New York Times, Wednesday, February 26, 2014

I am quite excited to have my first puzzle published, and what began as a lark has become an engaging hobby. I solve the puzzle daily, and occasionally a puzzle takes a particular approach to playing with language that gives me an "I can do that!" feeling and sends me off in search of words and puns that fit my concept.

I no longer remember any particular puzzle that sparked the word-play part of my brain and led me to create this one, adding IST to familiar words. The challenge of course, was that the addition of IST had to change the meaning of the word entirely. There's no humor in changing "violin" to "violinist."

So to the word lists. I pored through lists of words containing IST, mentally subtracting the IST to find those words that could then be built into phrases that had the potential to win a chuckle once the IST was put back in. So from "cubist" to "cub" to "cub reporter" to CUBIST REPORTER.

I think my favorite answer has to be SLEEPER CELLISTS. Having played in the wind section of orchestras throughout my youth, I know what it is to count many dozens of measures of rests before an entrance, trying to maintain concentration, while the string players played without pause. It always seemed possible that someone might one day fall asleep, but I never thought it would be the cellists!

I was pleased with the phrases I was able to create, and even more pleased that Will (finally!) liked them, too. (I don't think I have to confess here just how many of my submissions have not made the grade...)

So now that I've met Will's standards and made my debut, am I a strict constructionIST?

Beautiful debut puzzle today, absolutely loved it. I'm not sure I've ever seen a debut I've liked quite this much, given its fun theme, excellent long fill, and not a lot of glue-y crosswordese. I had to look it over a few times to make sure I was indeed seeing a new name. Super impressive, Ruth!

First, the theme. At surface level, it's a basic "add a letter sequence" concept, nothing new there. But each time the IST is added, it changes the meaning of the base word completely, i.e. CUB to CUBIST, and in a funny. STARK to STARKIST is just genius, especially given how snazzy the base phrase, STARK NAKED, is.

Often with "wacky phrase" themes, I find myself not super amused by one or more of them, but today, each one worked really well for me. Perhaps it helped that in my 20 years of playing cello, I sat in the very back of the orchestra, sleeping my way through rehearsals (I was that guy who always came in too early before the rests were over). Some might not find SLEEPER CELLISTS as amusing, but it was spot on for me. And the base phrases are all so solid: CUB REPORTERS, POMPOUS ASS, STARK NAKED, SLEEPER CELLS. Wonderful. Yes, two nouns are plural while one is singular, but that almost seemed too nit-picky to even mention.

Then we come to the fill. Typically a debut contains not as much long fill as I like to see. But CREDIT RISK is fantastic (I love business terms, so sue me), and MAIN STREET hits in the same way. Then Ruth works in EURASIA, CALYPSO, GUEVARA, and even SKI CAP, taking advantage of her 6's and 7's, which often don't get used to their full potential.

Given the nice long stuff, I'd expect some compromises in the shorter. But not only does Ruth keep it to some measley ESE, OR A, MSGS stuff, she works in 6x3 regions at the north and south, giving us the juicy NASSAU and SEANCE. Most constructors avoid that 6x3 arrangement, preferring to stick with 5x3 because that slight widening from five to six often makes for a rougher filling challenge. No problems today, just smooth sailing.

An extremely pleasurable solve for me, and an equally pleasurable time writing up my comments. This is a fantastic example of why I really like the "open call for anyone who wants to construct" policy. Looking forward to more from Ruth.