NYT Crossword Answers for April 17, 2024

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — A cognitive phenomenon known as frequency illusion, also called the Baader-Meinhof effect, describes that feeling you get after encountering something once and then seeming to notice it everywhere. This phenomenon came to mind as I was solving Joseph Gangi’s crossword, which happens to use a theme style I just wrote about (click at your own puzzle-spoiling risk) only two weeks ago.

This is Mr. Gangi’s third puzzle for The New York Times, and one might refer to its theme as a frequency illusion, in the sense that once the grid is complete, we realize how infrequently a certain bit of language was inside of it.

Today’s Theme

The revealer for Mr. Gangi’s puzzle is tucked at the bottom of the southeast corner, occupying the last Across clue. A “Feature of 20-Across” is, “when sounded out, a feature of today’s puzzle” (73A), clues included. (Say that three times fast.) There’s nothing obviously out of the ordinary — nothing glaring, one might say — and for me it was only when the Greek mythology in the grid came together that everything snapped into place.

POLYPHEMUS (20A) is the “Cave dweller of Greek myth” in Homer’s ODYSSEY (41A). He is also called THE CYCLOPS (60A). A “Classic feature” of this character is his ONE EYE (73A). And now, even with only ONE EYE open — I hope you can see where this is going — the entire grid and clue set features only one “I.” That’s in the circle at the top of 18-Across, and it’s fittingly centered in the upper part of the grid, just like the eye in POLYPHEMUS’s head.

Tricky Clues

18A. The nature of this “Cry after a poke” is ambiguous — “That hurt!” or “I’m awake!” both fit in our squares, for instance. This grid’s answer is I CAN’T SEE, and presumably the poker is the one who needs a better sightline. (N.B.: Please do not poke a stranger. May I recommend a gentle tap?)