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SOCIAL CAPITAL is a great phrase to riff on. I'd never have thought there would be three [(social media verb) + (finance term)] phrases, but FOLLOWS THE MONEY, POSTS BOND, SHARES THE WEALTH all work. Neat that all three are presented in the same verb tense; a touch of elegance.

I did hitch on POSTS BOND, which I was sure had to be POSTS BAIL. Sometimes you have to make compromises to make a theme work. I'd have preferred sticking with the more natural-sounding POSTS BAIL, since even us finance types could look the other way, calling bail a form of capital.

Once in a blue moon, Crucivera, the God of Crosswords, is benevolent. I can only imagine other constructors finding these three themers and swearing at the horrible luck. Lengths 13, 9, 15, 15? Bah! It's a good thing that Amanda and Ross make their own luck, finding a way to interlock themers in a mirror symmetry arrangement. Neat save!

One of the tough aspects of using mirror symmetry can be eliminating "false themers." In this case, some solvers might ask, what do WIPER BLADES have to do with SOCIAL CAPITAL? It should be obvious which are themers today, but I can imagine some folks staring at WIPER BLADES, squinting in an attempt to make out blades that might be lurking in the windshield of black squares.

Another issue with mirror symmetry + intersecting themers is that the intersection regions can be rough to fill around. NOURI, MARTA, SUVA, EVEL are all in the wide spectrum of "fair," as are OCHOA, OKAPI, EAPOE and RHEA / GOA. So much within that gray zone can lead to a miasma of inelegance, though. The NOURI / MARTA cross, in particular, is problematic.

I'll take a strong concept where two of three themers hit home. Swap in POSTS BAIL and smooth out the crunchy spots, and it coulda been a contender.

– puzzle by Amanda Rafkin and Ross Trudeau

A few years ago, Paolo Pasco approached me with a SKIPPING SCHOOL concept with a different interpretation. He proposed ELECTRIC EEL and STAY ALERT, where crossing down answers would skip over the RICE and YALE letters as if they were invisible. I thought it had some merit, but it felt too similar to other crosswords I'd seen before. We let it drop.

Today, I enjoyed Yacob and Chad's extra layer, that not only does STAY ALERT have YALE in it but when you subtract out YALE, it becomes a real word. Interesting discovery.

The other finds weren't as juicy:

GAS PRICES to GASPS is almost as good, but it's easier to see what's going on since RICE doesn't span across the two words.

COMMITMENT to COMMENT: a single-word answer to another single-worder isn't as fun as something that plays with a spacing change, like STAY ALERT to START.

SUN CHIPS. Jim Horne asked me, "What are SUN CHIPS?" Apparently, in the vast Canadian hinterlands, they only sell Snow Chips and Moose Chips.

Amazing gridwork, which I've come to expect from Yacob, and is also great to see from a debut constructor! They squeezed every last drop out of those SW and NE corners. One might worry that regions like this are too big to be filled with color and cleanliness, but with only one theme answer constraining them, going big is doable. MONA LISA / SALSA BAR / REPTILE, ACCREDIT / NEUTRINO? That's the way to do it!

Jim asked about NIHAO — that could be odd for people unfamiliar with the Chinese transliteration. What a neat clue, though, a common word in the world's most common language.

I might be burned out on "skipped letters" concepts that echo crosswords from the past, but that won't apply to solvers who aren't as obsessive. In the future, I'd like crosswords in this maturing theme category to push the boundaries more.

– puzzle by Yacob Yonas and Chad Horner

ANTHONY BOURDAIN was a legend in food writing. Jill and I tried one episode of his "Parts Unknown" series, but it didn't resonate enough for us to continue. Instead, we got instantly hooked on Jon Favreau's "The Chef Show" — highly recommended!

Some of the other marquee answers spoke to me more strongly. There's something awesome about the spelling of NONSEQUITUR — how many other words end in TUR? (Imprimatur, Stephen Decatur … is that all?)

SCOUT'S HONOR not only is a great entry, but that clue! Though I've seen plays on [Swear words?] before, this one was spot on. Crossing it with PIANO TEACHER, with another glee-inducing clue about coaching "bench players" — piano bench, that is — almost won this puzzle the POW! right then and there.

Some other lovely material, too. ANYHOO made me smile, HUMANOID played to this uber-dork, and it's smart to leave solvers with I'M IN HEAVEN.

Did you figure out the "insider" part of the ATARI clue? Yes, it is a breakout console — I vividly remember when my dad brought ours home; what a mind-blowing experience — but playing that brick ping-pong game, Breakout, was so much (aggravating) fun.

What with the bar always rising for Friday themelesseses — I tell most budding constructors to stay away from this area since the competition is dog eat dog — it's hard to stand out. As much as I loved so many feature entries, it's too easy to pick out the AMOCO AMOR ASST ORNO ORO bits.

Might have been different if I connected with ANTHONY BOURDAIN more. I bet some of his fans will adore — shall we say, eat up? — today's offering.

– puzzle by Hal Moore

The Great Wall of Chocolate! This Taiwanese kid sadly approves of PF CHANGS' Americanized its offerings. Imagine the look on my parents' faces when they first let me order something at an authentic Chinese restaurant, and I ordered sweet and sour pork. My ancestors died a little that day.

I'm generally a huge fan of Peter's work, but a handful of entries didn't click with me today. I worked so hard in the NW, chipping away at ROCK … to get ROCK RIBBED? That would have been fine — it's a phrase in real use, albeit its last NYT appearance was in 1991 — but I already had struggled with DECKLE in that region. I couldn't remember CLICKHOLE either, making for a trifecta of "things that make you go hmm." Not ODIOUS, but not delight-inducing, either.

So many dog entries / clues! RAT TERRIER is fun, BEGGED as [Sought a treat], SKYES, MAT as a thick layer of hair.

Perhaps that's too catty an observation.

This Bruce Lee fanboy knew WUSHU — his mentor was a leader in WUSHU — but that's a toughie crossing URIEL. Smart editorial decision to hint at the rhyming nature of WU SHU, otherwise it'd be too easy to drop in ORIEL or ARIEL.

A lot of clever clues, as with most Wentz products. My favorite was a call "overseas" — that's over seas — for AHOY MATE. [Lines of code] had this wannabe programmer trying out ROUTINE, PROGRAM, PROCESS, etc. Great misdirect away from BYLAWS.

I have an incredibly high bar for Peter — he's won a ton of POW!s — so this one didn't quite measure up to his oeuvre. Still, enough to enjoy.

– puzzle by Peter Wentz

★ I love lofty attempts to do something new and cool in a Sunday crossword. Those five little boxes baffled me, the tricksy crossings remaining opaque until I hit the apt revealer, TICK ALL THE BOXES. A-ha! BOX in the Across direction, and TICK in the Down. Clever!

I appreciated the quality of the Down theme answers. I'm sadly familiar with PUTting LIPSTICK ON A PIG, as my daughter and book agent like to point out. TICKLE THE IVORIES, now THAT'S THE TICKET! And even though STICKY SITUATION and CARROT AND STICK use TICK in too similar a way, they're both fantastic entries.

The puzzle fell too quickly once I hit the revealer since once you figure out how one rebus box works, you can fill in the rest right away. That bothered me less than usual, though, since the rebus was complicated. What sense of relief to finally see the light!

I wonder if using an assortment of Across rebuses would have alleviated that issue? Aside from TICK, there's CHECK, X, MARK … SLASH? I'd have preferred the variety, but I can see how the notion of a rebus that works differently in Across vs. Down is hard enough for most solvers.

A bit too much dependence on usual crossword glue such as RIAS, ERGS, ORO, STLO, ALL, NNE, SENS, EPI, etc., but most of them are minor enough. Toss in the tougher HUS and LAE, though … I'd have asked for a round of revisions.

Thankfully, Laura worked in a couple of great bonuses. HERDED CATS is fantastic. NO RELATION, too, along with its mystifying clue on Elizabeth Warren vis-à-vis Earl Warren. SENIOR PROM as the "last dance" and SEAHORSE with a neat piece of trivia on males carrying the babies, and it's starting to feel like Laura had the HOT HAND.

The puzzle didn't 100% hit for me because of the repetitive nature of those five boxes, but I love Laura's audacious target and sizzling themers. I'd love to see more NYT Sunday puzzles aim this high.

– puzzle by Laura Taylor Kinnel

Monday fill is like an NFL right tackle — 99% of the time that you notice it, it's because of something it did wrong. Perhaps it missed a block (ambiguous crossing) or forgot the play call (crossword glue unfamiliar to newbs). It's so rare that it executes a play spectacular enough for announcers to applaud.

Check out what Lynn did with her mid-length fill today. As I solved, I kept noticing the beautiful entries: NOSE JOB, UTOPIA, IN DRAG, ATTIRE, GAMBIT, ELOISE, MAIDEN, PEORIA, NO MORE ... but there was more! It's astounding that Lynn created so many of these slots, and then used so many of them so well. All those colorful and evocative ASSETS!

Most themed grids break up their 15-length sides into three chunks, making 3-5 length entries show up over the years ad infinitum. 6s and 7s make appearances much less frequently, so when they do, they often feel fresher to us regulars. I love this layout, the black squares spaced in a Zen-like balance that allows for 6-7 heaven all over.

I usually emphasize longer bonus fill — I'd have tried to extend STATS to make it an 8-9 letter slot, since long entries can often sing more strongly than mid-lengthers — but Lynn achieved so much with her layout. I'll have to rethink my gridwork philosophy.

We've seen many variations on this theme type, celeb names repurposed in different ways. I did enjoy feeling sheepish, as all these years, I thought it was [First name] van Cliburn.

Overall, though, it would have been great to find some way to make this theme set stand out. There are so many first names that can be worked into common phrases that this set came across as too loosey-goosey.

– puzzle by Lynn Lempel

★ It's been so long since we've had a "warp" puzzle (words warp from the right side back to the left) that I was pleasantly bamboozled. "Name That Theme" quickly went off the rails, today. I guessed that MUS / LIT was MUSLIM ... with one letter changed for some reason.

LET/TOI … LETTOR? As in, a person who lets?

BON/CAR …

Okay, I got nothin'.

Even after hitting WRAPPING PAPER, it made no sense. Usually, this sort of "wrap" thing indicates that MUS and LIT "wrap" the row, meaning that they bracket the inner contents.

Great moment of realization when I finally figured out that the words started on the right and "wrapped" back to the left (LIT/MUS, TOI/LET, etc.). I also appreciated how Kevin chose four examples of well-known paper from different walks of life. All of them containing exactly six letters was a nice touch, too.

There was a lot of interesting fill. It's HALFTIME, BEER ME! SODA POP, AMULET, RICHARD GERE's full name, PRESTO! It's true that the theme allowed for more flexibility than most themes — ending in LIT and starting with SUE aren't tough constraints — but Kevin executed well.

There was some ACRO ASST ATOI (tough to avoid this one) ENE ANOWL, but it was mostly minor. Whenever you have so many overlap regions, you're bound to need some crossword uglies. Most important thing is to make them as unnoticeable as possible, and Kevin did well in that regard.

Entertaining debut. Newer constructors often ask me what types of themes they ought to work on, and my answer is the maddeningly vague "something different and interersting." I enjoyed how Kevin misled this veteran solver, but did it in such a way that all the pieces were there for me to inevitably figure out what was going on.

– puzzle by Kevin Patterson

I've had the pleasure of working with Chase on a few crosswords, so it's great to see his NYT debut. I enjoyed the play on various typographies. At first, they seemed inconsistent, since STRESS in STRESS EATING serves as a verb (the clue kookily ordering you to stress "eating"), while BOLD in BOLD PROPOSAL acts an adjective (the clue wackily describing the "proposal" as bold), but I realized that BOLD can also function as a verb. It's not perfect, but it works.

I did wonder about the A in STRIKE A POSE, since it was the only themer containing an A. Why not STRIKE THREE, STRIKE FORCE, or STRIKE ZONES? Ultimately though, few solvers will care about this sort of minor detail. Darn kids, not caring about minutia!

I rarely notice 3x3 chunks of fill, but that ROLO YOLO made me laugh. Why hasn't Nestle used this as an ad slogan yet?

TARE HALE had a similar letter pattern duplication, but that wasn't nearly as fun. Let's tare the hale patient on the scale, doc!

Okay, maybe that is kind of fun.

I agree with Chase on LIMA BEAN and DRY GOODS, neither that exciting. This particular layout doesn't provide much flexibility for those slots, since they have to run through two themers apiece, though adding black squares at O of ONSET and I of ROSSI likely would have helped. Chase has developed tremendously over the past year; it'd be interesting to see what he could do with the execution today.

This one reminded me of a typography puzzle that I loved — I enjoyed that one's focus. Italics, bold, and strikethrough go together, but spacing felt like a "which of these things is not like the other." Maybe ALLCAPS would have been better? Still, a playful debut.

– puzzle by Chase Dittrich

This rebus RINGs a bell … ah yes, a recent proposal crossword. I'd also seen variations on circles represent circle synonyms. I did wonder if ROUND was as strong as the others, since it feels primarily like an adjective, but it can be used as a noun.

It's hard to make a rebus stand out these days, since we've seen so many of them. Picking great theme phrases can help — THREW FOR A LOOP crossing FROOT LOOP, yes! CIRCLE THE WAGONS, excellent. And who doesn't like hearing THIS ROUND IS ON ME, especially when compared to what we usually see in the crossworld, the partialish ON ME?

Bonuses in the fill can help, too. I like what Joe did in the center, giving us a smooth region from DANCE to FROOT, but the corners could have been opened up. I'd love to see what might be possible by taking out the black square between ERRS and EYED, or SEUSS and MAR. I bet with another round of revision, we could have been treated to more long bonuses, along with some smoothing out of IGET/EES, and ULM/OFNO/ESS.

Clever clues can help, too. A SLED traveling "tirelessly" is groanworthily fantastic. An HEIR has it (the estate) coming. And I appreciated the DESTINY and FOG clues, linking to famous quotes. FOG coming on little cat feet, so eerily playful.

– puzzle by Joe Kidd

TERRY CREWS! "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is one of my favorite shows (Will Shortz has guest-starred on it!). That entire cast is great, but Crews is a standout. There's something so loveable about this badass officer who loves his twin daughters almost as much as he loves his yogurt.

Sad to say, I thought MOVEMBER was simply when Facebook and Twitter got flooded with pics of truly heinous mustaches. It's to grow awareness of men's health issues? That's great, but I'm hoping it also grows awareness of Gillette products.

There were a lot of manly entries in today's puzzle, so many that I wonder if female solvers will be turned off. NASCAR DAD next to GRAYBEARD. STUNTMAN over HIROHITO. CONAIR. At least there are a couple of dorks in the mix, URKEL and MILHOUSE of "The Simpsons." Still, I can see how female solvers might feel alienated.

It's not my favorite of John's products, with quite a bit of glue (AGA CHA DAR MCI MSS) to hold together a 70-worder, and THE DOLE feeling uncomfortably politicized.

However, I was glad to get some fun highlights in SLOW CLAP, and the misdirect around INKWELLS — not my old HP desktop, but my grandfather's literal desktop. Great wordplay in the ATLASES clue, too. Self-help book for those feeling lost, that's hilarious!

– puzzle by John Lieb

SOUL TRAIN! Ah, young Jeff, glued to the TV, watching the awesome moves on SOUL TRAIN and even more frequently on "Dance 360" which is supposed to be for young'uns, not old dudes who want so badly to be cool once again, not that they ever were --

I've said too much.

Even if you weren't familiar with the SOUL TRAIN LINE — I admit, I couldn't recall the "line" part — at least it's three words that make sense put together. The full entry may not do anything for those unfamiliar with the show, but Don Cornelius's sign-off is well worth a listen in this day and age of divisiveness.

Back when I first started playing "Clash Royale," a YouTuber once called the simple knight a great "meat shield." My brother had to explain to me that the term referred to the knight's "tanking" ability, absorbing all the enemy shots while archers and wizards fired from behind. That is one descriptive term! So I was able to piece together MEAT SPACE, even though the words don't go together as coherently as SOUL TRAIN LINE. I was convinced for the longest time that it had to be MEET SPACE.

PARADISE FOUND was another that didn't come readily to mind. I'm familiar with Milton's "Paradise Lost" that I (was supposed to have) read in college, so PARADISE FOUND makes logical sense. Might be yet another term I'm not cool enough to use.

ME TOO MOVEMENT! Great to see its NYT debut. Surprised that it hasn't made its way in earlier.

Sometimes I FEAR Kameron's byline, in that I'm not sure I'll be able to achieve a victorious finish due to all of his cutting-edge entries. All the crossings were fair though, so even though some entries didn't ring a bell (DRAGOON MOTET ALEROS), I appreciated the setup for a clean finish. Beautiful grid pattern, too, as are many of his others.

BTW, Kameron put up a long essay on gender and race inclusiveness last week on Crossword Fiend. Well worth a read.

– puzzle by Kameron Austin Collins

Can you imagine how much it would stink, being an employee at a bowling alley, being told to go CLEAN OUT THE GUTTERS? Both the inside and outside ones, seriously? Talk about doing double duty!

Even worse, being responsible for paying league royalties to the franchises, and your punster boss telling you to PAY THE BILLS — the BILLS' bills? I'd be calling the union right about then.

I'd have loved more playful clues for the themers. SORT THE MAIL is already a thankless task, and it becomes even less interesting when you have the negative connotation of "chore" in the clue. Make it [The RenFaire office boy finally got to be a knight! Then his boss ironically made him …]. That's too long and convoluted, but I'd love a chance to brainstorm a more smile-inducing way to present these themers/clues.

RODEWAY INN baffled me, but it turns out they're all over the country, with a few right here in Seattle. RIDEWAY sounded more plausible, and UDI as a Japanese vegetable ... sure, why not.

Bzzt!

Sam's Orca Award writeups are always one of the annual highlights of the crossworld blogosphere. In an era where so many folks find ways to throw shade and pick apart artistic endeavors — I'm as guilty as anyone sometimes — it's great to have someone who serves as a beacon of light and hope.

Sam is one of the reasons I wanted to pick a POW! every week, so I could praise great work. He's one of my favorite people in both the crossworld and real worlds; his positivity an example I strive to follow.

– puzzle by Samuel A. Donaldson

★ A friend of mine once told me stories about his grandmother, an avid MAH JONG player. The world's best poker players and magicians ain't got nothing on her. She'd pick up an individual MAH JONG tile, never turning it over, and with one rub of her thumb on the underside, would know exactly what it was, without looking. Then, with as many as ten tiles left on the table, she'd foretell the winner, already knowing how the game would play out, rattling off exactly what everyone had in their hands.

That's how you earn a nickname like the RED DRAGON!

Erik continues to amaze, coming up with an approach I'd never considered. I'm envious that he nabbed a MAH JONG theme before me, but more so that he found three tiles that could be used in their entirety. I'd considered phrases ending in DOTS, WINDS, BAMBOO, but non-players would barely make the connection that any of those are MAH JONG "suits."

It's so perfect that PLUM BLOSSOM, NORTH WIND, RED DRAGON also evoke East Asian imagery, allowing non-players to easily make the connection to MAH JONG.

Tight theme, too. The only other tile I could think of that might have worked was BAMBOO SHOOT, but that would have confused the issue, since bamboo is not just a bonus tile but one of the suits.

Along with beautiful Monday gridwork — a couple of great bonuses in RHOMBUS, HATHAWAY, SORORITY — and clean short fill that's accessible for even the newbiest of newbs, Erik made my job today a delight. He even summed it up for me, with GOOD FOR YOU, OUTTA SIGHT, and ON A TEAR. Fantastic start to the week!

– puzzle by Erik Agard

I grew up in the Bay Area during the Joe Montana era, so it took me a while to get over Steve Young pushing out Joe Cool. A young buck who wore a HAIR SHIRT under his jersey? Turns out, my ignorance was shameful; Steve Young was well up to the task. Watching him dominate a Super Bowl was a sporting highlight of a generation.

One-word Broadway musicals have been tapped for crosswords many times over the years, a quick search for RENT phrases turning this one up. I appreciated Stella's attempt to freshen the concept with phrases rarely seen in crosswords, HAIR SHIRT and WICKED GOOD likely to be new to some solvers. The latter is a Bostonian phrase in usage a few decades ago.

ANNIE HALL was a standout, as there's something clever about repurposing a movie to create a kooky Broadway-related phrase. I wasn't hot on WICKED GOOD because it's so tortured-sounding as a terse review, plus, if you didn't know the phrase already, you might have trouble figuring out the intent of the theme.

Tough way to start an early-week puzzle, with LORCA and EVERT crossing CREE. That would be fine for a later-week puzzle, but that corner could stop newbs in their tracks. As interesting as it is to feature the poet LORCA, I don't know that it's a sound choice for a puzzle with a simple theme, especially crossing CREE.

This puzzle would be a tough sell to even mid-level solvers, what with EEOC, GPO, IRR, NORN, NSF, too. Toss in ABU RIIS and TELEX and I'd have liked a polishing revision.

I did appreciate SHERLOCK, WHOLE HOG, and PRICE WAR, though. It's great to get some juicy bonuses to keep up one's interest.

– puzzle by Stella Zawistowski

Alas, a 108^th anniversary puzzle doesn't quite catch people's attention. Seeing as Lee didn't want to wait 92 more years, perhaps it was better to shelve this one.

But wait! You all know I love me some grid art, so as I was reading up on this explosion — expelling 30 times more ash than the St. Helens eruption, for 60 hours? — I began to wonder if we could make something resembling a volcano out of black squares. Maybe with ASH blowing out the top? And LAVA flowing down the sides?

The grid turned out to be a red hot gusher, spewing crossword goo everywhere we tried to fill. 60 bleary-eyed hours later …

I wish we could have opened up the mouth of the volcano for better solving flow, but nothing worked. Ironic problem for a puzzle about a MOUNT blowing its top.

For those of you who don't know SHIBUYA, put it on your bucket list. I've had the fortune to travel to Japan for work a dozen times, and seeing all the crazy outfits and styles was always a highlight.

As with all highly constrained constructions, we had to figure out some trade-offs, and if a bit of HOO, ISA, ETD, VOL inelegance bugged you, that's on me. I give you free rein to kick my ASH.

– puzzle by Lee Higbie and Jeff Chen

DARK ART = A R T inside black squares. It reminded me of a ground-breaking Gorski, one that amazed me in my early days of discovering how incredibly creative Sunday NYT crosswords could be.

Solid themer choices, each one obviously making no sense without the hidden ART. (ART)IFICIAL HE(ART) was by far the highlight, such a great way to use the theme concept twice in one blow. I had unfortunately forgotten about it shortly after I finished, since Across themers stand out more than Downs. We've added the ARTs below, which makes the cool themer interlock stand out more.

ARTIFICIAL HEART is such a great find for this theme — I couldn't think of any other possibilities like this except ARTICHOKE HEART, which is 14 letters — that it would have been awesome to "flip" the grid so that ARTIFICIAL HEART was featured horizontally, with the intersecting themers running vertically.

Great fill. ARTIFICIAL HEART's placement necessitates corners full of 7-letter slots, which can be tricky to fill with sparkly material. No problem for Evan, kicking it off with JACKASS / AL DENTE / CORN DOG and SODA CAN / EROTICA / NEW AGEY. Fantastically colorful, and the short surrounding fill is clean, to boot. Smart placement of black squares throughout the middle of the grid allowed Evan to work each corner almost independently.

Solid concept, top-notch execution. If I hadn't seen so many "letters in black squares" concepts over the years, this one being super close to Liz's spot-on WUNDERBAR!, and if the beautiful (ART)IFICIAL HE(ART) find had gotten the spotlight, it'd have received some POW! love.

– puzzle by Evan Kalish

Look at all those crossing long entries! I'm a big fan of mirror symmetry in general, and one of its advantages is that it gives the constructor flexibility to pack lengthy phrases in unconventional ways. Typically, skeletons of intersecting long entries seem like they should space things out nicely, but they often come with unforeseen problems in one or more regions. Worse yet, it's maddeningly unpredictable as to which regions.

For a grid like this, if you can make the toughest area work — in this case, the bottom (triple-stack intersecting two long entries), the rest of the puzzle is more tractable. INITMATE APPAREL / SOLO PERFORMER are great, and REPUTATIONS has potential for a clever clue to enhance its effect. Additionally, the -TOR and -RES endings for 1-Down and 8-Down give welcome flexibility.

INITIMATE APPAREL is an evocative entry in its own right, and I enjoyed the clue's misdirect; "slips" making me think of errors or boat docks. As Rich mentioned, AUTO PARTS STORES is more workmanlike, but it becomes a sizzler when given a wicked wordplay clue … that links to INTIMATE APPAREL! I was already thinking about slips, etc. when I read "hose and belt sellers." I love getting duped like that.

Plenty of constructors have used happy faces in the past, a recent one coming to mind. Since I've seen a lot of them, they have to be spot on to make an impact. For instance, one brilliant PANDA picture managed to outshine another. Today's was recognizable as a face, but all the black squares around the edges detracted from the overall impact. Those "helper squares" are so key to making something like this work, but I'd rather blow up the face image and focus solely on optimizing for fill that's overall a bit juicier than STARLITERS, STENOS, AEOLUS, LATENTS, TILT MECHANISM (pretty niche piece of equipment), etc.

Solid execution, and a great example of how a themeless can feature a ton of super-long entries, while still keeping short fill clean. Not enough pizzazz to get POW! consideration, though.

– puzzle by Rich Proulx

YOU HAD TO BE THERE is a perfect themeless anchor. Snazzy, colloquial, snarky, memorable. It's unfortunate that the clue was so straightforward, giving away the game. Something playing on "being present," perhaps?

I'm often turned off by esoteric clues, like ones giving the scientific name of the entry. However, [Mammalian hematophage] is outstanding. It's like one of those crazy scientific names labeling the Road Runner (Velocitus delectiblus, Boulevardius-burnupius) that looks impossible to figure out at first, but then makes you smile. Hemato … ah, I get it!

I enjoyed some other entries almost as much. LOT IN LIFE. HAM HANDED. EX NIHILO is tough but interesting, both for Bible readers and logophiles.

Some outstanding clues, as well. Paying a "steep price" for TEA, ha! [Sort of spousal separation] felt like a downer, until I figured out the clever misdirect away from AGE GAP. How is Mount ETNA found on a couple of plates in Italy? Not dinner plates, but geological plates.

A few others didn't work as well. I like "clue echoing" best when the duplicated clue is spot-on but in two different ways. PET DOGS seek table scraps, no doubt. ANTs … yeah, but that's a tortured way to describe scavenging.

And [A, as in April]? I couldn't remember which form SCHEDULE A was (Wikipedia-ing ... itemized deductions, huh), and the "as in" part confused me. I get that it's trying to be clever, but it didn't succeed — especially since tax day wasn't in April this year.

All in all, an entertaining solve, although I could have used a little more juice. I bet closing off the SW and NE — imagine putting black square at the P of PICARDY, for instance — would have made it easier to squeeze more out of all the long slots.

– puzzle by John Guzzetta and Michael Hawkins

The first time I saw this concept, it blew my mind. I was so, so, so stuck ... until everything flipped and I roared on to glorious victory! Variations on this theme have been done many times over the years, but I enjoyed the longer ones Wyna discovered. I'd never encountered "disease" spelled as DIZZ = DI-Zs; what a fun find.

Similar reaction to TRA-PP = trapeze, AM-UU-MENT = amusement, SUPR-II = surprise. That last one looks so curious, almost as if it were related to the plural of "Prius" = PRII. Perhaps SUPRII is the term for a fleet of Toyota electric SUVs?

I found Wyna's longer discoveries fresh, and that rarely happens in this genre this solver CC often. If she'd stripped out the commonplace ones and added in even one more as strong as DIZZ CONTROL, this would have gotten my POW!. A shame to leave out MAYONAA JARS.

There was one trouble spot in the grid, around RAPA NUI, another name for Easter Island. I like this entry a lot, but I've heard complaints when constructors use [RAPA ___] or [___ NUI]. Crossing it with TIKI and ANS (with a tough clue) feels borderline unfair.

Thankfully, the rest of the puzzle was beautifully executed. I love headlining with THE COPA, and getting PANIC BAR, IRON RULE, OF SORTS soon after? Love it. In a short time, Wyna's developed a fantastic sense for what makes for great fill. No sense of RUH ROH here, only a lot of LIKE LIKE for GROUP THINK, NOT A TOY, PHOTO OP, PRO TIP, RISING TIDE, etc.

Wyna recently joined the New Yorker's team of themeless constructors, not a surprise given the way she's skyrocketed onto the constructing scene. I'm hopeful we'll still see her work here; her constructing chops are A1.

– puzzle by Wyna Liu

Great example of consistency, all four phrases in the form of (direction) + (two-letter preposition) + THE + (word). Nice touch that Alex didn't repeat a two-letter preposition, ON IN OF TO all having their places.

Places … it would have been a great touch to orient all the themers vertically, with FRONT and LEFT on the left half, RIGHT and BACK on the right. This would have given this puzzle so much more raison d'être. Consistency is a fantastic thing, but not if it's only for its own sake. It felt so odd to get RIGHT on the left-hand—

What? I'm the one that's odd, not the puzzle? Hmm. Yes, the odds of that are right on the money.

I loved the way the puzzle started, that line from Ogden NASH hilarious. Rhyming rhinoceros with "prepoceros" … I'd listen to way more rap if lyrics were as clever as this.

Not as hot on AMIABLE crossing AMIE, entries sharing etymology. There's no hard and fast rule against this, but it doesn't seem that different from using, say, H BOMB and A BOMB or SAND and SANDY in the same puzzle.

I love bonuses like NARWHAL, FERRARI, IN TRUTH, FLU SHOT, HAND VAC, ICE CUBE, ACE HIGH, although I'd sacrifice a couple to eliminate the newb-unfriendly entries ETTE and LEHI. These aren't terrible, but seeing [Esoteric Biblical region …] can give a newb a reason to put down the puzzle.

A shame that the directions weren't placed in their respective directions. That could have made for a TOP OF THE LINE theme. Overall, though, a fine Monday offering with an impressive number of colorful bonuses.

– puzzle by Alex Eaton-Salners

Appropriate puzzle for the year 2020! It's a shame that it wasn't run on the first day of the year — there's something so pleasing about the idea of riffing on 1/1/2020. I'd seen a couple of these before — a game score, the TV show, a ratio, eyesight measurement, and a year — inside tricky crossword clues (easily found with our clue search tool), but never thought to aggregate them like this.

I didn't feel a strong a-ha impact, since some of the themers felt askew. VISUAL ACUITY is the general term for how sharp one's eyesight is, so [20/20, e.g.] doesn't quite work ... let's call that one 30/20 vision.

20/20 as a NEWS … show, right? Huh? You say that Wikipedia allows for a "newsmagazine" to be a television program? Back in my day, magazines were glossy, hand-delivered, and the Sears catalog came in the mail! Get off my lawn, you darn kids!

RATIO works, but it echoes 20/20 as a visual measurement, and also the news show.

Fine, newsmagazine, you stinkin' kids!

Solid grid, as with all of C.C.'s products. Bonuses like WHAT A SHAME and ALL FIRED UP help keep a solver's attention if the theme isn't doing it for them. I also enjoyed some LO MEIN, VASSAR, CAPRIS, DAWDLE, all giving the puzzle a bit of style.

OMBRE is a toughie, but it's no doubt in use. Hey, if Khloe Kardashian is doing it, so will I! Oh, you need hair? Rats, no OMBRE for this hombre.

Fun to imagine other possibilities riffing on the number 2020, especially when you can use any mathematical symbol. Reminds me of the game Krypto, my favorite as a kid. How about a theme using operators to get to the entry's Across number! For example, (20)*2+0! = 41-Across! Think of how many people would love that!

Right, just me.

– puzzle by Zhouqin Burnikel

Ah, the periodic table, we constructors know thee well. A chart filled with one- and two-letter symbols begging to be used in codes? Yes, please! I thought I'd seen everything in this genre, but what a great find in MILITARY JARGON, ARGON so neatly tucked away in JARGON.

I wasn't as wild about the others — I wouldn't say ISN'T IT EXCITING about a baseball player whose nickname, "Goldy," gives away the game. SAFE ENVIRONMENT works, but it's not colorful. This is a common issue when having to conform to a tough constraint.

I thought I was going to flummoxed at the GOLDSCHMIDT / OLIO crossing, since OLIO / OLEO is easy to get wrong. It'd be tough to argue that GOLDSCHMEDT looks more correct, but I'd still prefer a cleaner set of crossings all the way through that name. As much as I loved DUCT TAPE and BUM LEG, I'd gladly lose one to achieve safer crossings.

Similar thoughts on the COMO / EMI crossing, and even XTERRA / SANA (these days spelled SANAA). While it can be argued that mid-week solvers should be able to figure these out, why not avoid the issue completely?

I don't care about "dupes" as much as others, but DIG INTO and RIP INTO feel at the least like untapped potential left on the (periodic) table. What's the point of working in some extra mid-length slots if they end up containing neutral entries?

Great clue for DIOR — man of the cloth, indeed. Fun visual, priests clothed in DIOR!

I loved the MILITARY JARGON find. If others were of that level of snazziness — AURIC GOLDFINGER, SNIPE HUNTING, LIFES LITTLE IRONIES, NINE ONE ONE — I would have classified this puzzle as less inert and more noble.

ADDED NOTE: Astute reader Alina Abidi pointed out that my suggestion of AURIC GOLDFINGER wouldn't work, since AURIC shares etymology with GOLD. I should have clarified that that was the reason why it might have made for a sly "revealer"!

– puzzle by Peter A. Collins

★ A (w)holesome concept, the LETTER W's disappearance making me go down many rabbit holes. I spent so much time floundering while trying to uncover that set of instructions. So many mistakes I had to shred ... shrewd I was not!

I'm glad I stuck with it, as the payoff was so satisfying, finally dawning on me how many clues had been affected. Fantastic job of making all the W-removals all seem so innocent. Kicking it off with [Major source of wheat] is brilliant. Hawn to Han of the silver screen is amazing!

I do wish there had been more longer entries whose clues had been affected. For a puzzle with this much grid flexibility, it'd have been great to put focus on those long downs, where MINUTEMEN and ELABORATE sit. Having so many short themers made it hard to keep track of them.

I'm glad I read Robyn's note since I couldn't figure out why NOW was in such a strange spot. I hadn't noticed there were any other Ws in the grid; that's a nice touch.

There was a lot of crossword glue spread throughout but think of all the short "themers" Robyn had to place. Plus, the three-part revealer! Normally, a puzzle with 10+ gloopy bits would fall automatically out of POW contention, but in service of such an entertaining experience, I let it slide.

I enjoy getting a clue-focused puzzle once in a while. It's been a while since we've such clue trickery — one I remember played on IT. I did find the "quote puzzle" aspect of this one frustrating, but thankfully, Robyn kept that part short. Finally earning all that delightful W-wordplay was well worth it.

– puzzle by Robyn Weintraub

Such a geometric grid pattern! I was hoping for a mini-theme, perhaps like a TIC TAC TOE Thursday many years ago. Ah well. I didn't care for the restricted grid flow — three mini-themelesses aren't nearly as fun as one cohesive one — but it does make a constructor's life much easier. It's a blessing to be able to work a corner like the SE almost completely independently from the rest.

I enjoyed so many of the long entries, LOWERCASE I a devious misdirect from the "stylish" or "cutting-edge" character of Apple products, PULL RANK ON, IN OVERTIME, HALF NELSON, TRUE TO LIFE, LETS THINGS SLIDE, GOING VIRAL. Grant took full advantage of almost every single long slot, spreading so much goodness around.

BOSS BATTLE … I didn't enjoy it as much as Grant, since my Mario days were decades ago. Could be a divisive entry, non-gamers wondering why someone would want to fight sweet Angela Bower. I prefer to target a more general audience, but there are merits to elating a segment of solvers. Although you risk alienating others, at least the entry is two recognizable words.

With so much flexibility, I'd have loved a better balance between all the colorful entries and all the short gluey ones. With 34 (!) 4-letter entries, it's important not to make them stick out any further, so cutting down some of AMOI ATRI HOLO ISAT OF ME would have helped a ton.

Overall though, I enjoy seeing different grid patterns in themelesses.

– puzzle by Grant Thackray

Triple-stacks! In our usual weekly shelter-in-place call, Jim Horne and I noted that it's been a while since we've seen grid-spanning triple-stacks; refreshing to experience one after a break. VICTORIAS SECRET hiring its first transgender model is a great way to anchor a puzzle, and SEALED ENVELOPES shines too.

Not only that, but a pair of vertical grid-spanners connecting the stacks? I marveled at the grid pattern for several seconds when opening it up; a rare occurrence for me. There's something almost regal about it, with that cross in the center. If you squint, the entire picture looks a bit like a crown.

Squint harder!

A couple of great clues, too. VINE as a "tree-hugger." Hens that BROODED on their eggshells. NFL having a lot of "down time" … Jim pointed out that this might be doubly clever, as there's the "first down" kind of time, but the potential down time related to coronavirus. I'm curious to see what socially distanced football looks like. Gives players even more incentive to not be tackled.

Royce did well to leave himself flexibility in the starts / ends of 4- and 12-Down, TAL / PER and CLO / STS flexible letter combinations. A solidly executed puzzle, not an easy task with such tough constraints, with only some ARY and KEATONS.

I could have used a bit more of a challenge, perhaps making the clues for the long entries more deviously clever? Surely ONCE IN A LIFETIME could be made even better by playing on ... reincarnation?

I didn't get quite enough snazz to give this one the POW! — ALL ALONG THE LINE and much of the mid-length material feeling more neutral than assets — but big bonus points for (socially distanced) tackling such a dauntingly regal grid pattern.

– puzzle by Royce Ferguson

I was curious; how many longer words or phrases display alphabetical order besides CHINTZ? A quick Python program told me that there are many six-letter ones — ABBOTT, ACCENT, BIJOUX, BIOPSY, CHOOSY, to name a few — but surprisingly few 7-letter options. There's even an 8-letter one, although it is a bit wonky. Can you guess them? Answers at the end!

This is a tough constraint — normal words that are part of a phrase, that can also be anagrammed into an alphabetically ordered different word — so it's not surprise that Trenton had to use all shorties. None of the themers made me laugh, but I did appreciate the LEGO cluing around SQUARE CHIN (INCH). Creative way to clue it.

What helped hold my attention through the solve was a slew of delightful clues, Trenton's themeless expertise shining through. ICON as where a phone might be "tapped" = brilliant! HISSED playing on "blew off steam." MENSA as a group that should "know better." NIX often spoken as "ixnay" in Pig Latin.

A perfect example of how time spent on clever cluing can help engage solvers, in a big way. Every Sunday should shine this much in its clues.

Along with the goodies Trenton mentioned, he managed to keep my attention throughout most of the solve. I also appreciated how careful he was to balance color and cleanliness, sometimes opting for an interesting single-worder like CHARADE instead of a more flashy two-worder, so he could keep the surrounding region smooth.

7 letters: AAACELL, BILLOWY, DEGLOSS.

8 letters: AAACELLS. I know, it's cheap. But it works.

– puzzle by Trenton Charlson

Homophones have been a crossword staple for decades. Look up any list of homophones, pick out a set containing four or more, and chances are it'll have been in a crossword before. For instance, I first tried WRIGHT, searching *WRIGHT* (the asterisk means "anything," so this will find any phrase containing WRIGHT), and voila! An Arbesfeld from 20 years ago.

Because of the overexposure, it's rare for me to delight in a homophone puzzle these days. However, today's tickled me! At first, it seemed run-of-the-mill, but the more I studied it, the more I appreciated it. Although this theme uses syllables instead of full words, it's uncommon to feature six homophones.

It made me wonder, is this a perfectly tight set? HI, HAI, HIGH, HEIGH, HEI, HY? It took me 30 minutes to finally land on HIERONYMOUS BOSCH. If you can think of another, I'd love to hear it.

Unfortunately, the first themer I uncovered was HAIKU POEM, since it's more common to hear it as simply HAIKU. The overly descriptive HAIKU POEM does work, but it would have been better to bury this entry toward the bottom of the puzzle. Lead with your best stuff!

Speaking of best, this might be my favorite of Alan's (large body of) gridwork. Alan often attempts to go way under the maximum word count, which can result in a ton of gluey or esoteric entries. I worried about that even more, since Monday puzzles are so important to keep clean.

Wow, was I impressed! I'm so glad he stuck at 78 words (the max) and didn't try to do too much. There's nothing showy in the grid, but it's mostly all AGREEABLE (I'd prefer to keep out ARAL, NEHI, and TYRE), and that's so critical for a Monday puzzle.

An interesting concept, a meaty set of homophones, and a clean grid = a product I'd happily give to a newb. That's a big success.

– puzzle by Alan Arbesfeld