Brendan Emmett Quigley author page

★ Sometimes, I wonder if a puzzle is worthy of our Grid Art page — not today. Stunning artwork, worthy of the TAJ MAHAL itself. Graying out all the interior squares, adding a thick, decorative line to represent the SPIRE at the top, including MINARETS on the sides, and the TOMB so perfectly placed? Although the blank grid didn't immediately scream TAJ MAHAL, it's an impressionist masterpiece.

Neat combination of shaded squares, circled letters, and grid effects, too. TAJ MAHAL could have been a straightforward grid entry like MINARETS, but adorning the top of the ONION DOME is an apt way to pay homage to the monument's gilded features.

I wasn't aware of SHAH JAHAN, and although I had to piece together every letter, it was so worth it. What a legacy! To be known as "King of the World," commissioning the TAJ MAHAL, leading the Mughal Empire to its peak of existence. He deserves an entire crossword to himself!

I had a few hesitations as I solved. LETHAL BLOW is a passable entry, but placing it front and center as the longest Across entry makes it feel thematic. Although it hints that the TAJ MAHAL is a tomb, it's far from ideal.

The grid is also highly sectioned, with only a few connection points between shaded and unshaded regions. I don't mind this inelegance as much, though, given that it adds to the feel of a labyrinthine tomb.

With so many constraints, there are quite a few fill compromises. Overall, though, they're simply imperfections that give art its life, reminding us all of our flawed humanity.

THAT'S FOR SURE is a great marquee themeless entry, that's for sure!

I wasn't as sure about DOG SHOW JUDGE. Is that a specific profession? I was barking up the wrong tree — it even has its own Wikipedia entry. Sticking your finger in dog's mouths, measuring haunch dimensions, peeking inside pekes … I'm sure it's a great calling, but LOOK THE OTHER WAY is my choice when it comes to lifting up tails for inspection.

I'm of two minds on LOOK THE OTHER WAY. It evokes all sorts of colorful imagery, so ten years ago, I would have jumped to headline a themeless with this phrase. However, in these scandal-ridden days where someone could have done something but looked the other way instead, I worry that the imagery in some solvers' heads is unpleasant, to say the least.

JUMBO JETS isn't a debut, but it's an excellent way to showcase some rare letters. Along with the J in ELTON JOHN, that's some triple J goodness.

(JOED is JOE D, a nickname for Joe DiMaggio.)

Focusing on 7-letter slots is a tricky business, so it's a good thing that BEQ is a seasoned vet. MAN O WAR and I SEE NOW are solid, and SCROOGE is no ghost with that heavenly clue. "… mean as the Dickens?" isn't quite accurate, but who cares about accuracy when such punniness is involved.

That clue was only surpassed by [Secretly pass gas?]. Again, SIPHONing gas has no passing involved, but talk about pushing the boundary of good taste in crosswords!

I would have liked less AGA ANEG AORB etc. glue in a 72-worder, but wordplay like "high-grade potential" for EASY AS and "tool that you (literally) turn (objects) on" for LATHE helped make up for that.

There are few constructors out there who regularly debut material that's not already on the XWord Info Word List. BEQ and Paolo happen to be two of them! Fantastic entries that we didn't already have in CLOSE-UP MAGIC (I'm addicted to Chris Ramsay's YouTube channel) and ON WHAT PLANET. I love me some colloquial phrases, and this one is so laden with disbelief.

Other debuts that weren't already on our list:

AL COWLINGS. I vividly remember the Trial of the Century, and if you asked me about Nicole Simpson, Ronald Goldman, Kato Kaelin, Johnny Cochran, Alan Derschwitz, I could have told you a dozen details about each. Let's not forget Lance ITO, so useful in crosswords! Cowlings, not so much.

APRIL THESES. I figured Jim Horne could teach me about these, probably something I should have learned in my (sad public) high school history classes. Jim didn't know either. Then I got sidetracked, daydreaming what kind of theses April Ludgate might have made.

MEDIA BLOG. I like this one, although I wondered, are CALISTHENICS VLOGS or NUTRITION YOUTUBERS acceptable entries? (I also wondered, how can I stop watching so much damn YouTube?)

SO LET IT GO. So, what's the SO at the start for?

YOU LIED TO ME is fantastic. The BEQesque clue (he's amazing at any relating to music), referring to the Mark Morrison song, took away some of the enjoyment for this pop music moron, though.

I had a tough time in the lower right, not remembering how to spell Marc MARON crossing ILANA Glazer crossing OONA Chaplin. All three folks seem perfectly fair, having achieved a level of fame. I'm not so sure about the expectation for solvers to get the spellings exactly right.

Enjoyed much of everything else, though, LEAD GUITAR, WAG THE DOG, and especially BEER COOLER lending effervescence.

MIDDLE C … ? CALCIUM has a middle C (4^th out of 7 letters). HALCYON, too. TAXICAB and PUSSYCAT's Cs aren't exactly in the middle, but they're middle-ish.

PRESEASON and NO SEE UMS, though? I no C what's going on … um ...

Ah! I missed the "phonetic" part of the MIDDLE C clue. Each of the theme answers has three syllables, and the middles ones are all pronounced "C." I see, neat concept! I did wonder if TAXICAB worked — in my head, the middle syllable is "E." Ben is a professional linguist, though, so I trust that he's right.

BEQ is one of the best constructors in terms of using mid-length slots to their greatest potential. Will Shortz included one of BEQ's themelesses in a collection of favorites, WHAT THE … headlining. I loved SURE DID, ME AGAIN, I SECOND today.

Tough grid to fill, what with eight (!) themers. Note how many down answers had to cross two themers. The west region, for example, forces a U???O pattern, not flexible at all. UP TWO is a common occurrence in bball, but it feels a tad arbitrary, opening things up for UP FOUR or DOWN THREE.

Too much ACTA ECTO ERI ETO NCO ONT WASI, all entries editors call out on their specs sheets, but one could make a case that allowing for so many great pieces of fill like SURE DID sure did make it worth it.

My last phonetic puzzle befuddled a lot of people, floods of solvers writing to ask what the theme was. I wonder how many people will similarly miss today's concept. That'd be a shame since it's a much more than C-worthy idea.

Often, BEQ is too indie and hip for me, so I brace myself for an unfamiliar TAKE THE L or UGLY CRY or SAD KEANU. How apt is that trio, all describing how I usually feel when trying to uncover one of them?

Not today, though — I breezed through, enjoying that almost every answer was easily recognizable, even to this tragically squarest of squares. I've eaten SLIM JIMs, scanned my fair share of QR CODES, laughed at the ridiculous direct-to-consumer LUNESTA ads, and I even got QUARTER RESTS without any crossings. Felt great to drop those all in!

I even entered MURDER HORNET with barely any help. For those unaware of the entry, it's self-explanatory, isn't it? And they're right in my backyard. I have a feeling solvers who have more distance from these horrifying creatures might enjoy seeing MURDER HORNET in their grid more than I did.

The only entry I didn't recognize was GEORGE SMILEY. Some research shows he's the main character in a wildly successful series of books, along with some blockbuster movies. I tried to watch "Tinker, Tailor, some other professions" but couldn't get through it, so it's no surprise that this spy guy didn't stick with me.

As I've said many times about proper names, unless the person is known by a huge majority of people in the world, including them in a themeless can present problems. If a solver doesn't know who it is, it'll elicit at best an "I suppose that looks like a name" response.

I appreciate that BEQ didn't dip into the well of "things that make unhip people feel bad" today. In your sad face, Keanu!

Ben Zimmer! Linguist of fame, WSJ columnist, contributor to The Atlantic. Yeah, yeah, but what matters is that he's now part of the NYT crossword constructors' club. Umberto Eco, Brian Eno and Yoko Ono will teach you the secret handshake shortly, Ben.

Sound changes today … a short A to a short U? No … Wikipedia-ing … "ow"? Apparently there's a "/ou/" sound in phonics. Huh!

For tried-and-true theme types, I prefer when there's a delightful title or rationale for the change. After thinking about the title for a bit — okay, for a lot — I liked how SHIFTING SOUNDS played off of "shifting sands." It's a subtle bit of humor, though, especially for those of us who need a King Joffrey ax to the back of the neck to figure anything out.

I wonder if "How now, brown cow" could have been played upon, somehow? Maybe that would wow.

I didn't laugh at most of the themers, but HOUND SHAKE at least amused — our next-door neighbor's dog loves to houndshake. In self-quarantine times, chasing Toki around is a great source of pleasure.

Most of the others worked more moderately. I missed that FAIR COUCH and FUZZY MOUTH were themers since they almost seemed like real things. Ah, I remember the times our fair couch, back before it became a kids' trampoline ...

Although I enjoyed NED FLOUNDERS — I'm both a Simpson and GoT lover — it felt way too specific. If you're a fan of just one or the other — or even worse, neither — this one will mystify. (Ned Flanders, and Eddard "Ned" Stark.)

I scratched my head over the puzzling HIMBO, then laughed. Connecting "him" and "bimbo" — that's exactly the type of linguistic amusement I was hoping for out of a Ben Zimmer production.

The theme didn't do much for me, but the gridwork was solid enough to give me 15 minutes of entertainment. Welcome to the club, Ben! I'm hoping for more HIMBO-level humor in the future.

★ My memory for crosswords is long. After reading the title, I immediately thought of another of BEQ's Sunday puzzles, playing on As. I steeled myself, wondering if it'd be another A addition. Nothing wrong with that, but so many have been done that the resulting themers have to be spectacular.

Boy, was I wrong! What a playful way to riff on As, words that start with As, but become completely different words when the A sound is removed. APACHE to A PATCHY, ACQUIRE to A CHOIR, ATTACKS to A TAX — such interesting finds!

Best of all, the resulting phrases were amusing. A PATCHY APACHE as Geronimo with peach fuzz? That's a big winner.

Even the ones that weren't as surprising (not much of a spelling change), like A VOWEL AVOWAL, worked out well because of strong cluing. I had never thought of AYE and OUI being all vowels. That elevates a fine theme entry onto the Olympic podium's gold platform.

I wasn't as wild about the solving experience though, wading through such gloop as ALEE AMA ANIS CBER ENE REMS SERE etc. Nor was I excited to hit oddities like PENTODE and BLUE CAP and the outdated RCA DOME / TELSTAR. There was some strong material, like CSI MIAMI, SLIM JIM, RED BEANS, and PR FIRM, but the overall balance made the solve feel bogged down.

My preference is to have easier grids, where you don't even notice the short stuff, along with more strong bonuses. I do understand the perspective that a 136-word grid allows for bigger tracts of white space, making for a more challenging solve. Given how long it takes to finish a Sunday puzzle, I'd take funner over harder every time.

That's a minor issue, paling in comparison to theme quality, though. Some awesome finds, easily holding my attention through the full solve. I especially enjoyed how it seemed at the start like a theme I've seen before, only to slowly reveal itself as something different.

Four contenders for clue of the year in this puzzle; such cleverness:

1. Being an Oakland A diehard in my youth (anyone else follow Rickey Henderson's stolen base count in that exciting 1982 season?), I grinned at [A home in the major leagues?]. That's "A" home, as in where an Oakland A could be found. (Sorry, baseball haters!)
2. I didn't understand the p's and q's reference on PINKIE. How does a PINKIE mind p's and q's? I was about to question Jim Horne when I looked down to find the Q to write "question." D'oh! The PINKIE indeed types p's and the q's.
3. [Term for a group of (insert animals here)] usually makes me groan. I have to know the zoological term for a group of moles? BEQ WHY MUST YOU … oh. Mole, as in a spy. Ahem. I knew that.
4. LAWYER going through the (literal) motions — brilliant.

BEQ's Monday themelesses are usually too edgy / bleeding-edge for me to figure out. Not infrequently, he seeds them with some piece of latest slang that I'm too uncool to know. (Insert sound of teenage snickering here.) Today, that was AFROFUTURISM, BITMOJI, JUUL PODS, and TAKE THEL. Turns out THEL is a made-up word like YAS in YAS QUEEN, which I just learned a few months ago! THEL is short for … huh? It's THE L, as in TAKE THE LOSS?

I knew that, too. I was simply testing you. Boy, are you uncool!

Along with not being familiar with APPLE SHORTCAKES and ON THE LAST DAY feeling contrived, I didn't connect that well to the puzzle. A lot of that might be on me — I'm so uncool that I can't even figure out exactly how much the opposite of EPT I am. Sure appreciated those four brilliant clues, though!

Initialisms, all playing on "___ words." It confused me at first — how could the KOHINOOR DIAMOND possibly be KIND words? Turns out that it can also be written as the KOH-I-NOOR DIAMOND. Huh, who knew?

I appreciate that BEQ stuck steadfastly to only in-the-language phrases. It would have been too easy to stray toward loosey-goosey-ness on something like SAFE words. SUCH A FLIMSY EXAMPLE would have been such a flimsy example of this theme.

Even though I so brilliantly managed to drop it into casual conversation.

Mic drop!

Ah, the sub-140 word Sunday puzzle. I case see why BEQ was tempted (he used 136 words) — if a solver is initialismed out (I suffer from that, I admit), try to give them something to hold their attention. Bonuses like I AM A ROCK, SCORSESE, SHOWCASE, UPSTARTS, iN UTERO, SEE THRU do help.

But ORDO. COMTE. FETOR? EDDA ROARK REUEL. Yikes.

Not to mention YSER ACBC AME and the random XOX.

Now, there was more interesting mid-length stuff than usual, ANKARA, TOFFEE, TROPIC, BALKANS, CRACKER, TOUCANS. Definitely not the same, boring 3-5 letter fill that we see all the time.

But overall, I'd have preferred a 140-word puzzle that featured a couple of sizzling long bonuses, even if that meant accepting more of the same-old, same-old 3-5-letter fill. I tend to not notice that short stuff; it becomes part of the background. Just as with the Japanese adage, "The nail that sticks out gets pounded back down," I favor having as few NONFEE ACBC FETOR nails sticking up.

I'd love to see more creativity in the NYT Sunday crossword. It's felt like it's lost its edge in the past year. Not every Sunday puzzle has to be ground-breaking, nor should it be — plenty of people are just fine with tried-and-true, standard themes, thank you very much.

But especially considering how few people are making Sunday puzzles these days — Will just issued a note saying he only has 10 accepted Sundays in the queue — I'm hoping that Will and Joel start more proactively reaching out to certain constructors and guiding them along the difficult Sunday path, working with them to develop creative themes.

ADDED NOTE: Will recently changed his policy for Sunday puzzles! While he still won't take general theme queries for Sunday puzzles — all other editors do, but due to the sheer volume of his submissions (about 125 per week), Will can't make this happen this yet — he will look at unclued grids. That's a step in the right direction — previously, constructors would have to take the 10+ hours to clue up a 21x21 grid before submitting. It was soul-crushing to then find out that Will didn't like the theme, and those 10 hours were a waste of time.

Samll steps. I'm hoping his next move will be to allow "experienced constructors" — those with 10+ NYT puzzles published, say — to submit Sunday theme queries. Maybe limit it to one a month or something, to make it more manageable.

I like it when a puzzle makes me feel smug. Of course, the poet who wrote "Walden" isn't pronounced with a long O in the first syllable! Nor is "collide"! Of course, Clyde Barrow is the guy from Bonnie and Clyde! Of course, the sound added into these phrases is the "schwa"!

Ahem. Did I sell it?

Four consistent sound additions, contrary to my initial impression. Not sure why I imagined COLLIDE pronounced as in "colloid." Looks like I've taken too much chemistry for my own good.

Looks like I've also been pronouncing "colloid" wrong all these years. Sigh.

Here's a case where I'm okay with a constructor going down to 72 words in attempt to make the solving experience more interesting. A low word count allows for a whole lot of long slots, and that can mean "fresher" feeling fill. It's not every day that you run into DRAFT CHOICE, HAVE IN STORE, HORSE CAR. And since BEQ managed to keep his crossword glue to a minimum — IRAE, RTE, maybe MEADE too — it presents a not-your-every-day solving experience.

It's still not my preferred style, though, as "draft pick" sounds so much better than DRAFT CHOICE, and HAVE IN STORE is more neutral than exciting. Also, RELEARNS. I bet the grid would have been more colorful and fun at 74 or 76 words, each of the long slots used to more of its potential.

I enjoyed BAROQUE BREAD and THOREAU SHADE (from "throw shade"), but the other two didn't do much for me. PARADE FOR RAIN sounds so bizarre, as does COLLIDE BARROW. I did appreciate the consistency BEQ applied to each of the sound additions, even if that wasn't immediately obvious to this dunderhead.

BEQ was one of the early legends in themeless crosswords. One of his featured entries, WHAT THE …, turned my world upside down. I had never thought of implied punctuation within an entry. Not surprising that that puzzle got chosen for one of Will's "favorite puzzles" books!

It was MULTIVERSE that similarly wowed me today. I'm such a nerd, spending a disproportionate amount of my time thinking about parallel universes and alternate realities. I'd take the blue pill, thank you very much. No, not Viagra! Sigh.

I spent a couple of minutes mulling over WIIITIS — love or hate? On the one hand, it's got that crazy triple I string. And don't forget that neat implied punctuation, WII-ITIS. On the other, the WII is an old console by now, and I don't remember WII-ITIS being solidly in the language.

A lot to learn from this puzzle:

• THIEU was a Vietnamese president.
• CARLO PONTI was an Italian film producer, married to Sophia Loren.
• CAR DIB is when you yell "I call shotgun!".
• JUVENTUS is a soccer club, huge in Italy.
• Easter Island statues are called MOAI. I think I once knew that. That's my story, anyway.
• SKALDS are Icelandic toasts for when you're drinking Akvavit. What? They're Icelandic poets? Well, poets drink too, don't they? HA, I GOT YOU THERE!

Along with the gluey NTESTS, made-up feeling MISLAYER and a bit of ESSE SIPE, it wasn't my favorite of BEQ's puzzles. I like to learn something from a puzzle, but this was drinking from a firehose.

Still, a couple of great clues helped keep me entertained: PIE A LA MODE as being a dish being both hot and cold, and "can opener" repurposed for PAROLE. Good stuff.

Day 1 of WTF? Week at XWI! I love having the chance to tell people What I'm Thankful For.

What, you were thinking something different?

Puzzles add so much to my life. Sometimes I worry that in my anal desire to microanalyze puzzles from a technical standpoint, I come across as too negative. So I'm going to forgo that this week and simply tell constructors what about their puzzle made me happy.

Today, I loved BEQ's choices of themers. With hidden word themes, especially ones using the same word, you have to do something special to make your puzzle stand out. Three fresh, snazzy theme answers will go a long ways toward that. HYBRID ENGINE, KALAHARI DESERT, GENDER IDENTITY? Yes, yes, and yes!

I also appreciated how BEQ progressively moved the location of his word split. RID/E to RI/DE to R/IDE is beautifully elegant. It even echoes the theme, with the RIDE sort of moving, as if it were hitching a ride.

Great revealer, too. You need to have some entry explaining what's going on. Otherwise, a Monday solver could easily miss the cleverosity. RIDE literally hitching a ride in the themers is perfect.

There are a lot of smash-two-titles-together puzzles like this, usually containing kooky results or amazingly natural-sounding ones.

KOOKY: CONNECT FOUR CHECKERS gave me a little smile, sort of a less horrifying "human centipede." (Do yourself a favor and don't look that up on the interwebs. It's horrifying.)

NATURAL: MEMORY TROUBLE is a real thing, a very cool finding. What a coincidence that two well-known games can combine to form this phrase! It's not a perfect phrase, as "memory loss" seems much more common. But it's still a neat discovery.

I found it odd to have a mix of the two theme types. Felt like a lack of consistency. I think BEQ was going for the latter theme type, but CONNECT FOUR CHECKERS threw everything out the window — no way to interpret that one as anywhere near real.

ACQUIRE apparently was "one of the most popular games in the 1960s"? I'm clearly not the target demographic.

There's some nice fill — I loved BERNIE MAC in "Ocean's 11", SIBELIUS, RYAN GOSLING — but also a lot of gloopy short fill. ABEAM, A YEAR, ANOS, ATA … well, did you EVAH? Not BEQ's best gridwork. The Sunday 140-word grid, with seven long themers, can cause so much trouble, even for the best.

I like the "mash-ups forming real-sounding things" genre. SORRY DIPLOMACY is exactly what we're doing with North Korea! (Not sure whether to laugh or cry.) I wish BEQ had eliminated CONNECT FOUR CHECKERS and rejiggered things to have perhaps just six real-esque themers, which would also allow for a smoother grid.

Fun to get that pile-up of rare letters in the middle of the puzzle, Q J J Z Z nearby. Loved it!

I like BOOK PROPOSAL a lot, being a writer and all, and EMPHASIS MINE was strong too.

It's so tough to feature 12-letter entries in themelesses. Look at how those three black squares at the end of EMPHASIS MINE and the start of BOOK PROPOSAL fix so much into place. Themelesses often benefit from shifting black squares around like crazy, testing, testing, testing. Not easy to do when you already start with some fixed black squares.

I didn't know what a SQUAT JUMP was, but it seemed self-explanatory (starting from a squat … and then jumping?). Neat how it interlocked with the 12s above, and also PORTRAIT GALLERY. Strong backbone to the puzzle.

But also a fairly inflexible one. BEQ did well to work in LAZY BONES and TROMBONE (still waiting for someone to use the awesome SAD TROMBONE), but that further rigidified things. Not a surprise to end up needing some LST (yikes), ONEL in the SW, along with the more-neutral-than-positive SCENE II and TO HELEN.

In general, it's so tough to make 7-letter entries stand out. I did like LE MONDE, and I INSIST was a nice one too. But COLLATE, LEASE TO, ROOT FOR, ESTEEMS … just taking up valuable real estate.

ROOT FOR actually did get elevated by its clue — I was so confused, wondering what the back rows of a stadium were called. Nope, "back" as in support! That's the way to make a dull entry stand out.

A neat skeleton structuring this 72-word grid. But as a 72-worder — the max number of allowable words in a themeless — I wanted a little more juice. Those corners full of 7s are so tough to make sing.

GOOGLE HANGOUTS! Funny, I just looked this up yesterday when trying to figure out what replaced GChat. Still, dunno what it is, or if it'll stick around — for all the successes Google has had, there have been plenty of failures like Google Reader, Google Video Player, Google Buzz, GChat, etc. Curious to see if this one will have staying power or not.

(Apparently, it's a way to … make free video calls?)

BEAT A DEAD HORSE is a great phrase, one I use all the time. A friend did point out that it's morbid though, in the same vein as "screwed the pooch." I still use both of these, but I do hesitate (for a nanosecond) before I do.

Grid mostly features seven-letter entries, and Kameron and BEQ convert some slots well. NUTMEAT always makes me laugh. PLUS ONE, ART DECO, GO GREEN (as in "change to eco-conscious ways"), ALADDIN. METEORS gets a clue to elevate it. Things seen in showers? Oh, you naughty Gray Lady!

UGLY CRY … huh. I'm sure by the time I get around to understanding and using this meme, all the kids will have moved away from it like the plague. When you have to spell out a clue in so much detail, for it to be understood ...

A shame that there's a good amount of wastage in the sevens, but that's the norm with seven-letter-heavy themelesses. ENNEADS, CATER TO, TESTATE, AMASSED, ALLOW IN, ENTEBBE, etc. = all fine, but these didn't add anything to the quality of my solve. Nice try on the TESTATE clue, [Willful?]. But TESTATE wasn't familiar enough to me to provide a great a-ha moment after I realized the wordplay.

Enough strong entries to keep me entertained, though — BANK VAULT and ROB REINER (huge "Spinal Tap" fan here!) — and good craftsmanship. Some SIE, ROM, RIAA, DSO to hold everything together, but nothing there is egregious.

Celeb puzzle! I've been a huge fan of Lithgow since his "3^rd Rock from the Sun" days. Fun to get a puzzle that plays on his profession — acting terms redefined in kooky ways. CURTAIN CALL as a drapes-buying decision, CAST PARTY using the "person" definition of "party," etc. And so much acting-related filler material!

I wasn't familiar with SUMMER STOCK. Apparently it's a generic term for any theater production that only happens in the summer? We have a local company that does "Shakespeare improv" in a nearby park — I keep meaning to check it out.

I enjoyed some of the fill in the grid, particularly the long bonuses of SPITTAKE (I seem to remember a lot of SPITTAKEs on "3^rd Rock"!), CATFISH, PINE NUTS, even the DOLPHINS with their perfect season, including a Superbowl victory. (Take that, 2007-2008 Patriots!)

I did feel like the grid contained a lot of crossword glue, though. Starting with some ATRAS, ETA, AAR wasn't bad. Toss in some STLO, SECCO, I DON'T, and the crosswordy ERNES, though, and it felt like A HEAP of stuff. (Not sure why A TAD feels fine to me but A HEAP doesn't …)

And then there was the KEYES / KATISHA crossing. Yikes! Perhaps educated solvers should be expected to know Daniel KEYES ... I buy that. And I appreciate that a reference to "The Mikado" fits right in with this celeb collab. But wow, is that a tough name for us laypeople. Rough crossing, tough to get correct.

As with most crosswords, it's a game of trade-offs. Four themers are easy to work with, but it's not at all simple to work a bunch of great bonuses into the fill. Then when you strive to put in more quasi-thematic material (references to theater in this case), it strains the grid mightily. Overall, I would have preferred a smoother end product with fewer bonuses, but I can understand the trade-off here, given the nature of this celeb puzzle.

I like these types of "redefinitional" puzzles. The Isaac Mizrahi one worked better for me, since some of today's themers didn't quite jibe — hard to imagine anyone describing a stage departing by saying the stilted "STAGE LEFT." And a fly fisherman might be a CASTing party, but not really a CAST PARTY.

But overall, so much fun to see one of my favorite actors make his crossword debut, with a profession-specific concept. Love BEQ's description of John tackling this project ... if "method cruciverbalism" isn't a thing, it really should be!

A mash-up of letter addition and sound change today, using the "sigh" sound. Static cling becomes STATIC CYCLING, low frequency to SILO FREQUENCY, etc. Took me a while to figure out some of the base phrases, as BEQ did a nice job of employing obfuscating spelling changes like GONE to SAIGON and NIGH to SINAI.

I was going to applaud the non-repetition of any one "sigh" addition, but there's CLING to CYCLING and CLONES to CYCLONES. Ah well.

Humor is so subjective. None of the themers made me laugh out loud, but they were all decent. Well, except for SHARK SIPHON SOUP. That one felt inconsistent, as the "in" sound of "fin" didn't stay the same. (I pronounce "siphon" with an "un" sound. Have I been wrong all these years?) The resulting phrase felt awkward, too.

Eight themers are slightly above average (we usually see seven on Sundays), but there's a good amount of crossword glue that I'm not used to seeing in a BEQ puzzle. Nothing was major, but with a listing of AME, ALAI (can only clue in one way), STA, MAI, IMA, AAR, YOO, INST, GAI, etc. it felt like it didn't hit the high standard I expect from BEQ.

The title also felt wonky. I get the play on SIZE MATTERS = "sigh" sounds matter. But that singular vs. plural (matter vs. matters) makes the wordplay not work for me. Perhaps a play on SIGHS would have been better? Or SUPERSIZED?

I did like some of the bonuses though — BLARNEY, COMPOTE, WENT PRO, and especially BAR EXAMS with its brilliant clue, playing off of "practice tests." Since the theme didn't personally hit me that well, these bonuses strewn throughout the puzzle were very welcome.

BEQ is one of the best out there when it comes to innovation in themeless grid patterns. I suppose making (at least) one themeless per week will develop that skill!

Some great feature entries in BABY DOLLS, SANDWICH BAGS, MADE NO SENSE, LAW CLERKS — all intersecting together in the same region! Along with the complete lack of crossword glue in that wide-open middle, it made for such a pleasurable solving experience. It's difficult to execute on a big section like this to end up with both sparkle and cleanliness, but BEQ did it. Bravo, sir!

I sometimes wonder if my bar for themelesses is too high these days. As much as I loved the middle section, the corners didn't do nearly as much for me, which pulled this one out of POW! contention.

Finishing with an error in CASAVAS / DIAVOLO didn't help, but that was my fault, not the puzzle's — I should have known that it's "cassava," and that a cassava is a root, not a melon. But I would sympathize with others who made the same mistake. DIABOLO vs. DIAVOLO … man, that's hard to keep straight.

Themelesses featuring mostly seven-letter entries ... they're so hard to pull off with the same color as you can more easily get in 8+ letter answers. Things like SUMATRA are interesting, but ACHIEVE, DEIGNED, UNNAMED, ONE GRAM didn't do much for me. THE AREA felt partial-ish, too. (I don't mind duplicated short words, but THE above THE felt wonky.)

And I had to debate re: AGRIBIZ. Such an interesting string of letters, ending with that Z, but the term didn't resonate with this MBA / WSJ reader. I wondered how many others it would feel similarly. It's a valid term, just not one I've personally heard much.

Similar feeling about SAD KEANU. I've been a big fan of his ever since "The Matrix," but this meme was new to me. I'm sure it hit some folks strongly, though — people who are on Instagram, Fb, Twitter more, perhaps?

So overall, a knockout solving experience for me in the middle, but not as strong in the corners.

JAY, YOU, ELLE, WHY are each one-fourth of JULY. Get it? (Happy 4^th!)

Funny how Jill and I had the same idea for last year's 4th of Jully puzzle, but we ended up with a much different execution.

JAY GATSBY, ELLE MACPHERSON, and WHY BOTHER are all great theme selections. But with so many options starting with YOU, I was let down by YOU ARE NOT ALONE. It's a fine statement, common enough. But not YOU BET YOUR LIFE? YOU DON'T SCARE ME? YOU SAID IT NOT ME? Just personal preference, but I think there was a lot of potential left on the table.

Generally solid execution, a pair of nice extras in ON ALL FOURS and PLUM TOMATO. ARSENAL as the English football club was cool, too, especially introducing a great nickname. How awesome, to be known as "The Gunners"!

I did hitch in the upper left corner, with ELAL (esoteric), IDYL (I'm used to the IDYLL spelling), ROOS (ROO as Pooh's friend is perfectly fine though), and then the awkward VETOER. If it hadn't been for that last one, I would have shrugged off the other three. But oof, those made-up sounding -ER words are hard on the ear. Precious mid-length slot, wasted.

Overall, fun to compare and contrast this theme/grid with the one Jill and I made. Although it's the same basic idea, I think there's more than enough room for both. Hopefully, the same general concept won't show up on July 4th, 2018, though!

★ Such a fun idea, THE CARPENTERS potentially made up of people with carpentry-sounding names: ELIJAH WOOD, STUDS TERKEL, BRAD STEVENS, and MIKE HAMMER. Nice touch to use two first names and two last names.

Five themers of length 10/11/13/11/10 is tough to build around, especially since that middle 13 tends to force big, wide-open corners. I wasn't surprised that the old pro BEQ had no problem filling those corners with panache and cleanliness — a ton of great fill everywhere I looked. OIL RIG, STIGMA, CUJO in the upper left. SLINKIER, PATTERNS, and SPOOLED are pretty good in the upper right. And my favorite = WHAMMO, SAVE IT, and the hilarious-sounding PLOTZ! That is a fantastic use of mid-length slots, which too often get filled with blah entries.

BEQ's puzzles often have a very fresh, contemporary feel — sometimes too much so for my taste. I wasn't sure whether I loved HOWRU = HOW R U, or hated it (probably more the former). SOO I've seen before as in the SOO locks in the Great Lakes. That's minor-ish for me in terms of crossword glue, but SOO… as ["Your point being…?"] left me with a groan. It seems like that opens up a Pandora's Box of WELLL and NOOO and OOOOPS.

VIKES looks odd, but it does appear to be the term the Minnesota Vikings' fans use.

A couple of standout clues = a real treat on a Wednesday. For me, the best was [There might be a spat about this]. Mystifying, until I realized "spat" was talking about decorative spats worn about shoes, not quarrel-type spats. Beautiful how it didn't require a telltale question mark.

I initially wondered why BEQ chose BRAD STEVENS out of all the BRADs out there (BRAD PITT the obvious choice), but his commentary makes sense of the decision. I like it when constructors inject some of their personal tastes into a puzzle, just as long as it doesn't result in too esoteric entries. BRAD STEVENS is relatively new as a coach, and I wouldn't feature him as a theme entry, but I can see BEQ's rationale.

An entertaining concept with standout execution.

I haven't loved the middle of a puzzle so much in ages. You start with the awesome crossings of JUDO MAT / NUNCHAKUS (yes, everyone knows them as nunchucks, but NUNCHAKUS is technically correct) / DOJO — that made me wonder why more themeless constructors (including me) don't make more of an effort to cross answers that are related. Such a cool effect! And then you throw in TEEN JEOPARDY, JELLOSHOT, DOW JONES, JIGGLED, all cross-linked together — that's some pretty spectacular themeless work.

With the inclusion of JELLO SHOT right down the middle, BEQ forces all four corners to heavily feature 7-letter answers. All of the corners are pretty good, but none quite had the zing of his middle. The NE and SW are especially tough, since there are 7-letter answers triple-stacked adjacent to a long answer … and another long answer runs through everything! That's such a heavy set of constraints.

As much as I liked NUNCHAKUS and FLAGRANT FOUL in the SW, I wasn't a fan of AGHA, especially when it crosses the toughie EPHESUS. RUGLIKE is a word … but not one I'd be hot on using in a precious themeless slot. DEADEST is a real word, but pretty neutral to me; not an asset.

The west and east sections are tough, too, when you already fix so much into place with your longer entries. In the west, I like RAP CDS okay, but it does feel a bit out of touch in today's world of streaming delivery. And ARE TOO isn't a great entry, nor is CTA (Chicago Transit Authority).

And in the east … DUCES. Yikes. As much as I like XANADU and AIRACE/HEIDEN/USA!USA! in those 6-letter slots, not just DUCE singular (evoking images of Mussolini) but DUCES plural is a pretty gritty answer.

So, some beautiful work in the middle of the puzzle — really stellar stuff — along with some material around the perimeter that didn't go over as well for me.

"INITIAL TURN" hinting at three-letter acronyms formed by swapping the last two letters of a normal word. Francis and BEQ sure found a ton of good answers — BOY WONDER turned into BYO WONDER (bread), CUP OF NOODLES into CPU (central processing unit) of NOODLES, etc. And BTU, SERIOUSLY?! hit perfectly for this mechanical engineer frustrated by non-metric units. I especially liked the ones that added in some sort of implied punctuation, like TIM COOK into "TMI, COOK!"

We longtime solvers even get an insider's nod, with SDI AND NANCY — the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) is something Will has been trying to phase out, but it works here. Neat find, that SID (Vicious) AND NANCY (Spungen, both of the Sex Pistols) turn into a pair of Reagan-related answers.

One aspect of the puzzle that I really liked was that the odd letter combinations — words starting with CPU, TBA, SDI — seemed totally wrong. I actually erased these starts a few times because they seemed like they couldn't be right; that some sort of word-bending trickery had to be going on. Neat to realize that there wasn't, and my mind had just led me down a wrong path.

Francis and BEQ do something few ever dare: cramming 12 theme answers into a 140-word Sunday. It is true that some of their themers are shorties (GTO MILK, TBA COLA, etc.) but executing on a Sunday with an average number of themers (about seven) is probably the toughest skill in the game. Trying to nestle in 12 themers is just plain old nuts. Given how much is going on, it's really impressive that they still gave us some nice long fill — MOUNT ETNA, MEIN HERR, CALL SHEET.

It was a little surprising to run into a good amount of crossword glue like SAR, STYRO, CEN, NYES, etc. in a puzzle built by these two masters — that helped solidify my belief that something tricksy was going on — but after some thought, it really shouldn't be surprising given how much theme and long fill is packed in. Just part of that trade-off to get so much nice material into the grid.

A totally gonzo puzzle today, a crossword meant to evoke a KENKEN. It's been a while since I did a KENKEN puzzle, but it was fun to see the idea worked right into the grid numbers. For example, there's a tiny division sign next to the number "2" (look very carefully at the grid below), and that means that TWO (in shaded squares) divided by ONE (also in shaded squares) equals that number "2." Similarly, the multiplication sign by the number "42" in the grid means that the SIX times the SEVEN in shaded squares equals that 42.

Whoo, that was hard to explain. Anyway, a creative use of the numbering seen in all crossword grids.

Even though there are numerous ways to link ONE and TWO in the grid, it's so tough to get them into an arrangement that makes for clean filling. I don't particularly care to see NAZI in any crosswords I do (others disagree, saying that it's fine if clued in historical context or referring to various recent movies), and I was glad for my high school French to recall ONZE as 11.

The constraints get even tougher when you're looking at arranging THREE and EIGHT in a link-up. Oof, that STS over PHU over REE is a pretty gluey result.

It's very unusual to see so many gluey entries in any Fagliano or BEQ grid, but it's understandable given how enormously difficult this idea is to execute on. It's too bad that "crazy ideas week" is over — seems like this one would have fit right in.

I'm not sure it accurately represents the feel of a KENKEN, but I do like the innovation here. Can't say that I've ever seen mathematical symbols next to digits in a grid!

Well-executed "Little Women" theme, MEG AMY BETH and JO tossed into normal phrases to produce wackiness. I've seen a lot of "Little Women" crosswords over the years, so it's neat to run across a new take. TOUGH NUT(MEG) was a good one, and BIG(AMY) BUSINESS gave me a chuckle.

BEQ's website puzzles are sometimes too heavy on music clues/answers for my taste, so it was nice to see a good range of subject areas in his fill. From a PLUG UGLY to a YOGA MAT to MULLAHS to GUESS NOT, the longer fill covers a pleasantly wide set of topics. I also liked how BEQ laid out his grid to include a few more 7-letter entries than usual, allowing him to add a bit of zest with UNEARTH and KNELLED.

Nice job on the shorter stuff, too. Now I see that there's a lot of 3-letter words (24 of them!), but I didn't notice that during my solve because most of them were innocuous. KNT always looks odd to me, but it appears to be a legit chess abbreviation.

I did stumble on the ANNA / VAL section down south, tripping up my finish. Having given up on "Breaking Bad" and not being familiar with "Howard the Duck," that intersection was rough. I can see why BEQ/Will decided to toughen those clues way up, as Thursday puzzles are supposed to be really tough, but that sort of esotery doesn't feel like a very fun type of tough to me.

Overall, a good showing on a theme that I would have preferred to see on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Will has said in the past that all he wants from Thursday puzzles is that they're harder than Wednesday ones, but given how many great tricks and gimmicks we've seen over the years in Thursday puzzles, it's usually a bit of a letdown to see a standard theme type.