Jonathan

So glad to see Will Shortz is back!

I have a small bone to pick with the coder(s) of today's puzzle - I wish the 4mation would have allowed digits in the squared circles. Oh well... Happy Thanksg151ng!

It would have been nifty if the various synonyms for boss were "under cover" in the grid in some more clever way than just being contained within unrelated phrases. World peace would be nifty too. Never mind me.

I looked up Jane Grey (1536-1554) and learned that she was an exceptionally learned woman whose accession to the throne and beheading both resulted from her getting swept up in political events outside her control. Given our contemporary scene I wonder what truths about her situation were known by the general public and what plain folks' attitudes toward her were. As they had no elections to look forward to as a way to impact such high-level goings-on, I'm guessing malevolent players in the political power class saw no need to cultivate a disinformation industry. But maybe there wasn't much of an information industry either. Anyway, pardon that aside on 25 Across.

The fun in this puzzle even includes tapping the three key answers (in the app) just to see the related ones light up in sets.

Now that I understand that BEA ARTHUR and BABE RUTH are both built out of the same A-B-E-H-R-T-U stockpile I realize that letter-banking is not particularly interesting to me. My solve time on this roughly doubled while I wondered what was wrong with my completed puzzle. Then I thought, "maybe Barolos e Brunellos are not VINES"... et OLIVIA!

I thought a clue could never contain a word in the answer for that clue.

As the column mentions the pre-software days of crossword construction, I'd like to ask the puzzle creators and professionals among us about how much computing has changed the game. Has the frequency of great puzzles skyrocketed? Compared to that stone age, does the ease of puzzle-making generally now blow the minds of old-timers? And particularly with the advent of AI, is creating a crossword puzzle today simply a matter of asking for one? There are a few creator names in these parts that are recognizable for consistently, outstandingly creative puzzles. How much (if at all) does that reflect mastery of software on top of pure talent?

This puzzle's theme is quite an accomplishment.

Don't aim at a kiaken or you'll miss because of confirmation bias.

Okay, okay, flickers and flamingos aren't ASIAN! I finally figured that out. (And it turns out the Washington State University teams are the Cougars, not the Mountaineers.)

...aspiring politician: BULL RING

3D: Now that that is an answer I don't recall ever seeing before!

Cut Out.

I wonder why the "heart-enclosing" boxes were shaded. Would it have made the puzzle more than just a little bit harder if that hadn't been done?

Is there any significance to each of the four western unions beyond just being two states? Since only one is an abutting pair, I'm wondering whether the others... were linked by telegraph maybe?

Note to Ms. Lovinger: In the paragraph below the heading "Today's Theme" you mentioned "a revealer entry at 122-Across." Did you mean 117-Across?

I think of the comma in many uses as a stand-in for a word - usually and, but or or but sometimes others, so writing "usually and, but, or or" is to my mind like saying "usually and or but or or or."

The theme of today's puzzle is wonderfully nerdy.

I'm working my way through the puzzle archives and happen just to have done August 6, 2011, which coincidentally has a similar, cool arrangement of black squares. I wonder if there's a term for it. Since Ms. Lovinger aptly described it as syncopated, I'm thinking "jazz grid." But in the overall orderliness of the layout it's more big band than bebop. How about, "Duke Ellington Geometry"?

The parts of the "hooks" in the shaded squares were hard to see - no wonder they landed those fish! (But I was at sea until I read the explanation.)

Since I'm not familiar with the Diego Luna series, the Ewoks live on ENDOR and I recalled the Peanuts characters saying "blech," my solve time doubled while I repeatedly scoured the completed grid for the problem.

I think I've never seen another NYT crossword puzzle in which clue words appear in the corresponding answers. If an editor sees this comment: was that a difficult bridge to cross before this puzzle was published?

I like it when I learn something new from a clue-answer combination, as, here, the fact (which I've verified) that laws barring open containers of alcoholic beverages in moving vehicles specifically exclude certain specialty vehicles (e.g., limos, party buses) that have professional drivers and partitions between drivers and passengers. Of course that makes sense but I don't recall thinking about it before.

Today's puzzle was as satisfying as the accompanying Wordplay column.

I thought that if a noun answer must have an article - as EON, for example, must be preceded by "an" - then the associated clue has to have a parallel construction. I'm sure the problem is with me and not the crossword editor so could someone please point out the error in my reasoning here?

As far as I can tell, completing this puzzle in the app requires that one figure out how four cells need to be formatted, even after one figures out the idea. I've tried foward slashes, hyphens and nothing. No joy.

May I comment on today's mini? I think the clue for 1A should have started with "With 4 Across," because it doesn't stand on its own to describe the 1A answer (which is too bad because the 4A clue does).