Pamela F. Davis author page

I wish I'd read the HOME CHEF clue more carefully, because there's a cool idea that didn't receive enough emphasis. As I solved, I figured this was yet another homophones puzzle. Having seen a ton of MOUSSE / MOOSE and MUSSEL / MUSCLE plays, too, there's no way another one would catch my attention.

However, re-read [… or the mother of the food critic featured in this puzzle?]. I didn't notice that some of the themer clues referred to mom … thus making the food critic a picky eater. Now, that's something I know a thing or two about!

Last night, my daughter decided that she didn't like mac ‘n cheese anymore. Mac and cheese! What's next, white bread? Water? Emphasizing these tragicomic parental feelings could have made this puzzle stand out more — having each themer clue refer to mom would have been perfect.

For example, ROLL REVERSAL = ["Mooooooom! I don't like white bread any more!"] would have given me a smile. And a tear. And what is art, if it doesn't elicit emotions?

A few spots slowed me down. I paused at ADOBO, because I associate it with Filipino cuisine, not Mexican. I should have remembered about Spanish colonization, of course.

SERGE crossing SERA tripped me up for a hot minute, and I get confused by words like SPOOR and SPUMES. They look like things I should know right off the top, but they more fall into the category of "things for which I make up my own definitions."

A bit of RETIE REFILE, too — generally, if you have to include something called out on editors' spec sheets, do everything possible to avoid including another entry of the same type.

Overall, though, a fun debut. It could have been a standout if the clues had exhibited more spume.

P.S. Seconded, that Rich Proulx is a great guy. I appreciate so much how helpful he is!