Moving On to the Fill

SHORTZ: If we like a theme well enough, then we look at the puzzle’s fill. We ask for submissions on paper rather than by email because it’s easier for us to examine the whole grid at once, and to mark up the manuscript with pluses, minuses and other comments. So as Joel and I look at this grid, we would just go row by row and column by column, checking the entries: CELT, EACH, MODS and the rest.

FAGLIANO: Yeah, so we look at all the Across answers first, and then all the Downs, making minus marks for answers we think are subpar, check marks for answers we like, exclamation points for “Wow!,” question marks for things to be looked up and sometimes written comments. When we’re done, this helps us to visualize potential issues: “O.K., there are a lot of minus marks in this one corner — this is an area that needs to be revised.” Or, “This crossing between two obscurish names — that’s going to be a problem. Let’s ask the constructor to look at that area again.”

SHORTZ: Exactly. So, let’s look at this grid [reads off the Across answers]. PEATS is an odd plural, but really, the Acrosses look great. Clean, clean, clean.

FAGLIANO: There’s nothing obscure, not too many proper names, everything seems fair for the solver.

SHORTZ: Looking Down … OIL FUTURES, well, I kind of like that. That’s got color. Also SLEAZEBALL, that’s great. Not the thing, but the answer! ANTE UP … wasn’t there another answer with UP in the puzzle? Yes, MEET UP. Some bloggers don’t like that. That doesn’t bother me, though. UP is an inconspicuous word.

And OLIVIA MUNN ... Well, I’m going to expose my ignorance, but I don’t know who she is.

FAGLIANO: She’s an actress. On “The Newsroom” and other things.

SHORTZ: Hmm, and next to it is DANA SCULLY. I do know her, of course, but it does bother me to have two long names running parallel to each other. That could be troublesome for some solvers.

FAGLIANO: Yeah, and there’s a third name to the right of it, Sissy SPACEK. In this case, we’d really need to check the crossings to make sure we’re not setting up solvers to get stuck. In that corner we have going Across: MODS, SLAP, GINA (that’s another name), VAC is kind of weird, and LIAISE. But everything else is so clean.