Adam Wagner orders us to enunciate.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
MONDAY PUZZLE — One crossword entry that I rarely guess correctly is “ABCs,” which is often clued as “Fundamentals” or “Kindergarten stuff.” It seems unfair that such a basic concept is so challenging for me to guess. I rank it on par for difficulty with “A to Z,” an entry I too often misread as “atoz.” (I sense a vendetta against the alphabet brewing.)
In today’s crossword, Adam Wagner invites us to revisit another set of early education fundamentals with his theme. I confess that I found the trick of his entries nearly as difficult to pick up as my ABCs.
Sam Ezersky, a puzzle editor for The New York Times, assured me that I wouldn’t be alone in feeling addled. “There’s lots of fancy footwork going on here,” Mr. Ezersky said of Mr. Wagner’s theme, describing it as “a nice mix of phrases, with one real brain-bender of a revealer.”
Shall we get our minds in a twist together?
Today’s Theme
One word in Mr. Wagner’s revealer clue, easily missed among the others, is crucial to understanding what makes today’s theme entries special — more special than they already seem, that is.
He asks us to notice “What the first word of the answer to each starred clue counts, with respect to the second word” (61A). Did you catch that? It’s subtle but brilliant: Each entry begins with a spelled-out number, which counts the SYLLABLES in its second word.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
