Kevin Curry offers a different read on things.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
THURSDAY PUZZLE — I’ve developed a Pavlovian association with Thursday crosswords such that, if I so much as glance at the empty puzzle, my hackles go up. I solve as though I were a detective in the parlor scene of a murder mystery — there’s a dastardly theme in here somewhere, and every clue is a suspect.
Kevin Curry was kind enough to relieve us of such sleuthing by making it clear where his themed clues lay in today’s crossword (they’re in all caps). It’s still a Thursday challenge, to be sure, but I believe we can solve it together.
Today’s Theme
Mr. Curry has concealed a series of idioms in this grid, representing them using capitalized clues and parentheses around certain letters. The trick is to read the letters phonetically and then note their locations in the words. 15-Across, for instance, reads “EM(B)RACE.” This solves to B IN TOUCH — because it’s the letter B inside a word that means “touch.” 23-Across reads “ALMIGHT(Y),” which solves to Y IN GOD’S NAME.
Other themed phrases use the word OF instead of IN to indicate the parenthesized letter’s placement: “TROP(I)CAL STORM” (39A) solves to I OF THE HURRICANE.
Can’t place the remaining phrases? You can click to reveal them below.
53A. “(C)OMPASSION”
C OF HUMANITY
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
