Brandon Koppy predicts our futures.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
THURSDAY PUZZLE — Constructors’ brains are fascinating to me. They tend to notice things about language that most other people don’t see. Some constructors make excellent puzzles that are all about playing with words, but others take it a step further: They add a visual element to the solving fun.
I tend to admire the visual puzzles because I have never had much luck making them. My brain just doesn’t work that way.
But Brandon Koppy’s brain does. He has made 16 crosswords for The New York Times, and a few have had interesting visual elements. Today’s puzzle does too, though they may not be there for long.
There might be a bit of confusion about how to fill in this grid, so I will explain the mechanics in the Theme Section.
Today’s Theme
I enjoyed Mr. Koppy’s puzzle immensely, but I also had questions about how solvers who use different platforms would fill it out and be marked as having completed it. As a public service, I will relay what the puzzle editors told me when I asked them about the mechanics of solving this grid. No, don’t thank me. This is why I make the medium-size bucks.
So you may be asking yourself this: How do I, a user of ___ platform, fill in this puzzle and get credit for being correct?
Excellent query. That sort of curiosity is why you are such a good solver. In Mr. Koppy’s puzzle, working with the shaded T squares is not the same on web and iOS devices as it is on Androids.
If you are solving on the web or iOS: Please do not type anything inside the T squares, even though you can.
If you are solving in an Android environment: There is a note in this version that says “This puzzle contains several pre-filled squares. For a correct solution, tap into each and enter a blank rebus.” Here is the way that works:
1. Click into the blank cells.
2. Open the rebus.
3. Hit “Done” on the keyboard to close the rebus.
If you are still having trouble getting a correct solution, you can try the following: Enter any of the following in each pre-filled square (they just won’t be very visible):
T
BLANK
EMPTY
NOTHING
— (dash)
_ (underscore)
Mr. Koppy’s theme is a pun on TEA LEAVES (56A), which are used to predict someone’s future. (I mainly just compost them, but if you like to read TEA LEAVES, you do you.) The TEA is represented by shaded squares that contain pre-filled Ts. When the puzzle is completed, the Ts should “leave,” or disappear.
When the Ts are visible, the entries are legitimate words and phrases, but those answers don’t work with the clues we’ve been given. If we ignore the Ts, or mentally make them leave, the entries make much more sense.
For example, at 15A, the clue is “Regal figure on a tarot card.” The answer including the Ts, TEMPTRESS, might work if a temptress card were a thing, but that entry doesn’t address the word “regal” in the clue. If we drop the Ts, the answer becomes EMPRESS. The Down answers work the same way: The answer to the clue “Fix” is TRIG, which does not make much sense. But if the T leaves, we wind up with RIG, a synonym for “fix.”
Tricky Clues
1A. The “Zin” in “Zin alternative” is short for Zinfandel wine, and an alternative to that may be CAB, or Cabernet.
4A. In case the emoji does not come through on some of the solving platforms, the American Sign Language (or ASL) sign in “In which 🤟means ‘I love you,’ for short” is a fist with the thumb, index finger and pinkie extended.
17A. The phrase “big part” in “What has a big part in ‘The Ten Commandments’?” is a pun. According to the Old Testament, the RED SEA parted in a big way.
37A. I thought that “Mobile home?” might have something to do with where you put your cellphone to charge, but this home is the kind of SHELL that underwater creatures wear on their backs.
60A. OK, I laughed. A mullet is a kind of fish, and its “resting place” might be in some coral, but that’s not where this clue was going. This mullet is a hair style, known for being “business in the front” (short), and “party in the back” (long). Mullets rest on the NAPES of their wearers’ necks.
42D. The “Martian who wears a green helmet and skirt” is MARVIN, the “Looney Tunes” character.
44D. The “Sticks on a table, maybe” are not chopsticks. They are pool CUES.
53D. I love clues asking you to think about parts of speech. The answer to “Last but not least?” is VERB; think about the definition of “last” as “to persist.”
Constructor Notes
My original submission actually omitted the shaded squares — I was worried it would be too hand-holdy or something. But I think the presentation tweaks the puzzle editors added are pretty cool and do a good job of illustrating the theme.
This was a fun one to stitch together, and I hope you enjoy solving it!
For any constructors interested in this type of grid, I have a tutorial on my website.
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Want to be part of the conversation about New York Times Games, or maybe get some help with a particularly thorny puzzle? Here are the:
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Improve Your Crossword Solving
Work your way through our guide, “How to Solve the New York Times Crossword.” It contains an explanation of most of the types of clues you will see in the puzzles and a practice Mini at the end of each section.
Want to Submit Crosswords to The New York Times?
The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online.
For tips on how to get started, read our series “How to Make a Crossword Puzzle.”
The Tipping Point
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
