Steve Mossberg author page
1 puzzle by Steve Mossberg
with Constructor comments
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What a thrill to be making my New York Times debut today! I'm an elementary school music teacher based in Medford, MA. I've been solving for a couple of decades and began constructing recently. Besides publishing in other venues, I regularly create crosswords and cryptics for my blog, Square Pursuit.
Today's puzzle is a relatively early effort, though it was preceded by a string of polite rejections from the NYT. I love this kind of literary, surreal humor! While I know that additive wordplay and clue-heavy theming aren't for everybody, especially in Thursday puzzles, it was a pleasure to make, and I'm grateful that Will and the team preserved the goofiness. Though I've become a stronger grid maker since then, I think the mid-length, flowy fill suits the puzzle nicely.
I want to thank Kelly Petitt and Katie Weir for taking me to the ACPT in 2019, where I first started to get ideas about making puzzles. Despite the very warm welcome I received that weekend, I was too shy to ask for constructing help for a long time. After making this puzzle, I mustered up the courage to start my blog and became part of a wonderful crossword community. To those I've met in the past year, I value and appreciate you! To anybody out there who wants to talk about solving or making puzzles, I hope you'll get in touch with me! This is so much more fun to do with friends.