ALTERNATIONS is almost a better revealer, as you can’t actually MERGE the two columns, and are instead forced to just read them from L->R and U->D. I knew you had to combine the paired themers early on, as I got MERGE LEFT quickly out of the gate, but getting through the rest of the puzzle after that was a grind. CUTS + ONES = COUNTESS (With 57-Down, noble title).HINT + ARES = HAIRNETS (With 35-Down, some common attire for cooks).SHOE + COLD = SCHOOLED (With 29-Down, taught a lesson).ATRAIN + LENTOS (!) = ALTERNATIONS (With 26-Down, repeated occurrences of things in turn).CLUE + OLDS = COLLUDES (With 12-Down, secretly plots (with)).Simeon Seigel’s New York Times Crossword, 10/5/22, 1005 Simeon Seigel’s New York Times crossword-Zachary David Levy’s review Oh, and it’s a debut, so Congrats are in order! The theme didn’t wow me, but the rest of the grid is top notch, especially the long fill and fresh cluing. Apt clue given Ukraine’s push to get Russian soldiers to surrender. If the bubbles are green, you’re using regular old SMS. Usually with the punchline, “But that’s none of my business.” See more here. Toro is the highly-prized fatty part of the fish. It’s a foreign language, all right, but Japanese in this case. BULL.” (Having that second letter as a U is serendipitous.) Nope. Your typical solver will think “Foreign language. This was probably the fourth definition of the word that ran through in my head. There are the trains! (CTA being Chicago Transit Authority, by the way.) I couldn’t have been the only one thinking trains here, could I? Some of the usual crossword suspects make an appearance ( ALAI, CBGB, OSTEAL, HESS), but all in all it was a fun solve. The long fill is great ( PAKISTANIS, EYE OPENERS, PRE-MARITAL, AUTOTUNERS, MEAT STEW, IMESSAGE, and LAWMAKER) and the clues felt fresh without being too hung up on trivia.
That said, I really enjoyed the rest of the puzzle. It would have made a fun meta if there was actually a message in there somehow. But instead we get nothing but black blocks. I will say that it felt a little underwhelming, mainly because, by the clue’s own admission, BETWEEN THE LINES is where you find hidden messages. But I wasn’t, and so the revealer and its theme took me a little bit by surprise. If I was paying attention and trying to sort out the theme during the solve, I probably would’ve focused on the fact that the first two entries are well-known popular singers of their respective times.
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