From Start to Finish – The New York Times

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SUNDAY PUZZLE — In Joel Fagliano’s print introduction to this grid, he writes: “Sam Ezersky, of Buffalo, N.Y., has worked for The Times Games team since 2017. He is the editor of Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed and the Mini crossword. Sam keeps a running list of crossword ideas on his iPhone’s Notes app; today’s puzzle, his eighth Sunday, was inspired by the find at 23-Across, though it took months to cobble together a complete set.”

In this puzzle’s case, “a complete set” is 10, an extravagant amount for a Sunday grid. This bounty helps the solve hustle along once you know what’s up, but Mr. Ezersky has never given his audience a cake walk — why start now? There’s the usual amount of head-scratchers in both the theme and the fill.

Today’s Theme

Let’s see if we can finish what we start, shall we? There’s a lot of theme in this puzzle: entries at 23-, 25-, 27-, 42-, 68-, 70-, 87-, 109-, 112- and 114-Across. They’re all clued as questions and cleanly fit the trick, but I imagine a few solvers could miss a little bit of theme because an entry makes sense in two contexts. I don’t have a problem with that; if anything, I found it a little intriguing.

The trick, which is well described by the title — “From Start to Finish” — is a visual rearrangement. I stumbled on it at 68-Across, [Vessel for cooking jollof rice or injera bread?], which solves to AFRICAN PAN. Right away I thought of Pan-African, as in the Pan-African movement, though I wonder if some solvers will be unfamiliar with this term. It refers to a movement that I learned about in school and associate with W.E.B. Du Bois, although it does predate him.

This is a neat trick, though I wondered if Mr. Ezersky still had something up his sleeve for a bit. I think the preponderance of clean theme examples is what makes this puzzle work, rather than its complexity. Many of these entries are surprising and just wonderful.

A couple of my favorites, which I imagine are crowd-pleasers, are at 25- and 70-Across, the second of which is a skillful ribbing from the editor. The clue at 25-Across, [Who might tearfully wonder “Were we just not meant to be …?”], solves to PENSIVE EX (as in, “Were my tastes just too expensive?”). And 70-Across got me: [“Next time, try reading the clue!” or “Stick to Sudoku!”?] presents a couple of examples of a SOLVING DIS. So funny, and the entry phrase’s clunkiness enhances the humor to me.