NYT Crossword Answers for Oct. 14, 2024

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

MONDAY PUZZLE — Today’s New York Times Crossword is a debut for Dana Edwards, so I won’t presume to describe his constructing style just yet — but I am giddy at the prospect that it might be an indication of what we can expect from his future puzzles.

Mr. Edwards has managed to construct a grid that, despite containing four 15-letter spanners and a brilliantly self-referential theme, sits firmly in beginner-friendly territory. As I said, I don’t know whether this is a rare occurrence or just what he does. I look forward to seeing more from him soon.

Today’s Theme

At 54A, our revealer asks us to name a [Statistical feat achieved four times in N.B.A. history]. But don’t worry, no one needs to bone up on their basketball jargon in order to solve it. We can tell that double letters are central to today’s theme just by looking at the starred entries at 17A, 24A and 41A: ACCESS HOLLYWOOD, MISS MISSISSIPPI and WELL WHOOP-DEE-DOO all contain four pairs of double letters. This compelled me to try QUADRUPLE DOUBLE as the revealer entry even though I had no idea whether it was associated with basketball. I was able to confirm my guess was correct by checking it against its crossings. Swish!

I mentioned earlier that Mr. Edwards’s theme was self-referential. Not only does his grid contain exactly four themed entries with double letters — achieving a QUADRUPLE DOUBLE of another kind — but the feat he alludes to has also happened only four times in the N.B.A.’s history, which feels like an added wink.

Tricky Clues

20A. We refer to clues that appear between quotation marks as vocalizations because they are written as though they’re being spoken aloud. These clues tend to solve to colloquialisms; we don’t use quotation marks in entries, but while solving you can and should imagine that they are present. A casual way to say [“Go ahead, I’m an open book!”] is ASK AWAY.