New York Times, Tuesday, August 25, 2020

I am 61 years old, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan with my wife, Mary, who very patiently puts up with my crossword habits. When I'm not puzzling, I sing in a couple of choirs, and I'm currently training for my sixth marathon (COVID permitting, which it probably won't). My mom got me started doing crosswords 50-ish years ago. Last year, having retired from my job as Controller at a theological seminary in Grand Rapids, I decided to have a go at constructing.

After several false starts, my sister-in-law (hi, Carol) suggested that I "Write what I know." Thinking that 16th-century choral music and governmental/non-profit accounting would be areas of rather limited interest, Shakespeare was next on the list. After many unfruitful hours trying to think of fun things I could do with familiar Shakespeare quotes, I landed on AY THERE'S THE RUB, and hit on the notion of quotes that aren't about food, but could be clued as if they were. THE POUND OF FLESH came fairly quickly; LEND ME YOUR EARS took a little longer. The fourth was a struggle.

Many thanks to Will and the editorial team. Although they vetoed my original fourth themer as too obscure (THE SOUL OF WIT — beer reference), Joel Fagliano, bless him, came up with WHAT'S DONE IS DONE. After a bit more grinding on the grid, and a bit more help from the editors, I got my "yes."

I'm thrilled to be making my NYT debut. Hope you all enjoy it — peace, and be well, everyone.

I love the image of these Shakespearean characters hanging out at a backyard BBQ, scheming to cook a steak. Sort of a "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble" with A-1, hot sauce, and ketchup. The Bard and the backyard; such different walks of life; I'd have never thought of juxtaposing the two. Clever!

I'm no Shakespeare aficionado — I read roughly five pages of every assigned play in school and said a lot of "prithees" and "portents" to get by on tests — so the THE in THE POUND OF FLESH confused me. Isn't it A POUND OF FLESH? Apparently not!

I also hitched at the Shylock reference, since there are so many negative connotations, but the entry is a direct quote from that character. Hard to avoid the reference.

As much as the imagery amused me, I would have loved it even more if all the quotes had related to a steak. Shylock presenting it, Hamlet seasoning it, Lady Macbeth calling it done. Surely there has to be a fourth meat-sounding quote from all of Shakespeare?

I knew there was a reason why I should have done the assigned reading.

Such solid gridwork, and in a debut, too! It's so rare that a new constructor comes out of the gate with only a bit of CPU EEG, and those are minor. I'd challenge Dave to next time open up his grid more, allowing for a few bonuses, perhaps taking out the square between RANT and EEL, or maybe even between EGRET and WAVE.

I'm still giggling about these larger-than-life figures with barbeque sauce smeared into their waxed mustaches. Such a fun debut.