NYT Crossword Answers for Nov. 12, 2024

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

TUESDAY PUZZLE — Calling all gossips: They’re talking about you in the crossword of the day. And by “they,” I mean its constructors, Avery Gee Katz and Aaron Gee. This buzzy puzzle is the siblings’ first collaboration for The New York Times — Ms. Katz made her solo debut earlier this year — and it’s a pure delight to solve. If you would rather not take my word for it, though, you can hear it directly from the theme’s key source at 56A.

Today’s Theme

The source [From which to hear the real story, as suggested by the starts of 20-, 26- and 51-Across] is the HORSE’S MOUTH. At the beginnings of the cited entries, we have phonetic plays on the sounds made by a HORSE’S MOUTH:

20A. Father KNICKERBOCKER, a [personification of New York City in old cartoons]

26A. [Vocal skeptics], often referred to as NAYSAYERS

51A. WINNIE THE POOH, the [Bear who sings “I’m so rumbly in my tumbly”]

As horse sounds, these are generally written as nicker, neigh and whinny. I interpreted the location of each of these sounds — at the “mouths” of their respective entries — as another layer of humor.

Tricky Clues

5A. The use of vernacular in a clue is no accident. It’s an indication of how formal or colloquial the entry will be. [Li’l fella] is playful and casual, so it solves to a similarly playful term for a child — KIDDO.

25A. My solution for [Smooth sailing, so to speak] was just one letter off, but it was only after solving the rest of the puzzle that I discovered the error. The answer is EASE, and I had “easy.” In my defense, I tend to use the phrase “smooth sailing” as an adjective — everything was decidedly not smooth sailing in this case.