Brad Wiegmann has new takes on old wisdom.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Brad Wiegmann’s puzzle has no big reveal — unlike the magician in this column’s image, yuk yuk — but I think the piecemeal discovery of his theme inspires just as much of an electric jolt. I couldn’t decide what impressed me more: Mr. Wiegmann’s constructing skills, or the uncanny coincidences of the English language that made up his theme. In the end, I settled on admiring both.
Today’s Theme
When devising a theme, constructors often make certain concessions regarding the intelligibility of their clues or entries. In Alissa Revness and Chloe Revery’s clever letter-swapping puzzle from January, for instance, the theme needed bizarrely elaborate clues and nonsensical entries in order to work.
Mr. Wiegmann, however, has managed to include common expressions on both sides of the equation. His themed clues are idiomatic two-word phrases, and his themed entries are single compound words whose halves mirror the terms used in the idioms. “Wait + see” (16A) solves to STOPWATCH because “wait” can mean “stop,” and “see” can mean “watch.” Combine two synonyms for “Give + take” (25A), and you get HANDHOLD.
Speaking of HANDHOLDing, I don’t mean to do any more! Go ahead and enjoy discovering the rest of these entries — 36-, 51- and 60A — at your leisure.
Tricky Clues
5A. The solution to “Person of the year, for short?” is going to be some kind of play on the clue, on account of that question mark. It’s an ALUM, as in a person from a given year’s graduating class.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
