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★ Riffing on Will's note, it looks like Erik's going to be the most published person in the NYT crossword this year. For years, there was a heated battle for that title, between old guarders Manny Nosowsky, Patrick Berry, Liz Gorski, Nancy Salomon, and more. It's amazing to see how long Patrick was in the running year after year — almost two decades!

Then came this Steinberg guy. And that funny-looking Chen dude. It even looked like C.C. Burnikel might take the title at one point.

But then came Agard. En garde!

He's swept in like a force of nature. It looks like the crossworld will be his for as long as he wants it. Astonshing output.

Sunday puzzles as of late haven't been inspiring, so I appreciated Erik's breath of not-so-fresh air today. Here in Seattle, where pot shops are vying with coffee places for retail dominance, pot terms abound. I once made a pot-related crossword myself (unfortunately, for the now-defunct Buzzfeed crossword.)

What I like so much about this one is that there's a limited number of pot-related terms — it's hard enough to come up with enough theme phrases, period. Then you tighten things up by forcing yourself to make all the themers relate to each other? That's a bit of magic there.

Not all the themers were as pot-specific as I would have liked — PUFF, SMOKE, and ROLLING are more general than POT, JOINT, BAKED — but it all works.

I also liked that Erik kept the grid at 140 words, making for an easyish fill to go with his easyish theme. I did struggle with NOSRAT, even after having seen "Salt Fat Acid Heat." An easier clue for UTES would be appreciated, but other than that, the crossings seemed fair.

Along with a couple of strong clues — I like Princess LEIA quotes, and TWA inside of "jetway" is a fun find — and some great bonuses in OFF THE GRID, KEGSTANDS, FLOOR MODEL, even MODESTY, it made for a pleasant solving experience.

I did feel a strong urge to get me some White Castle as I solved, though …

– puzzle by Erik Agard

★ AES has some of the best theme ideas in the crossworld today. (A shame that he shares initials with Adlai "Madly for Adlai" E. Stevenson.) How could it be possible to come up with strong, in-the-language phrases for:

• One for the money
• Two for the show
• Three to get ready
• Four to go

I wouldn't have even tried — feels impossible.

LEATHER WALLET cleverly fits [One for the money], a bit of wordplay we might see within a great themeless puzzle.

BROADWAY TICKETS are certainly [Two for the show].

ALL WHEEL DRIVE is another deft interpretation, for [Four to go]. Brilliant!

If it hadn't been for STOP DROP AND ROLL not feeling apt for [Three to get ready], this would have been an automatic POW! pick. Even POY! territory.

I liked this idea so much that I spent a lot of time thinking about what else might have fit. (I wasn't a fan of any of Alex's original suggestions.) The best I could come up with was there's an old saying about the Three S's needed to get ready for a big event. But as spot-on as it was, it wouldn't have passed the NYT censor. (S___, shower, shave. First one rhymes with "hit.")

Ultimately, I couldn't think of anything that worked better than STOP DROP AND ROLL. So I gave it a pass in service of a great overall idea.

Strong gridwork, too. MAKES WAR, FIDELIS, JETWAYS, OPHELIA, WAVE SKI, all reason to APPLAUD. CAN'T LOSE!

Well, there's COLICKY. I don't know that much about Alex since he likes to keep a low profile (we still haven't convinced him to put up a pic.) I can guess that he has no kids though — for us parents of little kids, COLICKY is too soon, Alex. Too soon.

Good use of cheater squares. It's tough to work so many down entries through LEATHER WALLET and BROADWAY TICKETS. So I'm sure the black square above COLICKY was key in allowing Alex to make that NE corner smooth.

Even though STOP DROP AND ROLL didn't work for me, I managed to overlook it. Great idea and excellent craftsmanship earns Alex another POW!

– puzzle by Alex Eaton-Salners

★ I'm envious. It takes a great constructor to transform a stale theme — I've seen dozens of "salad dressing" concepts over the years — into something incredible. Who would have ever thought to riff on CROSS DRESSING, interpreting it as "a revealer literally crossing dressings"? And to attempt the impossible, crossing CROSS DRESSING through FIVE symmetrical dressings, incorporated into great phrases?

It should be impossible. There's no way that Crucivera, the crossword goddess, is benevolent enough to allow such a fortuitous happenstance.

You'd have to come up with a way to intersect five salad dressings through CROSS DRESSING, at symmetrical rows. That's hard, but doable.

But add in the constraint of having the five phrases also be symmetrical in length? And have those lengths match up in position, so the dressings still fit properly?

Nah. I wouldn't have even tried.

Sure glad C.C. did! Wow. I uncovered the revealer and figured out the theme early on. But I kept stopping to admire the feat. It didn't seem humanly feasible. I mean, getting CAESAR and RUSSIAN to intersect in rows 6 and 10, that's pretty cool. But to have HAIL CAESAR and RUSSIAN MOB just happen to fit into total, absolute, mystifying crossword symmetry?

Screw HAIL CAESAR. HAIL Crucivera is more like it.

Fantastic clue in RECESS, too, reimagining "trial separation" in a funny way.

A couple of blips in the fill: a little more crossword glue than I like, and a ton of 3-letter words that broke up solving flow. Not the most elegant of finishes. But:

1. Much of that is expected with six interlocked themers. After looking carefully at the grid design, I don't think I could have done better.
2. Who cares? When a theme is this eye-popping, such trivialities matter not.

– puzzle by Zhouqin Burnikel

★ A month ago, Robyn became the first woman to make the finals puzzle for the ACPT. And it was a beaut! She's got such an excellent aptitude for selecting long entries that delight.

Today's was another win in her string (theory) of great puzzles. STRING THEORY — clued to "The Big Bang Theory," without actually duplicating "theory" in the clue! EVIL GENIUS! SCHNITZEL, such a funny sounding word. INNER PEACE.

LAST PLACE's clue cleverly misdirects. [Rough finish]? Last is a rough way to finish, indeed. It's even more devious once you note that MATTE is in the puzzle too, subconsciously tipping you toward thinking about photo finishes.

Er, finishes of photos. Not races. A double-cross misdirect!

Beautiful disguises for Gal and Berry, their capital letter hidden at the first word of the clue. There have to be tons of gals in superhero movies. And berries featured in cosmetic ads. D'oh! That's Gal GADOT and HALLE Berry.

Speaking of great clues, [One may get stuck in an office] isn't an overworked person, but a POST IT NOTE. STICK SHIFT — a manual shift — employs the common term [Car owner's manual?] in its clue. Two fantastic entries in their own right, made even better by wickedly sharp clues.

Even two ho-hum shorties got the star treatment through great cluing. [Message on a tablet] — a drug company's tagline? Nope, that's an EMAIL on an iPad or Surface tablet. I must admit I groaned when I figured out that SEALY (a big mattress brand) was literally for the "rest of the people." But it was a good sort of groan.

I had so much fun solving this one that it made me want to figure out why. It's not often that I feel like I have a lot to learn from any one constructor, but Robyn's ability to entertain and elate through her themelesses is astounding. She's caused me to rethink my own philosophies on creating themelesses.

– puzzle by Robyn Weintraub

★ It's not often that I have a Sunday solving experience that delights from start to end — today's hit that mark! Made me a real laughing boy. Amusing re-interpretations of "___ PAPER" phrases — so many great ones! A LOTTERY TICKET as [Scratch paper?] was a perfect way to kick off the puzzle. I used to love scratching McDonald's Monopoly game tickets. Not that I ever won anything, but oh, that anticipation.

[Fly paper?] as a boarding pass? Maybe a bit stretchy grammatically, but it was so amusing that I didn't care.

[Crepe paper?] Oh, as in crepes on a BREAKFAST MENU! Genius that all of these answers are real phrases, in the language!

And SEATING CHART, the best of all. It's doubly apt for Sam, the law professor, who likely has used a SEATING CHART in his day — and written his share of "position papers"!

Sam and Doug are two of my favorite people in the crossworld — could easily be in the top two. Such fun to see their humor and wit come through today. I suppose a review should try to be unbiased, objective. But my commentary, I get to do what I want. So there.

I'm privileged to know these fine gentlemen, happy to consider myself their third Stooge. (Okay, I'm Larry Joe at best. But I'll take it.)

Constructors out there looking to make a Sunday grid, take note of the delightful bonuses: CRASH CYMBAL. GREEN CARD. SCHOOL TIE. STRING ART. TAE KWON DO. BELLY RUB! MADE A SPLASH is so appropriate. They do it right — work in about half a dozen great long fill bonuses, and you make solvers happy.

Their short fill wasn't perfect, mind you. Quite a bit of ABM AERO DVI ELHI IMA … that's a doink in the eye. But think about the qualities of everything I've listed. It's all 1.) short stuff, 2.) easy to figure out from the crossing answers, and 3.) largely innocuous. As long as you stick to the usual suspects — the tiny minor offenders — it's gloss-over-able.

The puzzle accomplished what so few Sunday puzzles do these days — held my attention from the first to the last square. That's no doubt worthy of a POW! (The good kind, not the kind when Moe slaps your head. Wise guy.)

– puzzle by Samuel A. Donaldson and Doug Peterson

★ Many moons ago, I submitted an EMOTICON puzzle to Will, using a double O rebus for EYES, an I for a NOSE, and a U for a MOUTH (the three squares on top of each other). It sort of looked like a HAPPY FACE if you cocked your head and squinted. And if I paid you ten dollars. Needless to say, Will politely rejected it.

OO

I

U

Yeah, that doesn't work.

Even having spent umpteen-fifty hours doing that, AND today receiving what seemed like hit-me-over-the-head hints in COLON HYPHEN and PARENTHESIS, I still got stuck like a duck in the center. The timer ticked away as I sweated, wondering why DOT DOT or COLON wasn't fitting at the start of 39-Across.

Delightful a-ha when I realized it was EYES! Clever double-interpretation, using COLON in one place and an EYES rebus in another.

Good gridwork, especially for a debut. I wasn't keen on A HAND NOICE (I think that's what Jake Peralta says on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," stretching out the word "nice"?) or SSR, but that's not much for a grid with so many things going on.

(NO ICE makes more sense of course, as a different meaning of ["Neat"]. But I do love me some Jake Peralta.)

HORST was also a baffler, but I could more easily excuse that in the service of the center, a strong triplet in EYESORE / PIANO SEATS / PLYMOUTH.

There was even a little VIP ROOM and TIP JAR to spice things up.

I'm suffering from a touch of rebus fatigue, having seen so many of them, but I appreciate when a rebus does something fresh. For that great lightbulb moment when I finally broke open the center of the puzzle, I'm giving out something rare today: a POW! on a debut. Well done, Jon!

– puzzle by Jon Olsen

★ I have a love/hate relationship with ultra-low word count themelesses. On one hand, you're bound to get a bunch of made-up sounding (and actually made-up) words. On the other, I've picked up some solving tricks, making them doable. They used to seem impossible — now I feel like a genius!

Pro tip: keep prefixes and suffixes in the forefront of your mind, particularly the ones using "Wheel of Fortune" free letters (RSTLNE). So often, RE- UN- E-(as in electronic) or -ER -EST -S will be your best friend. "Most" in a clue should point you to -EST, for example. Similarly, "remove" ought to get you thinking there's an UN- in front.

It could be that I have very low expectations for these puzzles, but wow, did I enjoy this one. Let's tick off the usual traits of ultra-low-word-counters, and how Kevin bucked the trends:

1. Groany words. Huge surprise to see not many made-uppies, REALER and ROADER the only ughs. And ROADER could have been salvaged by something like [Off-___ (sport vehicle)].
2. Surfeit of common letters. It's so rare to get rare letters — these low-word-counters are usually jam-packed with RSTLNEs. But four Vs in one corner? All neatly lined up in a diagonal? Two more Vs, a K, and a Z? Color me impressed.
3. Mostly neutral fill. DECREE, SENT OVER, PEELED, YELLER — these aren't going to win awards. But MEGASTORE. DOG TIRED. ON PAROLE. BOYS CLUB. Fantastic stuff.

Add in some great wordplay clues:

• How could [One after another?] possibly mean ELEVEN? Think of it as 11 … one 1 after another 1. Brilliant!
• [Top stories], so innocent. No question mark to give away the deceit, misguiding away from ATTICS. Literally, top stories.
• Same for [Make sparkling, say]. It had to be USE DESCRIPTIVE WORDS, said this writer. Nope, bubbles in AERATED sparkly water.

I would have loved something to connect the four segmented mini-puzzles — even something as thin as the compass points: N in the square marked 8, W at 29, etc. But overall, this gem wildly exceeded my expectations. And after all, isn't life all about management of expectations?

– puzzle by Kevin Adamick

★ Whoa! I've seen tons of puzzles with backward entries. Puzzles with dual clues. Puzzles with all the across answers having something in common. Puzzles with words reading one thing one way and another thing another way.

But I've never seen anything quite like this. Elements of all of the above stitched together brilliantly.

Such a clever idea to give the solver two clues for each across entry, leaving it up to them to figure out which applies in the forward direction, and which in the reverse. I've seen most of these "emordnilap" words before (emordnilap = palindrome backward), but the notion of clueing both the regular word and its emordnilap is a great out-of-the-box idea.

My solve was much slower than for a regular Tuesday, and my enjoyment flagged through the middle, as the trick got a bit old. But after finishing, I had to sit back and admire the concept and construction. So, so, so difficult to get every single across answer to work this way.

There were plenty of gluey spots, not just ANART EPT SSS REPUT DIALLED, but backward stuff like RETAR. The overall impact was so strong that I was easily able to brush those aside. Heavy crossword glue in the service of a great theme is fine by me.

It's so rare that a puzzle stands out as something entirely new. This is one of them.

– puzzle by Alex Eaton-Salners

★ My admiration for this puzzle grew as I studied it. (And as Jim politely nudged me.)

At first, it didn't seem to have enough of a reason to be a rebus. There have been so many of them over the years that you need a great raison d'etre. Couldn't you do the same concept with single letters?

(Well, no. SQUARE ONE is a single square. So if you're going to use repeated words, not letters …)

Ah. Well then. Why those particular phrases? Granted, they are all colorful; jazzy. But there are dozens of them out there.

(Besides the ones Lewis mentioned, what other ones can you think of?)

Huh? LOTS OF THEM! Like … uh … TIME AFTER TIME! Take that, Canadia!

(Okay. What else?)

I have MANY others. I just don't feel like revealing them. What others do YOU have?

(I didn't say I had any.)

BAH, NO WONDER WE'RE BUILDING A WALL!

(You know that Canada is to the north of America, and—)

Double bah, back to the puzzle! I appreciate when rebuses introduce fresh phrases that aren't usually seen in 15x15 grids. Awesome use of a 20-letter one, YOU CANT TAKE IT WITH YOU, to match BACK TO SQUARE ONE. DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO is something I tell newer constructors all the time. And BOND … JAMES BOND is so evocative.

And great bonuses. SNAKE OIL matching ANACONDA, plus CONEHEAD, ON SILENT, BAIL BOND, YES WE CAN, TWO TERM. I had reservations about the JAMES BOND / BAIL BOND dupe, but they're different enough meanings that I let it slide.

As for KOPF NGO ONEA SALA TRE, they collectively made for not as elegant a solve as I like, but it's a reasonable trade-off for all that sparkling long fill.

A wealth of clever wordplay clues, too. [House rules may not apply here] for the SENATE? So innocent, so wickedly smart.

It's rare that I give a POW! to a rebus puzzle, as rebuses generally feel a bit lazy to me; constructors not able to come up with good single-letter ideas. So it's high praise for Lewis. Strong idea and entertaining solve.

– puzzle by Lewis Rothlein

★

The finance wonk in me loved this one. It's paradoxical that an industry so boring — many friends have nodded off or run screaming as I've spun delightful tales of arbitrage, efficient portfolio frontiers, and basis points — can introduce such colorful terms. PATENT TROLLs have been in the headlines a ton (at least in financial headlines), and I'd heard of ZOMBIE BANKS (think: banks biding their time, all but dead). Such descriptive phrases!

UNICORNs I knew too, but just as "unicorns." As in "those horribly prancy things my daughter begs me to get books about." Also, as in "private startups valued at over $1B." Never heard them called UNICORN STARTUPS, though. Kind of like calling a company a "business company." Still, I can let it slide in the service of a clever theme.

It'd have been good enough for me with just three themers. Toss in the brilliant revealer, FINANCIAL MYTHS (think: what Jim Cramer propagates, ba-dum *rimshot*), and you have yourself a winner.

Clean-as-a-whistle gridwork, only OBE as a tick in the liabilities column. Add in some assets — PATTY MELT and HOT TAKES — and it's a solid product.

Mike's a good enough constructor that I'd have liked to see him push himself. Take out the black square between ABET and HOW SO, for example. That'd likely have resulted in more bonuses, while still retaining smooth short fill.

Overall, a great theme tailored to us econ junkies. Even if you hadn't heard of any of these terms before, they're so colorful that I bet at least one will stick in your memory.

– puzzle by Michael Hawkins

★ A Monday theme that's accessible to newer solvers and interesting for more experienced ones? I say YES!

That was too easy. Well played, C.C., well played.

It's one thing to use "foreign words for YES" — I've seen that a couple of times before — but to disguise them using homophones is a great way to target both sides of the solving spectrum.

The theme is tight, too. How many other foreign languages would YES be obvious in? SI (Spanish or Italian), HAI (Japanese), DA (Russian), and OUI (French). My inner nerd wishes that Dothraki or Klingon were included, but in both of those languages, YES loosely translates to "I shall excise your gizzard and use it to kill the ghosts of your ancestors." Probably wouldn't pass the breakfast test.

C.C. did well in her themer choices, LAH DI DAH, AIMS HIGH, and especially THE ROYAL WE. I liked PLAIN TO SEE, but it was a bit, well, plain. I'd have preferred THE DEAD SEA. Perhaps that's my inner Dothraki speaking.

As always, C.C. is a star when it comes to bonus fill. So much greatness in CARPE DIEM, SAN MARINO, PIT STOP, SLEUTHS. I liked FAN ART, too, great way to use a mid-length slot.

My solve was slow. Not because the short fill was gluey — on the contrary, just an LTS = top-notch craftsmanship. But there was so much novelty in the shorties: AP LIT, GO BAGS, KTOWN, even DEETS and DCON. As much as I enjoy a feeling of freshness — and I do like each of these entries on their own — this verged on too fresh. I wonder how it affected newer solvers. I could imagine it being a turn-off.

But overall, an entertaining, creative theme with a solid a-ha moment doesn't come around very often on Mondays. Along with a solid grid that aimed high, it's a slam-dunk POW!

NOTE: Thanks to some sharp-eyed readers, mistranslations in the original post have been corrected.

– puzzle by Zhouqin Burnikel

★ STANDARD POODLE crossing TOODLES entertained me way too much. Now that's an AMEN CORNER! There was so much greatness packed in, especially impressive considering how tough a construction job this is. A wide-open middle, with nine (!!!) long feature entries is no joke. That quartet of STANDARD POODLE / DINNER DATE / DON DELILLO / TANGERINE DREAM is so impressive.

The only one of the nine that didn't grab me was ROAD TO RIO, but I bet it might be the favorite for an older generation. No doubt that it's crossworthy, at the very least.

I liked that Andrew didn't stop there. EARL GREY TEA and RAISING CAIN added even more color. But wait, there's more! The SW / NE corners, which often don't live up to potential on layouts like this, feature DATA DUMP, PA KETTLE, and even METEOR. Not at all TEDIOUS.

Fantastic clues, too. [Person who's on a roll] directed to a high roller at a craps table. No, that's a VOTER roll — top-notch wordplay.

A couple of dabs of crossword glue in MML CTS LUM, but that seemed like a fair price to pay for so much goodness. There was the oddity of ENTRAIN — I've ridden a lot of trains but never heard someone say, "it's time to entrain" — but again, it was a price worth paying. Easy to infer, anyway.

Fantastic construction. I often tune out of a themeless if I get more than a couple of dabs of crossword glue, but today, all the sizzle was well worth it.

– puzzle by Andrew J. Ries

★ A jazzy revealer — STICK EM UP! — along with four catchphrases: HANG EM HIGH, HOOK EM HORNS, KNOCK EM DEAD, and the doubled-up ROCK EM SOCK EM ROBOTS — made for a great theme set. Fantastic choices.

Every time the NYT runs a "parts of answers jutting up or down," I get angry emails saying that there's something wrong in the grid. Ooh, the vitriolic barrages I got after a HOLDING DOWN THE FORT puzzle (never mind that I didn't write it). You fool, you @#$@!ed up big time! You're the biggest moron in the history of moronocy!

I've learned to spell out themes in painful detail, so that (most) everyone gets it.

I enjoyed today's in part because I won't have to do as much explaining. Tried and true "jutting" theme, but it's so easy to figure out. (We've highlighted the EMs below just in case.) Instead of relying on a long jutting string, or several different strings, it's simply EM at work.

It is true that once you've figured out the theme, it all falls quickly. But I didn't mind that. Enough of a trick to make it worthy of a Thursday slot, but easy enough to make me feel smart. It's a win when a constructor makes solvers feel smart.

Fully agreed with Brian, I could have used a slightly smoother grid. DAK Prescott, become uber-famous already! ETE MKTS TIO TMEN XCI almost made me rethink my POW! pick. But these gluey bits did allow for a lot of great WHAT A TOOL / LINE DANCE CHIN MUSIC bonuses, so I'm okay with the trade-offs.

Even after doing thousands of crosswords over the years, I still get tripped up solving these "jutting" types of puzzles. I appreciate that Brian found a simple, but colorful, effective, and easy to understand concept within this genre.

– puzzle by Brian Thomas

★ I take a second look at every crossword I write about, so I can remember what the constructor did well or what could be improved. Occasionally, I change my mind after that second look.

It's rare that I give something a third look and unheard of for me to change my mind after that third look. Appropriate that it happened today, given the TRIathlon theme!

My first impression was that CYCLING stuck out as the only hidden word. RUNNING was by itself, and SWIMMING had the -LY attached. Felt inconsistent.

Second impression: it was neat that Peter managed to find three solid 15-letter phrases using these three sports. There aren't many options with any of them, at least none that gives away the game immediately (SWIMMING POOL, RUNNING LAPS, etc.)

I wouldn't have thought more about it, but Jim mentioned that he thought this was a great puzzle. Took me a while to see his thinking, but I gradually came around. Here are a few reasons:

• All the bonus fill: CD SINGLE, COLD FEET, AD NAUSEAM, US STEEL, even COEQUAL, is interesting.
• Minimal crossword glue: maybe ILIE and RIAL will be tough for newer solvers.
• Some great clues, a treat for a Monday. There's a duo named "Peter and Gordon"? Indeed! After doing so many of Peter's puzzles over the years, this tickled me.
• Z and X worked smoothly into the east section. It can be tough to integrate two rare letters into a tiny region, but Peter did it well.

A lot of love about this one, especially since I used to be a triathlete back in the day. I might have considered mirror symmetry (with themers in rows 3, 6, 9, 12), but I respect Peter's decision to put TRIATHLON in the usual "revealer" position. I didn't mind it not having a symmetrical theme partner (at least, not after my third look).

Solid work.

– puzzle by Peter Gordon

★ I love playing the "can I guess the theme" game on Mondays. A perfect early-week theme is obfuscated until the very end, where a revealer gives me a delightful a-ha moment. My observations through my solve today, along with timestamps:

1:24 — NIGHT-NIGHT. Theme is doubled words? Hmm, that'd be boring.

2:05 — WHITE WEDDING!

(singing) It's a nice day to … START AGAIN!

Oops, gotta get back to it.

2:16 — NIGHT / WHITE … rhymers with different spellings?

2:58 — MUSHROOM BALL? Let's put the theme game aside and figure out WTF a MUSHROOM BALL is.

(down the internet rabbit hole) Wow, those look delicious!

3:31 — Scratching my head. How could these three themers possibly be related?

4:24 — Hit the revealer, CAP AND GOWN.

4:26 — Wha ... ?

4:32 — Uh ... buh?

4:37 — More head scratching.

4:46 — Re-read the clue for the fourth time. Still nonsensical.

5:05 — Jeff is getting angry!

5:31 — AHA! Happy dance! NIGHT cap, WHITE cap, MUSHROOM cap. NIGHT gown, WEDDING gown, BALL GOWN!

Great twist on the "both words can precede X" theme type. Fortuitous findings — I wouldn't have believed it possible. Huge kudos.

And great gridwork too. Enough bonuses in SUNSCREEN, OBNOXIOUS, COPYCAT, DATASET. Not much crossword glue in ETH MATA SNO. This is the way to execute on a Monday grid, folks. Don't be afraid to go up to the max of 78 words. Don't try for anything flashy. Focus on a clean, smooth grid, and work in a couple of strong bonuses. Pro stuff right here.

POW! Congrats on joining the club, Leslie, and looking forward to more from both of you!

– puzzle by Leslie Rogers and Andrea Carla Michaels

★ Such fun finds, words parsed to form state abbreviations + extra word for kookiness. Being an Emerald Stater, I loved kicking off with WASHROOMS = WA SHROOMS. I can't believe I've never thought of that! They were all solid, with VA MOOSE and CA NOODLES as highlights. VAMOOSE and CANOODLES are amusing words in themselves, and to parse them for even more entertainment was lovely.

At first, NEW AGER -> NE WAGER stuck out as the only phrase. But it's a neat find. I do wish that one or two others had been of this style, so it felt like more a mixture of words and phrases undergoing reparsation.

A ton of great fill, especially considering that Tom had to work around seven themers. Most of the juice came from the two parallel downs, ECHOLOCATE / WELCOME MAT + SCREEN SHOT / SEE IF I CARE. That's four out of four, perfectly chosen for snazziness.

Parallel downs almost always come at a price, though, because you have so many constraining pairs of letters jammed together. Was it worth AHL in the SW, and EIN / INI in the NE? I'm mixed. The crosses for AHL are all fair, but AHL will be tough (and weird-looking) for newer solvers.

Maybe it would have been better to put a black square at the L of ECHOLOCATE? You'd still have the juicy VENDETTA, and you'd also likely be able to squeeze more out of the PROTRUDE slot on the other side.

Tough call. I respect Tom's choice, even if it's not the call I'd have made.

It's so difficult to entertain a wide audience with an early-week puzzle. The theme has to be accessible but fresh-feeling, and the grid has to contain some pepper (appropriate for the author) but also allow newer solvers to complete the grid in a fair manner. I thought Tom hit all those marks.

– puzzle by Tom Pepper

★ Loved this one. I use the phrase SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN all the time, but I've never made the leap to "what three words, when said together, sound like a synonym for PLAN?" ARE + AINGE + MINT = arrangement = Jeff being envious of Erik's versatile and wide-ranging mind.

Bang-up execution, too. All sorts of goodies in FRY BREAD, the IMAC PRO, a summer SHANDY, UP AGAINST IT. Talk about an INSTINCTUAL feel for strong execution!

I did hesitate on MID-JUNE — feels like it opens an unwanted pathway for randos such as EARLY WINTER, EIGHT ELEVENTHS, who knows what else. But a nice save on the clue, referring to the commemoration of the abolition of slavery. (I believe it's referring to Juneteenth?)

I've seen a lot of "last words in theme phrases form a maxim" puzzles. But this one adds such a welcome twist; a clever extra layer that makes it stand out. Excellent work all around earns Erik yet another POW!

– puzzle by Erik Agard

★ David is so good at so many areas in crossword construction. Today, he flexes his mid-length muscles, showing how densely he can pack the goodies in. Check out this list of great 7s:

• AC MILAN
• APPLE ID
• BEAR HUG
• CAT POSE
• CHIMERA
• CINEMAX
• COLD ONE
• DATA SET
• DR HOUSE
• KIBBLES
• NOXZEMA
• OH, ITS ON!
• PINE NUT
• ROAD HOG
• THE ABCS
• USB PORT

Sixteen excellent 7s, all in one themeless? Unheard of! Along with very little crossword glue, it's a masterful creation. It is so tricky to balance color and cleanliness in this style of grid, and David didn't have to make hardly any trade-offs. (OERSTED is pretty tricky, even for this physics nerd.)

POW!

As a side note, I personally love SCHMUCK, which would bring my tally to 17. But Rich Norris at the LAT long ago warned me that he'd never allow this in a puzzle, as it's vulgar, like using PENIS or SCHLONG as fill. I did have hesitations, but it looks like the NYT has used it a couple of times now in regular stories. I'd be curious to hear if it does offend people.

– puzzle by David Steinberg

★ Perfect theme for MLK Day: three important CIVIL RIGHTS figures disguised at the ends of phrases. Such uplifting phrases, too! Fit for a KING fits King. Rosa PARKS is something of a NATIONAL treasure. And I have to imagine Sojourner told THE WHOLE TRUTH. Inspiring stuff.

I did wonder if Sojourner TRUTH was out of place, her life a century before those of KING and PARKS. Also, the civil rights movement is most often identified with the 1960s... but I like the idea of expanding it to any effort throughout history that worked toward equal rights for all.

Could Malcolm X have been a more apt third theme person? Maybe with SOLVE FOR X or GENERATION X? But referring to Malcolm X by "X" is odd. It's not his last name (is it?). So I like Sean's choices.

There were quite a few grid problems, including a glut of tough proper nouns that might trip up beginning solvers, and some gluey bits that felt inelegant. But the beautiful theme let me look past all of the dings and just appreciate the three folks honored in the puzzle. Digging into the technical weeds seems against the spirit of today's celebration, anyway.

– puzzle by Sean Biggins

★ Loved this one. Loved, loved, loved. As Ross points out, the palindromes in the middle — SOLOS, SOS, REVIVER, etc. — make a perfect transition zone into the mirror world. I've seen many mirror puzzles, including one that stands out with its amazing craftsmanship, but today's has such a fantastic story behind it. Alice going through THE LOOKING GLASS is spot on.

So well executed today. It would have been much easier to stick to a higher word count, but that wouldn't have allowed for so much goodness. JAMPACKS is right! SPLIT RUN, COMO ESTA, AVENGERS, LOL CAT, HAEY LLEH! Er, HELL YEAH!

The right side is easier to construct than you might think because you can create a separate file containing the middle palindrome linkages, and work on it as if it were your left side. Then, you flip the grid along a vertical axis.

Right, you've stopped listening. Anyhoo, unmasking the technical tricks doesn't make the result any less impressive.

A couple of missed opportunities in ELEANORS ESCORTEE. That might argue for putting a black square at the P of JAM PACKS and the U of DISGUSTS, to see if you could get those two corners smoother while keeping up the snazziness. But since the rest of the puzzle has so little by way of crossword glue (just EER) or oddball words, I'm fine with Ross's decision.

I was so confused by KUEHT, especially since it was one of the first backward answers I uncovered. THEUK = THE UK, such a nice piece of fill, resulting in a delightful mini a-ha.

This one will stick in my mind as strongly as Jason's. Maybe even more so.

P.S. Ross told me that he's gotten dozens of requests for help from budding constructors with diverse backgrounds! It's great to see Ross take this initiative. Let Jim or me know if we can help as well (email us through the home page).

– puzzle by Ross Trudeau

★ I appreciated the excellent craftsmanship today. Jim and I did one with no vowels except I way back in 2014, but Trenton took it a step further — not only are there no A, E, O, U, Y, but every single entry contains an I!

(The difference is that an entry like PSST wouldn't fly for today's puzzle.)

Having gone through the construction challenge, I can sympathize with how tough it is. Your word list gets cut down tremendously, to the point where you'd think you'd have to make serious compromises — perhaps use a ton of crossword glue, some oddball long entries guaranteed to cause head-scratching, or maybe even go up to 80 words.

Super impressive that Trenton made it all happen so smoothly. If INDS is your worst entry, man oh man is that a tremendous success.

I don't mind at all that he was liberal with his use of cheater squares (like the two black squares under BRING IT). There are a lot (12 in total), but I'm fine with that in the service of smooth gridwork.

I hesitated on PRII, but I think I love that one. One Prius, two Prii? Sure, why not!

I've seen enough gimmicks like this that it didn't have much impact on me. But many of my friends have joyfully related their experience with similar trick puzzles, some going as far as to cite them as some of their favorites. I can certainly understand that perspective — the first time I saw something like this I was wowed.

Trenton earns himself another POW! in recognition of his stellar gridsmanship today.

– puzzle by Trenton Charlson

★ I love blasphemous rule-breaking in the crossworld! I especially love it when there's a grid separated in two, with something nifty secretly connecting the halves. Tim built a literal WALL today, using three themers with sort of a WALL rebus. STONE(WALL) JACKSON, such a colorful entry!

I did wonder about DESKTOP (WALL)PAPER. I usually call it just WALLPAPER. But some research showed that it's indeed a legit term, so that's just my ignorance.

Hey, themeless-grade quality fill! Such a treat to get BANK TELLER, SPELUNKING, SOFT SPOKEN, SOAP OPERAS, along with good use of mid-length slots: LE CARRE, ICE NINE (I'm a huge Vonnegut fan), AMALGAM, RASSLE.

Even the pedestrian SINGERS got elevated via a great clue. [Choir composition] surely had to be referring to some type of music the choir director was arranging? Great misdirection.

And that PEN clue! I had to read "boardom" a few times before finally smiling, realizing that it's a play on "boredom," meaning "a place for boars." Great punny groanery.

Huge visual impact with an in-your-face grid telling solvers to $^*#$! YOUR %@#$!!! CROSSWORD RULES! Along with a great idea to connect the halves and excellent gridsmanship, it's an easy POW! pick.

– puzzle by Timothy Polin

★ Day 3 of WTF? Week at XWI! I love having the chance to tell people What I'm Thankful For

Howard gave me such an easy job today. Let's start with the theme — so clever! Of course, Nicolas CAGE should have starred in ANIMAL HOUSE. Why didn't the casting folks consider Tom CRUISE to headline FANTASTIC VOYAGE?

And my favorite, BEETLEJUICE. It took me a second to figure this one out, but of course, some VW Beetles run on diesel fuel. It's an outstanding set of leaps, to think about BEETLEJUICE to Beetle juice (gas) to diesel to Vin Diesel to THIS IS A GREAT CROSSWORD THEME!

Stellar gridwork, too. This is nearly everything I want from a technical perspective. When you have five themers, it's usually best not to go wild on the grid, keeping it at a conservative 78 or perhaps 76 words. Make sure you have a couple of strong bonuses — ADULTING along with PATENT, HANGAR, EMOJI, GINSU all help that cause — and don't let your short fill trip up solvers with weirdness. Check, check, and check!

Bravo, Howard, and thanks for the huge uplift today!

– puzzle by Howard Barkin

★ Now, this is what I call a gateway puzzle! Interesting and easy to comprehend theme + nice extras + smooth fill = oh so accessible to newer solvers. I'd happily give this one to people just getting started doing the NYT crossword.

I've seen the JACKS theme done in other venues, but I couldn't find it in the NYT archives. Plus, the HIJACKS — or HI, JACKS! — revealer is so much fun. It elevates the concept from the other implementations I've seen.

Hopefully, you aren't doing this crossword on a plane, though …

I had a slight pause with Jack RUBY, given his notorious place in history. But I couldn't find any other JACKs whose last names are so easily disguisable. Like Brian, I might have gone with Jack FROST — Jack SPARROW is a fictional character so there's no perfect consistency with Jack LONDON and Jack BLACK anyway — perhaps FROST / NIXON as a fourth themer?

Ultimately though, I respect their theme set choice. Plus, who doesn't like RUBY SLIPPERS!

I like what Brian and Andrea did with the grid. It's at 78 words, the max allowable, but they still managed to work in LATIN LOVER, EXTRA EXTRA, SURE CAN, ATHLETE, without making the grid feel chock full of short answers or too sectioned off.

Superb work. It's nearly everything I want out of a Monday puzzle.

– puzzle by Brian Thomas and Andrea Carla Michaels

★ Loved this one. I had no idea what was going on until I hit the COMPOST BIN revealer. Ah, of course, that's what SHELL / PEEL / GROUNDS / PIT have in common! Each of those four were so well disguised (in such colorful phrases, too!). What a nice experience; the veil of confusion being lifted to great effect.

Such standout gridsmanship, too. FILE CLERK, OREGON TRAIL, BIRD ON A WIRE, MAIN MAN, APE SUIT = great quantity and quality of color.

I especially loved NEGAWATTS. I hadn't heard of it before, but what a fun term.

I wondered why my reaction to this was different than BROGRAMMER. I think it's because NEGAWATTS makes immediate sense (to me at least), but it might not be apparent to the general solver that programmers sometimes have a "bro" culture.

Also sounds like something we energy-conscious Seattleites brag about. You better believe I'm going to start working NEGAWATTS into daily conversation whenever I can!

All that and minimal crossword glue? I rarely use the word "perfect," so it's a tremendous pleasure to be able to use it with glee. This pair of constructors is quickly becoming one of my favorite duos.

– puzzle by Amanda Chung and Karl Ni