"Hovercrafts," by Ned White

Editor's Comments

I like how Ned took a common expression—a RISING TIDE lifts all boats—and turned it into a twisty Friday theme.  In fact, expressions lend themselves so well to crossword themes that I've been known to click down to random long entries in my word list just to see if they inspire any puzzle ideas!  Anyway, all of Ned's theme entries are nice, though my favorite is the SCOW crossing a word break in MRS. O'LEARY'S COW.  It's not every day you find a such a nice disguise for a hidden word at the end of a theme entry.  And finally, Ned designed a great grid to house his theme entries.  There are lots of midlength slots, and he really took advantage of them with entries like HANG TIME, YEAH YEAH, SASHIMI, and IN A SWOON.