"Thoroughly Themeless II," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

I'm honored to be part of the All Themeless All Week Long Extravaganza here at The Puzzle Society.  It's not often you get to see a seven-day stretch of wide-open freestyle puzzles in a quality venue like this one—thanks for having me, David!

I peppered in enough rare letters to achieve a pangram in this 68-entry offering while still maintaining a fairly medium difficulty level, I think.  Maybe that's why it's running on a Tuesday.  FIJI WATER and RUM RATION make symmetric-paired appearances in the grid, which felt fitting to me, and [Old Navy share] was one of my favorite off-the-top-of-my-head clues.  Looking forward to the rest of the week as a themeless-solving fan!

"Free for All XXXIV," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

Smooth and breezy solve for me today—how about you?

Sure, you might say that I have an advantage since I constructed the puzzle, but that was months and many puzzles ago, so it actually felt pretty fresh to me.  And I actually stumbled a bit with GORGONZOLA and SUZY Q.  I also had YES INDEED initially, then YOU BETCHA, before correcting it finally to YOU BET I DO!  It's fun when I can challenge myself, too!

"Sunday Freestyle XXXIII," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

Since I am fortunate to have two consecutive Sundays in a row, it seems a perfect time to touch on two contrasting freestyle approaches.  This week's effort is on the opposite end of the freestyle spectrum from last week.  Today's puzzle has 70 entries (max allowable is usually 72), while last week's count was a terse 62.  Working in the 70 range allows for more flexibility in selecting fill.  Using all the letters of the alphabet (a pangram) is much easier to attain in a 70-entry creation because you can pack in Scrabbly stuff like FEDEX FIELD, BBQ JOINTS, LOVITZ, and AQUAZUMBA.  The 62er was a J, Q, and Z short of being a pangram, and the predominance of common letters feels higher.  I enjoy using new (yet familiar) entries when freestyling and, according to Matt Ginsberg's clue database, today's puzzle debuts 7 new entries, while last week's puzzle had only 4.  I leave it up to you to decide if you have a solving preference.

"Sunday Freestyle XXXII," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

Went all the way down to 62 words for this one.  As you may have guessed, I started with the seed entry, UP ARROW KEY, at 1-Across.  Pepper in a few other nice phrases like NATHAN HALE, FIRE DRILLS, OVEN GLOVE, HOT TAMALE, DIRTY LIARS, GREEN ALGA, SOAP BOXES, CARTER ERA, ALPINE SKI—and hopefully it was an enjoyable solve.

"Sunday Freestyle XXIX," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

This feels like such a free-flowing and evenhanded fill that it doesn't seem possible that it is just 68 words and a pangram to boot.  By my count, of the 23 entries that are 7 or more letters, 16 of them are multiple-word phrases.  I consider that a big plus when constructing freestyle puzzles.  Also, HENRY LUCE, PEAK USE, and GO FUND ME (which I'm counting as multiword) are all entries I have never seen before in a crossword.

"Sunday Freestyle XXIII," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

I had a fondness for Charles Bronson tough-guy movies during the 60s and 70s.  Not so much the Death Wish franchise, which grew more tedious with each subsequent iteration, but certainly The Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen, The Magnificent Seven, and The Mechanic.  MR MAJESTYK is a lesser-known film of his, portraying a former U.S. Army Ranger, now watermelon farmer pitted against the mob—and such a fun name for the bottom row of a crossword.  When it cropped up as a possible fill during construction, I couldn't resist.

Editor's Comments

Although I wasn't familiar with MR MAJESTYK, the flashiness of the entry jumped out at me!  Definitely not the kind of thing you expect to see in the bottom row of your crossword puzzle.  I'm also a big fan of GRAPE JUICE, AVOCADO DIP, QUASIMODO, LOTUS TREE, and GAZETTEER (as opposed to the crossword standby ATLAS).  Seeing ANDERSONS in the grid reminded me of Pea Soup Andersen's.  My parents and I used to drive back and forth on the I-5 between Southern California and Northern California a lot, and we'd often stop in Santa Nella, where one branch of Andersen's is located.  Although we ultimately decided the restaurant was a bit of a tourist trap, I always get a laugh when I think of Andersen's.  I love how crossword entries can conjure up random memories!

"Free for All XXI," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

CRAZY QUILT was appropriately the starting point for the colorful blend of Scrabbly words and phrases in this 70-word concoction.  Looking back, it seems like it flows well and doesn't have anything too tough other than PEMMICAN, which I remember less than fondly from extended hiking/camping trips on the John Muir Trail through the Sierras as a Boy Scout.  Meat powder and berries bound together with lard in a bar—amazing what you will eat when hungry enough!

Editor's Comments

Mark Diehl is back with another signature Scrabbly themeless!  My top five favorite entries are CRAZY QUILT, TAX EVASION, EL DIABLO, AY CARAMBA, and ALIEN RACE.  I also really like how Mark made the midlength entries sparkle—as a constructor, it's easy to get so wrapped up in optimizing the longer slots that the midlength ones fall by the wayside.  With shorter goodies like I'M COOL, PALE ALE, MR TOAD, PLOTZ, RAW BAR, and GARBLE, the zip flows throughout the grid rather than being confined to the corners.  Mark's clues are also always at a happy medium.

"Sunday Freestyle XIX," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

Since retiring, Lee Ann and I have been flying more often to visit friends and attend events like the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament—to the point that I'm beginning to get acclimated to the fact that hurtling through the air in a heavy metal plane is very safe and not worth wasting much worry over.  Even our latest visit to Las Vegas during the midday heat that created a wildly bumpy approach didn't leave me a complete quivering mess.  Now, if the OXYGEN MASK had dropped from overhead during the jostling, that probably would have been a different matter!

Editor's Comments

In last Saturday's post about Mark's EXAM TABLES themeless, I discussed how impressive the grid pattern was.  What I didn't mention was that Mark came up with not one but two awesome fills for it!  In today's puzzle, my top five favorite entries are PAN AM GAMES, OXYGEN MASK, TUNA STEAKS, PARTY LINE, and the colloquial ANYONE ELSE.  I also like how the fill draws on a wide range of knowledge, including sports, music, science, art, and literature.  Having so many different kinds of references helps ensure there's something for everyone.

"Free for All XVIII," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

I remember treating a WWII-era veteran in the early 1980s, and when the appointment was over, he asked me, "Do you want to see a picture of my pride and joy?"  When I nodded yes, he pulled out his wallet, flipped through the plastic sleeves, and paused at a photo, which he held up with a triumphant grin.  It was a photo of two bottles standing side by side of LIQUID SOAP labeled Pride and Joy!  We both roared with laughter!

One thing I enjoy about weaving together freestyle puzzles is the memories a phrase will sometimes trigger in my head.  LIQUID SOAP was a corker for me.

Editor's Comments

Grids with triple-stacks of 9s, 10s, or 11s in all four corners are always tough to fill, since the connecting center region is extra-constrained.  You'd never guess that by looking at this puzzle, though—the center is clean as a whistle, and Mark even wove in an 8- and a 9-letter entry extending from each corner.  I would've expected to see just one of the two, given how hard such an arrangement is to fill.  Truly a feat of construction!  Grid design aside, my top five favorite entries are LIQUID SOAP, HILO HAWAII, PFIZER INC, SPEED CHESS, and DC UNIVERSE.  ENGINE BELL and ANKLE BITER are close runners-up.

"Sunday Freestyle XVI," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

Somehow I dipped down into the 68-word range with this one—had been making an effort to stay at the 70-entry mark with the puzzles I submit to David for the The Puzzle Society venue in hopes of keeping the fill on the moderate toughness plane, but I must have shifted or dropped a pair of black squares along the constructing way.  The result still feels smooth and solvable, however.  Enjoy!

Editor's Comments

As Mark alluded to, finding a smooth fill for a 68-word grid is much harder than for a 72-word grid.  Judging by how polished this grid is, though, you'd never guess!  I don't see a single major obscurity, and Mark even threw in some zip with entries like CIABATTA, GOD FORBID, WINGED IT, DR PEPPER, IDEAL MATCH, SKI CAP, and CHERRY STEM.  I also enjoyed seeing YEAR TO DATE in the grid, since it almost always appears abbreviated as YTD in crossword grids.  To all the crossword-solving dads out there, Happy Father's Day!

"Free for All XI," by Mark Diehl

Constructor's Comments

My approach when constructing a themeless puzzle is to create a puzzle that feels enjoyable to solve—a bit of a struggle, perhaps, but ultimately conquerable by most solvers.

To that end, I try to pick an open grid design with good flow throughout—one that allows the solver multiple points to tackle stubborn sections while they solve.

I started the filling process for this particular grid with the 1-Across entry, since this colorful phrase was fresh in my mind from a recent Family Dinner Night discussion of what makes for a better "scary" movie format:  the modern procession of in-your-face JUMP SCARES or the classic prolonged escalation of atmospheric dread and tension.  (BTW, the consensus was heavy on the classic with a minimum of JS needed.)  Filling step-by-step from this "seed" entry, whenever presented with a choice of what might fit next, I usually opt for using multiword entries, as they tend to be more interesting, and I sprinkle in some scrabbly letters along the way for added zest.

On the what-not-to-use-as-fill side for themeless puzzles, I tend to avoid the use of partials (ON A, UP A, etc.) and abbreviations (MGR, PKG, TSP, etc.).  I also struggle hard to avoid using "cheater" squares—those extra black squares in the corners that don't affect the word count of a puzzle—when filling a themeless grid because I hate to cheat the solver out of another pair of squares that need filling in.

All these factors tend to increase the challenge of constructing a themeless puzzle, yet I think the solver usually benefits from a smoother and more consistently enjoyable solve.  At least, that's what I keep telling myself—enjoy :)!

Editor's Comments

Were you surprised to see JUMP SCARE at 1-Across?  That's almost a jump scare in and of itself!  Other entries I especially like include ARE YOU MAD, COME NOW, LEGO SET, NASDAQ, TECUMSEH, ART THEORY, MEXICANO, S'MORES, and BONA FIDE.  Also, as per usual with Mark's themelesses, the fill feels extra-smooth.  There isn't a single short abbreviation in sight (unless you count VID, which I'd argue is more informal) . . . quite a feat, given how much zing he packed in.  And finally, almost all the clues are Mark's.  Cluing a themeless at a medium level can be tough, but he nailed it.