Barbara Lin reflects on common sayings.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Over the last few years, I’ve noticed the emergence of a strange tic in my speech: I swap the opening syllables of words. These swaps are called spoonerisms — and boy, do I spoonerize. I might think, for instance, about how much I enjoy solving crosswords, but then say aloud that I enjoy “crolving saucewords.” Ah yes, the saucewords! My favorite is “marinara.”
I normally find these lapses in communication to be embarrassing, if not a worrisome portent of cognitive decline. But it’s likely that this tendency helped me to identify the theme of today’s crossword, which was constructed by Barbara Lin.
Today’s Theme
To allow a slang phrase or longer expression as a crossword entry, The New York Times’s puzzle editors have to deem it idiomatic enough to resonate with most solvers.
Ms. Lin’s expressions are rather obscure in their forms as written; it’s only when you flip them that you discover something familiar. At 17A, for instance, to [Swim around, scare some people, ram a boat …?] solves to LIFE OF JAWS. That solution is true enough to the clue, but the more recognizable expression is its reverse: “Jaws of Life.” At 22A, a [Good quality for a midwife?] is a LOVE OF LABORS, but swap the nouns and you have the common expression “labors of love.”
59A was my favorite of these reversals: [Jacket sleeves?] are ARMS OF COAT. Why yes, I thought, they certainly are.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
