New York Times, Wednesday, September 7, 2016

I'm excited to be making my Times debut today. I hope you enjoyed solving what I know was a bit of a quirky puzzle.

A little about myself: I'm a music teacher and grad student in the dissertation phase of a doctorate in music education — which means learning how to construct crosswords was essentially an elaborate method of procrastination. It's very common to see teachers working together on the Times puzzle over lunch in the faculty room and eventually I wanted to see if I could put together a puzzle of my own.

My only other published puzzle was for BuzzFeed, where I learned a lot from the patient and helpful editing of Caleb Madison. This puzzle, in fact, was originally written for BuzzFeed, but was sadly orphaned when they shut down their crossword to contributors earlier this year. Happily, Will and Joel found it amusing enough to give it a second life and, consequently, my Times debut!

Unsurprisingly, a number of my clues were changed, although not as many as I expected, to my satisfaction. Will and Joel also changed a single letter in my submitted grid, changing AGE/EGO to ACE/ECO, I imagine to avoid the near-dupe with the neighboring HBOGO. I'm happy they left my clue for 67-A (STUNT) though, even if I'm the only one that thinks it's funny! Thanks for solving!

Debut! Right up my alley, as my cooking skills are just a touch above [stick food in microwave]. Fun to get a sense for the old days when HOT POCKETS and RAMEN NOODLES were some of my staples. Gave the puzzle a younger vibe, taking me back with an odd sense of nostalgia. Not sure why I liked stomach-turning HOT POCKETS so much...

Rare for a five-letter entry to catch my attention. I tried to sign up for HBO GO to watch "Silicon Valley" … but I couldn't figure it out. Yes, I'm now that old guy who doesn't understand newfangled technologies. Notwithstanding my ineptitude, I found myself staring at the odd HBOGO letter sequence, my brain struggling to parse it. Neat a-ha when it finally clicked.

ADAMA is another newish entry that didn't strike me as well. I watched most of BSG (Battlestar Galactica) but I had trouble with his name. Thankfully, the crossings were fair, and it was in a nice section featuring ADAGE / MAXIM crossing each other, which helped drown out some of the ADAMA struggle.

Generally pretty smooth for a debut. I did have some trouble with the lower left, where CDC crosses the confusing EDM (electronic … dance … music?), and SIA gave this pop-music idiot a long pause, hoping against hope that SAMOSA was right. Will has said that he avoids acronyms unless they're really, really well-known (like CDC), and I see his point even more clearly here with EDM. Tough to clue it in a way that explains to the solver what those randomish-seeming letters are.

The punchline — I CAN'T COOK — felt like it should be right up my alley, but I floundered, struggling to figure out how it works; why it's funny. This might have been an instance where maybe another quick-food item would have been better; no "revealer" necessary. (I do like COLD PIZZA, even more so because the preparation instructions = [Eat].)

And perhaps having four (or five) all-microwave easy edibles would have been nice? Some extra layer to tighten things up, as there are so many types of "instant" foods. Overall though, nice to get a young-feeling debut.