Joerg
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What a fun puzzle! I loved the theme! Even though – or maybe because – I didn't get it until the grid was completely filled. Almost ashamed to admit that, as this puzzle felt like having a good helping of inspiration from cryptic crosswords – and and cryptics are a big part of my preferred puzzle diet. This level of cryptic-style cluing was unexpected in the regular NYT crossword, especially without a helpful revealer, but that made it even more delightful when the penny finally dropped. The clue for 14A had a dose of cryptic-style misdirection at the level that a question mark easily unlocks. But the way the theme clues work is an example of what in cryptic crosswords would be called a rebus clue (not to be confused with what rebus would mean in a regular crossword like this) – and that is a pretty advanced type of cryptic clue. Wordplay at its best! Keep 'em coming...
Being an EXPAT I am not familiar with Mr Fielder. This name also was hard (at least for a Monday) to complete from crossings, as for me – as for another commenter – DIF(F) was missing an F and I tried "IT'S A DOG HEAT" first, having never encountered the DRY version before. Getting stuck on a name like that is my least favorite crossword challenge. Seeing the theme earlier than I did would have helped though and the rest was a fun and quick fill, so IT IS what IT IS.
@MJ Another physicist (though not a professor) and with you on the GAMMA. There are perfectly fine meaning for this that are not that obscure. Although here the crossings are doable, as for a few other ones that fall into your weird & arcane category. But ARIE and YOLANDA crossing TARA ROAD and BEHAR – that is quite a Natick indeed. Both me and my sometimes co-solver knew neither of the four answers for certain – and guessing all four crossing letters correctly opens up a lot of combinatorial options...
@Ned S There is difficult and there is Naticky. Having proper names of people ("Hadid YOL_ND_", "Joy B_H_R"), places ("_RI_ Crown Theater") and undefined somethings in the title of some book ("T_R_ROAD") cross – with each of these people, places and book titles being obscure enough that successfully guessing them or looking them up doesn't make you feel like having learned something of sustained value – pushes this from challenging difficulty to an annoying display of vocabulary. I agree with @Casey (and some other commenters) that the editors let something pass that was neither fun nor satisfying – and that is very different than the feeling I get from making it through difficulty with a learning opportunity.
@Bill when you also don't know the name of some TV Joy, then _RI_ even if we assume two vowels becomes up to 36 possibilities. And while the two 'A's in YOL_ND_ Hadid are guessable they open up additional combinatorics when you search for the mistake in your guesses. It wasn't unthinkable that the solution could involve TORO ROAD (bringing bulls into it) ORIC (Crown Theater) Hadid YOLONDI Joy B'CHIR So while I can get through an isolated Natick, especially with the instant verification of online solving, this SW corner took it to another level – at least for some solvers.
@Robin Wildfang Almost the same here. My German keyboard actually has the dollar sign as shift-4. But shift-9 is the closing parenthesis (the opening one is on shift-8), and the question mark is found on shift-ß. For extra confusion, the equals sign and slash are actually shifted characters, while the plus sign is not. Definitely an extra challenge if you use (and grew up on) a different keyboard layout.
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