New York Times, Monday, February 8, 2021

Hey all, excited to be making my debut in the 15x15 section. I've been making midis for the NYT Crossword app for a little while (check out my Harry Potter-themed Wizarding Midis!), and Joel challenged me to try making a daily. I sent over a couple of theme ideas, and this was the one they liked best. I hope they'll be open to publishing my NINTENDO themed 15x15 one day.

My crossword dictionary is heavy on comedy, sci-fi/fantasy, and pop culture, and I'm glad that came through in this grid. OPPS/PCB was originally submitted as OPUS/UCB — as a kid in NYC, I knew this improv theater before I knew about most Broadway musicals! LYRA is both my favorite character in a fantasy series and a circus apparatus that I've taken a class in. Still, I've also dabbled in astronomy, so I was happy with this final clue. If LEAP DAY makes you think of that 30 Rock episode, you'll love my Modern TV Midis — thanks to that dictionary, I also got JENNA into this puzzle!

I was originally attracted to puzzles because of the trivia aspect, hence all the themed packs. I grew up with many different dialects in my household, so wordplay is still somewhat frustrating. That's why I was really proud of this one — I even got PERM and COMB in there! When my father moved to this country from the Caribbean, he was embarrassed that he couldn't finish American crosswords, so he couldn't be prouder that I've been welcomed into this lovely community. When I told my mom I was getting my puzzle published in the New York Times, she said, "Well, are they paying you?"

What a fun touch to put MEDUSA in a hair-themed puzzle! Although, I wouldn't want to be the one to tell her, come on, LET YOUR HAIR DOWN already. Come to think of it, the same goes for Lara Croft. I'm sure that both would leave the messenger more than a little DISCOMBOBULATED.

Wait. MEDUSA does leave people in a state of PERMAFROST. Huh ...

Kidding aside, I enjoyed the HAIR DOWN party. Something visually interesting about getting tresses falling within Down theme answers. BRAID within TOMB RAIDER is a great find.

I wondered about BOB. Will is usually strict about "hidden words" having to be broken across two words, like BILBO BAGGINS or TURBO BOOST. A short trigram found encapsulated within a long word isn't that interesting (although some editors are much more lax about this).

A treat to get ROC-A-FELLA (such a great pun!) and the tarot's high PRIESTESS, along with DR RUTH and some EMO POP, ASTORIA. Solid bonuses.

Some may wonder, was the trade-off of having ROCAFELLA/PRIESTESS worth the price of OPPS, PCB, LPS, RET? Why not split up those long bonuses and fill the grid more cleanly?

A-ha! Because Portia was already at the 78-word maximum. It's tough to avoid this sort of compromise when you're working with a vertically-oriented theme because the alternative often is to work with long Across bonuses instead (for example, removing the block between CMINOR and TIN). However, including long Across bonuses tends to muddy up what is theme and what is not.

I do think that with four themers, the grid could have had as many bonuses while being cleaner, but that's asking for more or less a total redo, spending fewer black squares in the center of the grid.

All in all, an entertaining debut, albeit with some elements that produced a few tangles.