Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
TUESDAY PUZZLE — The English language doesn’t have to do much to impress me. Homophones? Wonderful. Palindromes? Amazing. The wordplay in Adam Aaronson’s crossword theme? I’m gobsmacked.
There’s nothing heavy-handed about it. The pattern is executed effortlessly (a contrast with the effort required to accomplish his revealer entry at 34-Across). Still, each themed entry is worth its own chuckle. And I’m willing to bet that, even if you aren’t easily impressed by language gimmicks, this one will have you beaming.
Today’s Theme
Entries at 17-, 25-, 49- and 58-Across perform [Gymnastic feats] known as BACKFLIPS (34A), in that the last two letters of the words in each entry — their backs, so to speak — can be flipped to make the other.
[Noiseless?], for example, means QUITE QUIET (17A). A [View of Earth from heaven?] is an ANGEL ANGLE (25A). My personal favorite, at 49-Across, is [“There are ways to leave”?] — EXITS EXIST!
Tricky Clues
15A. I assumed that this [Little crack] was some kind of slit or slot. I wasn’t in on the joke: The correct answer is QUIP.
22A. Be on the lookout for “X, but not Y” clues, whose wording is designed to misdirect the solver. The X and Y seem to belong to the same category — music, in the case of [Rock and roll, but not rhythm and blues] — and the difference is often grammatical. Here, “rock” and “roll” are VERBS, whereas “rhythm” and “blues” are not.
28A. For whatever reason, I read [Newly decorated] as though it referred to a military rank. For my ego’s sake, maybe you did, too? In any case, this is about something that has had an aesthetic revamp, or has been REDONE.
56A. It’s much more fun, albeit at times trickier, when constructors clue proper names through wordplay rather than by hinting at a well-known figure. In this case, the constructor could have used the phrase “NPR host Glass” to clue IRA — but [Good name for a long-term investor?] is so much better.
3D. Here’s another fun one: The [Guys whose profession sounds redundant] are MAILMEN — i.e. “male” men when said aloud.
13D. Reader, I laughed: [Writers’ blocks?] are ERASERS. Of course, these blocks have largely been replaced by “delete” buttons.
43D. In the Wordplay column, I often cite the convention according to which, in question-marked clues, words like “start,” “beginning” or “leader” refer to a prefix or opening to the clue word itself. This flouts that: [Start to fall?] describes an EQUINOX. (No relation to the EQUINE [donkeys and zebras] at 6-Down.)
Constructor Notes
I constructed the bulk of this puzzle during an eight-hour Amtrak ride from Rochester, N.Y., (where I was visiting my sister for the solar eclipse — hi, Lindsey!) to New York City. It turns out that a long train ride, interrupted only by a quick walk to the cafe car to get a hot dog, makes for a perfect opportunity to grind out a crossword.
A lot of people ask how the crossword-making process starts. In this case, I overheard the phrase QUITE QUIET somewhere, noticed its curious letter pattern, thought of the revealer BACKFLIPS and then found the rest of the theme entries.
I used an app I made, Wordlisted, to find the remaining themed entries, which I think is the first time I’ve personally used it on a puzzle that wound up in The New York Times.
I considered including longer theme entries, with clues such as [Most simple looking bedspreads?] or [Barbecue entrees that get cooked the fastest?] but I decided this set of four felt pretty tight.
I swear I wasn’t trying that hard to fit all those Q’s and X’s into this grid. It just sort of happened.
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