David Kwong makes magic again.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
THURSDAY PUZZLE — David Kwong is a magician, and one of the things I like about his puzzles is that his enigmatist’s sensibilities and knack for illusion inform his crossword themes.
In his last puzzle in The New York Times, Mr. Kwong used elements of a common idiom as a cipher to describe other phrases. When I finally understood what was going on, I sat back and gasped like Mr. Kwong had just pulled a rabbit out of his hat. Not that Mr. Kwong would stoop to such a cliché. I’m not even sure he owns a hat.
Today’s puzzle solved like an exercise in misdirection: While I was busy looking at the grid one way, Mr. Kwong was palming a relevant bit of the theme and hiding it in a not-so-obvious place. It’s a lovely example of the kind of prestidigitation I like to see in his crosswords, and I’m happy that he’s back.
Today’s Theme
Asterisks, which are also called stars when they are included in crossword clues, are a fairly common feature in puzzles. They typically indicate that the clue and its answer are part of the theme.
In Mr. Kwong’s puzzle, the stars mean something else, and solvers must read the revealer at 63A in a different way in order to figure it out.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
