Sun Mar 23 12:00:00 UTC 2025: ## Kansas Farmer Makes Seductive NYT Crossword Debut

**NEW YORK** – Andrew Colin Kirk, a former management consultant and Kansas native, has made a dazzling debut in the New York Times crossword puzzle. His puzzle, titled “Where’d You Go?”, features a clever theme built around the classic breakup excuse, “It’s not you, it’s me,” revealed at 115-Across.

Kirk’s puzzle incorporates six themed entries where the letters “ME” are substituted with “U,” creating humorous and unexpected answers. For example, the clue “[Stay in one’s lane?]” leads to the answer “RESIST THE MERGE,” a playful twist on “resist the urge.” Other clues similarly utilize this wordplay, leading to answers like “MEN SOLVED MYSTERIES” (a twist on “Unsolved Mysteries”) and “MENDERS LINES” (a play on “underlines”).

Despite the readily apparent theme, the puzzle’s difficulty lies in the clever and surprising cluing. Even with knowledge of the theme, predicting the answers proved challenging for solvers. This unexpected complexity, combined with the witty wordplay, makes Kirk’s debut a memorable and highly praised one.

This impressive first puzzle comes at an auspicious time for Kirk, who recently moved to Denver with his husband and is looking forward to enjoying the NYT crossword digitally. His background, from a cattle farm in western Kansas to a career in Washington D.C., adds a unique element to his already successful crossword creation.

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