NYT Crossword for Sunday, February 26, 2023 by Will Nediger - Double-Doubles
Will Nediger, of London, Ontario, is a professional crossword constructor. This is his 46th puzzle for The Times.
A typical Sunday crossword has 140 answers, but this one has only 136, affording some longer "fill" outside of the theme. Occasionally, as here, constructors include things personal to them in their grids. Will writes, "As a parent of two young kids, 49-Down next to 50-Down really resonates with me."
Will Nediger notes:My seed for this theme was BEE ATTITUDES, which I thought was pretty original — but soon after submitting the puzzle, I took my son to a honey farm and saw a poster with that very pun on it! Nothing new under the sun, I suppose.
The theme involved some back-and-forth with the editors before we settled on a set they liked, and I'm grateful that they ended up going with a set of six, allowing me to focus on smooth fill. (And I'm especially grateful they kept my clue about TSAI Ming-liang, one of the greatest artists currently working.)
Jeff Chen notes:I'm fascinated by concepts that can't be easily mined programmatically. After staring at MISS INN FORMATION for ten minutes, I still only have a vague idea of how to approach the problem.
Big winner: FOR THE ASKING into FOR THEE, ASS KING! The Assman would be proud.
Others were more tortured. I could maybe imagine ADD MITTS DEFEAT on a Wikipedia editor's to-do list.
CHRISTMAS CAR ROLL … you can write a long clue involving all the words, but it won't sound natural. Or imaginable.
WELL COME, MATT. Again, when a clue requires such detailed explanation, it's not that welcome.
Interesting decision to reduce the number of themers and the overall word count, too. Where that decision shined was in the west and east. ALABASTER / SAVE STATE / STEELY DAN is STYLING.
Other areas, though: PARENTED, decent. ETRURIA ... I'd so much rather have one great long entry instead of this pair.
I was intrigued enough by these findings that I would have loved a seventh. And although some of the fill required by such a low word count caused me some AGITA, I respect the decision to experiment with theme and entry density.
* This article was originally published here
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