NYT Crossword Answers for Oct. 30, 2024

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — There is no better evidence for the theory that history repeats itself than in the entertainment industry, where reboots and remakes are churned out as quickly as audiences can digest them. I’m still incredulous at the suggestion that “Mean Girls” needed a 2024 remake — is the version I saw in theaters in 2004 already considered a relic? (And by extension, am I one?)

The 1988 film at the heart of today’s crossword, a New York Times debut for Josh M. Kaufmann, has been revisited more than once: A sequel was released this year, and there’s also a Broadway musical based on the original. What should we then call Mr. Kaufmann’s puzzle vis-à-vis the franchise? A spinoff? A reboot? A rebus? Please share your pitches in the comments section.

Today’s Theme

This solution requires a bit of summoning because the [Ghoulish character] at 29-Down answers only to his name. What’s more, we have to SAY IT THREE TIMES (59A) in order for him to appear.

One way to address him is directly: BEETLEJUICE (29D). Another is to look at the circled letters in the grid and PUT THEM TOGETHER (17A), which gives us BEAT-ULGE-OOSE. See that? It’s a phonetic rendering of — Ha, nice try. You won’t get me to say it a third time.

Tricky Clues

14A. Fill-in-the-blank clues tend to be figures of speech, but I failed to imagine the idiomatic sense of [“Throw me ___!”] and tried entering “a rope.” (You don’t know; maybe the constructor wrote this clue while stuck in quicksand.) The correct answer is A BONE — used colloquially to describe a small concession that’s intended to distract from a larger issue.