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NINETY-ONE … equals TWO TIMES / FIFTEEN, TRIPLED / PLUS ONE?

Double-checking … (2 x 15) x 3 + 1 = 91. Yup, that works.

The real question, though, is why doesn't this puzzle's equation equal FORTY-TWO since that's the answer to life, the universe, and everything? I want answers!

Big-picture questions aside, some amazing clues helped me push aside my confusion about the arbitrary feel of NINETY-ONE as an answer. WINE FRIDGE is already a gold-star entry, and the use of "vintage appliance" will make it age even better. I hadn't heard of a NADA COLADA, but the clue's hint about rhyming sure helped me drink it down.

Saving the best for last, there was some magical alchemy in turning plastic to paper. Now that's a way to elevate the everyday ATM!

I have a difficult time getting over the disappointment of the answer to the equation being an arbitrary number that probably just happened to fit with crossword symmetry — how awesome would it have been if the value had been that of its grid position, like FORTY TWO at 42-Across! — but there's something fun about the playful crossover of math and English.

– puzzle by John Wrenholt

★ Plenty of NYT crosswords have their ups and downs, but Tracy takes us on a thrill ride, featuring RAMPs to climb, SLIDEs to plummet down, and a beautiful diagonal of black squares to emphasize the concept. Way more ups than downs!

Many puzzles have featured diagonally rising / falling themers. This one was so much more enjoyable than others, partially because it wasn't so overly complicated that solvers griped to the depths of Tartarus (I learned a hellish lesson that day). The overt circles made it immediately clear what was going on, and I appreciated that. They also served as a pretty set of CHUTEs and ladders, reminiscent of that game board.

What put this puzzle over the top: two delightful "apticlues." (Coinage courtesy of the brilliant Jim Horne!) Many phrases would work with HILL, like ACHILLES HEEL or PHILLY CHEESESTEAK, but how many are related to something that actually ascends? Why have I never noticed the awesomeness of HILL inside Sir EDMUND HILLARY?

Same goes for PARACHUTE IN. DESCHUTES RIVER would have worked, but it wouldn't have the delight of CHUTE within a phrase that's coming down to earth.

There isn't any symmetry in the themer placements, which bothered me at first. There's enough flexibility in entries like SLIDE that at least one or two pairs could have exhibited some degree of symmetry. Ultimately, though, it's so hard to jigsaw these risers or fallers that I was impressed with Tracy's ability to work in six of them.

Beautiful gridwork, too; unexpected given how difficult it can be to 1) work around diagonal themers, and 2) build even a normal 140-word Sunday grid. If I were a betting man, I'd have set the over/under for gluey bits at 12 for an average constructor. I've had the pleasure of working with Tracy and know how strong she is, so I'd lower that to 6. She was well under! She did go up to 144 words, but with all the sparkle of LOOM LARGE BRATWURST BEAR CRAWLS ROULETTE, I hardly noticed.

This is a great example of a puzzle that doesn't push the envelope of theme development, but does a fantastic job of presenting a concept that's both interesting and beautifully executed for the NYT's broad solving population.

– puzzle by Tracy Gray

As a huge fan of grid art, I'm embarrassed that I missed the two pluses in the middle of the grid — perfect image for a DOUBLE CROSS theme!

I'm doubly ashamed because I used to program recreationally in C++.

Plus, I've seen so many redox reactions with both pluses in the ions AND pluses in the equations … I deserve an F-- today.

Adam is spot-on about "words that can precede X" puzzles — Will Shortz rarely takes them these days. Will does sparingly accept "both words can precede x" puzzles, but he's ultra-careful to spread them out, publishing roughly one a year. That sparsity has been great for this longtime solver — I couldn't immediately recall the last one, so today's didn't trigger my ennui for this tried-and-true genre as badly as usual.

Mondays are geared for newer solvers, so even in the remote chance that a newb thinks "here we go again," there's still a lot to love:

• This type of theme often feels dull, because the possible thematic phrases are so limited that constructors are forced to use blah entries. Not today! WIND SECTION, BAR EXAMINATION, and REFERENCE CHECK are all worthy.
• The revealer is spot-on. DOUBLE CROSS clearly points to (cross) WIND, (cross) SECTION, etc.

Although, I did have to do some self-EXAMINATION after I wondered if it was (double) CHECK and double (BAR).

Better make mine a double.

A couple of minuses in gridwork — kicking off your NW corner with ALII and ALIE is a double-negative — but overall, a solid offering. If Adam had been able to add PLUS into the grid to doubly point to the grid art, I'd have added a + onto his grade.

– puzzle by Adam Simpson

Such a tittle-ating theme!

I write in ALLCAPS, so it took me a beat or three to figure out how DOT DOT DOT worked. It's neat that there are any words, period, that contain the *iji* string of letters. (You can search for these by entering *IJI* into our Finder.)

A shame that there aren't any phrases where the three letters break across words of a phrase, though. Will Shortz is usually a stickler about this, saying for instance that the DOLLAR part of FIJI DOLLAR doesn't do any thematic work.

BEIJING violates another of Will's tenets, that themes typically ought to be built around multi-word phrases, which tend to be more colorful than single-worders.

I wondered — are there any entries that contain sequences like JII or JJJ? Entering *[IJ][IJ][IJ]* into our Finder, unfortunately, shows mostly boring alternatives that involve III.

I triple sigh.

It's always useful to weave in bonuses to enhance the solving experience, and when some solvers may miss the theme completely, this verges on essential. It's a tough task, though, when your central entry forces four big corners, heavy with 7-letter entries.

Thankfully, Trenton is a master at 7s! Zingers like DON JUAN, O CANADA, TEMP JOB will hardly leave people IN AGONY. One of the keys is to use black squares to make those corners 7x3 instead of 7x4. Another is to make sure that only one themer is running through each corner, so you have a ton of flexibility. After that, it's a matter of time-consuming optimization.

I didn't find this to be the most capital of ideas since none of the findings were wowzers. I did enjoy connecting the DOT DOT DOTs, though. Such an interesting trigram of letters to build around.

– puzzle by Trenton Charlson

★ When a friend first spurred me on to pick up crosswords more than a decade ago, I was skeptical. Part of it was the perception that crosswords were for old people, but the majority was the fear that I was too dumb to finish one. But hell to the yeah, I crushed that Monday; I'VE GOT THIS!

Oh. They get harder as you go?

When I tried my first Tuesday, WISH ME LUCK was running through my head. I eventually managed to finish. But my first Wednesday, I'D LIKE SOME HINTS was my overwhelming sentiment.

(Replacing SOME with ALL THE would be more accurate.)

On Thursdays they run trick plays? WHAT IN the HELLz, Shortz?!

And Fridays were impenetrable. I looked at one as a lark and couldn't fill in a single square. Stop — GOOGLE TIME!

What an absolute delight to have this wonderful set of memories played back for me, nearly word for word. So many people seem to have "be able to regularly complete the NYT crossword" on their bucket list, and Ekua captured that spirit with playfulness. It's so meta!

Solid gridwork, too, especially for a debut. She could have stuck to a single set of long Down bonuses, but working HONDURAN / INNOCENT and DO THE DEW! / LAVA CAKE help the solve erupt with flavor. Keeping the gluey bits to things that Wednesday solvers tend to gloss over anyway — INT, NES, REI — shows the wisdom of an experienced constructor.

One of the most memorable debuts in years. I can't wait to see what Ekua does next.

– puzzle by Ekua Ewool

Rebus! FOUR CORNERS explains the FOUR CORNERS states spread to the corners of the grid. I wondered at first why the Four Corners states were so oddly separated from each other — isn't the interesting thing about them that they meet? — but the alternate interpretation of them being in the grid's four corners is different and fun.

There are few constraints to work with — only FOUR CORNERS, plus the four rebus squares — so there's huge potential for sizzling, smooth fill. Matthew didn't disappoint, his well-honed construction skills shining through.

The most impressive factor was that he managed to work the four rebus squares into not just one fantastic entry apiece, but pairs of fantastic entries. LEAN O(N M)E would have been fine by itself, but having that NM also in IRO(N M)AN = an Avengers Assemble moment.

(To clarify, ON ME would have worked, but it's so much more boring than IRON MAN.)

But check out what else he worked in: TRIAGED, FLOTUS, POT ROASTS, FILL ME IN, PINE TAR. That's not just great material in the four corners, it's from coast to coast.

The FOUR CORNERS region has been riffed on many a time, from one that mimicked the actual geography, to a beautiful UTAH STATE idea, to many more. I enjoyed today's creative interpretation, although having the rebus squares in rotationally symmetrical spots (shift the UT down one, the NM to the left, and AZ up and to the right) would have been an elegant touch.

– puzzle by Matthew Stock

Amanda Yesnowitz got scooped!

Some delightful finds today, THEM / US in FACE THE MUSIC the big winner. I thought I had the puzzle figured out after the NO YES of ALFRED NOYES, but it was quite the opposite when I got stumped — how are THE and MUS possibly antonyms? It's so neat that THEM/US spans the words of a great phrase, incorporating a mystifying space change as it does.

ENDODONTICS might not be the most interesting themer (unless you're dentist Mark Diehl!), but that's an impressive way to hide the DO/DON'T pair. Much more accessible than ZALAMBDODONTA, anyway.

Others like FIX BREAKFAST and POOR RICHARD were less awe-inspiring, because they're easier to spot.

Is AND the opposite of OR? This Vulcanerd argues that NAND is more logically the opposite of AND; similarly NOR and OR. I'm sure RAGGEDY ANN AND ANDY will rag on me just as much as my usual readers, though, for being out of OPERATOR NORM.

I was curious to see what other possibilities a methodical search could turn up. With the help of some lists of opposites and our Finder (in ascending order of WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, JEFF?!:

• NAME YOUR POISON
• I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN
• ARNOLD NEWMAN
• WHATS UP DOWN UNDER
• MELLOWHIGH
• SEAL AND SERPENT

Hardly a BOUQUET OF ROSES, this bunch.

Although the themers landed with mixed results, I loved the concept. It's rare for a Sunday theme to pique my interest to the point of wanting to know how the search was done, much less diving right in, and some of the discoveries will definitely stick in my head.

– puzzle by Derrick Niederman

★ Not only is SHONDA RHIMES an incredibly talented producer, show-runner, and writer behind such mega-hits as "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," and "How to Get Away with Murder," but she has a name that's perfect for crosswordplay? SHONDA RHIMES with FONDA, WANDA, and HONDA — awesome!

The only shame is that she doesn't play the new Black Panther. WAKANDA Forever!

I enjoyed that this is a "tight" set, i.e., there are few other possible themers. RONDA ROUSEY might want a cage match with Michael for her exclusion. There are some three- and four-syllable options, like WAKANDA FOREVER, LUANDA ANGOLA, and the ANACONDA PLAN, but those don't fit the sing-song FONDA WANDA HONDA pattern.

WANDAVISION adds freshness to the puzzle, too. That series got confusing and draggy in parts — it sure could have used some busta Rhimes — but it passed pandemic lockdown time pleasantly enough.

There's so much to love in the bonuses. TRANSITIONS / SEASHELL / GUERNICA / CINCO DE MAYO are so wisely spaced apart, leaving flexibility to achieve smooth short fill. Partials like A TO often irk constructors, but they're relatively easy for newer solvers to fill in, often more so than a foreign word like TOV (I've seen people misspell it TAV).

Perhaps GUERNICA could be challenging for newer solvers, but note that Michael was careful not to cross it with any proper names that might create ambiguity. It's a fantastic painting, too, crossworthy to say the least.

Crossword themes based on rhymes are too overdone to even be considered much these days, but using a RHIMES spin elevates this one to a POW!

P.S. If this review seems like a shameless plug to get Ms. Rhimes to hire me to do basically anything she wants, it is.

– puzzle by Michael Lieberman

Hard not to get your kicks out of this one. Four of them, to be precise! HERE'S THE KICKER is a sizzling phrase, and it aptly describes a FOOTBALL PLAYER, a ROCKETTE, an UNBORN BABY, and a KANGAROO.

ROCKETTE is perfect for this theme since their high kicks are iconic. In a free association exercise, if the experimenter said "Rockette," I'd blurt out "kick."

Not as much for FOOTBALL PLAYER, but I like that the general term disguises the lonely professional kicker, obfuscating the concept to build the a-ha moment.

What does it say about me that if the experimenter said UNBORN BABY, I'd scream TERROR?

Or that KANGAROO would elicit, "Where can I get a kangaroo suit like this guy?"

Kick around those results, experimenters!

Great quartet of long Downs, IN THE ZONE / UP IN ARMS / TOY STORY / OBSTRUCTS even more colorful than yesterday's. There's more short glue, though, a RUER of some.

One of the main differences from yesterday is that the 15x14 width shrinks available space and, thus, flexibility. Take the lower left, for example. If you don't have much separation between the starts of KANGAROO and HERES THE KICKER, and you thread UP IN ARMS through them, it's nearly inevitable to need something like A IS to hold it together. That's not a NO-NO, since the partial is easyish for newer solvers to uncover, but given all the other DO I / LEK / FORMA (dupe with DEFORM?) and some might ask, what the ELL?

Cute theme. The revealer feels ripe for a more playful angle — [What an expectant mother says upon being woken up in the middle of the night?] = HERE'S THE KICKER — but that's an entirely different puzzle.

– puzzle by Adam Wagner

HAPPY TRAILS to Wednesday solvers! There's something JOYFUL about featuring so many MERRY words throughout the puzzle.

I enjoyed the touch of incorporating two iconic old West singers, DALE EVANS and ROY ROGERS. Perfect for an old-timey HAPPY TRAILS theme.

Regular readers know precisely what I'm going to say about themes that require diagonal / twisting theme entries: Will Shortz is less frequently considering them since they force too many fill constraints. Although he's stated this as recently as mid-2021, he sure has published a lot of them lately! I imagine he's working through his backlog.

(Outdated ICHAT + HAAS + STD around GLAD, and that's just to kick off the puzzle … you get the idea.)

I appreciated that Mike put his longer slots to work, HILARITY and ANY IDEAS lifting solvers who thought the theme might GO FLAT. Neat mid-lengthers, too, some JESTERS and the ancient KNOSSOS adding color. That is not easy to do, especially in the lower left and upper right corners, where you have to trade-off sizzle vs. smoothness in a biggish region that already has triple-checking constraints.

At first, the six HAPPY paths felt too random, going every which way, but it struck me afterward that it's a nice expression of a happy-go-lucky approach to life. It also helped Mike to reduce the gluey short bit, too — being able to twist and turn in every which way is such a huge boon to optimizing fill.

– puzzle by Michael Dewey

I laughed hard at [Question in a lot of cars?]. Not only is WHERE DID I PARK an A+ marquee entry, but the use of "a lot" to hide the parking lot meaning removes any question that this is a model pairing.

Get it, model?

As in car model?

Cleverness score: Grant = a lot, Jeff = 0.

Some ingenious grid wizardry, Grant nearing mastery over his 64-word creation. I've mentioned previously that "pyramid blocks" (of six black "cheater" squares each) make gridwork easier by maybe a factor of two each. If you use them sparingly — AND create a pretty, curving aesthetic that approximates a giant letter S as a bonus! — it can be a fantastic way to achieve grid sizzle without any semblance of cheating.

Amazing amount of juice squeezed out of the long slots, considering the amount of interlock. It's one thing to work in WHERE DID I PARK over THE SANDS OF TIME, but when you can run DOLLAR SIGN through them, that's big money right there.

It wasn't all dollar signs, though. I enjoy THE ___ phrases, because of the emphasis the THE places. It's not just A ___, eh? (With apologies to XWI's resident Canadian, Jim Horne.) The repetitiveness of THE RAM, THE SANDS OF TIME, and THE TANGO wasn't quite WHAT THE … ?! territory, but it wasn't great, either.

Where Grant was absolute money, though: the sheer quantity of clever clues. Repurposing "the Land Down Under" to literally describe ATLANTIS is fantastic— which so aptly described DOLLAR SIGN. A handful of these makes a themeless sing, and half a dozen today kick it up near Champions-level.

– puzzle by Grant Thackray

DON'T USE THAT TONE WITH ME … how does Katie know the extent of my kids' tone-deafness? I force myself to smile and encourage them through music lessons, all the while wondering how much I could sue their teacher for aural damages. Hey, I have a fun idea — LET'S PLAY THE QUIET GAME for the next ten years!

Excellent selection of phrases that are in the language. I kid about my kids all the time, but I love them. It's neat to laugh at these phrases repurposed for comical effect.

Because if you don't laugh, you cry. And cover your ears.

DON'T USE THAT TONE WITH ME was my big winner, not only from my personal experience as a parent, but because it draws upon my years of hiding in the back of cello and trombone sections, hoping the conductor wouldn't notice me. As my practice habits tailed off, so did my tone.

I wanted bigger changes out of most others, though, along with more humor. YOU'RE GROUNDED does apply to both misbehaving children and pilots, but the meaning is too similar.

I'LL TURN THIS CAR AROUND came closer in the humor department, though it's not exactly a phrase I've heard any mechanic say.

And I've heard many librarians bristle at the stereotype of them shushing people. Libraries have shifted to meet the needs of new generations and styles of working. And if there's one person you don't want to throw the book at you …

Beautifully clean puzzle, much more so than the average Sunday 140-worder. If I could only get my kids to clean their room to something a tenth this level! Although there are not many bonuses aside from the stellar PINK PANTHER and TWO LEFT FEET, giving solvers smooth sailing with only a SERE wind is a huge accomplishment.

– puzzle by Katie Hale

Congrats to Leslie, who got married a month ago!

Leslie and Acme have puzzle-making DOWN TO A SCIENCE! I loved their last collaboration, and this one was almost as fun. This person of science enjoyed how PHYSICAL, SOCIAL, and EARTH were well-hidden at the ends of phrases. Orienting the themers vertically was perfect, too, placing those thematic words DOWN low in the grid.

Such beautiful phrases! Perhaps ANNUAL PHYSICAL isn't snazzy, but ever since I turned 50 this year, I've changed my mindset about dreading my annual. I have such little control over so many aspects of my life, that I'm eager to see how more exercise than ever (what else has there been to do?), will affect my bloodwork.

That said, I'll look forward to returning to retro ICE CREAM SOCIALs some post-pandemic day (instead of gorging frozen treats after my kids go to bed, then blaming Santa for the thievery).

If only psychiatric science had been included today, for my kids' sake.

Some A+ cluing work. It can be difficult to write fresh clues for humdrum words like LIAR and EDIT — especially for a Monday, when puzzles need to be newb-accessible. "Make-up specialist" might go over some folks' heads, but I won't make up excuses for this bit of brilliance. And the telltale question mark does its job well in [One way to reduce one's sentence?] — as in shortening something verbose.

(Jim Horne, who's already flagged my post as too long, is playing Oscars walk-off music.)

It's tough for me to POW! any puzzle that has a whiff of a "words that can precede X" theme, but this one came close. With so few oopsy MESSUPS in gridwork, this could have won out in many other weeks.

– puzzle by Leslie Young and Andrea Carla Michaels

Third time's a charm!

Crosswords have featured repeated words in a multitude of ways, over many decades. Some have been basic, featuring repeated word titles or double doubles, while others have taken more creative liberties, employing words that have different meanings as different parts of speech, or rebus-like implementations, or even wilder thinking that blew my mind.

These days, not every repeated words theme has to be groundbreaking, although without some extra level, they can feel awfully repetitive (sorry, I had to). Rebecca and Rachel did well today to present triplets that fit a consistent pattern, where the first two instances are separated by a hyphen, and the last is a stand-alone word: TUT-TUT TUT, CHOW-CHOW CHOW, ZOOM-ZOOM ZOOM, and CAN-CAN CAN.

I appreciated that even though I knew what was going on after the first themer, I still had to think about some of the clues. How could the plural "glutes" refer to the singular CAN-CAN CAN? Ah, that's CAN, as the slang for "butt," made up of two glutes.

Will Shortz generally doesn't like initialisms that aren't known by virtually everyone, since if you don't know them, they're a string of random letters. For instance, CMAS and CSA might be obvious to Western farmers, but Country Music Awards and Community-supported Agriculture might never come to others. Thankfully, the crossings were all unambiguous, and now you know what they stand for!

(Until you forget them, roughly by the end of this sentence.)

A couple of zingy bonus entries for those who got tired of the theme: AT NO POINT, LIZ LEMON, and UPPER HAND sounds like a classic 30 Rock scene.

It's hard for me to get excited about repeated words, but I admired the creative thought behind that X-X X pattern.

– puzzle by Rebecca Goldstein and Rachel Fabi

Programming challenge! Finding phrases in the form of X Y Z, where X = (Z minus an L) isn't Herculean, but nor is it trivial. Results of my program:

• BACK IN BLACK
• FIGHT OR FLIGHT
• PAY TO PLAY

That's the very definition of a tight set! The fact that no other possibilities exist lends a touch of elegance.

Since it's easy to tweak computer code, I tested out other variations on this TAKE AN L idea. While LEGGO MY EGGO or OOMPA LOOMPA were interesting, they didn't have enough other possibilities to flesh out their sets.

What is the bizarre-looking TAKEANL, you might ask? I asked the same question when BEQ debuted it back in 2020. I still have not heard anyone say it in real life, but I run in either the 50-year old crowd or with my kids. My son's 6-year old soccer teammates would have no idea that they took an L last week, even though they kicked it into their own goal eight times.

Some vocab and proper nouns today that aren't commonly seen in the crossworld. I was all ready to alert Will Shortz about a typo in a clue, but Grammy-winning Anderson .PAAK has a cool stylization in his stage name. Younger folks might have trouble with the NIETO / SPUTNIK crossing, but I was happy that my basic Spanish and interest in the history of the space race came in handy.

Although I didn't connect with the theme idea because TAKE AN L isn't in my wheelhouse, the tightness of the set — and the fact that the middle words didn't repeat! — piqued my constructor's interest.

– puzzle by Matthew Stock

Given how much confusion the most recent card puzzle generated — 5000 views of our explanation, plus countless questions about how to type in the "right" answers — what a relief that today's was much simpler. ACE (11) + TWO + ACE (1) + SEVEN = BLACKJACK.

If that had been the only level of theme, I'd have been disappointed, given how many "hidden number" puzzles there have been (including an amazing 2020 addition). Great thinking to incorporate an extra layer, employing four theme phrases that are all related to BLACKJACK. FACE CARDS was particularly strong, since they're an integral part of BLACKJACK lingo.

Neat that PLACES A BET and BREAKS EVEN can also relate to BLACKJACK.

AMOUNT WON isn't nearly in-the-language. NET WORTH or GENIUS AT WORK (clued to a card counter) might have been better.

Amazing gridwork for a debut. Using a central 9 (BLACKJACK) is usually a huge challenge for a new constructor, and it becomes even more difficult when you weave in a pair of long Downs (CHEEKBONE and TEA KETTLE). Such VELVETY results all over! The one ding, ARY, was due to those long Downs constraining the CHEEKBONE / BLACKJACK / FACECARDS region, but it's a great trade-off, considering how clean the rest of the grid is.

TWENTY ONE is magical. It's in the Fibonacci sequence, it's the total number of pips on a six-sided die, and it has the curious property of being 210 in base three (2*9 + 1*3 + 0*1 = 21). Helen almost pulled-off her own magic trick — if I'd had to work harder to figure out the concept, with BLACKJACK coming at the end instead of the middle, she could have been a genius at work.

– puzzle by Helen Chen

★ GENDER EUPHORIA is a perfect example of how a crossword puzzle can make me love learning something new. Even if you aren't familiar with the phrase, it's still figure-out-able because it's composed of two individual words. And what a joyful, uplifting phrase! It makes me feel such vicarious happiness for folks who ecstatically reach such an important realization.

WHITE GAZE is also two figure-out-able words, but it definitely doesn't scratch the itch that we in the puzzles-as-escape-from-reality camp seek out. I appreciated that the clue didn't make me feel guilty or shamed, though. I'm a huge fan of Toni Morrison's fiction, so I appreciated learning about her discussions on this topic.

Back to joyful and uplifting: Erik's cluing. He has an amazing ability to craft clues that give me a magic moment, when utter confusion flips to delight. Great example: [It's often drawn with three ellipses] ... what ... guh ...? I was baffled, running through what English letter or language constructs could possibly fit.

Slap in the forehead when I realized I should have known it all along!

It's often said that crossword constructors are successful only if they manage to set up their solvers for ultimate victory — a funny thing, to hope that people triumph over you. This is most often expressed in terms of themes and grids, but sometimes themeless constructors lose this concept, writing clues that are too clever or smug. Erik is among my top three clue-writers in the business, bringing me such pleasure while managing to make this dummy feel smart.

I fell into the MONO for LOFI trap, but aside from that one hiccup, I loved piecing together all the wonderful clues and answers ONE STEP AT A TIME.

Great solve? THERE IT IS, all right!

– puzzle by Erik Agard

★ Hang on a second … is how my friends used to describe my bouldering at my old CLIMBING GYM. My V6 fails were almost as amusing as Margaret's delightful concept today, HANG IN THERE punnily applied. I loved the variety of hanging a COAT, hanging around in a MAN CAVE, and of course, hanging (or, in my case, falling) on holds at a CLIMBING GYM.

Since the word "hang" has essentially the same meaning when applied to a COAT CLOSET and an ART GALLERY, I wondered if there was a fourth definition Margaret could have played upon. JURY BOX would have gone over many solvers' heads — describing a hung jury as a "hang" would give most everyone hang-ups.

And I'm glad no gallows humor was employed. Ahem.

Wise choice in MAN CAVE for the "hanging around" meaning. In what other enclosed spaces do people usually hang around? REC CENTER seems too active. HOOKAH BAR is too specific. I can't think of a single better choice than MAN CAVE (or SHE SHED) — well done!

Standing O for the OVATION clue. I was baffled, trying to imagine what types of instruments or accoutrements are common in concert halls. The wording of [A big one might be standing in concert halls] is such themeless-level wordplay but still figure-out-able for newer solvers. PINCH ME, it's a dream to see this level of deviousness in a Monday puzzle!

Speaking of that, great bonuses in DEMO TAPE, MARATHON, and ARM REST. Using long bonuses in the "pinwheel" layout of themers can muddy up what is theme and what is not, but in today's case, it's hard to imagine how a MARATHON as a place where any sort of hanging around is happening.

Unless you count my hangdog expression in distance races (those days I've since left in the distance).

Such a playful idea that had me baffled until the very end.

– puzzle by Margaret Seikel

The MONTHs of the year laid out in such orderly fashion — four rows of three months, approximately spring, summer, fall, and winter. Almost perfectly seasoned!

Hey, stop peppering me with hate mail! Why so salty?

Most crosswords playing on the calendar have oriented the trigrams horizontally, and in a mish-mashy way — it's tough to jam twelve of anything into a 15x15 space. Kudos to Peter for doing it so tidily.

It'd be great if the second and third rows weren't overlapping — JUN connected to SEP is a bit odd — but that's a minor detail, especially considering all the factors contributing to the layout difficulty.

Take the bottom row, for instance. It would have been great to push OCT NOV DEC down a row or two for better spacing, but there's not much that ends in OCT besides CONCOCT. Maybe Peter USTINOV is upset not to make a cameo, but since nothing solid ends in DEC, it is what it is.

I'm glad Will Shortz allowed Peter to go to 82 words. I felt like my solve was somewhat start-and-stop, with so many short entries, but a smooth solving experience is the bigger priority. Although there was a lot of EFT ENS EXO etc., it would have been much worse in a 78-word layout.

Calendar puzzles with shading are too easy to fill right immediately — get JAN and FEB and you can mindlessly fill in the rest of the puzzle — so I'm glad Peter managed to work in a couple of solid bonuses like SAILFISH, MEAN JOE Greene, and STOOLIE to keep up my interest.

– puzzle by Peter Koetters