today's grid shape was really vanilla. No, wait, I like vanilla. A vanilla malt is the best thing in the world. Let's call it "boilerplate" instead. It looks like a template of some kind.

to say a well-constructed themeless is on par with a “disastrous” themed puzzle is just ridiculous. Sure, for his brand, he gets more mileage taking apart a bad puzzle than discussing a good one, but a good solve and good blog fodder aren’t the same thing at all.