Crossword Puzzles

Daniel Bodily’s puzzle will have you looking in all directions.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — This is Daniel Bodily’s 12th crossword in The New York Times and, in my opinion, his puzzles just keep getting better. I really enjoyed this one, not because it was difficult, but because I had so much fun solving it and discovering the theme.I predict that some commenters will say that the puzzle was too easy for a Thursday. While the clues are fairly gentle for a Thursday grid, remember that other parts of a crossword may be tough for some. Not everyone sees things or processes information in the same way. Some may have been stuck on the theme, for example, while others may have needed time to figure out the visual elements that were included.Let’s be gentle with each other and enjoy this clever puzzle together.Today’s ThemeI will admit that I originally thought this was a football-themed puzzle and that the highlighted numbers were plays being called (“16! 22! 51! Hike!”). Feel free to chortle in amusement, because everything I know about football I learned from cartoons.Then I solved my first theme answer at 19A by using the crossings and said, “Huh. The [Part of a bat that produces the best contact] is certainly not SWEET SIXTEEN!” I was pretty sure the answer was really SWEET SPOT. It was at that moment that my eyes spotted the first highlight at 16A and lo, the entry was SPOT. The number that is spelled out in the theme answer refers to the highlighted circle.Another example is 36A’s [Get serious hang time, as a skateboarder], which, when solved, is CATCH TWENTY-TWO. Now look at 22A, another highlighted number: The answer is AIR, and CATCH AIR is another phrase for soaring through the air while skateboarding.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

Kathy Bloomer and Jeff Chen have their first Times collaboration.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — My first instinct as I wrote my introduction to today’s crossword, brought to us by Kathy Bloomer and Jeff Chen, was to use the phrase “mixed feelings” as a witty play on the puzzle’s theme. But to use that expression risked muddling my true impressions of the puzzle, which were hardly halfhearted. My solving experience was unequivocally delightful.If you have any other witty summaries to offer for Ms. Bloomer and Mr. Chen’s theme, I hope you’ll share them in the comments section, also known as a place where we mix feelings.Today’s ThemeAt 28-Down, we get a [Description of this puzzle’s circled letters, and a clue to what they spell]: IN ONE SENSE.Now, follow along carefully. Each circled letter in this puzzle appears IN ONE SENSE of the bodily kind. The entry at 5-Down, REHEARSING, places its circled S within a gray-shaded HEARING. At 23-Down, the [Appliance with a door and a crumb tray] is a TOASTER OVEN, and its circled O appears inside the word TASTE. A similar pattern places the first R of FREELOADERS (24D) inside FEEL, the first T of HANGS TIGHT (10D) in SIGHT and the A of SAM ELLIOTT (30D) in SMELL.Not only do the circled letters appear within human senses, but together they spell the word SORTA — an expression that can be used in lieu of IN ONE SENSE. (Now, see what I meant about “mixed feelings”?)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

Brian Callahan and Geoffrey Schorkopf have their first Times collaboration.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — If your goal is to get better at solving crosswords, you might want to start by practicing a form of exercise named at 33D of today’s grid: HATHA YOGA. It’ll help you keep calm when you first open a Thursday or Sunday grid.On a more sincere note, though, I make the suggestion because hatha and other forms of yoga tend to involve inversions like shoulder stands, headstands and handstands. The benefits of these poses are manifold: Inversions can not only regulate mood and heart rate, but also give one a fresh vantage from which to see the world. What things look like upside down can be drastically different from how they appear right-side up.Today’s crossword, constructed by Brian Callahan and Geoffrey Schorkopf, is a perfect occasion for a few yogic inversions. Practicing one while solving may even help you spot the puzzle’s theme. Let’s flip the page together, shall we?Today’s ThemeWhen themed answers are nested inside other entries, constructors will often shade or circle the relevant squares. Here, a title for [Some movie set workers] (14D) doubles as a way to describe what we do by filling in the shaded squares. After solving the clues in which the squares appear, we have, from left to right: AYOG, TMILK, ORIM and EELK. Perfectly (in)coherent.The movie-set workers are MAKEUP ARTISTS — and if we read this title as three separate words, we get MAKE UP ARTISTS. At first, I thought this meant that we were inventing (i.e. making up) names for artists — doesn’t T Milk sound like a rap sibling of T-Pain? — but I doubted that this passed muster for a puzzle theme. Then I saw what was actually going on.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

Elliot Caroll makes her New York Times Crossword debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesMONDAY PUZZLE — The cardinal advice we give to those who have never solved the New York Times Crossword before is to start with Mondays. Puzzles get harder as the week goes on; sticking to Mondays for a while is a wonderful way to build your confidence. It will also, most likely, make you realize that you’re actually pretty good at this whole crossword thing.Elliot Caroll’s puzzle almost makes me jealous of newer solvers, because it’s the kind I wish I’d started with: simple, clever and clean. Shall we go through it together?Today’s ThemeIf you’ve ever wanted to take up the invitation of the [1986 hit song for Paul Simon] YOU CAN CALL ME AL (55A), then do I have the crossword for you. The beginnings of the entries at 20-, 34- and 41-Across suggest that you “CALL ME AL,” because each of them begins with the letters A-L.A [Cocktail made with Southern Comfort, sloe gin, amaretto and orange juice] is an ALABAMA SLAMMER (20A). Certain [Crinkly kitchen wrap] is ALUMINUM FOIL (34A). And the [Writer, director and co-star of “Defending Your Life,” 1991] is ALBERT BROOKS (41A).Tricky Clues29A. Entries must match their clues’ parts of speech — a noun clue solves to a noun entry, and so on — but on occasion you’ll be presented with multiple options. [Relax, or a place to relax] refers to the noun and verb forms of LOUNGE.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