Alex Eaton-Salners is just clearing things up.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
TUESDAY PUZZLE — New York Times word puzzles draw in experts of every kind, from boaters to birders, and these solvers are quick to observe when certain words that come up frequently in their fields aren’t allowed in the games. (I have heard from sailing buffs that the Spelling Bee is especially lacking in their lexicon.)
I, on the other hand, have no such expertise. In fact, in solving today’s crossword by Alex Eaton-Salners, I mistook birding words for boating ones.
Today’s Theme
My first instinct for 38-Down — “Common spots for eagles’ nests” — was to guess the tops of ships’ masts, because I could have sworn that’s what those lookouts on ships were called.
Reader, I was off by a mile (or half a league). The lookout points atop ships’ masts are called crow’s-nests. Besides, this clue was just asking for a common location for nests built by eagles. Oh, the shame of it all.
Eagles tend to build their huge nests in TREETOPS. This entry doubles as “a hint to 2-, 9-, 21- and 24-Down.” Often, when a revealer entry includes a locator (e.g. end, top, first, second), that word is likely to refer to where themed content lies in other entries. Could TOPS be the places to look?
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
