New York Times, Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Thrilled to have my NYT debut today! I'm a primary care nurse practitioner living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I started constructing puzzles a couple of years ago as a way of battling the monotony of NP school. I had three puzzles very graciously rejected before getting this acceptance, which, when I read the email, made me laugh/cry in disbelief for five straight minutes. One year later, I'm still amazed it's made it to print! I like this theme of building a trail of words that trail the word PAPER, and I'm grateful to the editorial staff for giving me a few chances to rework the grid.

Big shout out to Erik Agard, who I reached out to via the Crossword Collaboration Directory. After working on some puzzles for USA Today, I've become a much better constructor, and I've gotten so much value from his coaching. And thanks to my test solvers, only half of whom actually enjoy doing crosswords: my parents, who slogged through my early work; my husband, who is my biggest fan; and my sister, who made our year so much better by moving in with my family during this pandemic. I'm donating my payment for this puzzle to the NDN Collective, supporting Indigenous communities affected by COVID-19.

The (PAPER) CHASE is on! Ten themers form such a pretty path through the puzzle, each of them requiring PAPER for the clues to make sense. [Kitchen item on a roll] is a (PAPER) TOWEL, the book type is a (PAPER) BACK, etc. A PAPER TRAIL, indeed!

"Path puzzles" can be so beautiful. My visual first impression was almost as stunning as it was for another path puzzle. Unfortunately, since I quickly figured out the PAPER concept, solving the rest of the themers felt more like rote (PAPER)WORK.

Thankfully, Margit gave us a lot of bonuses. The grid almost played out like a themeless, starting right off the bat with WHALEBOATS INK STAINED VOICEBOX, all the way to SLACKLINES, hopefully not giving you a SORE NECK. Toss in some CAT SITTING, EPICENTER, BROADSIDE, LEXUSES (LEXI?), and I'd call that a win.

I wasn't crazy about the odd suffix -IANA, the partial ABEE, and the potentially hair-pulling cross of MEZE / MATEO (that's "Matthew" in Spanish). It's tough to have zero prices to pay when you create an audacious grid with huge white spaces in the corners.

Fantastic LACES clue, repurposing "tongue ties," as in the tongue of a shoe.

All in all, a bit of an anticlimactic solve since the rest of the themers fell so quickly after the first. Still, a beautiful, symmetrical path creating a delightful visual and enough bonuses to make up for the lack of theme engagement. Interesting debut.