Andrea Carla Michaels: Every now and then, Kevin sends me a ton of creative ideas to see if anything strikes me. After arguing whether LILY PAD is one or two words, or how well-known LUKE PERRY is (who knew how timely?) What makes this unusual is that Kevin managed to get seven theme entries (plus a three- letter reveal) into a Monday puzzle. I'm glad we were able to get seven theme answers into the puzzle, and to make two of them Downs that crossed some of the Across theme answers. For the record, I still don't know if LILY PAD is one word or two without Googling it.

Source: New York Times March 24, 2019 21:56 UTC