New York Times, Tuesday, March 9, 2021

It is such a joy to be making my NYT debut! I am a 16-year-old from Conway, Arkansas, and I am actually pretty new to the crossword scene — I started solving at the beginning of quarantine last year. I began constructing in the summer after stumbling upon a mind-blowing instructional video by David Kwong. Without a doubt, my decision to reach out to Judge Vic Fleming, an experienced NYT constructor in my area, catalyzed my path to success due to his invaluable mentorship and advice. I would highly encourage new constructors to pursue a mentorship, as it was so helpful to me. Mentorship resources can be found at the Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory on Facebook or the Crossword-related Discord Server. And, of course, the practice of solving every day and reading great crossword blogs (Wordplay, XWord Info, Rex Parker, Crossword Fiend, etc.) has certainly made me a better constructor.

The idea for this theme came to me while I was half asleep, surprisingly, and after waking up, I reached for my phone and quickly began researching car brands that could be reversed and fit into phrases. While I made my way through the list of brands, I eliminated the ones that obviously wouldn't work (I'm looking at you ZNEB-SEDECREM) and avoided brands that aren't as common on the road. Filling the grid was a bit tough considering the constraints of the revealer, so it was difficult to really open up the grid and allow for some sparkly long downs. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy with the result, especially with 1-Across to kick things off.

Thanks to the NYT Editing Team for the cluing changes, and thanks to all who have supported me in my puzzling efforts!

Hope you enjoy it!

Fantastic debut! Will Shortz isn't taking many "hidden words" puzzles these days due to oversupply, so you must present an amazing one to catch his attention. It has to go above and beyond, and that's exactly what Simon did:

Length of finds. Four letters is about the minimum since three letters are too easy to work with. To find a six and two fives is fantastic work. Even the three …

Quality of phrases. The consecutive vowels are a bit tricky, but AIK is much less daunting than URABUS. When you can fit AIK into KUBLAI KHAN, one of the most auspicious leaders of ancient history, that makes up for the shortness.

Spanning across all words within the phrase. HAD NO HOPE isn't terribly exciting — not as much as FALSE TEETH, with its delightful clue about coming out at night — but when you span H ON DA across all three words, that made me stare in admiration.

Revealer. REVERSE works, although it's more overt than clever. I'd have loved to brainstorm for something more playful, like around cars having to BACK IT UP or something.

Tightness. Not 100% necessary, but when you can make people realize that there are virtually no other themer options, that makes your puzzle stand out. After 30 minutes of searching, all I could find was PORCINI MUSHROOM and HYDROFOIL, and the latter doesn't pass the "spanning" criterion.

All this with amazing gridwork. I eternally pound the table, yelling that with four themers and a short revealer, you're obligated to present a fantastic grid with an excess of bonuses and zero glue. There's no reason not to. Simon wove in FLEABAGS, THE BOXER, PLACEBO, TENTACLE, SNEAKER, all while demanding that his short fill never be compromised.

Tremendous debut, making me appreciate a tried-and-true theme type all over again.