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SUNDAY PUZZLE -- In his print introduction to this grid, Joel Fagliano writes: "Sid Sivakumar is an M.D./Ph.D. student at Washington University in St. Louis, training in biomedical engineering and neuroscience. This is his 18th puzzle for The Times. His 19th will be the upcoming Super Mega crossword in the 2024 edition of Puzzle Mania, our annual print-only games section. At 50 squares by 50 squares, it took a month to make and has over 700 answers."

So now everyone knows where Mr. Sivakumar has been, and we have something to look forward to!

Today's Theme

There are seven examples in this theme set; each occupies two stacked entries in the puzzle and involves a run of circled squares as well as a shaded square. In each example, all but one of the circled squares make up a word. But the sequence of that word's letters is broken by a single shaded square, with the circled square it has replaced popping up one row above the word.

This setup looks less complex than it sounds; you just need to follow the bouncing circles. The first example that I solved happened to be the set at the bottom of the grid, at 110- and 115-Across. When I read both clues, answers at the top of my mind turned out to be correct, probably because Election Day is rushing toward us.

110-Across, ["Oh no you _____!"], contains one circled square at its midpoint; that's the second D in DIDN'T, which completes this clue to make a meme phrase from at least the 1990s. 111-Across is the clue with a political meaning: [Moved across the aisle] is SWITCHED PARTIES, à la Kyrsten Sinema (and many others, to varying effect). In this long entry, six letters are circled: C-H-E-D and A-R, with the P in PARTIES in a shaded square. So the circled squares read CHED(D)AR, borrowing that (D) from the row above; the P is there for solvers to use later.

As attuned as I was to SWITCHED PARTIES, you'd think that I would have recognized that CHEDDAR was an idiom here. But I still wondered idly what Mr. Sivakumar was doing -- was this a theme about cheese?

One more entry and the design snapped into focus. At 89-Across, [White sight in a sea of blue] is an ice FLOE, with the O in a circled square. 93-Across, [Conscious of one's community], solves to CIVIC-MINDED, which is a lovely puzzle debut and well timed for voting season. Following the theme's pattern, we see C(O)IN plus an M in a shaded box. Oh! CHEDDAR and COIN are both slang for bling, bank, Benjamins ... they're words for money, honey. And that little lift each one requires for those elevated letters, D and O? That's explained beautifully by the puzzle's title, "Can I Have a Raise?"

All of the long entries in the theme set are fantastic and help carry the puzzle. I had never heard of 86-Across: The [Psychological effect whereby memories are recalled more easily when they match one's current emotional state] is MOOD CONGRUENCE. The circled letters here are G-R and E-N, which borrow an E from 82-Across, [Wild-water craft] -- CANOE -- to make GREEN.

Tricky Clues

8A. [Relatives of narwhals] stopped me in my tracks for a moment because these creatures are so odd. They are in the cetacean family, though, and related to other toothed whales like BELUGAS. (A narwhal's horn is its only tooth, in fact.)

60A. I thought of a tear-down house here and then had a little chuckle when the right entry emerged: [It might be on a lot, but not worth a lot] describes a USED CAR.

15D. This entry also surprised me when I figured it out, even though I use one of these regularly. [Device with a plunger] solves to FRENCH PRESS. Of course that whoosh button is a plunger!

94D. The [Cushion on which a ball rests] here is not for bowling alley royalty; it's an INSOLE, which cradles the ball of one's foot.

Constructor Notes

A peek behind the curtain: The first version of this theme set had SALARY BUMP in shaded squares, which I thought was a stronger meta answer for the puzzle than PAY BUMP. But that version was nearly impossible to grid, as it would have required 10 horizontal theme answers and 10 protruding "bump" letters getting in the way everywhere. So I eventually settled for PAY BUMP, which I felt was serviceable, but probably not as popular of a phrase.

Anyway, it turns out that PAY BUMP has actually been the more frequently used term since about 2017. Who knew? I'm reminded that language never falls behind -- only we do, in our knowledge of how it's evolving.

Some interesting theme answers from the cutting-room floor:

ALDOUS HUXLEY = DOU(G)H

SENSIBLE ADVICE = B(R)EAD

CROCODILE ROCK = DI(N)ERO

And my favorite, BERT AND ERNIE = T(E)NDER

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