I’ve often see Asta clued as Hollywood dog, which makes it more interesting since another answer is Toto.
And “Bygone Russian Autocrat” is usually “TSAR”, but you have to be careful, because occasionally they make it “CZAR”, just to keep you on your toes. And I once even saw “TZAR”, but I think that was a mistake by the creator, because I don’t think that spelling is ever actually used.
“Ancient God of War” is tricky, because it can be either ARES or MARS.
Preach it from your AMBO, brother.
Does anyone in real life ever say the word “RAH”?
If you like hard crosswords without themes or gimmicks, the hardest good crosswords I know (i.e. hard because of tricky cluing, not because of hopelessly obscure words and phrases) are the ones that Tim Croce publishes regularly on his “Club 72” blog. Some of them are so difficult I can’t even get started, but when I do manage to finish one, I feel really proud of myself.
Other good difficult themeless, gimmickless crosswords include Newsday’s “Saturday Stumpers” (though their others tend to be too easy IMHO) and the themeless crosswords that appear on Mondays on Brendan Emmett Quigley’s blog.
I often wonder if the living Oona Chapman knows she is a crossword answer and if so how she feels about it.
Brian
Dallas Jones semi-beat me to it on the first page, but Roz Chast at a crossword tournament cracked me up.
(Come to think of it, I wonder why “New Yorker cartoonist Chast” (or Roz) has never been a clue.
CHAST actually has showed up in two New York Times puzzles. Apr 19, 2018 with the clue "The New Yorker cartoonist who wrote “What I Have: From A to Z” and Oct 5, 2014, simply as “The New Yorker Cartoonist Roz.”
ROZ has shown up many more times, clued mostly as either a “Role on Frasier” and “The New Yorker cartoonist Chast.” Of the times the answer showed up in the 2010s, 7 clues referenced the cartoonist, and 7 referenced the Frasier role.
The first time Roz Chast shows up in the New York Times puzzle is Dec 17, 1989.
Yay! Glad to be wrong.
Ayn Rand was positively giddy when she first discovered her name in a crossword. By today, both of her names have become commonplace.
I once created a crossword that had some squares you had to color in. For example, if the “across” clue was “Water crossed by the Hebrews,” and only had four squares, the first square would be colored red, followed by SEA. The “down” clue was “Star of Sanford and Son,” and the answer was [red square]DFOXX.
Steve Earle mentioned on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me that he’s been referred to as a folk singer, country singer, and country-rock singer in the NY Times crossword. I think he mentioned that he felt he made it when he was in that crossword.
It occurred to me that it becomes easier and easier to construct puzzles over time – more and more words enter the language (LOL, TTYL, EMAIL, URL, HTML, IMHO, OTOH are all things I’ve seen recently) but nothing really leaves. So, the constructor can still refer to some ancient Persian coin or Shakespeare character (IAGO), but can also use those words above. Now that the NYT also allows brand names, it’s easier still. That said, I’ve never tried to make one and it seems so difficult.
I really wish they would disallow brand names again. I think that’s something that Shortz brought in. I like his more playful sensibility and I think you need less obscure knowledge than under Maleska. He keeps the difficulty similar to Maleska by having trickier clues, even if the answers are more mundane.
One thing that’s always baffled me about puzzles is that they have to have symmetric black squares – what’s the point of that? It just makes it harder to create, with no additional benefit for the solver.
Anyway, my point is, I’m on a 92-day NYT streak!
^^92 days. Wow! I’m impressed.
That’s 92 days where I finished during the day that the puzzle was active – if you finish the next day, it breaks the streak, and without any checks or hints from the app.
In the interest of full disclosure, though, I do them with my wife, and I feel it’s fair to ask certain questions of friends and relatives, as long as they don’t Google the answer. I have a friend who knows a lot about Italy and movies, so I ask him some of those when I’m stuck. My daughter took French and knows pop singers, etc. Half the time, though, by the time they get back to me, I’ve got it from the cross clues. Anyway, it’s not a solo effort. But, getting it done daily within that day takes some dedication at least.
I find it so much easier to solve it on a computer or in the app than on paper. I’m less worried about putting in guesses because it’s so easy to erase cleanly. I couldn’t regularly finish Friday or Saturday puzzles on paper, and Sundays were a stretch, but now I do them routinely electronically.
See that a lot.
One of the lamest ones I’ve seen is ‘Emeer’ used for Emir. Lame as in really really reaching as far as phoneticizing ( is that a word? 
) to make it fit a crossword.
Found those long-ago threads, where twickster gave us a lot of information about crosswords:
What are some stock crossword puzzle clues?
You too can write puzzle clues!
Her tips and techniques for constructing and editing puzzles are quite useful for solvers. At least, I found them to be that way.
There is stock crossword creation software. Many editors only accept puzzles in the file format of one of them.
That this makes it far easier to create one is an understatement. I’ve done this with a simple version. The hard part then becomes coming up with the clues.
OTOH, this also results in the software overusing the Usual Words.
I’m skimming through those Club 72 puzzles and they look great, thank you! I see there’s a format for downloading, and I’ve been looking at ways to read them, but haven’t figured It out-is there an app you use to solve those, or do you print them?
I just finished a book of Times puzzles from the very early '60s. Emeer would be trivial in them. They were full of obscure words and places and variants of obscure words. My mother-in-law solved these kinds of puzzles with a crossword dictionary close at hand. Thanks to Shortz, I can solve Times puzzles with no assistance except maybe looking up an obscure (to me) song in a Saturday puzzle once a month or so.
So, it’s not just the app? They really are easier? That’s a shame.
I used to do the occasional puzzle in the Maleska days – Thursdays were a completable challenge and Fridays and Saturdays were no go. I thought, between the app, my knowing more, and being more in the target demographic in terms of clues (older), that’s why I could do the Friday and Saturday ones. Too bad it’s just that they’re easier.
I hated those old puzzles where you needed a crossword dictionary by your side. They are so much better these days. Those types of puzzles were always a slog to me. To me, the fun is in minimizing crosswordese and amping the difficulty through the clever cluing rather than obscure words and phrases.
But, yes, after going back in the NYTimes app (you can go back to the beginning of the Shortz days in 1993), I definitely find today’s puzzles significantly easier than the ones even 10/15 years ago under his direction. Granted, I do have a lot more practice now and clues that may have been current in the old puzzles no longer are current today so might be tougher to get but, still, there is definitely a feeling that they are easier now.