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Kiran Pandey runs a tight ship.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesMONDAY PUZZLE — Can you remember the first time you answered a riddle? I have a memory from summer camp. A counselor asked the group, “What’s brown and sticky?” — and I answered, “a tree.” An early adopter of wordplay among my age group (who needs popularity when you have puns, right?), I had heard “stick-y” and come up with the right answer.Riddles don’t tend to thrill adults the way they do children, but a cleverly crafted crossword theme comes close to capturing that feeling. The theme of today’s puzzle, by Kiran Pandey, offers such a sensation. If you haven’t already solved it yourself, read on for an explanation. There’s more to it than meets the, ahem, eyes.Today’s ThemeThanks to the use of circled letters, a pattern quickly emerges among the themed entries at 20-, 31- and 41-Across. THIS IS AMERICA is the “2018 Childish Gambino hit that won the Grammy for Song of the Year” (20A); the “Pixar film that takes place mostly underwater” (31A) is FINDING NEMO; and a certain “Holder of bait” (41A) is a FISHING HOOK. These entries feature two circled I’s — and, thus, are a partial phonetic rendering of an “Affirmative at sea”: AYE-AYE, CAPTAIN (55A).This seemed like a decent enough reveal, albeit a simple one. But on a second pass I noticed the qualifier in the revealer clue — “sequentially” — and realized that I’d appreciated only half of Mr. Pandey’s theme set.THIS IS AMERICA contains an AYE and an AYE, and then a CAPTAIN; in this case, AMERICA. The same pattern applies to reveal 31A’s captain, NEMO, and at 41A, with HOOK. To (nearly) quote Walt Whitman: “O Captains! My Captains!”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

Robyn Weintraub opens our solving weekend.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — What Friday and Saturday puzzles lack in theme, they more than make up for in clues and entries worthy of oohs and aahs. In fact, I’d describe today’s crossword, constructed by Robyn Weintraub, as an utter feast of wordplay.Who can resist the joyful alliteration of clues such as “Prestigious prizes” (5D) and “Paperless pups” (11D)? Or what about the irreverent use of long clues that solve to short entries — “Queen Suthida Bajrasudhabimalalakshana, e.g.” (14A) to THAI, or “Diethyltoluamide, more familiarly” (7D) to DEET?Every zig and zag of this solve was delightful, especially impressive considering that Ms. Weintraub is nearing her 50th crossword for The New York Times. One might expect a constructor to lose some enthusiasm over time. But Ms. Weintraub constructs as though she’s just hitting her stride.Tricky Clues24A. On its own, “Off” seems as though it might solve to a verb (meaning to kill) or an adjective (meaning askew or rotten). But it can also mean LESS when used in a sale price — 10 percent “off,” say.36A. Anyone else get stuck on imagining “Paper for an animator” to be some kind of cellulose sheet or storyboard canvas? After missing the subtle wink in this clue, I hardly deserve my own ART DEGREE.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

Kevin Curry offers a different read on things.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — I’ve developed a Pavlovian association with Thursday crosswords such that, if I so much as glance at the empty puzzle, my hackles go up. I solve as though I were a detective in the parlor scene of a murder mystery — there’s a dastardly theme in here somewhere, and every clue is a suspect.Kevin Curry was kind enough to relieve us of such sleuthing by making it clear where his themed clues lay in today’s crossword (they’re in all caps). It’s still a Thursday challenge, to be sure, but I believe we can solve it together.Today’s ThemeMr. Curry has concealed a series of idioms in this grid, representing them using capitalized clues and parentheses around certain letters. The trick is to read the letters phonetically and then note their locations in the words. 15-Across, for instance, reads “EM(B)RACE.” This solves to B IN TOUCH — because it’s the letter B inside a word that means “touch.” 23-Across reads “ALMIGHT(Y),” which solves to Y IN GOD’S NAME.Other themed phrases use the word OF instead of IN to indicate the parenthesized letter’s placement: “TROP(I)CAL STORM” (39A) solves to I OF THE HURRICANE.Can’t place the remaining phrases? You can click to reveal them below.53A. “(C)OMPASSION”C OF HUMANITY 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

Simeon Seigel stoops to conquer.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — On Wednesdays, many of us crest the hill of the five-day workweek and begin a soothing downward slope toward the weekend. Simeon Seigel’s crossword happens to be the perfect prelude to this particular weekend, on account of a certain holiday many of us will celebrate this Sunday.We tend to associate the central figure of both this occasion and Mr. Seigel’s puzzle with “the lowest form of humor.” (You’ll see what I mean at 1A.) So either this grid has done a bang-up job of elevating that kind of humor, or I’ve lowered my standards to laugh right alongside it.Today’s ThemeMr. Seigel’s crossword is brought to you by the word “Pop.” The term can mean “popular,” but today it means “father.” (Do you refer to your father as Pop? Funny — in the northeastern U.S., we call him soda.)Each of the italicized themed clues uses “Pop” to make a DAD JOKE, or a “Pop corn?” (1A). Some such jokes rely on the setup for a groan-inducing punchline — 23A, for instance, reads: “Yesterday I ATE a clock. It was very time-consuming!” Others, though, can look more like today’s themed clues and entries. “Pop quizzes?” (21A) are PATERNITY TESTS, and a “Pop song?” (39A) is the childhood rhyme, THIS OLD MAN. I found “Pop art?” (73A) to be especially brilliant: DADAISM.If you’re stuck on the remaining entry at 60A, you can reveal it below.60A. “Pop wisdom?”FATHERLY ADVICEWe 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

Chloe Revery never misses.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — Chloe Revery made her New York Times debut in 2022 with a crossword about cross words, which has a coveted simplicity to it — kind of like the puzzle equivalent of being the first to use your name as an email address. Today, Ms. Revery is back with another distinctive theme. It’s not as “Hopping mad” as her last solo grid, but I predict it’ll have, ahem, broad appeal.Today’s ThemeA couple of our themed entries are gimmes: To “Get seriously fortunate” (36A) is to LUCK OUT. And even a casual Beatles fan is likely to recognize the “Meteorological description” (48A) of MARMALADE SKIES, from “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”Our revealer, at 58-Across, is less intuitive. The “Title for Jackie or Jill” seems, on first read, to be drawn from a popular childhood nursery rhyme. But the theory doesn’t hold (a pail of) water once we fill in a few crossings: The names refer to Jackie Kennedy and Jill Biden, each a FIRST LADY. (They may run things up “the Hill” too, on occasion.)FIRST LADY is “a hint to the answers to the starred clues” in two ways. Each LADY appears at the top (i.e. FIRST) in her themed entry, but LADY also comes FIRST in the names of these famous figures — whether human, mineral or metaphorical: LADY GAGA, LADY LIBERTY, LADY LUCK and LADY MARMALADE. If the names were the other way around, I might suggest “Marmalady” as a more efficient portmanteau for the last one.Ms. Revery’s theme recalls a crossword from August 2023 by Malaika Handa, which featured “Female leads”: words commonly used to describe women, placed at the top of each themed entry. It’s wonderful to see where different constructors’ minds intersect — and how creatively they diverge.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

You’ll have to use all of your senses to solve Kareem Ayas’s crossword.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesMONDAY PUZZLE — Today’s puzzle is for those who believe that rules were made to be broken. If that’s you, read on — and if it isn’t, welcome to the party.Since they serve as ideal entry points for newer solvers, and format changes might intimidate those just learning the ropes, Monday crosswords rarely break with tradition. But an unusual grid isn’t necessarily an impenetrable one, and this puzzle, constructed by Kareem Ayas, bends the rules in a way that solvers of any level will enjoy.Christina Iverson, a puzzle editor for The New York Times, emphasized the accessibility of Mr. Ayas’s crossword. “The trick would be too easy for any other day,” Ms. Iverson said, adding that solvers will be further aided by explanatory clues and a theme that, once revealed, has a domino effect. “Once you get it, you can write in all the three-letter words.”Today’s ThemeThe reason all the three-letter words can be identified so quickly is that they’re all the same word. That word is the “Guinness world-record holder for ‘English word with the most meanings’” (71A): SET.SET has 430 senses recorded in the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, according to the Guinness entry, so the “Complete collection” (62D) of meanings (that is to say, the SET) could not be featured in today’s puzzle.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

Alice Liang and Christina Iverson open our solving weekend.Jump to: Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — Alice Liang made her New York Times Crossword debut almost a year ago as part of the 2023 class of the Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship. Each of the fellows is mentored by a puzzle editor in order to learn how to construct crosswords, and Ms. Liang worked with Christina Iverson.This puzzle is Ms. Liang’s second in The Times and is likely to be a hit with solvers who feel that the Friday puzzles have not been as difficult as they used to be. I wrestled mightily with this one and had a good time doing it. I also learned a few things along the way. Any mistakes were of my own making. For example, a crossing that I originally thought was unfair turned out to be perfectly cromulent after I went back to reread the clues.I encourage those who are just starting to solve the late-week, tougher puzzles to hang in there, because there is a lot to see in this grid. Today’s crossword may give you a run for your money, but you can solve it. The usual methods apply here:Fill in the entries you definitely know first. You can always branch out from there.Take breaks when you feel stuck. Your brain continues to work on the clues in the background, while you are doing something else, and you will probably be able to fill in more answers when you return to the puzzle.Work those crossings. If you don’t know an Across answer, try the crossing Down entries. Your brain loves filling in missing information, and you may be able to take an educated guess at the Across entry once you have a few letters filled in.Look things up if you don’t know them. I know. Some people feel that’s cheating. But trust me: You will become a better solver for it, because you will probably see that clue again.The one thing I hope you don’t do is get so frustrated that you stop solving the puzzle. There’s no rule that says you have to finish, but you will feel so satisfied and pleased with yourself if you do. And hopefully, you will have learned something from the puzzle, as I did.I’m rooting for you. Go get this one.Tricky Clues5A. It’s easy to assume that “Doing long-distance, say” is about running, but this clue refers to a long-distance relationship, and the answer is APART.10A. A bird “Flaps” its wings, and you can have a flap on a bag or pocket, but in this puzzle, “Flaps” is a synonym for states of excitement. The answer, in the corresponding plural, is ADOS.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 Lieberman is not the person he used to be.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — Despite what the headline and the photo may seem to imply, Michael Lieberman has not become an emu, at least as far as I know. When I said that he was not the person he used to be, it was a roundabout way of hinting at his theme. And the chance to put an emu at the top of this column was just too much to resist.So the message may be a bit confusing, but the point (to the extent that I have one) holds: Some things are just inevitable. Let’s find out what they might be.Today’s ThemeMr. Lieberman’s theme is relatively gentle for a Thursday. No need to metaphorically swing from the chandeliers in order to solve this one. It’s a simple letter-change theme, which some readers may say is too easy for this late in the solving week. But I think the revealer at 53A was funny enough to make the trade-off worthwhile.The revealer, I’VE CHANGED, is the answer to the clue “‘The old me is gone’ … or what happened between the first and second parts of 19-, 28-, 37- and 48-Across?”The four theme entries are two-word phrases where both words are virtually the same, except that the first word ends in IVE, and the second in ES.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