NYT Crossword Answers for Nov. 25, 2024

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

MONDAY PUZZLE — It’s easier to solve a crossword puzzle than it is to construct one, and the easiest puzzles can actually be the hardest to construct. So it is precisely because today’s solve was such a breeze that I want to applaud its constructor, Dena R. Witkes. Not only is this a thoroughly enjoyable Monday puzzle, it’s also Ms. Witkes’s New York Times Crossword debut. What an auspicious start to a career in crosswords, insofar as there is such a thing.

Today’s theme has been influenced, you might say, by a certain subject that all of us feed on. I trust the solve will make you content.

Today’s Theme

In addition to hinting at the theme itself, a puzzle’s revealer — here, at 59-Across — will tell you which clues are part of it: [Modern networking aid, as suggested by the starts of the answers to the starred clues]. We find these starred clues at 17-, 27- and 44-Across.

• 17A. A [Corporate investor] is a SHAREHOLDER.

• 27A. If something is [Difficult to wrangle, per an idiom], you might say it’s LIKE HERDING CATS.

• 44A. FOLLOW YOUR BLISS is good [Advice to someone seeking happiness].

The “starts” of these entries are their first words or compounds: SHARE, LIKE, FOLLOW. The networking aid that uses these terms is SOCIAL MEDIA.

Did you FOLLOW all of that? SHARE any thoughts you have about the theme in the comments section — I’d LIKE to hear them.

Tricky Clues

40A. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by verbs’ past participles masquerading as adjectives (and vice versa). You can’t know whether “bothered” in the clue [Really bothered] functions as a verb or an adjective, so your best bet is to wait for crossings to reveal it to you. It’s a verb, in this case, and the answer is ATE AT.

58A. In crosswords, [Miss Piggy’s pronoun] is generally neither she nor her. Rather, it’s a French term that she uses to refer coyly to herself: MOI.