Sid Sivakumar

Barry, I appreciate the kind words! At the risk of jinxing things: it looks like my thesis defense will be in 2025, and then I’ll head back to clinics for two more years of medical school. I used to struggle to convey the concept of a “time void,” but the pandemic seems to have given everyone an idea of what that’s like. More or less, that’s a reasonable way to think about the timeline of an MD/PhD program. Thanks for checking in on me!

Barry: I can sure make an easy puzzle, although it might be a long ploy to lull you into false comfort before my next brain-buster runs. Glad you enjoyed it. :)

@Min, MOOLAH unfortunately wasn’t possible, but an early version of the theme set did include THER(MOPLA)STIC -> MO(O)LA — which I thought was fun. Someone who solved an early draft of this puzzle also commented on SCREWING. I guess I should’ve anticipated the interest in this word … after all, it’s the only one of the six classical simple machines that effectively converts torque to linear displacement. Pretty special! :)

@Sam Lyons There’s only one of me, I’m afraid. I wish there were more — then I could put them all to work brainstorming more crossword ideas, à la Calvin from “Calvin and Hobbes.” Happy to hear you enjoyed this one, even if it was easier than you expected! Not all of them need to be a kickboxing workout. :)

@Anita, I missed the POY voting — thank you very much for letting me know about it. Could you point me to where I can read that community discussion? That’s a lovely honor, so belated thanks to all!

Thanks for thinking of me, Anita. Glad you enjoyed the puzzle, and nice work picking up on the theme early! It might be another stretch before I have more puzzles in the Times. But the great news about the Super Mega is that it doubles as a crossword calendar for an entire year (if you solve exactly two clues per day).

I grew up on the East Coast, in Virginia — so my native pronunciations are far from Midwestern, but I think *any* phonetic theme that adopts a “General American” accent is going to sound quite odd to a Jersey Coast solver’s ear. I wonder if younger folks from NJ/NY would be more amenable to a “tock” / “talk” equivalence? I have many friends from North Jersey and those on the younger side — say, mid-20s and below — sport an accent much closer to General American than I would expect, including this particular vowel merger.

@Min, this is one of those times when a joke I’m absolutely certain would have killed in person fell flat over text … that’s on me. Don’t worry, I’m definitely smiling along with you!

Likewise — thank you, Lewis! Sid Vicious is off duty today … it’s Sid Reasonable subbing in. :)