New York Times, Monday, November 15, 2021

Thrilled to be making my NYT debut! I'm a Mandarin Chinese teacher who started solving crosswords in college but lost the habit after moving to China. Quarantine in the US brought it back, and like many others, I became a pandemic constructor baby.

This theme idea came to me after somehow coming across ROCK ME AMADEUS and TICKLE ME ELMO in quick succession. The "verb me name" pattern intrigued me, but I wasn't sure I'd find any matching pairs. HELPMERHONDA eventually came next, but FEED ME SEYMOUR didn't pop into my head for a few desperate weeks (though it might be my favorite).

Pairs of 12s and 13s were killer for a novice constructor with limited gridding experience. I tried seemingly endless layouts to no avail. I plucked down the black square under OCT on a lark, certain the open NW and SE corners that created would spell doom. To my surprise, the grid began to fill, but all that open space required trade-offs in ASEC, OCT, USN. More black squares may have helped, but I'd rather have some glue than stagnant flow.

Thanks to the editing team for their support, especially for fixing my messy themer clues and adding the lovely hints for 27-A and 40-D. Glad my clue for 4-D made it. Also, as a former track athlete, chuffed to debut 17-A. Nothing like running an ANCHOR LEG! Hopefully, I'll continue to improve and be in the NYT again soon. In the meantime, you can find me at misfitpuzzles.com.

A theme I've never encountered? Slap me around and call me Susan! This child of the '80s grew up rocking to ROCK ME AMADEUS and mocking his first-generation Chinese father's love of Beach Boys music.

And suddenly, I realized that what went around came around. In the form of seven-year-old eyes rolled at dad rocking out, Carlton-style.

Unusual pattern to riff on: X ME, NAME. Piqued my curiosity; were there others? All I could come up with was KISS ME, KATE. Others were close, but BEAM ME UP SCOTTY has an extraneous UP, and CALL ME ISHMAEL doesn't have the comma. Impressive to uncover four exactly-patterned themers — that exhibit crossword symmetry!

I wasn't sold on FEED ME SEYMOUR, as it felt like "random movie line." Not nearly as strong as a song title, for example. However, it is a repeated line from Little Shop of Horrors, so it works.

Great bonuses. Since all the themers are long and fit that distinctive pattern, long Acrosses in ANCHOR LEG and I FEEL SICK didn't risk muddying the theme. SECRETLY and SLED RIDE flesh things out nicely, too. I'm all for trade-offs that exact only minor prices, like Ian called out.

Rare treat to experience something new, albeit a bit of an oddball pattern to highlight. Fun debut.