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I had an amusing e-mail exchange with Dana after I read her "Constructor Note". After going through the entire puzzle twice, I had absolutely no idea what her "screamingly iffy" entry could be. Was I missing some sort of clever Freudian symbolism represented by WRIST BAND crossing ONION RINGS? A hidden message related to SCREWS?

Her response: "BATES MOTEL. I decided it has entered the popular culture such that it is no longer questionable. I was 18 in 1960, the year 'Psycho' came out, and that movie had everyone going. It was a different world."

Indeed, totally eye-opening to this Gen-Xer!

– puzzle by Dana Motley

A main criteria I use in assessing a themeless puzzle is cleverness in cluing. "Brother's keeper?" was fantastic, totally misdirected me and then provided an "aha" moment when I finally pieced it together. Wonderful wordplay. And of course my immature self giggled when I read "Drawers hitting the pavement?", one of my favorite clues for the week.

Note the extremely difficult grid arrangement allowing for interlock of four marquee 15's and two 11's. This makes it extremely challenging to fill the surrounding spaces, especially the wide-open corners constrained by three long answers apiece. Interesting that Ed chose to put MAKE MINE A DOUBLE (love that answer; I will be using it after babysitting my niece and nephew tonight) where he did, since it necessitates 3-down and 11-down ending in a K and a B, elevating his difficulty level in those corners. I'd say he had great success in those areas; very impressive work.

The southwest corner seemed to me a little weaker that the rest of the puzzle, so I wanted to figure out why. I thought it should be less difficult to fill given the more common letters in place, but quickly realized that once the northwest corner is filled as it is, the 24-down NEEDE?? pattern can only be filled with NEEDERS (can anyone think of anything else that would fit?). At that point, MESSRS is the only entry that can satisfy the 45-across ???SR? pattern. The corner is thus heavily constrained with only a few possible ways to fill it.

OTERO, EME, and NEEDERS all together aren't ideal, but I'd say the shininess of the northwest corner makes for a good trade-off.

– puzzle by Ed Sessa

I'm hesitant to say anything, because how could I be wittier than Liz? =] I'm in complete agreement with her; I attempted a much simpler perimeter construction, a puzzle where AROUND needed to be appended to the perimeter answers. It took me dozens of revisions over the course of more than a year, and I think I lost a little of my soul to it. Call it a personal horcrux.

The difficulties in this type of construction are two-fold. First, each corner has fixed two-way constraints, making clean fill difficult. Compounding the problem is the second issue, the fact that the perimeter answers will be relatively short, so the puzzle must contain longish fill in order to keep the overall word count under the editor's maximum. It's one of the hardest types of constructions I've undertaken.

You would think I'd swear off this type of construction for life, but I like the challenge. There's a fine (line) between clever and stupid.

Now consider Liz's puzzle. Not only did she 1.) have fixed placements in the four corners and 2.) have to incorporate longer fill to keep under the maximum word count of 140, but she 3.) also had three interlocking theme answers in the center. Bravo to her for the puzzle and even more so for her entertaining commentary!

– puzzle by Elizabeth C. Gorski

Inspiring to see crosswords bring in so much money for a worthy cause! Raising $13,500 in three years is amazing.

I really enjoyed this puzzle's theme; fun to think about what disparate things come ON A ROLL. It's a shame to break up that great phrase, though. I might have tried to keep it as one entry, putting it either 1.) as the central across (or down) entry or 2.) as the very last across answer. The latter would be much harder, necessitating four triple-stacks of 7-letter answers, but could make for a wide-open grid (better for a later-week puzzle). The former might be more appropriate for a Monday puzzle, perhaps exchanging HONOR STUDENTS for A STUDENT or A STUDENTS (assuming another 8 or 9-letter theme entry could be found).

– puzzle by Jean O'Conor

A goal of the early-week puzzles is to make crosswords widely accessible, thus drawing newer solvers into the fold. So I think a Monday or Tuesday puzzle should have little to no "crosswordese" entries (words that are rarely seen/used outside of crosswords), and if it contains esoteric answers, the crossings ought to all be fair. An amazingly difficult task considering there are usually 74-78 answers to squeeze in.

Making an early-week, beginner-level puzzle is one of the toughest challenges in crossword construction, and CC and Don have largely succeeded here. The "word that can follow both halves of the theme phrases" theme type has been done many times before, but the addition of the clever revealer really adds to the puzzle. DOUBLEDAY is a perfect last theme entry to the puzzle.

Plus, I absolutely love their long fill: MR HYDE, LAB COATS, SNIPED AT, ABS SYSTEM, PATTY DUKE. These sparkly answers spice up the puzzle, increasing the chance that a solver will smile or be wowed during his/her experience.

But there's a price to pay for all the great long fill: the PBA/ASSAM/KUNTA crossings. While none of these entries are "crosswordese", if the solver isn't a bowler and isn't up on their Indian geography, will they fill that square in with an "I"? If a beginning solver ends up with KUNTE and ASSEM or (KUNTO and ASSOM), they may learn something useful and/or interesting from their mistake, but will it sour their feelings about crosswords?

So even though PATTY DUKE and ABS SYSTEM are fantastic answers, I might have broken them up, putting black squares at the "D" of THE ROD and at the "S" of SONNET. This would result in 78 words instead of 76, with less sparkly long downs, but would also allow for a cleaner southwest area, thus increasing a novice solver's chance to finish accurately and with satisfaction.

Just this constructor's opinion; there is no right or wrong answer. Difficult trade-offs! ADDED NOTE: thanks to Will for his thoughtful response (below)!

– puzzle by Zhouqin Burnikel and Don Gagliardo

Such a shame that constructor extraordinaire NATAN Last wasn't in on this one. =]

Great concept for a theme. I really liked the idea of having two instances of the word TAN making for a literal TAN line, and the three 15-letter theme answers do this perfectly. Very neat! It's a nice bonus that each of these answers is a lively entry in itself.

To expand on Will's point, not only are there five long theme answers, but an additional four instances of TAN (or NAT) hidden vertically, plus the TAN/LINE revealer. This is a gigantic set of constraints, much higher than usual. It's impressive to see so many TAN instances, but since there's no explicit rationale for having 14 of them, I wanted to see if there was another arrangement which might allow for cleaner fill while keeping the nice theme concept.

Some searching turned up AUGUSTA NATIONAL as another grid-spanner having a "TAN line" (two connected TANs). I like the idea of having four 15-letter theme entries that do this, with no other TANs present, something like this grid. It's not nearly as ambitious as Jonathan's construction, but to Will's point, it makes for a different balance of quantity of theme/quality of fill. Some might like it more, some might like it less.

A final note: how incredible would it be if the TAN lines made some sort of recognizable shape, perhaps by placing the theme entries in a pinwheel arrangement? I don't think the Gray Lady is ready for the shape I had in mind, though. =]

– puzzle by Jonathan Gersch

I really like when rebus puzzle have a good reason for multiple letters to be shoved into one square. This puzzle is an example of that, since it has literal CALL boxes along with CALL BOX at 14D. Clever! 1A/38A/67A are fantastic entries; not to mention, who doesn't like a ST PAULI GIRL and a RAPSCALLION in their puzzle? =]

I winced a bit at MONGST and AMARO, both of which I needed every cross to get. SPATLESE is fine in retrospect (and is something I'm happy to learn about), but it also took me every cross. Out of curiosity, I tried to see if there was a quick fix to get rid of the first two answers, but I didn't find any easy way of working around them. Perhaps Stu will start a campaign to get a thoroughfare in Philly (his hometown) renamed to MONG ST.? =]

So I wondered how difficult would it really be to get rid of MONGST and AMARO and decided to roll up my sleeves to dig in. I tried changing ROLL CALL to COLD CALL, but that didn't help much by itself. After another hour of trial and error, I realized that shifting the location of one set of black squares really helps. Those giant open spaces in the NW and SE are so tough to fill that shrinking them ever so slightly really helped.

This is the grid I finally worked out (empty regions should be easy to cleanly fill) after several hours. It has the benefit of two fewer 3-letter words, which is nice, but it does contain the clunkers ROLEO, EENS, and FER (amongst others) so it's not clear that it's a "better" grid. Perhaps I could improve it with a few more hours work, but I don't know. It's a testament to the difficulty of Stu's task!

– puzzle by Stu Ockman

★ POW! In the spirit of the great Ryan and Brian (of "Ryan and Brian do Crosswords"), I'm trying out a new feature: Jeff's Puzzle of the Week!, or POW! for short. I'll use it to celebrate what I believe is the "best" puzzle of the week, the one that best exemplifies what that type of puzzle (early-week, late-week, themeless, or Sunday-size) ought to be. This week my POW! goes to Ian for his beauty of a themeless.

Ian incorporates several marquee answers to bring a smile to solvers' faces (BOBBLE HEAD, MAC N CHEESE, EPIC WIN, etc.), with a minimum of subpar entries (if ES SU and ENE are your worst entries, that's a tremendous success). Most notably, look at the wide-open NE and SW sections, big 6x5 blocks of white space that typically require an ugly answer or two to fill. I often shudder when faced with these types of cavernous areas, usually having to redo the section two or three dozen times before I get something even passable. Ian's are impeccably executed, not a stinker amongst them, and he even managed to work in BRAPADS and RWANDA, a call-out to his seed entry.

Speaking of that, I really enjoy learning what a constructor used to seed a themeless puzzle. I expect that some people are going to gripe about JUBA because they've never heard of it, but I think it's a perfect example of something I was glad to learn about.

Final note: great to hear Ian's comment about SIDESHOW BOB. Kudos to him for this decision; it's really tough as a constructor to give up on an answer you love, but it's the right thing to do if it means coming up with better overall fill. This willingness is one factor that separates the great constructors from the rest.

– puzzle by Ian Livengood

An excellent puzzle, one that would have earned the vaunted POW! (Puzzle of the Week) if Ian's themeless hadn't run yesterday. Note the fine execution of the near triple-stacks (17A/20A/22A and 42A/51A/53A). Often triple-stacks contain an ugly or a blah 15-letter entry, but Frederick gives us six long entries that would each qualify (in my book) as a marquee answer. Impressive feat.

Solvers will also typically complain that triple-stacks force ugly crossing answers. That definitely can be true, since a triple-stack requires 15 sets of parallel constraints, but Frederick does it admirably here. The top one is especially nice, with not a clunker in there. OF TEA and A RUDE in the bottom half are perfectly acceptable, but they're not ideal. I didn't know GELEE, but was interested to learn what it was.

Will gets more themeless submissions than any other type, so we as constructors have to up our game to get serious consideration for a themeless acceptance. A small number of subpar entries (esoteric, partials, abbreviations, etc.) can be cause for rejection, and even a single poor entry can nix a puzzle. Given this fact, getting enough "sparkly" answers is a tough feat to accomplish. By my estimate, a themeless puzzle needs at least 10 of them to even be in the running these days.

If you have time, you might consider browsing older "Pre-Shortzian" themeless puzzles (thanks to David Steinberg for leading the "litzing" efforts) available on xwordinfo. Amazing to see how much cleaner and more interesting themeless puzzles are these days.

– puzzle by Frederick J. Healy

It's a rare occasion that I run across a theme idea I've never seen before. Bravo to Victor! It took me a ridiculously long time to figure out the trick, but when I realized the state capitals were split, forming two L-shapes apiece, I smiled.

Sunday puzzles are notoriously difficult to construct; roughly a factor of five more difficult than a regular weekday puzzle. The biggest challenge is that instead of 225 squares/78 max words, you're working with 441 squares/140 max words. While this might seem no different at first glance, it's like sculpting with clay vs. damp sand. So many of my Sunday puzzles have fallen apart just when I think I'm nearly done (unfillable corner, too much ugliness, etc.), and I'm forced to reboot.

Consider the open white spaces in the four corners, for example. You don't typically see that kind of real estate outside of themeless puzzles. Trying to fill them cleanly while maintaining your thematic density can be a serious challenge. Ratcheting up the difficulty level, Victor has chosen to use only 136 words, making the task even harder. He could have split up 23A/123A and/or 24A/126A with black squares, but it would have taken away some really nice long fill. For a Sunday puzzle, which comes with the expectation that there will be some less-than-stellar fill, the price to pay (ONDES, PUD, et al.) seems fair. I personally might have split up one pair to get cleaner fill, but that's a subjective difference in construction style.

– puzzle by Victor Barocas

Almost all crosswords place theme answers horizontally, because they're generally easier for solvers to pick out that way. It's a rare puzzle that can successfully pull off vertical themers, and Ian does it well. A simple theme for a Monday, one with good rationale why the themers should run down instead of across.

Note that Ian didn't just choose any four fruits, but ones that are disguised within their phrases. Sure, SODA LIME or PRICKLY PEAR would exhibit literal LOW HANGING FRUIT, but the first isn't a fun phrase and the second isn't disguised. DIDNT GIVE A FIG could work, but it doesn't fit the two-word pattern. So bravo to Ian for being both consistent and specific in his choice of themers.

18A and 63A are fun longer fill, but do they distract from the theme (making solvers wonder what SWEET TALK and CENTER CUT have to do with LOW HANGING FRUIT)? In this case I think it's totally fine because the theme is so obvious, but it would be a different story if the theme were more difficult to ascertain.

Finally, a JWDW (Jeff would do WHAT?!) moment. Will made an excellent point last week about a great majority of his audience already being NYT xw solvers, so that's what he edits to. But I would love to see at least a few super-easy Monday puzzles throughout the year, since it's difficult to get most of my friends to even try a NYT puzzle. Today's is certainly fair (all answers are ones that an educated person ought to know), but I can see how it would be tough for newbies (EL AL, ULEE, OCHS, OLEO, ESTES). Here's an idea for audience-building, which I think is important for the long-term health of crosswords: what if puzzles in the first week of the month were relatively easier than the rest of the month? Anyway, something to consider.

– puzzle by Ian Livengood

Congrats Jacob on your debut and excellent work coming up with such a cleanly-filled puzzle!

A nice example of the "both words can precede X" theme type. Note the "pinwheel" arrangement which typically allows for easier filling, since each themer has its own quasi-contained quadrant of the puzzle. The trade-off is that this pattern makes it more difficult to work in fun longer fill. Jacob has some nice stuff (ROTGUT, BATH OIL, MARBLES, VOODOO) but it's usually nice as a solver to get longer (8+ letters) fill.

Compare and contrast today's puzzle with last week's Tuesday. Similar theme types, but last week had more really good long fill with a higher overall difficulty level, while today's is likely more accessible to newer solvers. I'm glad to have both ends of the spectrum.

Finally, a tiny nit to pick. Even though the puzzle is squeaky-clean overall, the east section contains ARA, which I would love to see less of in early-week puzzles (GET IT? / AKA / GIN / BEDS could be an alternative). ARA isn't a "bad" entry, but I prefer for early-week puzzles to contain no "crosswordese" (answers seen much more frequently in crosswords than in real life), because for me, it provides a more elegant and satisfying solve.

This is a subjective matter though, since a case can be made for ARA being something people ought to know. As a further example of crosswordese's subjectivity, I'm perfectly fine with an answer that some constructors hate, OBI, because I've seen OBI on Japanese friends before. Now if it were ADIT (old term for a mine opening), the gloves would be coming off. =]

– puzzle by Jacob McDermott

I met Erik at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament two years ago and immediately liked him. What a fun guy! I only wish he hadn't shaved his awesome afro recently. He's being mysterious about his picture, so I'll find a good Dick Cheney pic to use if he doesn't send in one soon, similar to the one of my wife.

I love what Erik has done with this theme. Quote puzzles have largely gone by the wayside due to the fact that the theme entries are essentially unchecked until the solve is almost done. This often gives solvers fits, so the payoff has to be high — a hilarious punchline, a bot mot, a witty turn of phrase — if it's to work. So Erik has broken up the themers and knitted them together at the very end, putting the pieces together nicely.

Erik's cluing is distinctive too. Leave it to a hip 20-something to come up with the clue for 3-down; I love it. I enjoy it when a puzzle's clues exhibits the constructor's vibe. Sam Donaldson, friend, tax professor, and cake-maker, is excellent at this too, as demonstrated in this puzzle.

I have a minor issue with the SE, the inclusion of TAIT. I'm a fan of topology and Martin Gardner's puzzle-related work, but that's a pretty esoteric name even for me. Having two parallel constraints in that corner (end of BETTER YEAR and RUTH) makes construction hard enough, but adding a third parallel constraint, an 8-letter across, forces a very difficult construction. The result is a blip in Erik's otherwise excellent work.

Speaking of work, if only Erik had clued SERENITY related to "SERENITY now, insanity later", a phrase I frequently use while writing at my local coffee shop.

– puzzle by Erik Agard