New York Times, Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Hello!

I am very excited to be debuting my first published crossword. I'm 28 years old, and I've been trying my hand at construction for the past three years. I teach History to amazing High School students at 10X225 in the Bronx, and they know very well about my crosswording habits. My wife, Kim, supports the addiction as well. The cat, Charlie, enjoys sitting on my computer while I attempt to construct. I began constructing after going to see Will Shortz at a Times Talk. I told my friend Pete about it, and we sat down in a coffee shop with some graph paper and tried to come up with a puzzle, figure out the grids, etc. Since then, I've submitted several puzzles, and this is my first one accepted!

As for the puzzle, I am actually at a loss for where it came from. It clicked that in the Wizard of Oz each of the three characters was searching for something at the end of the Yellow Brick Road. I wanted to play off of that "search" idea, and so I looked for phrases that each ended in the things each character was searching for. Originally, HEROINE, which crosses down the middle with DOROTHY was not going to be a theme answer, as it would have to fit through three theme answers. However, after working through some words, I realized that HEROINE would fit, and it would cross with DOROTHY. Pretty cool.

The difficulties in the fill came in the northeast, center and southeastern portions of the grid. It took a few re-writes to get some of the three-letter fill to be better. The center was very tough since it was restricted by multiple theme answers. My favorite answers in the puzzle are GROUPONS, KLUTZY and CLASSISM. As a history teacher, the Wizard of Oz is often seen as an allegory for the Populist movement, which was partially a fight by farmers against the wealthy big business owners. So, I appreciated that CLASSISM ended up in the puzzle.

Finally, I found out that the Wizard of Oz premiered in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, where I went to camp for ten years of my childhood.

All told, I've very excited for the puzzle, and hope everyone enjoys!

This Tuesday-level puzzle is timed to coincide (as closely as possible) to the 75th anniversary of "The Wizard of Oz," which will be next Monday. The intersection of HEROINE (23D) through three theme entries is particularly elegant. The circled O-Z in the lower-right is a nice touch, too.

Debut! And such a fun one. I love the ambition. Working with four grid-spanning themers is hard, as that necessitates a lot of down entries crossing two themers. To add in two interlocking 7's (DOROTHY and HEROINE) plus OZ is reaching for the stars.

Loved the OZ reveal and how it's at the end of the YELLOW BRICK ROAD. Hard to believe that no one's thought of executing this theme like Sam did.

As with most audacious constructions, there are trade-offs. Good thing I had vaguely heard of ZAC Efron (a person I follow on Twitter is obsessed with him), because the Z of ENZI is not at all inferable. There are a few more spots that felt pretty crunchy to me, but that's bound to happen with these layer upon layers of constraints. I was actually surprised to see that there weren't more glue entries necessary.

Take the NE and SW corners, for example. Because Sam had to deploy so many of his black squares around the center of the grid, he was forced into using big, wide-open corners. And for a first construction, they're not too shabby. GROUPONS is a fresh entry (although we'll see how long Groupon stays in business). CGI and SSNS are perfectly fine by themselves, but amassed with ENID and ARA makes for a bit of inelegance. Tough to fill these themeless-like spaces with quality and smoothness.

Finally, what a nice SE corner. Not easy at all, considering OZ sits diagonally and Sam had no flexibility in YELLOW BRICK ROAD's placement. To work in KLUTZY is not at all klutzy.