Dan

I can’t decide whether the clue for 16A was a Monday worthy effort that slipped by the editors, or if it was elegantly devious. I am leaning toward the latter. Because I for one read the clue, joked “ALONE” to myself and moved on leaving it blank. Even when I had AL… from the crosses I could just not convince myself it could be that obvious. Yep, definitely gotta go with elegantly devious.

The editor’s note should probably have mentioned the fact that you also need to have overlays turned on.

I love a crossword with a good gimmick. The trickier the better. As much as I enjoy a difficult Saturday puzzle, I revel in a Thursday where I am confuzzled until the aha moment hits me. But regardless of the level of difficulty, it only works for me if I have to figure out the gimmick in order to solve the crossword. If you give me a themelessly clued crossword that I have to solve in order to arrive at the gimmick, you’ve lost my interest. I am even less impressed when it requires a paragraph to explain.

A themelessly clued grid that required circles, italics and a “hey look here” to get the “theme” across. Well, at least they didn’t ask me to do a connect the dots.

I don’t think the clue for 17A is particularly accurate. Congestion and a runny nose are not mutually exclusive. For me, congestion is nearly if not always accompanied by a runny nose.