New York Times, Monday, August 22, 2016

So excited to be making my New York Times debut!

I got into constructing last year as a fourth year medical student eager to procrastinate from working on residency applications by any means necessary.

I think the idea for this puzzle was born from a sweet tooth and an empty stomach. I was initially trying to work "Sour Patch Kids" into an overly ambitious themeless with which I quickly grew frustrated and abandoned. Instead I brainstormed ways to fit it into a themed puzzle and hit on the idea of starting the themers with different "Taste makers". My only regret is that there aren't more phrases starting with umami — and by more I mean literally any.

I also agonized over the "Roeg"/"Gerard"/"Andrei" situation for the longest time and sadly couldn't find a way around it. Nothing like intersecting semi-obscure proper names to start your Monday morning. Speaking of proper names, as a die-hard Patriots fan I'm a little disappointed in the clue revision for 60-across, but I suppose I should be grateful Will didn't twist the knife further and include a reference to Eli's Super Bowl MVP awards.

Thanks for solving and I hope you enjoyed!

Debut! Emily uses the four main tastes — BITTER, SALTY, SWEET, SOUR with TASTEMAKERS as a revealer. I hadn't been familiar with that last term until recently, but fashion is one of my many areas of knowledge deficit. I like that Emily repurposed TASTEMAKERS into a completely different sphere — tastes of the tongue, not fashion — to cleverly wrap up the puzzle.

Great to get some colorful bonus fill from a newbie! UP TO SPEED, RUSH WEEK, ONE BY ONE, WARM SPELL are all excellent phrases. Unusual to see four long and strong pieces of fill from a debut constructor. Wisely spreads all of them across the grid so none of it is too constrained; relatively easy to fill around. Good spacing is so key. She even sprinkles in some NEATNIK and POP OFF throughout.

There are some gluey bits here and there, kicking off with ACUT, some FEM, AMBI, IRREG, MSS, APO, etc. It's too much for what I like in a silky-smooth Monday puzzle, but a lot of it is minor offenders that's still accessible to novice solvers. For example, A CUT is a partial, but it's relatively easy for a newer solver to fill in. APO (Army post office) is much tougher — especially crossing SPATES. I can imagine someone debating SMATES, SLATES, SPATES, STATES, etc. (SMATES really ought to be a word!)

I would have also liked some way of hiding those four main tastes a little, as the concept made itself readily apparent after uncovering the first two themers. Not sure if this is possible, but SALTY LANGUAGE (such a great phrase!) does so much a better job hiding the taste meaning of "salty" than SOUR PATCH KIDS, which are overtly sour.

As Emily said, it would have been great to get UMAMI, the "fifth taste," but trying to incorporate that into a phrase is just about impossible. It might have been neat to have it tucked in somewhere, perhaps as the last across answer? As a revealer? Or in the middle of the center column? Not sure.

Some rough patches here and there, but a fun puzzle with a couple of great theme entries, along with bonus fill that exceeded my expectations.