Crossword Puzzles

MaryEllen Uthlaut’s crossword is worth celebrating.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Discovering the theme of a crossword puzzle can occasionally engender a sense of private embarrassment. We ask ourselves how we could have missed the pattern, given how obvious it seems in hindsight. I hope that you’ll give yourself some grace as you solve MaryEllen Uthlaut’s crossword puzzle, though, because its theme isn’t obvious. In fact, I needed a colleague to point out that I was only halfway appreciating its brilliance (another reason to try solving puzzles with a friend, a recommendation I have made in this column before).This is Ms. Uthlaut’s fourth crossword for The New York Times, and she seems to be developing a real knack for subtle theme sets: She can add and subtract letters from common phrases to change their meaning, and she can hide U.F.O.s in plain sight. As for today’s theme, she truly — ahem — rises to the occasion.Today’s ThemeThe occasion alluded to above appears at 57A: “‘Best wishes for your once-a-year celebration!’ (and a wish for solvers of this puzzle).” A couple of annual occasions may fit the bill, so we’ll deduce this one using our other theme entries.A certain “Buzzer you wouldn’t want to hit?” (17A) is a BUMBLEBEE, and a “Breast milk container” (25A) is a BABY BOTTLE. One particularly bold consonant stands out in these entries. It serves as our hint to Ms. Uthlaut’s revealer — HAPPY B-DAY.But wait, there’s more: Solvers of this puzzle are showered with B’s not only in the entries of this puzzle but in their clues: Every clue starts with the letter B. Beautiful, isn’t it?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Alex Eaton-Salners is just clearing things up.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — New York Times word puzzles draw in experts of every kind, from boaters to birders, and these solvers are quick to observe when certain words that come up frequently in their fields aren’t allowed in the games. (I have heard from sailing buffs that the Spelling Bee is especially lacking in their lexicon.)I, on the other hand, have no such expertise. In fact, in solving today’s crossword by Alex Eaton-Salners, I mistook birding words for boating ones.Today’s ThemeMy first instinct for 38-Down — “Common spots for eagles’ nests” — was to guess the tops of ships’ masts, because I could have sworn that’s what those lookouts on ships were called.Reader, I was off by a mile (or half a league). The lookout points atop ships’ masts are called crow’s-nests. Besides, this clue was just asking for a common location for nests built by eagles. Oh, the shame of it all.Eagles tend to build their huge nests in TREETOPS. This entry doubles as “a hint to 2-, 9-, 21- and 24-Down.” Often, when a revealer entry includes a locator (e.g. end, top, first, second), that word is likely to refer to where themed content lies in other entries. Could TOPS be the places to look?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Jeremy Newton owes us an explanation.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesMONDAY PUZZLE — In a themed crossword, constructors tend to include a revealer, a kind of breadcrumb trail that leads us definitively to the puzzle’s trick. In today’s puzzle, in contrast, Jeremy Newton seems to have scattered the entire loaf — if we’re sticking with the bread analogy — throughout his grid.After I got the gist of Mr. Newton’s theme, it was a delight to keep discovering new dimensions of its execution. Joel Fagliano, a senior puzzle editor for The New York Times, echoed this sentiment in his commentary on what made the grid stand out. “It’s so hard to come up with a simple concept that involves multiple layers like this,” he said. Mr. Fagliano also cited today’s crossword, which he said “unfolds beautifully,” as one of his favorite Monday puzzles of the past few years. And lucky us, we get to solve it now.Today’s ThemeBefore proceeding, I should apologize: The summary of today’s column is a play on words. I’m not saying that Mr. Newton owes us an explanation — I mean that he O’s us one. Because we learn, “by following the path of O’s in this puzzle’s grid” (33A), exactly what Mr. Newton is up to.These O’s, which “Zig or zag” (11A) — i.e. TURN — through a winding route from left to right, represent a ball in a game of MINIGOLF (18A). I was especially delighted by this game’s alliterative clue: “Popular pastime played with putters.”Holes in MINIGOLF are often designed so that their walls can act as conduits for the ball. And here, our ball ricochets from the TEE (58A) right into the CUP (8A), scoring a HOLE-IN-ONE SHOT (33/34/35A)! Solvers of the digital version should see a whimsical completion animation of the winning putt.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Jesse Cohn makes his New York Times Crossword debut, crossing that accomplishment off his bucket list.Jump to: Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — I love to see constructors make their New York Times debuts, but I love it even more when I can’t tell that it’s their first. That usually happens when the puzzle maker has peppered a grid with lively entries that are fun to write.Jesse Cohn set a goal of having at least one crossword published in The New York Times, and today he realizes that dream. I imagine that checking this accomplishment off his bucket list is especially sweet because of how much work he put into it. More on this after the crossword questions link. Please scroll down to the Tricky Clues section or click the Tricky Clues link above to skip the spoilers.Just look at some of these long entries! I liked ACCENT WALL, WHAT THE HEY, ALL THE RAGE, I’M SO CONFUSED, HIGH SCORES and I’VE BEEN HAD. This was a fun puzzle to tackle.Tricky Clues34A. “Evidence of a past personal connection?” made me think of a Ouija board, but this is a very human connection. Your NAVEL is evidence that you were once attached to your mother by your umbilical cord.49A. These “Stock holders?” are not investors. They are BARNS, which hold livestock.1D. The word “prompter” in “Speech prompter, perhaps” made me think of a teleprompter. Winning an AWARD may prompt someone to give a speech, at least until the walk-off music plays.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Joe DiPietro takes us back to old Rome.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — Last week I wrote about how constructors’ brains fascinate me because they can come up with unusual, creative ideas for what is essentially a two-dimensional pastime that simply involves crossing words. These puzzle makers have elevated the craft to include three dimensional puzzles and visuals that delight the eye, as well as unparalleled wordplay, mostly enabled — sorry, make that encouraged — by Will Shortz, Joel Fagliano and their merry band of editors.Creativity is one thing, but how do some of these constructors manage to be so prolific? I asked Sam Ezersky, an editor of the Crossword, who has had 55 puzzles appear in The New York Times in eight years. It boils down to noticing things that are not readily visible to others, and setting them aside for future use.“As Will Shortz says, they have flexible minds,” he said of these constructors.“I jot things down in my Notes app all the time,” he continued, “just properties of phrases I notice. Some things I’m able to turn into fully fleshed out, fun puzzles.“Your mind just becomes increasingly attuned to thinking ‘Hey, imagine if you could take that phrase and use it to explain this sort of wordplay.’”Today’s ThemeJoe DiPietro offers four theme entries where Roman numerals substitute for parts of phrases. The theme clues sort of hint at this trick by ending in “ … in old Rome?”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Michael Schlossberg sugarcoats the truth.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Over the centuries, English speakers have come up with several creative ways of avoiding vulgarity. Minced oaths are euphemistically rendered expressions of profanity or obscenity that gained popularity among playwrights of the Elizabethan era. Bowdlerization began a few hundred years later, when a well-meaning couple sought to make Shakespeare more family-friendly. And today, the teens use algospeak to avoid censors on TikTok, often using emojis in place of words.While I cannot confirm that Michael Schlossberg constructed today’s crossword with any of those strategies in mind, I can tell you that solving his puzzle will give you a particularly creative way to express your delight about what lies inside the grid.Today’s ThemeI can honestly say that I let out a “Little laugh” (53D) when I entered the revealer of Mr. Schlossberg’s puzzle (though mine sounded a little more like a “hehe” than a TEHEE).“What you might cry upon recognizing this puzzle’s ingredient list?” (62A) requires first solving the entries with gray-shaded squares: 17A, 20A, 32A, 42A and 54A. These yield a recipe of MILKSOP, COCOA BEACH, BUTTERFINGERS, SUGAR SNAP PEAS and VANILLA ICE.When mixed together, the terms in bold elicit a delicious confection that doubles as an interjection — OH, FUDGE!We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Justin Werfel makes his debut in the New York Times Crossword.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — If you tried your hand at solving Monday’s puzzle, constructed by Malaika Handa, digging into today’s grid might give you a feeling of wordplay déjà vu, in that yesterday’s theme also relied on various interpretations of a common idiom. But I can assure you that its creator, Justin Werfel, and Ms. Handa didn’t arrange for their grids to appear on consecutive days. As Christina Iverson, a puzzle editor for The New York Times, has explained in the Easy Mode newsletter — which I recommend to any beginners looking to improve their solving skills — eerie coincidences in the Times Crossword are just that: coincidences.Mr. Werfel’s debut crossword for The Times, however, is no matter of chance: It takes creativity, diligence and attention to detail for a constructor’s puzzle to make its way to publication, and I found this one to be a winning combination of all three. I look forward to seeing more from him in the future.Today’s ThemeWhat do a door-to-door salesman, a cathedral worker and an acclaimed experimental neurologist have in common?First, let’s identify the characters in question: Our salesman is WILLY LOMAN (16A), from a classic Arthur Miller play. QUASIMODO (35A) is the “Victor Hugo character who works at Notre Dame.” And IVAN PAVLOV (47A) was the Nobel Prize-winning scientist “who conditioned dogs to salivate.”Now, let’s consider the revealer, which asks for an expression that means “Sounds familiar” (57A). The answer is RINGS A BELL. And this is the “action associated with” the three men above: Loman rang doorbells, Quasimodo tolled the church bell and Pavlov used a bell to make dogs think it was dinnertime. Ding, ding, ding! We have our answer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Malaika Handa takes her turn.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesMONDAY PUZZLE — It is uncanny to realize, when admiring the range of her constructing skills, that Malaika Handa made her New York Times Crossword debut just over a year ago. After introducing herself with a rebus puzzle — which is a feat in itself — Ms. Handa brought us a Friday collaboration with Erik Agard, an early-week puzzle with a pithy theme and a beautiful themeless grid of her own.Since I joined The Times, I have learned that the effort to have a crossword published on every day of the week is known as “hitting for the cycle,” taken from the baseball expression. Whether or not that is Ms. Handa’s strategy here, I’m thrilled to see her flexing her talents at the top of the solving week.Today’s ThemePuzzle editors occasionally suggest the use of circled letters in a grid where the theme might otherwise be too subtle to notice. In this case, however, the circles were Ms. Handa’s original suggestion for her theme, the discovery of which may induce a groan.“Mischievous little devils” are IMPS (12A), which gives us I and M in one set of circles. The same letters appear in RIMS (22A), and again in IMAGE (43A). But here’s the secret: 16-, 29- and 47-Across are part of the theme, too. How? Because they reveal the way in which a certain expression for “Things could not be going better for me!” (64A) serves as a “hint to the placement of the circled letters.”What do SNAKE EYES (16A), a CLASS ROSTER (29A) and a CINNAMON BUN (47A) have in common? Each one is a different kind of ROLL. And the I’s and M’s sit on top of them. Yes, you’ve guessed it by now: The mystery phrase is I’M ON A ROLL.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More