Taylor Johnson’s New York Times puzzle – Sophia’s write-up

Theme: Each theme reply accommodates an ingredient in pizza.

New York Times, 11 14 2022, By Taylor Johnson

• 18a [High-society, metaphorically] – UPPER CRUST
• 28a [Something unimpressive, slangily] – WEAK SAUCE
• 48a [“Smi-i-i-i-le!”] – SAY CHEESE
• 62a [Social event hinted at by the ends of 18-, 28- and 48-Across] – PIZZA PARTY

Very cute theme right this moment!  I went to a brand new pizza place right this moment so this theme was extremely well timed for me and me alone (and never solely that, I had a Margherita pizza, so BASIL was mainly a bonus theme reply).

I like how the toppings are added so as, from CRUST to SAUCE to CHEESE. Do individuals nonetheless say WEAK SAUCE? It feels very mid-2000s slang to me.I’m unsure precisely how the “party” in PIZZA PARTY impacts the theme, however hey, it’s a enjoyable phrase and rather more thrilling than if the revealer had simply been “pizza”.

It’s attention-grabbing how quick all of the theme solutions are – solely 9 and 10 letters every, so not an excessive amount of theme materials within the puzzle. It’s additionally attention-grabbing how sectioned off the highest proper and backside left corners are – the primary down reply that breaks into the highest left is within the eleventh column of 15! That means it could be more durable to interrupt into these corners should you can’t get a solution in them off the bat (though this puzzle performed very straightforward to me, so perhaps that’s much less of a difficulty right this moment).

The upshot of every little thing I discussed in that final paragraph is that Taylor’s created a grid with a good quantity of flexibility, and quite a lot of lengthy slots for excellent further solutions. I really like all of ANTIMATTER, SCREENSHOT, SPIN MOVE, TIME BOMB. There are additionally quite a lot of enjoyable shorter items of fill, which is a spot that the Monday crossword can typically really feel stale. Not so right this moment – GEN Z-ER, YOSHI, and TL;DR are highlights. The greatest stumbling level for me was proper out of the gate at 5a, the place I confidently put in “Niner” as an alternative of L.A. RAM for 5a [West Coast N.F.L. player, informally].

Hope everybody had a soothing weekend! Congrats to Taylor on an excellent NYT debut!