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Soar to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

MONDAY PUZZLE — Earlier than I begin fixing the every day crossword, I take a second to scan the grid and ensure there isn’t something fishy occurring inside it. Are there any circled letters, for instance, or unusually shaded strips? Do these field borders appear unusually thick? Hold on, why do these black squares look as in the event that they’re forming some type of form? It’s a secret code. I’m sure of it.

That is the type of psychological radio chatter I needed to take care of once I opened up right now’s puzzle by Benjamin Fink, a debut constructor, and noticed two plus indicators fashioned by the black squares within the grid. What may they imply?

Learn on to search out out. And don’t fear: However my cruciverbalist neuroses, I gained’t be donning a tinfoil hat — although it has appeared within the New York Instances Crossword twice already — anytime quickly.

As we speak’s Theme

“It was the originality of this theme, and the sudden however completely apt revealer that charmed us,” mentioned Tracy Bennett, a puzzle editor for The New York Instances.

The sequence of italicized clues — at 17-, 28- and 44-Throughout — that make up right now’s theme set are suspiciously benign. The entry for “‘I’ll by no means elevate your taxes!’” (17A), for instance, is an easy CAMPAIGN PROMISE. (Nonetheless feeling taunted by the plus indicators I had seen within the grid’s black squares, I used to be sure the “professional” of PROMISE would quantity to one thing associated to addition.)

We discover there’s extra to it, nonetheless, with that completely apt revealer at 57-Throughout: “‘Isn’t that mind-blowing?!’ … or a query one would possibly ask concerning the solutions to the italicized clues.”

The reflexive expression of astonishment in query can also be one among incredulity: CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? And also you’d be proper to ask it of any of right now’s themed entries: The CAMPAIGN PROMISE, hardly ever delivered as soon as a politician is in workplace; “5 stars!” in a CUSTOMER REVIEW (28A), typically planted by the corporate itself; a HOMEWORK EXCUSE (44A), solid or fictionalized.

Along with the liveliness of Mr. Fink’s themed phrases, Ms. Bennett mentioned, the editors loved the accessibility in his wordplay. They sought to convey it out by having spoken clues featured within the theme, quite than definitional ones, which she defined “added a playful layer of puzzlement for the solver to uncover.”

I couldn’t resist, after all, asking Ms. Bennett what the key of the plus indicators was. Certainly the solver was meant to uncover one thing there?

“They don’t have any connection to the theme,” she replied. “Simply an artifact of the grid design.”

Reader, I couldn’t imagine it.

Difficult Clues

21A. A SOU was a French coin of low denomination, so to say that one thing is “Not value a SOU” implies that it isn’t value something to you. (I’d say this clue phrase has fallen about as far out of use because the denomination it cites.)

23A. The clue “Absence famous in vape pen advertisements” is asking us to establish an “absence” talked about by the advertisements themselves, versus filling in language that the advertisements are lacking. NO TAR is the entry.

61A. Should you communicate Turkish, you could possibly have merely inferred the identify of the “Lion in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’” by its species: ASLAN is the Turkish word for lion.

13D. Bear in mind, each phrase in a clue is doing its half to convey you towards the answer. Take the phrase in “A part of a rose or a glass of rosé,” for instance: We’re meant to think about the anatomy that connects the objects, not their shared colour palette or aromas. Every one has a STEM.

42D. “Uncommon issues from far-off” are often known as EXOTICA, although lately the observe of labeling sure meals and never others as “unique” has come underneath justifiable scrutiny.

45D. “Claimed a victory, homophonically” is an excellent method to debut an uncommon crossword entry utilizing wit, quite than brute pressure. Somebody who “claimed a victory” WON — “homophonically,” with out altering the which means, they WON ONE.

Constructor Notes

The grumpy solver in me may simply nitpick this puzzle’s many flaws (similar to together with the overused hall-of-fame phrases ABBA, ESSO, ETSY and STYE), however right here’s why none of them matter right now: Round 40 years in the past, my mom requested her teenage son for assist with a sports-related clue, and a New York Instances Crossword fixing workforce was born. As life went on, I might be greeted at each household go to with a hug and a stack of Instances crosswords. My mom and I might then retreat — antisocially, some declare — to a nook to slog our method by them whereas relentlessly complimenting one another (“You’re so good at this! No, you are!”).

Mother was at all times in awe of constructors, and died blissfully unaware that instruments like development software program, phrase lists and xwordinfo.com even existed. The picture of her kvelling to her mates in heaven right now — making patently ridiculous statements like “I instructed him he was a genius!” — can have me smiling for months to return.

Marla and Oren: Your affected person and beneficiant check fixing through the years made this debut attainable, and I can’t thanks sufficient.

Should you dwell in Houston and have curiosity in being a part of an H-town constructors’ group, please reach out!

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