEAM, MOPTOP.

– puzzle by Nina Sloan

It took me a while to fully grasp this concept, but once I did, the technician in me was so curious to drill down and see how this was EVEN possible. Look at FIBONACCI, for example. It's not referring to only its clue number, 34. The A square is numbered 55 (which is part of that answer) is also a FIBONACCI number!

Each of PRIME (2 23), SQUARE (9 25), FIBONACCI (34 55), ODD (39 43), EVEN (44 48) worked with exactly two examples. I appreciate the consistency.

The solver in me found it more a curiosity than an a-ha, but it is a novel concept.

Themes based around numbers are challenging to work with since any change in black square layout cascades through the entire puzzle. There was a lot of flexibility for where each of the five answers (plus NUMBER) went, but it's still an impressive feat. Imagine the nightmare: start with FIBONACCI, get the numbers correct. Place SQUARE, get those tuned in — aargh, that messed up FIBONACCI's numbers! Rinse and repeat (to infinity and beyond).

I had a difficult time finishing, the NAVI / IMGUR crossing feeling near impossible. I'm sure all the kids are rolling their eyes (and praying that us geezers don't get on IMGUR, or they'll have to move onto the next thing). Even though I'm an alpha nerd and have seen the MCU movies many times, I couldn't pull SHURI out, and the crossings felt tough. Is it more or less esoteric than DORA MILAJE? The fact that I'd be able to drop that in without any crossings shows how subjective this all is.

I wish the theme clues had better expressed the concept, but I'm not sure of exact wording. Circling the relevant numbers, and saying [Like the two numbers circled within this grid entry]? Removing NUMBERS from the grid would have made things less confusing by eliminating a cross-reference, too.

Still, the constructor in me admired the novelty and level of technical difficulty, even if my solver side didn't experience as big an a-ha moment as I'd have liked.

– puzzle by Bryce Hwang, Rahul Sridhar and Akshay Ravikumar

Been a while since we had our last "turning" puzzle. A few years ago, Will Shortz put out a moratorium on them since they had become so pervasive. I'm thankful for the break — I used to groan at the first turning themer, but I enjoyed the throwback today, even though I recalled another RIGHT ON RED puzzle.

I'm such an annoying engineer. As with previous "turn right" puzzles, I can't get past the physicist's perspective that PUREBRED heads down, and turning right would mean going west, not east. I understand the counterargument that if you asked someone to point right, or to point east, they would point in the same direction.

(But that's not right. Neither is it correct. Said this stubborn engineer.)

PUREBRED DOGS / RED DOGS was the first themer I uncovered, and it confused me. RED DOGS couldn't be beer, could it? No, it had to be something related to Spuds MacKenzie.

(THAT'S ODD is right. Yes, right would be turning west!)

I appreciated the other finds much more, ALTERED STATE / RED STATE, CURED MEAT / RED MEAT and CHECKERED FLAG / RED FLAG all perfect examples. Regular readers would be shocked if I didn't run a quick query to see what other options were out there. I liked:

• REDLINES BLURREDLINES
• REDRUM HOTBUTTEREDRUM
• REDTAGS EXPIREDTAGS

Turning puzzles tend to need a lot of long bonuses (because the themers are short), and Ed did well in that regard. STAGE ACTOR and HONEST ABE is a wonderful way to start. DON'T PANIC, GOES UNDER, even SCARAB and SPLOTCH are fun.

Not funned was DUNNED. It is a word in the dictionary. A single entry gets a pass, though, given how much other great material there was.

And a fantastic clue (once Jim Horne explained it to me): [Refuse to pick up the bill?] — a legal bill that gets a VETO, not a restaurant bill.

Nice to experience a turning puzzle occasionally, and the fact that each across themer was a valid entry helped elevate this one from the pack.

– puzzle by Ed Sessa

I imagine plenty of people will think this grid is asymmetrical, but it exhibits a rare diagonal symmetry. I love it when people shift crossword norms. If you tilt your head 45 to the right, notice that the grid now looks like it has mirror symmetry. Cool!

(Note: Will Shortz has put the kibosh on two of my up-down symmetry submissions, based purely on aesthetic reasons, so I'd advise against it.)

It's not simply novel, but diagonal symmetry opens up new possibilities, like two marquee answers crossing (OUT OF LEFT FIELD and INSIDE BASEBALL) while allowing easy separation of stacks (PALO ALTO / PROUDEST / SITTERS and BACARDI / BANK LOAN / AGUILERA).

One drawback is that there's the potential for a single hard-to-fill corner, like the southwest. Most editors ixnay 6-letter partials like AS PURE, so it didn't shine as much as the rest of the puzzle.

So much cluing wordplay shined through. TOQUES are literally over (the chef's) head in restaurants. A BANK LOAN as something "of interest." "Running apparel" had me confused, but what a great a-ha moment when I realized it referred to HOSE that gets runs after snags.

Brooke is a big proponent for more diverse representation in crosswords, and I appreciated the touches that made me interested without feeling like I was being forced to learn. I don't know MARI Copeny, but it was easy enough to fill in from the crosses, and the "Little Miss Flint" reference made me curious to read up on her. A great teacher creates a situation where you want to learn, and Brooke did that so well.

There was a bit of ESSE, INAT, CFC (chlorofluorocarbon), ROES (strange in plural), but nothing egregious. CADENT made this musician pause, but it is a word in the dictionary.

I appreciate that this isn't the standard Friday offering. It wasn't only the diagonal symmetry that made it feel fresh, but some of the entries and especially the thoughtful cluing.

– puzzle by Brooke Husic

Apparently, I've spent too much time running Monte Carlo analysis for my fantasy basketball team because I dropped in NBA ALL-STAR immediately. No crosses needed. With all the crosswords I have on my mind, it's no surprise that my fantasy basketball team's forte is blocks.

I overlooked the mini-theme until well after finishing. I kept staring at EIGHTY-EIGHT. What a random number to use. Sure, it corresponds to Mercury's orbit around the sun, but it still seemed like an odd choice to occupy valuable real estate. Then it dawned on me that NIGHTY-NIGHT looked similar … such a fun mini-theme!

Speaking of mini-themes, years ago, I experimented with a GORDON GEKKO / GREED IS GOOD mini-theme … until I realized that Gekko doesn't say exactly that in the original movie. He does in the sequel, so perhaps that's what the clue is referring to?

Some excellent cluing — some that might need explanation, though. TIGHTEN is [Turn right, say]? Think about "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey" for screws. Tricksy!

[Common complex rule] might be easier to grok, in that it's referring to an apartment complex. I immediately jumped to complex statistical rules applying to assessments of fantasy basketball draft pick values, but perhaps that's just me.

Brilliant HOUSE RED clue. Although I've seen variations on cab alternatives before, it still misdirected enough from HOUSE RED. And HERBS used "in a pinch," like a pinch of dried rosemary, that's delicious!

I have an incredibly high bar for David, especially since he's near the top of my POW! list, so there weren't quite as many fresh or snazzy marquee entries as I hoped for. The brilliance of the cluing sure helped make up for that, though.

– puzzle by David Steinberg

The giant Sunday canvas provides opportunities to tell stories. Who doesn't enjoy an engaging tale? I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU is a fun way to describe that awe-struck feeling I got when first feeling the baby kick inside Jill's belly. CARRY THAT WEIGHT was appropriate for the two hours (2:30-4:30 am) we spent walking up and down the halls of Swedish Medical Center when she decided that sure, why not see if it does further induce labor (it didn't)?

HURTS SO GOOD … I bet Jill would beg to disagree. More like, kill Brad.

Curious plot twist, the twins in BABY ONE MORE TIME. Felt a bit soap-opera-ish since there was no prior indication or foreshadowing. Kind of lost me at that point, but I like a feel-good ending with THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT.

Glad that Brad featured Diana Ross's catchy I'M COMING OUT. I almost forgot that Salt ‘N Pepa and Usher were thematic too, since their songs (PUSH IT and SCREAM) are so short. This was much better than a recent music puzzle, but I'd have loved even more selections that better catered to the diverse audience that the NYT crossword serves.

During my solve, I bogged down in the tons of 3-5 letter entries, making things feel choppy. Perhaps it was the grid design, with so many regions nearly separated from each other … almost womb-like! Okay, let's go with that.

More connectivity would have made for better solving flow, as would a better dispersion of the long bonuses. As much as I enjoyed OPERA HOUSE and CAMERA CREW right off the bat, having a few sparkly long entries in the middle would have helped the grid's feng shui a ton.

Excellent job on the cluing, several clever bits of wordplay helping keep my attention. [Wanna-bees?] for PUPAE (early stage of bees) is delightful, as is an OPERA HOUSE for "trill seekers". Ha! I didn't get how COGITO leads to a sum, but some research jogged my memory of "cogito, ergo sum."

Fewer than average gluey bits, which is great! If Brad only had escaped with one less of ETAPE ESTOP ENERO …

Although the story felt forced toward the end, still, an enjoyable concept for Mother's Day.

– puzzle by Brad Wiegmann

★ I've done a lot of work with colors in crosswords, and I'm kicking myself for never coming up with today's theme. It's so perfect, four examples of two-word foods whose second words are pluralized colors. I've even used HASH BROWNS in a previous color puzzle. How could this have not occurred to me?

(Might have something to do with my eating habits. Given that my lunches are "whatever the kids refuse to eat, mixed into a bowl, it's mostly grays.)

What's most impressive about this theme is its tightness. I could hardly believe that there were four perfect examples of common foods/ingredients fitting this pattern, and I couldn't think of a single other one. Sure, there are variations like VALENCIA ORANGES or MIXED GREENS, but no other color worked. That tightness makes for such elegance.

I'm a huge fan of mirror symmetry, partially because it allows for bizarre sets of themer lengths. Thank Crucivera, the goddess of crosswords, for her benevolence in gifting constructors with this option! Some silently curse her because they don't like mirror aesthetics, but I say a pox on them!

(Mostly because I'm petrified of invoking Crucivera's wrath.)

SPORCLE and PLACEBO! Excellent use of mid-length slots; so important in a layout that doesn't feature any long extras. I'd personally remove the black square between ERICA and PERE to generate a pair of long bonuses, but I can see how some solvers might mistake those lengthy slots as theme related.

I did pause at STRATI. One stratus cloud, two … stratuseses? STRATI is technically correct, plus it allows meteorologists to say things like "Those are cirri-ously wispy clouds!"

(Now accepting proposals for Jeff's punishment. The more painful and ironic, the better. --Crucivera)

– puzzle by Zhouqin Burnikel

My kids have these terrible jokebooks that they subject me to. One of their favorites: what are three keys that open no locks? Answer: donkey, monkey, turkey. Maniacal laughing! Never mind that they don't exactly know what a donkey is!

What a bunch of malarkey.

I enjoyed how well Kevin disguised the keyboard keys. Even with the stars on the themer clues, I couldn't figure out what was going on. Part of it was that I was sure that FRANK OCEAN was tied in somehow — he was the guy behind the Ocean's 11 caper after all!

What? That was Danny Ocean, not Frank Ocean?

Me no likey.

Also neat, interlocking BIRTH CONTROL into LOW KEY, with LOW KEY in a perfectly apt position within the grid. Not only that, but Kevin pooh-poohed the usual constructor's trick of sectioning off that area (placing a black square at the E of ALLEGRO). Such colorful bonuses in that constrained region, POWER GRIDS giving the grid some electricity.

I've seen a lot of keyboard key themes, including a KEY WEST revealer and an innovative SHIFT KEY one. Although this one didn't wow me with its novelty, LOW KEY is a great revealer for this concept. It might have risen to POW! consideration if all the selected keys were physically low on a keyboard, i.e. ESCAPE isn't exactly low-key since it's usually at the top left corner—

Fine, I'll stop. Crikey.

– puzzle by Kevin Patterson

I can Name That Theme in two entries! VITAL ORGAN, VIDALIA ONION, then I jumped to the middle row, confidently dropping in a starting V. No VEERing OFF for me! Down to the bottom right corner, a perfect place to drop in a dollop of Alberto VO5. 54-Down, [Colorful flower with "a face"] ... with such a kooky clue, it had to be thematic. PANS5. Done!

Cue sad trombone.

Initialism puzzles are so plentiful that these days, they need something extra. VO5 certainly is an apt revealer for five V O phrases. Impressive job working in the 5 — PAR 5 is seen on golf courses all the time, whereas something like HIGH 5 would have been odd, in the same way V-EIGHT is.

Closing off that bottom left corner sure makes it easier to grid around the VO5 / PAR5 crossing. It chokes off that region, though. I bet there are reasonable grid fills if Tracy took out the black square between EPA and OPS.

I hadn't heard of VIN ORDINAIRE, but that's no surprise considering I can barely tell the difference between red wine and red blood. Neat term to learn.

(If there were only something a few steps lower, like VIN ATROCE. I'd pay two dollars for that.)

Initialism puzzles can stand out if the initials are difficult to work with. V does have that quality to a certain extent, but some searching turned up VEGETABLE OIL, VISUAL OPTICS, VEAL OSCAR, VOLUNTARY OATH, VIRTUAL OFFICE.

Some sparks of fun in the cluing, wordplay like [Took a dip?] pointing to SAGGED — a literal dip. Riffing on a "pocketful of rye" for LOAF amused me, too.

I paused at the crossing of VIDALIA and ET ALII, since ET ALIA is also a valid entry, as is ET ALIAE. I'd be sympathetic to those who thought VIDALIA or VIDALAA looked correct.

It'd have been great to get more time separating this one from our last number-in-grid puzzle and something more to elevate it from the initialisms pack. Some excellent theme phrase choices, though.

– puzzle by Tracy Gray

I had no idea what was going on until well after I finished. Sadly, I figured these movies were all pairs of (loosely based) remakes. Or PARASITE was the sequel to WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE.

I don't get out much.

What a great light-bulb moment, figuring out that the grid entry was a valid answer to the questioning movie in the clue. Dude, Where's My Car? you ask? In Salem's Lot, of course — that's perfect! Almost as if the same company had made both movies.

Uh … did they?

Hahaha, of course, that was just a joke! Now, how do you erase your computer's browsing history?

One pairing that didn't work as well: "O Brother, Where Art Thou" and HOME ALONE. It is an answer to the question, but not a specific one; not as spot-on as THE USUAL SUSPECTS framing Roger Rabbit.

Because it took me a while to figure out what was going on, I wonder if something like SPOILER ALERT would have served as a useful revealer. At least, for film flunkies like me?

Stellar gridwork, nothing less than I'd expect from Andy and Natan. Such amazing bonuses are woven throughout. It's so rare that we get treated to six long downs, and when all of them are as outstanding as HEAD GAMES — with hardly any compromises in short fill! — that's a tremendous success.

Even working Sanjay GUPTA and QUINOA in a single corner? DANG IT is right!

Craftsmanship has a lot to do with thoughtful layout. The way that these guys formed the skeleton of themers and black squares is perfect — long downs spaced apart, each region carefully controlled, so none of them are too big to be filled cleanly. New constructors should study and learn from this layout.

I rarely experience a crossword idea I've never seen before, so big kudos for that. If all the examples had been as perfect as SALEM'S LOT answering "Dude, Where's My Car?" (and I wasn't such a movie moron), this would have been an easy POW! pick.

– puzzle by Natan Last, Andy Kravis and The J.A.S.A. Crossword Class

Now, this is how you execute on a 70-word themeless! The competition is so fierce in the themeless space these days that a 72- or 70-word grid must explode with sparkly color and be immaculate. Yacob hit on both marks.

Check out his conversion rate of long slots: 14 entries of 8+ letters and only one (STRESSORS) is more neutral than an asset. Such awesome marquee entries — AU CONTRAIRE, NOT UP TO SNUFF, and fittingly, ALL SYSTEMS GO. So evocative; the solver in me would enjoy the puzzle on the merit of that trio alone.

Yacob appealed to my technical side, too, with his unusual layout that interconnects so many long entries. I appreciate how he made it feel like I was experiencing great TRAIL MIXES, TEASER ADS, SEA TURTLE, NOT UP TO SNUFF, BRUTE FORCE moments without pause.

That last one could have been tricky to clue, given these times, so I appreciated it referring to cracking a code. Because my coding skill is so basic, I've employed much BRUTE FORCE in my Python programming.

(Talk about STRESSORS, says my poor computer.)

I enjoyed the cluing, too: if you'd asked me which U.S. city has the largest Basque community outside Spain, BOISE would not be in my first 100 guesses. What a neat piece of trivia that spurred me on to learn something new.

I should explain the cleverness behind the TIRE MARKS clue — doing doughnuts is different from eating doughnuts. I enjoyed the clue, but it'd be hard to appreciate if you'd never heard this usage.

Interesting clue for CTRL. I was aware that SZA was a celebrity, and I was worried that the album title would be some insider thing that would flummox this pop culture idiot. I was relieved that it turned out to be a familiar set of four letters I use all the time, and it made me want to read up on her. My inner nerd loves that album cover!

Fantastic puzzle. I give preference to great themes since they're incredibly difficult to think up, but on most weeks, this would have gotten the POW!

– puzzle by Yacob Yonas

Maniacally difficult layout to work with. Three-letter entries are so key to most themeless puzzles because without them, you're almost forced into quad stacks, like the northwest corner. Triple-stacked 8s are easy enough to create, but quad-stacked 8s are rough, often requiring trade-offs of a few dabs of crossword glue and/or less colorful answers. Amazing result in that opening corner — it's so difficult to get all four long answers to sing, and DRAG SHOW / RICE WINE / OPEN A TAB / SILENT BS are good to excellent.

ACELA could be tough for non-East coasters, and GENET might not be the first (or tenth) playwright people think of, but the crossings are fair. A resounding success, that corner.

Similar results in the opposite corner. I've seen I REALIZE and HOT SPOTS in enough crosswords now that they're not as fresh, but they're still solid. And this huge "Princess Bride" fanatic loved INIGO Montoya, who would have been fun to see dueling with BIZET playing in the background.

Given the level of technical difficulty, those two corners are triumphs.

I finished with an incorrect square at VELA crossing KEN OLIN, as VEGA and KENOGIN felt more likely to be correct, at least to my pandemic-triggered-sleep-deprived brain. I'd sympathize with people who struggled with the VELA / RAGNAROK crossing, too, although "Thor: RAGNAROK" was a recent box office success. More recent than "thirtysomething," anyway.

I wasn't familiar with the boxing slang, TOMATO CAN, but what a fun term to learn. Especially fun when paired with HIT THE DIRT.

Jim Horne and I had an amusing exchange around AMEND vs. EMEND when he mentioned how odd AMEND was compared to the "correct" EMEND. This red-blooded ‘Murican pointed out the Amendments to the Constitution, gol darn it! Google's Ngram viewer backs me up, so take that, Canadia!

Is it bedtime yet?

Aside from the one region, I considered unfair (sour grapes and all), a solid puzzle. Sam's comment about not quite enough color resonated, though, always a peril of an audacious 66-word layout like this. It's also a lot easier to bring the heat with longer entries like ALL SYSTEMS GO and NOT UP TO SNUFF than it is with 9- or 10-letter entries.

– puzzle by Sam Trabucco

Literal SHOTs IN THE DARK = words that can precede SHOT, placed into black squares. We've fixed up all the answers (see the grid below), so hopefully, it's clear. Theme answers:

BETTER MOUSETRAP / PRAISE TO GOD

HAIR IMPLANT / HEDGE TRIMMERS

GENUINE ARTICLE / TIPTOE AROUND

SILICONE RUBBER / EDISON EFFECT

PRIVATE EYES / NINETEEN FIFTY

SELF LUBRICATING / LAP OF LUXURY

SET shot, RIM shot, EAR shot, ONE shot (which feels weaker than the rest), TEE shot, FLU shot.

Usually, Will Shortz doesn't like when grid answers look non-sensical, and I tend to agree with him. But when I did a "letters in black squares" puzzle a while back, some befuddled solvers completely missed the theme, figuring that the themer clues went over their heads, what with my penchant for annoying too-clever-ness.

In contrast, HEDGET or BETTERMOU can't be right, so you're forced to go back and figure out the theme. I liked that aspect today.

Solid selection of phrases. Not all of them break across words — typically, Will Shortz doesn't allow themers like HEGDE TRIMMERS because HEDGE doesn't contribute to the theme. There are so many crossings that must be kept symmetrical, though, that I'm fine with sacrificing this rule (of thumb) to prioritize colorful phrases like BETTER MOUSETRAP.

This genre isn't my favorite since it's impossible to write in a black square — having to imagine those three-letter words isn't easy. Perhaps it would have helped if the print version had left those six squares dark gray instead of black?

Today's concept also felt a bit too much like a "words that can precede X" theme, which has largely gone by the wayside.

However, originality often comes in combining elements from multiple disciplines or genres, so bonus points for creativity. It's not easy to mesh two disparate ideas together.

– puzzle by Joe DiPietro

Allow me to veer away from crosswords for a moment, so I can announce that after six painful years of squeaker losses in the playoffs, fighting through injuries, drafting like idiots because our kids were in the middle of meltdowns, my friend Frewin and I WON OUR 2021 FANTASY BASKETBALL LEAGUE!

I'm going to send today's puzzle to the manager who offered to "generously" take Kyrie Irving off our hands for Pascal Siakam. Although, Frewin and I are considering saying yes to Siakam or JA Morant next year.

Although this is a well-established theme type, I enjoy these "common foreign words" puzzles. OUIJA BOARD is a particularly strong find — not only is it a vivid phrase, but OUI is both spelled and pronounced properly.

It'd have been great if every one of the themers exhibited this property, helping to elevate the theme from the pack. JA (pronounced with a Y sound) would be tough, but SI should have plenty of options, like in SIENNA.

If only Siakam had broken into All-star status this year ...

It's not necessary to have anything more than YES as a revealer (which makes sure solvers catch the trick), but the fact that every YES starts a phrase feels like there's potential left on the table for a more clever revealer.

Something like … placing the themers vertically, with UP VOTE tying them all together? That's not quite right, but I bet a few days of brainstorming would turn up something better.

(Let's see … "foreign words for ‘good' " … with a GOOD START revealer? Crossword radar pinging)

Such enjoyable bonuses, LIQUEURS, Anne GEDDES, and VERDI classing up the joint. A bit too much HOC LALA SGT TAI TSPS USDA, though. I wonder if tucking YES into the bottom left corner (using a cheater square to accommodate) instead of the right would have increased filling flexibility.

And as much as I enjoy rare letters in crosswords, they're like spices — they'll fight each other if added in excess. I did enjoy the novelty of having so many worked into a Monday puzzle, mostly smoothly.

Solid addition to the "common foreign words" genre, if not a standout.

– puzzle by Wren Schultz

SPOILED BRAT, HEAD BANGER … I can Name That Theme in two entries, boo-yah! The third themer had to end in FRANK. What FRANK sells school supplies, though?

Said the dad who forces his kids to reuse the leftover school supplies from my college days I've carefully hoarded for 30 years now.

I was speeding through the puzzle until I ran over that nail, SSS is right. Given that my daughter's eyes sparkle for anything that sparkles — there's a lot of pained blinking at my house — I suppose I'm doomed to get to know the LISA FRANK catalog. Ah well, that logo is ... memorable?

Every Friday, we get pickup from our local burger joint, and by Wednesday, my son keeps asking if it's French Fry Friday yet, his agitation growing if the answer is no. He always orders a hot dog, which seems to calm him down. Talk about a THERAPY DOG.

Fun theme, tied together by SAUSAGE LINK. I'll admit this confused me for a hot minute, wondering what the SAUSAGE synonyms linked to. A THERAPY DOG MINION is not a thing, but it should be.

A middle nine-letter themer creates big corners, always tough to fill. Lovely use of those mid-length slots today, MARSHAL kicking things off, along with IRELAND, EMBASSY, MACRAME, INDIANA/STOOGES/MAGNETS. Nothing flashy, but so many solid entries added heft to the solve.

Not so hot on PHLEGM. For those of you with a six and four-year-old, you understand. I'd much rather wade through a bit of metaphorical NGO TAI ENE glue than actual goo. My household is responsible for approximately 43% of nationwide tissue sales.

Easy-breezy theme, neat that there aren't many (any?) other SAUSAGE synonyms that would work so perfectly — BRAT, BANGER, FRANK, DOG are all disguised so well. I'd almost rather use MISSING LINK as a fifth themer, and give no revealer, so the set is complete. That, or aim for a later-week puzzle, adding in an extra layer by somehow playing on the LINK part of SAUSAGE LINK (perhaps SPOILED BRAT PACK, THERAPY DOG EARS, etc.).

– puzzle by Margaret Seikel

Ashish is back! I always enjoyed catching up with him at the ACPT, both of us having spent a lot of time and lost many life-years to the startup world. I appreciate his scientific viewpoints, and that sure came through today. Fun idea, the puzzle (and the universe) coming in with a BIG BANG and going out with a WHIMPER. What a nice find, those matching 7s.

Fun to get a progression of PAST to PRESENT to FUTURE, too. I especially liked how the words progressed from left to right. What a nice find in NET PRESENT VALUE.

What, you don't know NPV? Rubbing my hands together as I prepare to launch into a delightful discussion of payback period, internal rate of return, NPV—

Ah. The National Public Vote has been tallied, with 99.99% voting against.

I thought I was well-read in physics, but PENZIAS was new to me. I debated if PENSIAS / PRES was stronger, but ultimately decided that Crucivera, the goddess of crosswords, would favor a rare letter.

(I'd say this is an unfair crossing, but I fear her wrath. Off to go make a sacrifice to atone for my blasphemous thinking …)

The TS ELIOT clue struck me as imprecise. TS ELIOT penned WHIMPER? He did pen many words, including WHIMPER, but he more penned The Hollow Men.

There's so much packed into the puzzle that it's no surprise to get so much ARN(old?), BBL, PCBS, SES, SLO, ULM. That's too much for one puzzle, so I might have asked to cut out TS ELIOT and PENZIAS. BIG BANG and WHIMPER, along with the PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE phrases, make for a solid enough puzzle.

Ashish has made some awesome mind-benders in the PAST; I'm hoping his FUTURE brings more.

– puzzle by Ashish Vengsarkar

Been a while since the last "letters outside the grid" puzzle. Today's reminded me of a BURY THE HATCHET one; similar notion of digging deep (sorry) to achieve one's goals.

One aspect I enjoy about "outside the grid" puzzles is their ability to include theme entries longer than 15 letters. At 17 letters, IF YOU CATCH MY DRIFT feels fresh and spicy. My only tidbit of recollection about WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT is that he went on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but now I'll remember him for his full name in today's puzzle.

Solid choices for themers. PARTING GIFT is so evocative. EYES LEFT and SEMI SOFT are more neutral than SCISSOR LIFT, but they work.

All in all, a nice variety of -FT ending words, although it'd have been great to get a -UFT ender to round out the set. A search for *UFT in our Finder turned up the STAY PUFT Marshmallow Man. That would have been a great throwback, although its U may have made gridwork tricky.

I'm a huge fan of mirror symmetry, and even more so when we get neat visuals like Trenton's torch in the center. Doesn't have anything to do with the theme, but man, is it pretty.

Crossword radar activated … thinking of flame-related ideas …

I should explain ORDER's clue — it's bigger than a family, in that it's one step up in the levels of taxonomy. Fun clue.

Also UNALASKA. What an Unamerican thing to do, including anti-Alaska sentiments … oh. It's a city in Alaska. Ahem. I knew that.

The NYT crossword has had a long history of "letters outside grid" puzzles. An early one impressed me most with its perfect single square popping out, and MAN OVERBOARD is high in my list of perfect rationales for breaking outside the box. This one was too much like Tim's BURY THE HATCHET for my long memory, but I enjoyed the novelty of the gridwork.

– puzzle by Trenton Charlson

At first, when Sam sent me his notes on the puzzle, I thought he was lauding "I Am Legend," which was tough for this Will Smith fan to sit through (I made it roughly 12.5 minutes). Even an hour later, I figured Sam was meme-ing some Snapchat or TikTok thing. It wasn't until several hours later that it clicked: STRONG MAN / NORSE MYTH / I AM LEGEND. What an awesome mini-theme! It'd be a shame if people missed it, and I fear that like me, many solvers won't pick it up.

I'm (almost literally) knee-deep in LEGO SETs these days, yet the clue made me laugh anyway. "A ton of bricks," indeed. If anyone has advice on how to avoid cross-pollination of LEGO SETs leading to two kids arguing and then hitting each other with a ton of bricks, I'm all ears.

Jim Horne and I discussed ITALIAN MEAL, sadly not over a nice Italian meal (maybe soon?!). Does this entry open up the floodgates for POLISH LUNCH? JAPANESE HAPPY HOUR? Hopefully it allows for my favorite meal of the day, HOBBIT ELEVENSES.

Also in the category of "giving Jeff fits about what score to assign an entry": ONE EGG, NAGGERS, SUABLE, MADCAPS. So much about word lists is subjective, so I try to leave everything that's even remotely-possibly-okay-if-you-squint at the nominal level of 50. Constructors beware, though, a huge amount of your own judgment is mandatory.

The cluing felt so tough today; definitely Saturday-level:

• I read [Some bars returned to again and again?] again and again, and I still didn't think it connected to THEMES (musical motifs) that well.
• SIR as a prefix to LOIN ... I was SIR prized.
• I get the idea behind [Peer of Ibsen], but if you don't know that Ibsen wrote "Peer Gynt," it's tough to grasp the cleverness.

I wish I had said I SEE NOW immediately after finishing the middle of the puzzle, because MAN MYTH LEGEND is a standout mini-theme. I'd have loved an overt revealer like BADASS, calling out the middle triplet. Now that would have been bad-ass.

– puzzle by Sam Ezersky

★ I love the aesthetics of the unusual black square "canes" — reminds me of a CANDY CANES puzzle Mary Lou and I did years back. And from a constructor's point of view, it also allows for juicy quasi-sectioning of the grid. Once you get a rough idea of what the middle might look like, you can start to work on each of the four corners independently. That's so valuable, allowing you to segment the grid into smaller, much more manageable chunks.

There were so many fantastic long entries jam-packed in, starting with FILL ME IN, hearkening to the great Ryan and Brian podcast. Check it out when you can; they're fun to listen to.

I just finished "Money Heist" and am going through serious withdrawal, so I loved uncovering HEIST FILMS. EVIL EMPIRE nearby could have made the puzzle's tone too dark, but cluing it to the sci-fi trope made it sing.

I had to laugh at my sheer stupidity, putting in UMM for a sound chewing on a pencil and thinking that GENERATION ALPUA was some gen-alpua term that made fun of people like me. HMM, indeed. I didn't know that they moved from Gen-Z to Generation ALPHA, but I have to admit that it's just a hair more logical than my thinking.

Speaking of making fun, BOOBOISIE's clue felt ... bad. The term amused me to no end years ago, a flagrantly offensive portmanteau of boob and bourgeoise, but I worried that it could feel like it was thumbing its nose at solvers, so I made sure to clue it to the source (Mencken). The clue today felt ... insulting? Condescending? It's okay if I call myself a boob, but not if you do. So what if it's true?!

DONK gave me a smile, as my son often donks his sister on the head. I shouldn't laugh, but if you can't laugh, you cry. Hopefully, the DONK / TRINI cross didn't bam-boob-zle anyone.

Although I had a few reservations, there was so much to love; so many vivid long entries are carefully woven together, a feat of construction. Even when you lock down a possible middle like EVIL EMPIRE / GENERATION ALPHA / HEIST FILMS, one or more quadrants don't cooperate. Amazing that Sid and Matthew were able to wrangle them all so smoothly.

– puzzle by Sid Sivakumar and Matthew Stock

Given that Will Shortz gets about 200 submissions per week these days — for only 7 slots! — prospective constructors have to be resilient. Persistent. Open to the reality that sometimes a fine puzzle gets rejected, because what else can Will do with a 4% acceptance rate?

That's all a long-winded way to make the joke that today, crosswords are a numbers game.

CRY FOR HELP is right.

As a math dork, I loved the MODE OF TRANSPORTATION visual. Fun to imagine a mathematician staring out into a traffic jam, thinking "I see a plane, car, train, horse, another car, another car, another train … the mode is CAR." Ha ha ha!

It's funnier if you remember what MODE means, mathematically — the most common answer in a set.

Maybe you had to be there.

I also enjoyed the mathiness of HIGHWAY MEDIAN. Again, it's probably roughly 100% less interesting if you don't remember that the MEDIAN of a set is the element such that there are an equal number of elements above and below it. In this case, Routes 10 and 25 are below Route 70, with Routes 95 and 101 above it, making Route 70 the median of the set.

Maybe if I explain it more, it'll become funnier?

I always get the division terms mixed up — who can keep straight divisor, dividend, and quotient? — but luckily, that didn't stop me from successfully filling in STOCK DIVIDEND. Ooh, you know what would be fun (more appropriately, mean): a crossword testing math esoterica. Clue: [What is the dividend in the formula DOG / HOG?], with an ambiguous crossing entry for the first letter. That'd leave people in a fog.

Lots of fun bonuses in the fill. Nothing spicy except HOT SAUCE, but VIGNETTE is a great way to utilize a precious long slot. A bit of RAT TRAP / YOU ROCK helped keep up my interest, too.

And such a nice job with the cluing. About a half-dozen amusing bits of wordplay, my favorite elevating the usually-dull short entry, CATS. Such creativity in coining the term "Les Meowserables." Mrrrow, indeed!

Not all the themers tickled me as much as MODE OF TRANSPORTATION, especially since DIFFERENCE OF OPINIONS didn't meaningfully change the definition of "difference," but this numbers guy though it was above the Sunday median. Er ... I mean, mean.

– puzzle by Jennifer Nebergall

★ You know a puzzle is a success when you walk around mumbling to yourself, trying to figure out other possible theme answers. Knee toes … tooth knuckles … wrist nostrils …

Tess: Mom, dad's finally lost it!

Mom: Best to ignore him. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Jeff: Hand butts ...

I've solved dozens of body-part crosswords, even made a few, but I'd never considered this BODY DOUBLE approach — phrases comprised of two body parts. What great finds in RIB JOINT and BACKLASH! If I had put together a lengthy list of body parts for brainstorming, I'm not sure I would have thought to add these. I'm impressed by the level of detail and completeness.

Excellent gridwork, too. Notice I didn't give the qualifier "for a debut," either! Two vivid long downs in SERVICE DOGS and STAKE A CLAIM, as well as mid-length bonuses worked in all over. CONSENT, YUCCAS, PLACID, BLAME ME, PLATEAU, PB AND J, LATINAS — so much to enjoy, and all so accessible to even newer solvers.

It is unusual to have so much mid-length fill in the Across direction, which did cause some difficulties with short fill. For example, CONSENT reduces flexibility when sandwiched between MOUTH ORGAN and RIB JOINT. MGRS isn't terrible, but along with ISO SNO UTIL, it's a TSP too much. Still, there's a case to be made that so much mid-length bonus material is worth those prices to pay.

It's hard to debut memorably, and even more so on a Monday, where my expectations for smoothness and accessibility are sky-high. I can't wait to see what Adrienne brings us next.

– puzzle by Adrienne Atkins

The last example of a "similar colloquial expressions" crossword was seven years ago? Say it ain't so! That can't be right! Fugeddabout ... no, fuhggedda … oh, forget about it.

Like its predecessor, today's puzzle featured four great phrases that I'd use in a themeless. I'm with Mike; my favorite is NO FRIGGIN' WAY, maybe because it reminds me of one of the best grid entries of all time.

This played much harder than a usual Tuesday because there are so many possible answers to each clue — in some ways, it's like doing a quote puzzle, since you're solving the theme answers mostly using the Down crossing answers. Hard isn't bad but having to push through an early-week puzzle tends to make me feel like a moron. (Never mind that it's true.)

I often carp about long Across bonuses muddying themes (Rich Norris at the LAT is staunchly in this camp, too). Will Shortz doesn't often care about this issue, choosing to give his solvers more credit for being able to discern theme/non-theme. It is true that EVEN BETTER and CHILI SAUCE are clearly not phrases that express disbelief.

I liken them to banner ads, though — they draw your attention away from what's important with their "hey, look at me, or EVEN BETTER, click on me!" Who wants ads in their daily experience, anyway?

Huh? You point out that XWord Info runs ads? [Angels don't see them! — JH]

Fuggeddabout it!

I'd have asked for a revision on the west section, with CRAG and APSE crossing RPI. We hardcore crossworlders know that Tyler Hinman — your 2021 ACPT champ! — went to RPI. We also know terms like CRAG and APSE because they're so useful to constructors that we're forced to learn them. I don't think it's fair to expect Joe Tyro to get those crossings correct, though.

I'm curious to see what the generation 3 puzzle will look like, seven more years down the road.

– puzzle by Kristian House and Mike Dockins

SEE ME AFTER CLASS, get it? The first word can precede CLASS. And the second word starts with ME. Because the revealer tells you that you can see ME after a type of CLASS.

Get it? Do you?

Maybe if I explain it more?

Interesting set of finds. It didn't hit me that strongly, though, partially because the revealer's clue was so wonky. "… or a hint to the first words … and following letters! … get it, because ME begins the seconds words of those theme answers … and the—"

DELE

Great gridwork, as per Will's usual. Note that there are no cheater squares. Not that there's anything wrong with cheaters (extra black squares that help constructors make big regions easier to fill), but many people would make their lives much easier in the upper-left corner, by blacking out MAN, thus creating a "Utah block." There'd be nothing wrong with that, except that you'd miss juicy fill like RISING STAR.

Many constructors would have the knowledge to space out the long downs, alternating them like Will did with RISING STAR to SANTIAGO to UBERNERD to HAILS A TAXI. Few would have the guts (or patience) to leave a long Across where TORMENTS and IGLESIAS are, though, a big swath like that tormenting them. Such beautiful results.

A shame that the theme didn't hit me more strongly, more a curiosity than an a-ha moment. This is one example of when "tightness" didn't matter. Usually if I can't think of a single other possible theme answer; that elevates my admiration, but here, the a-ha moment was muddy enough that tightness didn't help.

Still, the gridwork was so strong that the overall solving experience was still pleasant, what with Will's technical prowess to study and admire.

– puzzle by Will Nediger

Lisping themes make me uncomfortable. I've known enough people with speech difficulties that playing on them feels more than a tad insensitive. Given that my son said only "Quack" and grunted (mostly grunted) until his third birthday makes me even more aware of these issues.

That said, I appreciate Barbara effort to distinguish hers from other lisping themes, by linking to a childhood favorite of mine, SYLVESTER. He wasn't Road Runner-level awesome, but he wasn't Tweety-groanworthy, either. I tended to feel sorry for him. Just once, it'd have been great to see him catch that annoying little big-eyed canary and slowly tear his wings off, savoring him screech "I TAWT I TAW A PUDDY TAT GO ALL GAME OF THRONES ON ME!"

My theory is that my pediatrician was a quack.

Some interesting finds, MTYH to MISS, MOUTH to MOUSE, TRUTH to TRUCE, FAITH to FACE. I didn't totally buy the last two, but I'm not going to make judgments on what's "accurate" when it comes to lisping.

Loved the bonuses in the corners, Reba MCENTIRE getting her due after usually seen only as REBA in crosswords, OH I GET IT lovely, and SKITTISH excellent. Most constructors would automatically put a black square at the T of MCENTIRE — probably the E of OH I GET IT, too — so it's neat to see someone go the extra mile to treat us with the long bonuses.

No doubt, they do require some tradeoffs — AFUSS is a partial, and a confusing one since AMESS is what this parent of two dirty and sticky kids knew as truth. It's worth it, though.

I enjoy Barbara's gridwork; she's exploded onto the construction scene in a short period. Wish today's theme made me cringe less, though.

– puzzle by Barbara Lin