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A couple of perfect "off brand" examples today, the SPANISH ARMADA no doubt an "old navy." The big winner was [General mills?], changing the meaning of "mills," as in "puppy mills." Funny to think of MILITARY ACADEMIES as places churning out legions of yapping generals.

OLD MACDONALD as a "jolly rancher" didn't work as well, since nowhere does the song describe him as full of good cheer. If anything, I'd imagine him as tortured as he tries to get all his work done amidst the cacophony.

(Speaking of noise, check out "Clarkson's Farm"—entertaining, but it also gave me an appreciation for how hard farmers work. Especially while having to deal with all of Clarkson's noise.)

Fantastic fill in GOD COMPLEX. LEGAL FEES enhanced my solving experience, too. Even HEPTAGONS, which I typically wouldn't consider great fill, became just that with the interesting trivia. Curious why the 20 pence coin would be a HEPTAGON — wouldn't it make more sense for a 7 pence coin? Brits!

Also, a handful of excellent wordplay clues. [Help when writing a letter] made me think of handwritten letters to family members. Great misdirect away from STENCIL, which helps in writing a (single) letter. Repurposing "rough patch" for THICKET was equally brilliant.

I get a lot of mail from people telling me to quit putting so many damn names in my puzzles. I sympathize with their plight, so I try to keep my own puzzles to mainly words and phrases, but there's validity in the other school of thought. LAYSHIA Clarendon is no doubt crossworthy, as the first openly transgender WNBA player. I appreciate that there's no teachiness to the clue — it's simply a fact, and one that some solvers will love seeing in their crossword. If that's not you, that's okay. As Erik Agard (USA Today crossword editor) says, if today's puzzle isn't for you, maybe tomorrow's will be.

I enjoyed the concept, creative thinking to come up with a lot of on-point examples. The telltale lack of capitalization in the theme clues and the giveaway question marks reduced the impact, though. Maybe some sort of headline-ish ALL-CAPS approach could have produced bigger ahas?

– puzzle by Matthew Stock

WEATHER FRONT is a solid example of the tried-and-true theme type, "revealer pointing to first words." It's a broad category, with many variations, such as BEGINNING OF FALL (words that can precede FALL), FRESH START (synonyms of FRESH), and OPENING DAY (themers starting with days of the week).

I enjoyed the fresh phrases Kyra chose, CLOUD STORAGE a modern term. THUNDERBIRDS is fun, and seeing LIGHTNING BUGS is always a highlight of visiting my in-laws in Indiana.

I wondered if CLOUD, THUNDER, and LIGHTNING were apt WEATHER terms, though. The WEATHER forecast calling for rain or snow, yes, but THUNDER (not thunderstorms?)? A lonely CLOUD? These sky phenomena do fall into the WEATHER category, but it felt loosey-goosey.

Loved so many of the bonuses! EONS AGO sings. MORONIC is a word I (and others) use to describe myself. DRAGONs are fun. Even BOTOX and PRISM spruce things up.

Three potentially tougher terms to mention:

I love the word KVETCH (Yiddish, for complain). Several friends of mine were baffled by a Yiddish puzzle I co-constructed, though, so that's given me more pause about putting it in early-week puzzles. Lest the kvetching feedback continues.

DMING is not D-Ming, the Democrat from Mongo. (DM-ing, or direct messaging — social media shorthand.)

As a finance guy, I'm more tolerant than others to terms like ETAIL and IBANK, because they're common finance lingo. I wouldn't trust any online bank that calls itself an EBANK, though.

I would have loved more grid flow out of the NW corner, perhaps by moving the three black squares above DMING to the right. That would have opened up a juicy long slot in DMING's place, too.

All in all, a fairly smooth Monday solving experience, if not that sharp an a-ha moment. Wish I had caught the progression — reading Kyra's thought process did help elevate my impression.

– puzzle by Kyra Wilson

Shaded squares usually make a puzzle's theme readily apparent. Filling in even one set often gives away the game. It's rare indeed, that not only did I not guess the theme from one corner, but after four corners, I still didn't comprehend.

Heck, even after I uncovered the revealer, it took me a hot minute to figure out the concept: CORNER THE MARKET = the letters of T H E M A R K E T mixed-up into 3x3 squares. The K makes those letters difficult to arrange into one 3x3, so doing it four different ways carries a high degree of technical difficulty.

CORNER has been played upon many times in crosswords. There's corner KICKS, corner STONE, corner STORE, corner LOT, the HOT corner, KITTY corner, ROUND the corner, and even a CORNER corner. This might sound Bubba Blue-repetitive, but there's a great deal of variety within, from rebuses to bending answers to a rebus that Sam Donaldson meant to be a missing square.

Having done dozens of CORNER puzzles, I appreciate that Trip presented a variation I've never seen before. The finance guy in me loves the revealer, too. Such an evocative figure of speech.

Will Shortz doesn't take many of these types of puzzles anymore, because the shaded letters tend to force serious fill compromises. Trip, who I greatly respect as a meticulous co-editor of Zynga's Crossword with Friends, usually wouldn't let so many ETH ATRA DETRE/ARED gluey bits stand.

I did enjoy some of the bonuses, WESTEROS a fresh entry, and SERAPHIM evocative. The concept is certainly innovative. However, it was so difficult to get past all the grid issues caused by the heavy constraints.

– puzzle by Trip Payne

Some great finds, four solidly in-the-language phrases comprised of two movie titles. With this type of paired-title theme, the phrases tend to be clunky or dull, since it's hard enough to come up with anything that works, period, much less anything colorful. I was especially impressed by MONSTER MASH, which uses the Charlize Theron star vehicle MONSTER, with the old M*A*S*H. Neat to have to mentally subtract those asterisks.

Solid revealer, too, FILM SPLICER connecting the themers. After the second themer, I confidently jumped to 52-Across and plunked in DOUBLE FEATURE. I was in La La Land …

Superb gridwork. Brandon did such a great job eking every last ounce of potential out of his mid-length slots. Not an ANOMALY to have BARNARD, AP TESTS, THUNDER, BASMATI rice, BIFOCAL, EMINENT, along with BEIGNET (yum!) and ON MY OWN. Nothing flashy, but all enhancing my solving experience.

Plus some FLOTUS ADWARS! I might watch the news again if it featured a Jill vs. Melania throwdown.

I'd often make a different trade-off in the south since MTA / SUR / PSS is a tough triplet to accept. However, FLOTUS is such a fun entry that I can see the merit. Add in GO WILD and RUN LOW, and that definitely tips the scales.

As Brandon mentioned, this isn't a novel idea. But it is a great example of how you can elevate your puzzle from the pack with an extra layer. In this case, excellent in-the-language themer discoveries made all the difference.

– puzzle by Brandon Koppy

Many constructors have approached me with various "half-human, half-creature" puzzle concepts. Aside from CENTAUR and MERMAID, there's the GRIFFIN (half lion), SATYR (half goat), HARPY (half eagle), MINOTAUR (half bull), among others. I can imagine Greek storytellers running out of ideas, asking themselves, what other human-animal hybrid can I concoct?

All my co-brainstorming has gone nowhere, no approach hitting me strongly enough to want to dedicate time to it. It's so tantalizing … in a Tantalus sort of way.

Today's is an approach I'd never considered: an intersecting phrase using the WOMAN top half of MERMAID, and the FISH bottom half. (WOMAN) OF THE WORLD and DRINK LIKE A FISH. I admire what Adam was able to achieve, given his constraints. Not easy to get four themers, placed symmetrically, all intersecting into MERMAID and CENTAUR. Solid phrases, too, making the feat even more impressive from a technical construction standpoint.

It didn't sing me a siren song, though. Having to clue OF THE WORLD awkwardly … even Homer would have trouble recounting the cross-referenced language.

It did make me wonder, what could have been more impactful? I spent an hour sketching out various options, including one with a WOMAN phrase intersecting the first M of MERMAID and FISH phrase crossing the I, to make it more elegant. Didn't work with symmetry. Bah!

I finally hit on something that seemed fist-pump worthy: themers oriented vertically, like PRETTY MERMAID AND CHIPS. This would hint at two themers — PRETTY (WOMAN) using the top half of MERMAID, (FISH) AND CHIPS using the bottom.

That might have gone over some solvers' heads, though. Not unlike those grapes pulling higher as I reach for them.

The puzzle overall didn't hit me as strongly as I wished, but I'm a miniscule minority who's spent dozens of hours thinking about this concept. And it's impressive that Adam was able to make the symmetry work in this concept.

– puzzle by Adam Wagner

It is so difficult to make a themeless based on a "tic-tac-toe" pattern of interlocking grid-spanners. (The nine intersecting letters elicit a tic-tac-toe-like feel.) This type of backbone presents such a rigid skeleton, often forcing ugly short fill, dull long fill, or most commonly, both.

I'm amazed at Seth's technical masterpiece — not a single short entry that all editors would call out as subpar. Several longer entries that could be considered assets. too: MANGANESE, ACAI BERRY, GETS RICH. (MCMILLAN for we Sonics diehards!) I've tackled several tic-tac-toe themelesses and never gotten to this level, with so few compromises. Bravo!

A couple of fantastic marquee grid-spanners, too. Show of hands from parents, how many have said I MEAN IT THIS TIME more than a hundred times? Hard to take seriously, indeed.

I'm not a Siri user, but HERE'S WHAT I FOUND is a fine answer. I enjoyed "well LAH DI FRICKIN DAH," although it didn't resonate with XWI's resident Canadian. Perhaps it's a regional or national thing.

I usually don't like similes starting with AS. That dude is THICK AS A BRICK, yes. That dude is AS THICK AS A BRICK … who's the brick now? (Usually me, in both accounts.)

Typically I don't mind arbitrary-feeling ONE ARM or THREE CAR. Both in one puzzle is two much.

It's hard to pack a huge quantity of juice and enjoyment into a tic-tac-toe themeless, so this one didn't stand out for me compared to the Friday average. High marks for technical achievement, though.

– puzzle by Seth A. Abel

What a shame that that EIGHTY EIGHT / NIGHTY NIGHT themeless came out less than three months ago. This stairstack of doubled IGHT answers is a neat mini-theme, but one whose impact was blunted tremendously — especially considering David Steinberg's entertaining backstory of how he paired them. (Click on the red "read more" link to get the anecdote.)

Disappointment aside, I still had fun solving Adam's creation. Not only did the IGHT stacks (and even longer IGH one) entertain in the same way as David's ZZ stack, but Adam did something stairstack creators usually avoid: putting a triplet of long answers in the bottom left instead of the bottom right.

This gave Adam an incredibly difficult task. It's often difficult to squeeze much juice out of the Down answers in the lower left of a stairstack, since these entries have to mesh with the center rows. Add yet another constraint — having to connect these Downs with another triplet of long answers at the bottom — and making the most of all your long slots becomes an EINSTEINian challenge.

The cheaters in the SW / NE corners made Adam's life easier, taking away a pair of precious 6-letter slots. Still, ILL PASS to TEXAS TEA to SAT TIGHT, and EINSTEIN / NO SIREE are some solid results.

Great AREOLA clue, referencing nipple piercing. Usually hesitant constructors and editors pass AREOLA off as part of the eye, so I'm glad to see the NY Times get with the times.

I enjoyed today's puzzle, but I mIGHT have loved it a year from now, after David's puzzle faded more from memory.

– puzzle by Adam Aaronson

Who would have thought a YouTube channel about putting together jigsaws would be interesting? To my surprise — especially since I don't do many jigsaws — I've been gripped by Karen Puzzles. Whether it's her beat up on the Try Guys or getting her take on Jigsaw Treasure Hunts, I can't stop watching. Super fun to see those PICTURE PERFECT MOMENTS at the end.

I liked Christina's general idea of making a jigsaw crossword, especially in a time when a ton of people are stuck at home, doing jigsaws. That would be amusing!

Or would the reminder of pandemic-related activities be annoying? Hopefully not.

Speaking of annoying, some of my rough ideas made Christina say something to the effect of "I'D RATHER BE STUCK AT HOME FOR ANOTHER YEAR THAN DO SOMETHING THAT TERRIBLE!" In a kind way, of course. One concept involved sections that you'd have to solve, then mentally move those pieces onto chunks of similarly-shaped black squares, and that would complete a bunch of surrounding answers.

It made even less sense than that explanation I just gave.

Thankfully, Christina nudged us back into a more productive (less idiotic) direction, and after many iterations, we landed on PICTURE PERFECT MOMENTS in a 3x7 grid. Making sure that:

1. it would be obvious how to fit the pieces in,
2. there wouldn't be confusing ways people would wrongly put them into place, and
3. it would be possible to fill the dang thing around all these constraints …

There were some picture imperfect moments during the process.

– puzzle by Christina Iverson and Jeff Chen

★ Fascinating set of finds: two-word base phrases where if you substitute in their individual word opposites, you get another valid two-word phrase — one that isn't the opposite of the base phrase!

I reworded that explanation ten times already; I'm sure there's a more efficient way of explaining it. Best is to give an example. LEFT OFF vs. RIGHT ON — left/right and off/on are opposites. However, not only are these two phrases not opposites, but one's an add-a-preposition workhorse while the other's a fun exclamation. Couldn't be more different!

(Alex's other examples he couldn't include: COLD FEET / HOT HEADS, CATWALK / DOG RUN, STANDOUT / SIT IN. So hard to discover since it's not trivial to search for these programmatically — and such fun finds!)

Solid gridwork, too. Six shortish themers give a constructor the opportunity to add in a ton of colorful bonuses, and Alex confronted the problem head-on: SHELF LIFE, ETSY STORE, IRON AGE, SOUR CREAM, REVEILLES, and some fun mid-lengthers in EGALITE, HELICES, INFERNO.

I added COUCH GAGS to the XWI Word List years ago, back when I was a huge fan of "The Simpsons." The fact that they came up with something new for every episode, even after hundreds of episodes, was incredible. I don't love the entry as much anymore because it's been years since I've watched, but even if you're a Simpsons-hater, at least it's two words that you can recognize, making it possible to successfully finish the Monday puzzle.

I'd have liked the themers to be the longest Across entries in the puzzle since IRON AGE overshadowed LEFT OFF as a much more vivid phrase. Achieving that by shifting a few black squares around, and this could have been a perfect grid. (Although not for a Monday since some of the vocab like EGALITE is tough ….)

It's rare that I get the opportunity to laud a theme that feels this fresh, that adds a new modality into the crossword pantheon. It's common that Alex's name is on the byline when that happens. Extremely well done!

– puzzle by Alex Eaton-Salners

I'm impressed by this puzzle. At first glance, it's a "words that can follow X" theme, which Will Shortz and most other editors have put the kibosh on. However, there's always room to push boundaries.

If you asked me to fill in the blank, [Little red ___], I'd plunk down HEN. Then if you asked, are you sure? Is there another option? Maybe I'd come up with Mao's Little Red BOOK.

Perhaps if you prodded and poked me further, there's a miniscule chance I'd have landed on little red WAGON. And we have a red wagon in our garage!

Add in the quaint little red SCHOOLHOUSE, and that makes for a tidy quartet. I'd have never guessed that so many disparate nouns could fill in that blank, making for a much sharper a-ha moment than with a run-of-the-mill "words that can follow X" puzzle.

But that's not all! Finding that foursome isn't good enough, because often, there's no way to incorporate the key words into in-the-language phrases. Sure, BOOK and WAGON are easy, but SCHOOLHOUSE … ah, SCHOOLHOUSE Rock, a classic from my childhood!

And HEN does start some phrases, but what comes up in searches … HEN PARTY, HEN PECKED … ugh. Not phrases I'd strive to use in a crossword. HEN BERRIES, on the other hand, is wonderful use of fun diner lingo.

Solid grid execution, not a single entry that editors would universally call out as subpar. Some editors flag pileups of abbreviations, like ABC / BCC / FWD, but these three are all so common in my email-heavy existence that I don't mind a bit.

I think Radio RAHEEM crossing the old HAGAR the Horrible could be tricky, but they are from different walks of life, decreasing the chance that a solver won't know at least one of them.

I'd love to see Anne push herself more next time, seeing if she can incorporate an extra set of long downs — trying for another set in the NW / SE corners, for example. Overall, though, excellent debut. It's so rare to see a "words that can follow X" theme that has merit.

– puzzle by Anne Grae Martin

We've had many a smiley face in crosswords. Can't remember ever getting a BLANK LOOK. Reminds me of most every day, when I ask my kids to pick up their mess, and they pretend to only speak Chinese. (None of us do, which makes it that much worse.)

Jim Horne asked me if maybe STEVE KERR was known for his stony-faced expressions, but no. Kerr is famed for his cold-as-ice shot that sealed the Bulls' 1997 title, but he's also been the source of many gigantic smiles over the years. I'd smile too, with Steph Curry leading my team!

That question made me wonder, would this puzzle have impacted me more strongly if Joe had focused on three people known for their stoic expressions? Megan Fox comes to mind, as does Lady Gaga and Johnny Depp. Hard to know if these are more blank looks or brooding expressions, though.

Also, curious that Joel Fagliano, who's a big poker fan, didn't push Joe to include POKER FACE as a themer! That would have been an entertaining angle, much more so than the less colorful SHOWED NO EMOTION.

A couple of rough patches in the grid, this Taiwanese guy struggling with MATSU Islands after filling in four letters from the crossings. Thank goodness AGA Khan is a crossword staple, or I would have been toast.

And the pile-up of LBO (leveraged buyout, when a firm takes on huge debt to multiply their risk/reward during a takeover), ORIEL, KRONE, ELEV … all fair, but OUTRE felt appropriate.

Awesome clue for SWEAR. What a way to play on "utter hell"!

I appreciate smiley faces because I do crosswords to escape real life. Although this one didn't give me any sort of lift (those black square cheeks seem like they got over-lifted at the plastic surgeon!), at least it wasn't a downer.

And it is memorable. Going to 55 blocks is nearly unheard of, and I like unusual layouts done for the sake of distinctive art.

– puzzle by Joe DiPietro

FUNNY bone not a bone but a NERVE, SHOOTING star is a METEOR, KOALA bear a MARSUPIAL, and a PANAMA HAT is … huh? The needle scratched across the record on this one. Turns out it is of Ecuadorian origin, those clever craftspeople marketing to the gold prospectors coming through Panama. CALL IT LIKE IT IS doesn't apply in marketing!

This puzzle reminded me of a Sunday also playing on "but it's not actually." There are so many other possible entries for today's: ST PETERS ELLIPSE, INDIAN NUMERALS, HOLY GERMAN EMPIRE, and it feels like there are dozens more.

I love how AKERS is presented. I'm sure there will be sportsball haters who send me WHY DO YOU FORCE ME TO KNOW RANDOM ATHLETES rants. Well, I would hardly call FIFA's "Player of the Century" random. What an achievement!

It's a shame that Loerna OCHOA didn't get the same treatment, presented simply as a "golf great" instead of showing off her incredible record of 158 weeks as the top-ranked LPGA player.

For a five-themer puzzle, especially one with stacked answers, six long downs can be too ambitious. However, fantastic long downs helped to make up for some EQUI LUNN ALLO SYS KMS URI, the sextet of HIGH HEELS, SALVADOR, DITTO MARKS, TANGENTIAL, RENEGADE, and AT A GLANCE are all good to great.

It's a reasonable trade-off, though placing a few more black squares between TANGENTIAL and RENEGADE could have helped. I'd have been fine with only four long downs, too, which would have given them more room to blossom into a quartet of all A+ entries, while keeping the grid cleaner.

– puzzle by Jake Halperin

Beautiful NW seed corner. OH BOO HOO is so dramatic, and I love having to mentally add the ellipses to WAIT … WHAT? I've seen the latter in many a crossword in the past five years, but it's only the second time it's appeared in the NYT. Along with STAR TURN, that's a star corner.

Such a fun story about expanding ROTI. I enjoy ROTI with curry, but to have it extend full-grid to ROTISSERIE OVENS is even tastier. Easy to picture those 7-Eleven ovens spinning their seventy-eleven-day-old hot dogs …

SHOESTRING CATCH is a colorful phrase, too. I've heard it many a time from friends who love baseball — a daring grab made at an outfielder's toes — and it's something baseball haters can at least figure out from the component words.

I did wonder ... why isn't it called a shoelace catch? At which point the ump tossed me out of the game.

(Shoelaces used to be called shoestrings back in the old days.)

Speaking of old days, CAGER. MODEL A. NEER-do-well. ROUE. And IRE clued as [Choler] reminded me of John using demesne a few times. Not the kind of challenge I'm looking from out of hard clues.

Thankfully, some clues stood out as hard, in a wickedly clever way. [Insight offerer] employed the "hidden capital" trick that fooled me yet again — that's the HONDA Insight. And SIT IN is indeed an ironic way to "take a stand."

SORE LOSER crossing TRUTH … let's avoid political controversy, but man, did I have a big laugh.

I had a tough time finishing, checking every PERSES cross five times, unable to believe that the corner could be right. This Greek mythology buff knows Perseus, sure — was there some sort of rebus trickery going on? Nope, a minor figure last found in the NYT crossword in 1994.

Some excellent entries, ROTISSERIE OVENS particularly fresh. Ones like MEET CUTE are getting less cute, though — fourth NYT inclusion in the past 1.5 years.

– puzzle by John Guzzetta and Michael Hawkins

Nam Jin is one of my favorite recently-on-the-scene themeless makers. I'm biased because I had the privilege of working with him early on, seeing firsthand his dedication to his craft, and how unwilling he was to leave even minor dings unaddressed. I love that work ethic, and it shows in the top-notch quality of his products.

Today's grid is incredibly difficult to work with, a 64-word challenge that features four near-grid-spanners. The stacked 13/14 entries aren't difficult, but they become a ton harder when you leave a wide-open region underneath — with a long entry like MONEY TREES running through!

I've only seen THIS IS AMERICA because I loved Donald Glover (stage name = The Childish Gambino) in "Community." It's a thoughtful video that stuck with me, so I enjoyed that it got its day in the crossworld sun. I can understand how people who don't know of it might shrug, but at least they can piece together the three recognizable words.

My highlight was uncovering MUSICAL THEATER. I thought I'd never again get fooled by a tricky clue involving "numbers" — often used as "someone who numbs"—but I got got. I figured this grid was so tough to fill that the entry had to be something of the boring CORPORATE AUDITOR ilk. Ah, no, that's musical numbers! Great entry, even better clue.

Nam Jin is one of the few themeless constructors whose puzzles regularly include a high number of clever clues. Some of them are likely due to Will Shortz and the editing team, but so many of Nam Jin's themelesses stand out with their wordplay. Again, it's not surprising, given what I know about his dedication to making the solving experience joyful.

I'd love to see every themeless constructor spending as much time on their clever cluing. A+ clue for CHESS, for example. Tying it to checkers — or check-ers, as in people who put their opponents into check — is wow-worthy.

I did notice the BASE dupes. Will Shortz doesn't care much if a short word gets repeated, but three instances feels iffy.

Even so, it's bad luck that Nam Jin got bested by the outstanding Monday puzzle this week. Most of the time, this would have won a POW!

– puzzle by Nam Jin Yoon

DOUBLE CROSS gets at "a hidden TWO acts as a multiplier for a crossing answer." We've fixed up the entries for the database (see listing below), so [Duplicitous] is not ONE FACED but TWO FACED. Similarly with FOUR LETTER WORDS, SIX FEET UNDER, and EIGHT BALL.

I enjoyed FOUR LETTER WORDS and SIX FEET UNDER most, since these feel much more like marquee Sunday entries than the shorties, TWO FACED and EIGHT BALL.

This isn't a new concept — a recent one cleverly crossed two numbers to form plus signs — but I appreciated how well Aimee and Ella hid TWO. It's not the easiest "hidden word" to work with, especially when you're dealing with short phrases, so IT WORKS! and JUST … WOW are great ways to incorporate TWO.

Also cool that ONE, TWO, THREE, and FOUR share a letter with TWO, a curious fact that made this concept possible.

Will Shortz doesn't often accept puzzles that require a repeated, shaded hidden word. The problem is that once you fill in one or two, you can plunk in the rest without thought. That did diminish some of my solving pleasure.

POP A WHEELIE, such a vivid term! (Go watch BMX in the 2021 Olympics; amazing athletes!) STONE SOUP was interesting too. If you haven't heard of it, your curiosity is piqued by two recognizable words that seem to clash. A soup … made of stone? Yes, read all about it!

I enjoy when Sunday constructors try to push the envelope. This one had some inelegant aspects, including the repetitiveness of the hidden TWOs, the shortness of the crossing themers making them pale in comparison to the great long bonuses (using the full BEHIND THE EIGHT BALL would have been much better), and some rough patches like LOLZ / APIA / OPI right at the start. Still, I'd much rather constructors aim high than repeat an overly trodden path.

– puzzle by Aimee Lucido and Ella Dershowitz

Music accidentals have been played upon (sorry) many times, but as with all well-trodden paths, there's usually room for some extra layer to make a new puzzle shine. Freddie's use of ON THAT NOTE is perfectly pitched.

I should leave on a high note now.

Such a vivid themer choice in FLAT EARTHER, much more evocative than so many other phrases like flat tire, flat tax, flat panel, all of which fall flat.

I'll show myself the door. Naturally.

I wasn't as excited by SHARP COOKIE, having filled in SMART COOKIE without a second thought. It is a fine phrase, but I'd have preferred SHARP CHEDDAR paired with FLAT EARTHERS.

Delightful wordplay clue for FLAT EARTHER, too, playing on "not on the ball." (Earth being the ball.) It's so rare to be treated to accessible wordplay like this on a Monday.

And another example, with ROMAN! This one might have gone over newer solvers' heads, which would be a shame — "I, for one" cheekily means that "I" is the ROMAN numeral for one.

Freddie brings up a good point about MARIE KONDO making the right half of the puzzle tough. I did slow down through the KONDO / MONT / BANTU crossings and wondered if they might give newer solvers difficulties. I'm not in MARIE KONDO's target demographics by a long shot, but my wife passionately believes in Kondoizing (much to the chagrin of our pack-rat kids). Seems reasonable to expect New York Times solvers to at least heard of either her or the BANTU people/languages.

Cutting off the SW and NE corners from the rest of the grid wasn't ideal, and I didn't care for how the Z was worked in because UZIS accentuated ARMED. Overall, though, I loved the perfect finale of ON THAT NOTE, helping elevate this one from all the other music accidental puzzles out there.

– puzzle by Freddie Cheng

Neat that all four dipped things cross the substance they dip into. That hadn't occurred to me during my solve, so I highlighted the pairs (below). Makes me admire the concept even more, seeing how tidily each item is partially above and partially below its horizontal answer.

TOE is a perfect example, timidly half-in and half-out of the SWIMMING POOL. BREAD into the CHEESE FONDUE makes my mouth water. And at first, I thought WICK deeper down into the PARAFFIN than the others was inelegant, but it'd be a useless candle without the WICK almost fully submerged.

I wasn't wild about NIB going into INDIA INK. I don't own a fountain pen, and old-schoolers are going to cry out that of course, they dip their NIBs into INDIA INK? I'd have preferred something like PEN into INK WELLS.

Check out how much grid real estate those crossing answers take up. Given those constraints, I don't mind a bunch of EDDA BARA MME IFIT ANET running throughout as much as I usually would. I still might give it a TKT, though, especially with the arbitrary sounding ONE SLICE.

(Then again, Theda BARA sparks joy for Jim Horne. I'll admit, he put up a memorable picture above!)

Will solvers get tripped up by INTERLAKEN crossing KARA? Or PHAEDRA crossing MOVADO? At the least, I'd hesitate before attempting to fill gigantic corners like these. As much as I value long bonuses, I'd be curious to see how placing a black square at the S of MANSION would have turned out. Any 6x5 region is difficult to fill, and when you run some long entries through and/or around it, there are bound to be trade-offs.

Great ANT MAN clue: literally a "small part" in the Avengers movies. Paul Rudd is so amusing in that role, amusing me as much as Ruth's picturesque theme did.

– puzzle by Ruth Bloomfield Margolin

★ It's rare that we get treated to two layers of revealers. I hit PARTY ANIMALS and was underwhelmed by the thinness of the theme — why not toss in a couple more animal-related party games, like duck duck goose or dogpile? (Combining the two is not recommended; it sadly happens every night at my house.)

Then I hit THOMAS NAST. How is he a PARTY ANIMAL … then my brain exploded.

It's not just that PIN THE TAIL ON THE DONKEY and WHITE ELEPHANT are party games with animals. They're the only two party games that use the Democratic and Republican animals!

Absolutely brilliant.

That delayed set of mental fireworks would have been enough to win a POW! But the puzzle didn't stop there. Top-notch gridwork, with excellent bonuses in BLANK CANVAS, BAD HAIR DAYS, along with WHAT FOR? and PAPAYAS. Such meticulous gridding, too, with no short entries that would trigger universal editorial frowns.

(Maybe FLUS in the plural is slightly odd.)

Hilarious clue for EHOW. I'm no mayo fan, but I couldn't stop reading the article about its multitude of uses. Great cluing angle on HOOF, too, eschewing the boring horse or cow route, going with centaur.

All of this — in a debut. Puzzles like this make me even more optimistic about the future of crosswords, in excellent hands with up-and-comers like Alina.

– puzzle by Alina Abidi

I had the pleasure to hang out with Ollie at the ACPT a few years ago. I've rarely met anyone with such a wide range of interests — and who's so skilled at so many of them. He publicized Saul Pwanson's data and analysis about the Timothy Parker plagiarism scandal at 538, so the crossworld owes him a big debt of gratitude. Check out his book of puzzles, BTW. I've had fun trying to work them out. I'm still stuck on the first one, but I'll get it by the time I'm age 538.

I'm not simply being modest about my slowness. Exhibit B: I solved the OAT rebus squares, saw that they were arranged in a circular shape, and the revealer was CEREAL BOXES. Then I asked Jim Horne if he was bothered by some cereals not having OATs as ingredients.

"Are Cheerios — the circular cereal made of OATs — not as popular in America as they are in Canada?" Jim asked, trying mightily to allow me to save face.

It's a shame that Ollie didn't write a "For Dummies" version of his book.

I had a tough time with the south section, this finance guy only vaguely knowing Robert FOGEL, and MOILS not registering as a word. Along with THE GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) tough to see as part of a rebus, that nearly did me in.

I had to guess on RIALTO / BARI but got it right. Better to be lucky than good! I admire Ollie's audacity, picking longish theme answers in both Across and Down directions; for example, FIT TO A TEE and BLOATWARE. Made for some rough trade-offs in short fill, though.

I'd have loved CHEERIO as a secondary revealer, clued as [Brit's "ta-ta" … and a hint to the shape formed by six squares]. That's too much theme material, though. This is a rare case where I wanted the puzzle to expand into a Sunday grid, allowing more room for the secondary revealer, as well as even more long themers as strong as COAT OF ARMS.

– puzzle by Oliver Roeder

NUTLETS made me laugh all over again, Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg the most hilarious pair of color commentators of all time.

Ballsy grid today, 66-worders are no joke. Themeless constructors would typically run triple-stacks in each of four corners, but certainly not incorporate so many long entries (SEE THINGS, VETO POWER, CT SCANNER, etc.) intersecting them.

Others might run most of their juicy entries in the Across direction, leaving the Downs as short filler. Not Randy, who mixed the two styles, with mixed results.

I enjoyed many of the long entries, especially STALE JOKE, NOT FOR SALE, ARE WE ALONE with its extra-terrestrial connotation, IT'S A PLANE.

Even CLINETELE was interesting, especially with the clever [Patronizing types] clue. Not only did I wrongly put in an S at the end, but the use of "patronizing" as one who is a patron (or buyer) is fabulous misdirection.

I wasn't as excited by some of the one-worders taking up those precious long slots, like HARNESSED, ULTIMATELY, PENETRATES (don't ask what Snoop would say about this). Add-a-preposition entries aren't often sizzlers either, like CLOSE IN ON. And I wasn't sure of TOADIED UP's usage, at least not without "to" following it.

Along with more trade-offs in the short fill — OTO prefix, SOOTS in the plural?, RIFER, DYERS, I LOVE partial, etc. I'd have preferred a 68- or 70-word approach that achieved more in both smoothness and snazz.

There was some color in the clues, [Water color] innocently pointing at OCEAN BLUE. As a whole though, it could have used more bling.

– puzzle by Randolph Ross

Six out of six for the long answers forming the grid skeleton!

ELEVATOR PITCH is one of my favorite coinages from the business world. Entrepreneurs are highly encouraged to come up with a memorable way to pitch their company in 30 seconds — the time you might get if you happen to share an elevator ride with a venture capitalist. Such a descriptive term.

THE WAR ON DRUGS is equally evocative, especially with its eye-opening clue. All that money poured into such a waste of time and effort …

(Easy to be high and mighty in pro-cannabis Seattle.)

TURDUCKEN always makes me laugh/cry. A chicken stuffed into a duck, stuffed into a turkey = American excess in a nutshell. Or in this case, a turkey skin. Amazing clue, too, "lots of stuffing," indeed.

I could have used more clever fun injected into the clues for RENEWABLE ENERGY and THAT HITS THE SPOT, but they're both excellent grid entries.

I paused a few times throughout — the extensive grid skeleton was bound to cause some unpleasant squishing of chicken livers into duck bones. HOSP SSRS ELEV SYS VERT are some of the usual suspects editors call out on their spec sheets. APORT is a nautical term for "port." REHEAL is an inelegant RE- addition. EPOCHAL is a word.

Nice save on B-TEN, though, an entry never spelled out in the real world. B-TEN = "beaten," get it?

Also, in the "get it?" column: MARCEL has nothing to do with Marceau. I usually have strong Google-Fu but searching "Marcel Marceau wave" shed no light on this clue. Google-phooey!

I'm not looking forward to the days of having to schlep the kids to Disneyland, but I enjoyed uncovering AUTOPIA. It seemed impossible to figure out, but AUTO + PIA made it easy enough to etymologize.

Fantastic grid skeleton, and a puzzle FULL OF SURPRISES.

– puzzle by Joseph Greenbaum

My wife used to be a competitive Scrabble player so was constantly anagramming letters in her head. Over our first holiday season together, I slipped some bars of her favorite chocolate into her luggage and gave her a hint: mixed-up TACKIEST COUPES. I figured she'd go to an anagramming site and voila! Delicious surprise.

After a dozen increasingly infuriated messages, I hurriedly told her to look in her SUITCASE POCKET. Such is our love-hate relationship with anagrams.

These days, we don't have as much time, but we do the Spelling Bee every day. Mostly love, but ooh, the hate is strong when we can't figure out the pangram.

Jim Horne asked me a thoughtful question about today's puzzle: would I rather see fresh pangram pairs that might not have perfectly apt connections, like MAGLEV TRAINS and MARVELS AT, or time-worn ones that are spot-on, like MOON STARER for ASTRONOMER? I'm still not sure. While I do like the novelty of DATING SITE and INSTIGATED, the clue has to work so hard to connect the two.

It's a shame that more pairs don't feel both fresh and perfectly apt, like GREASE PAINT and PAGEANTRIES.

I enjoyed some of the bonuses, not easy to work in when you're dealing with ten (!) themers. ZOOM BOMB is current. RIGHT ON CUE is fun, too. It is what it is that TRUISMS amuse me. I could have used a couple more of those, though, to help keep me going. Leaving off two of the less interesting themers could have helped (along with making some IATE SHA STDS TNN be GON).

I appreciated the clue on SETI, the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence evoking U2's "still haven't found what I'm looking for." Crossword theme radar pinging …

Super fun to discuss search and computer query strategies with Stephen! I love nerding out with a seemingly intractable problem.

– puzzle by Stephen McCarthy

One of the lifeboats keeping me afloat during these dark days is my weekly crossword conversation with Jim Horne. I knew exactly what the Seinfeld infidel would ask about this week, so I prepared my seventeen-step explanation of NO SOUP FOR YOU!'s brilliance. Fifteen minutes later, I dropped my mic. (It's less dramatic when the mic is your phone, and it falls into the toilet.)

There was a long pause.

"So … this Soup Nazi was one episode? From a show … that aired 30 years ago? Can you explain again why this is funny?"

Note to self: next time, eighteen steps.

"Okay, wise guy," I told him. "Explain to me what 'Columbo' is, and why that one delighted you!"

"Sure. Imagine the sweet old grandpa from ‘The Princess Bride.' He plays this tottering detective, pretending to be a fool. Then as he walks off, he turns to the criminal and says with a wry smile, JUST ONE MORE THING. Then drops the bomb."

Thus, I binge-watched a season of "Columbo." And loved it.

I'm not a big fan of "list puzzles," since it's too easy to use any of the hundreds of possibilities out there, Bruce's alternates a mere sampling. "Seinfeld" alone generated dozens of them. Also, not including the full (IS THAT YOUR) FINAL ANSWER felt inelegant.

I might have enjoyed the solve more if there was a bigger range of age demographics — both Jackie Gleason and Columbo, but what is there for younger solvers? — or diversity. Sadly, there aren't many Asian-focused shows on TV now (or throughout history), and THEY CANCELED "KIM'S CONVENIENCE," BOOOO!

I appreciated the gridwork, Bruce's craftsmanship solid as ever these days. Entertaining that GOOD GUESS echoed FINAL ANSWER, and the clue for WARIO referencing the W on his hat made that entry more accessible to newer solvers.

– puzzle by Bruce Haight

Fun idea, I CAN SHOW / YOU / THE WORLD pointing to entries that can literally show you a view of the world (Earth). PALE BLUE DOT is an awe-inspiring pic of the Earth from space, show how tiny we are in the grand scope of the universe.

POCKET ATLAS also shows (individual parts of) the world, although I wondered why a pocket atlas, not just a regular atlas? I imagine it's because ATLAS is too short to act as a feature entry — tossing in POCKET felt inelegant. Would ROAD ATLAS be any better … maybe?

I hitched on PLANETARIUM. It's been a while since I've been to a PLANETARIUM (been a while since I've been anywhere; sigh), but all my memories revolve around images of stars and space. If you loosen the definition of WORLD, it does work better.

Hey, all four themers start with P, that's cool! POPEMOBILE … can show you the world by driving all over the place on his tours? It is bulletproof, so you can go everywhere, I suppose—

Huh? The theme entry is not POPEMOBILE but GOOGLE EARTH, which is perfectly apt?

Also apt that I LOST was in the grid.

Part of me loves that there's so much bonus material in the grid, entries like SCAREDY CAT, DE NOVO, NO NAME. With a presentation like today's, though, I'd have preferred a less-is-more approach, allowing solvers to focus more on the themers.

It'd also have been great to avoid the awkward TWO TO. I get why it happened, with stacked SHOW/YOU/THE in the middle, and the revealer locked into PLANETARIUM and GOOGLE EARTH. Would WOT be any better, as in a Brit's "huh?" Maybe not, with ERENOW already in the grid. It might be possible to spread the three pieces, spacing them a row apart, but that's calling for a full grid redo.

Strong idea, playing on a (warning: ear worm ahead) catchy song. Some rough EDGES in implementation.

– puzzle by Jessie Bullock and Ross Trudeau

I spent much of a my 20s sleeping with the TV on, needing distractions from the 80+ hour work weeks. The inane 3 a.m. infomercials somehow soothed me, so now I have fond memories of spiralizing fruit-cutters, knives that can cut through both cans and tomatoes, and spray-on hair. I even gave my brother one of these as a gag gift because the pitch was so hilarious.

Turns out that spring-shaped things are more fun to eat!

I might even buy a cherry PITTER if the clue had contained infomercial-style PATTER. Best of the four themers by far; such a clever way of thinking differently about a common phrase.

The others worked, although Adam and Will Shortz sure could use some marketing classes. Throw in some exclamation points! Compel people to act now before they lose the opportunity of a lifetime, because supplies are limited! Come on, not even one mention of "but wait, there's more!"?

Note the placement of the four excellent long bonuses, DNA SAMPLE, DYSTOPIA, IDEALIZE, BLUE STATE — it's a near-ideal layout for many four-themer puzzles. The DNA SAMPLE and BLUE STATE slots are particularly friendly, since they only run through one themer; plenty of freedom to choose whatever you think is snazziest. DYSTOPIA and IDEALIZE are a bit tougher since they must work with two themers, but with friendly crossing letters, there's still much freedom of choice for these slots.

A couple of fantastic clues, ESPN showing a lot of plays but no musicals. BLUE STATE is already a colorful entry, and the misdirection in "leans to the left" makes it even better.

Solid puzzle that could have hit POW! status with some Mad Men-like assistance on the themer clues.

– puzzle by Adam Vincent

Fantastic seed concept; some awesome finds where dropping a letter out of a country forms a drastically different word or phrase. I've played around with this theme genre many a time, and I've also explored dozens of country themes, but I've never noticed that NORWAY minus R = NO WAY. No way that I should have missed that!

PANAMA - A = PAN AM is also excellent. Having to add in that space makes it so interesting.

I have seen SURINAME - I = SURNAME and RWANDA - R = WANDA, so those weren't as interesting. NIGER - N = IGER didn't attract my attention, either, since I find it difficult to keep my media execs straight. BENIN - N = BE-IN … been a long time since the BE-IN days.

My biggest issue with this execution: I didn't understand why I needed to drop the missing letters. A puzzle's revealer should give clear rationale for a tricky Thursday concept. CROSS COUNTRY implies that two countries cross, and they do — but why should the crossing letter be missing?

I'd love to brainstorm on this idea, aiming for some revealer that creates an a-ha moment. We Trekkers might point to "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," which I could connect to "solvers need to ‘discover' the countries." Maybe something like "hallowed ground" or "free country" or "birth of a nation"? None of these work perfectly, but I would have enjoyed pushing to see if something brilliant emerged.

Additionally, why R I N A? I wondered if it was meant to point to another country, IRAN, but "randomgramming" is not good practice. Even if it did produce IRAN using a reasonable ordering, it'd need an additional revealer to help solvers make a secondary a-ha.

Love the basic premise, and it would have been great fun to try to develop the cool finds into something POW!-worthy.

– puzzle by Ashish Vengsarkar

★ Another delightful puzzle from one of my favorite themeless constructors. There's so much emotion tied up in OH, IS THAT SO?, ranging from innocent querying to sarcastic throwing of shade. I love these kinds of entries.

CAKE TOPPERS is another fantastic entry, but for a different reason: it's ripe for clever cluing. Playing on "stuck-up" — as in stuck on top of a cake — is so smile-inducing. Plus, cake!

Similarly with TELEKINESIS. It's not only laden with mystery, but innocently repurposing "brain power," as in a literal power generated by one's brain, is as magical as the wikihow page on how to develop TELEKINESIS. Quite a moving (sorry) article.

I wasn't as hot on the ROSE BUSHES misdirect. Both Jim Horne and I fell for the Rose GARDEN trap, but it felt more mean than clever. Sort of a Nelson Muntz "Haw haw!"

And as typical for a Weintraub themeless, more than a handful of wordplay clues that elevate boring ol' day-to-day short fill. A CODA is (a set of musical) bars that close (out a piece). Getting a date from a PALM is different from Tinder. If only Palm Pilots were still around, you could get a date from a palm or a Palm!

Pardon my French, but how the @#$! am I supposed to know the French for "without caffeine"? Wait. SANS … caf … ah, SANKA! Great piece of trivia.

A "clue echo" works best when the same clue is repurposed in two vastly different senses. Using "turnover" in two consecutive clues, to mean an apple pastry vs. a basketball flub is perfection.

It's not one of my absolute favorite Weintraub creations, what with some potential left on the table — BEFORE I FORGET isn't as evocative as OH, IS THAT SO?, and entries like GUIDEBOOKS and GOES TOO FAR had uninterestingly straight-shooting clues. Still, a lovely ten minutes of escape. Exactly what I want out of a crossword.

– puzzle by Robyn Weintraub