Make some noise for Daniel Mauer’s musical crossword.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — If you have only recently begun solving the New York Times Crossword and reading the accompanying Wordplay column, you may be flummoxed by some of the terms that get tossed around here. Why is everyone always bringing up emus, for example? (It’s an apocryphal reference to our comment moderators.) And what the heck are veiled capitals? (They are hidden proper nouns in clues; read more about them in our solver’s guide.)
One bit of crossword slang I’m still getting used to myself is the “revealer,” which is a clue that cracks the rest of the theme by pointing out its pattern. Some themed puzzles have them, while others — like today’s grid, constructed by Daniel Mauer — leave us to discover the pattern for ourselves.
Shall we cross the threshold of revelation together?
Today’s Theme
The entries at 18-, 28-, 47- and 64-Across make up today’s theme set, and all of them deal in “refrain(s)” of hit songs. But repetition concerns more than just the choral hook. In the case of these particular songs, it comes down to the syllables themselves.
What’s the “Refrain in a 1971 hit by David Bowie” (28A), for example? It’s CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES, as written. (Yes, he drops one CH- in the second line of the chorus.) And the “Refrain in a 1965 hit by the Who” might have come easily to you as MY G-G-G-GENERATION — depending on your generation, indeed.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
