NYT Crossword Answers for July 8, 2024

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

MONDAY PUZZLE — Crossword constructors often bemoan the unique challenge of crafting a Monday puzzle for The New York Times. (It’s surprisingly hard to make an easy grid.) Andrea Carla Michaels is something of a Monday maven, having constructed over 60 such puzzles. Combine her prowess with that of Daniel Bodily, who brings consistent whimsy to his themes — his most recent one for The Times consisted of literal interpretations of the M.C. Hammer song lyric “You can’t touch this” — and you’ve got a winning recipe for a crossword.

Wyna Liu, a puzzle editor for The Times, said that today’s grid stood out to editors precisely because of its cohesion. “We love the way this puzzle comes together,” Ms. Liu said. She complimented its “vibrant assortment of theme answers” and described the discovery of its theme as a “delightful surprise.” This is the first collaboration between Mr. Bodily and Ms. Michaels, but I hope there’s more to come.

Today’s Theme

The constructors have given us all a wonderful, ahem, grift. They wanted us to fall for their cleverly written clues, and we did: hooks, lines and thinkers.

OK, I’ve gotten that out of my system. Let’s take a look at our revealer clue: At 60-Across, a phrase that means [“Boy, is that loud!”] doubles as a hint to the ends of 17-, 25-, 38- and 49-Across. A [Decorator’s suggestion] (17A) might be to incorporate a COLOR SCHEME. And a popular [Gathering for superhero fans] (25A) is a COMIC-CON. What do the “ends” of these two clues, SCHEME and -CON, have in common? Each can be described using the mystery phrase at 60A: WHAT A RACKET!

Two more synonyms for a RACKET can be found in a [Kickflip or heelflip] (38A), a.k.a. a SKATEBOARD TRICK, and the most common [Hazard near a hive] (49A) is a BEE STING.