NYT Crossword Answers for Sept. 26, 2024

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THURSDAY PUZZLE — You don’t have to be an expert player to make a crossword puzzle. Solving and constructing are really two different skill sets. Sure, it helps to have some solving experience, because understanding what works and what doesn’t informs your puzzle making. But the main skills constructors need are an open mind and the ability to notice linguistic quirks.

Take Jesse Guzman, today’s constructor, for example. To clarify, he himself is not a linguistic quirk, but he sure knows how to recognize one. This puzzle is his New York Times Crossword debut, and he admits in his notes below that he is not an advanced solver.

And yet he was able to make a challenging crossword with a truly tight theme, clean fill and fun clues. I don’t know whether he had any guidance, but I always recommend finding a mentor. Working with experienced puzzle makers — who generously give their time to beginners free of charge — hastens the learning process. Sharing your byline with a known constructor can help attract an editor’s attention, instead of just landing you in the slush pile with other first-timers. At the very least, you will have made a friend in the puzzle-making community, and that alone is valuable.

Today’s Theme

Prediction: There will be complaints. And as someone who has been writing about Thursday puzzles for 13 years, I’m used to them. There are solvers who say that a crossword should just be about crossing words and not having to figure out that you need to stand on your head to understand the clues. For the most part, I don’t think that’s unreasonable, even though I love the tricks. But that’s not what the Thursday Crossword is about.