New York Times, Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Debut puzzle, woo! This is my fifth published puzzle, but my first in the Times — I'm very excited! It only took me the better part of 5 years, I think! I wrote this puzzle a couple of summers ago, well before I purchased Crossfire. As such, I was still writing puzzles like this one "by hand" in an Excel spreadsheet, using only XWord Info and maybe Onelook as helpers. My filling skills have no doubt improved considerably since then, but I'm still pretty happy with this product.

I guess what fascinated me about this theme idea was just how few things PICK UP can precede; without a THE, PICK UP STEAM/SPEED is the only other one I can think of right now.

I'll admit, TRIVIA GAME was not my first choice for that spot. Even by my novice reckoning, I identified at least two dozen acceptable choices to satisfy ??????GAME. However, 36- and 41-Down just would not play nice with most of them, if I remember correctly. I probably could have rearranged the grid to fix that issue, but I think I had filled most of the rest of the puzzle by that point and was pretty reluctant to do that much ripping.

Will really improved many of my clues (and corrected some blatantly inaccurate ones). Incidentally, pad see ew is my favorite THAI dish, so I was especially happy with that clue. But I was sad to see my original clue for SWIZZLE STICKS go: "Manhattan or Long Island features." Too obtuse for a Tuesday, I guess! Anyhow, I'm very honored to join this most select of groups. Hopefully, this will be the first of many!

Congrats on the NYT debut, Alex! I've had the pleasure corresponding with Alex before and working on some things together (one 21x co-construction in the Crosswords Club). Fun to work with him. Today's theme is a "word that can precede or follow" type, which Will doesn't run very frequently these days. It is nice that Alex picked a word, PICKUP, which forms some great base phrases: PICKUP TRUCK, PICKUP LINE (at a bar), PICKUP GAME (on a basketball court), and PICKUP STICKS. Swizzly stuff.

Some really nice entries today, ICE CREAM TRUCK brings back so many happy memories of when I would chase after the Good Humor van, waving my money overhead. (That may or may not have been yesterday.) CUTS IN LINE is another great one, and SWIZZLE STICKS is my favorite. Nice stuff.

TRIVIA GAME, as Alex mentioned, is a bit wonky. Jeopardy is more a GAME SHOW to me, but perhaps this could have been saved with a clue like referencing TRIVIAL PURSUIT. Of course, the clue can't have the word TRIVIAL or GAME in it though. Maybe [Competition in which players earn pie pieces]? Yikes, tortured. Okay, something like ENDER'S GAME or HOCKEY GAME might have been better.

It is awfully nice that Alex worked in IT IS SAID and AVOWING and BIKINI in that location though. It's so tempting where you're constructing to hold onto a piece of great fill (or in this case, theme piece) in order to preserve a couple entries. Always the trade-offs.

One aspect I admired about Alex while co-constructing with him was that he was always searching for new entries. It's great to fill your puzzle with fresh stuff, PRECALC and PICAYUNE are awfully nice. There are some trade-offs in fill to get said answers though, NEDS and ESS sticks out a bit, as does MGR and YAH. Same goes with the trade of BALLPIT and CAME EASY with the random CLV and ILE (and STYES to a lesser extent) as prices to pay. I admire the stretch to make it a 74-word puzzle — it does come with some minor costs in glue-y entries but does allow for a lot of snappy fill.

Surprisingly, I had the hardest time with TENTHS place, as it just looked crazy. Totally me though, as a quick check made me realize it is indeed called the TENTHS place. Dunno what I was thinking, but the TENS place certainly is not the one to the right of the decimal point.

I liked the revealer as it allowed for some nice themers, but the placement threw me off a bit. I realize it's a subjective opinion, but I find it odd when theme revealers are at a random place in the grid. I've done it myself before, but these days if it's not in the center of the grid, or in a corner at an extreme across or down spot, it feels inelegant. Could just be me.

Anyway, congrats again Alex!