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Wind your way through Adam Wagner’s puzzle.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — When does a crossword puzzle need a visual hint at the theme? We’ve seen circled squares, shaded squares, bolded lines and even black squares used as aids to help solvers organize their thoughts. These elements are usually added to the grids during the editing process.This devilishly clever puzzle from Adam Wagner includes shaded squares, and thank goodness they’re there. Not having some sort of visual element might have led to cross words (sorry).Adding a visual element is only one of many jobs of the puzzle editors.“We usually talk about visual elements like this during the meetings when we’re accepting the puzzle,” Christina Iverson, a puzzle editor, said. “In this case, we just thought the visual would be too hard to see without any shading, and if testers find something confusing, we’ll change the presentation,” she added.Joel Fagliano, the digital puzzle editor, agreed with Ms. Iverson and said that other ideas for clarifying the theme were discussed. But, he added: “Ultimately, we settled on what you see now. Even if it makes the puzzle a little easier for a Thursday, it seems worth it to make the theme clear to all solvers.”Today’s ThemeFirst, allow me to give kudos to Mr. Wagner for filling this grid. Making a puzzle where the true answers are basically hidden but what we write in the squares are unrelated words or phrases is next-level constructing as far as I’m concerned. You’ll see what I mean.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

Martin Schneider calls ’em like he sees ’em.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — It’s no secret that crossword puzzles are a good place to expand one’s base of trivial knowledge. Grids regularly feature defunct car makes, academic abbreviations and celebrity first names. While it can be frustrating to lose out on a few minutes of solving time just to guess at an entry I don’t know, I always find myself grateful for having learned it after the fact. Where else can one discover both the full name of the Rubik’s “Cube creator” (39A) and the identity of the “Brian who composed the original start-up sound for Windows 95” (41A) in a matter of minutes?Today’s crossword, constructed by Martin Schneider, scatters plenty of trivia tidbits among wordier entries. I learned, and I loved it. I hope his puzzle teaches you something new, too.Today’s ThemeAs a crossword columnist, I generally celebrate creative uses of the English language. But Mr. Schneider’s theme brought out my inner pedant, who makes an appearance when the occasion demands it.Today’s occasion is DOUBLE MISNOMERS (34A), as in items whose two-word names don’t describe what they actually are. “Carbonated fountain drinks” known as EGG CREAMS (18A), for instance, contain neither EGG nor CREAM. Some “Unusual meat courses” (23A) are called SWEETBREADS, even though they aren’t SWEET and there is no BREAD involved. And what’s the deal with airline food?Mr. Schneider’s list of DOUBLE MISNOMERS is impressive — contagious, even. Have you got any name-based bones to pick? I’m looking forward to seeing your contributions in the comments section.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

Zachary David Levy is really rocking it.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — Before today, I had already written about three of the six crossword puzzles that Zachary David Levy constructed for The New York Times. This being his seventh puzzle, I can now say that I’ve gotten to solve over half of them. But this was merely a fraction (yuk yuk) of the reason that I perked up at the sight of Mr. Levy’s byline. Having seen him rhyme and road-trip his way through previous grids, I knew I could expect a good deal of whimsy in today’s puzzle. And, despite muddling through a few surprisingly tough clues, I was not disappointed.So, what did you think? Did today’s solve make you feel especially young at heart?Today’s ThemeOf the four theme entries cited in the revealer clue, I found 52A’s “Counterpart to a landline” to be the easiest to solve (even if landlines may have fallen out of fashion) — MOBILE PHONE. After that came CRIB NOTES, at 17A. Because we know that the “starts” of themed entries are keys to Mr. Levy’s theme, we can focus on MOBILE and CRIB.To “Make safer, in a way” (63A) is to BABY-PROOF. Without a hyphen, this phrase becomes a clever description of “the starts of 17-, 27-, 38- and 52-Across”: a MOBILE and CRIB are both evidence of a newborn’s presence. Ditto the beginning of a “Fruit also known as calabash” (27A), called a BOTTLE GOURD, and a final first word you can reveal below.38A. “Outbuilding for many a historic home”CARRIAGE HOUSETricky Clues9A. “Lightens (up)” looks as if it’s already a full phrase, but this clue wants us to find a word that means “Lightens” when followed by the word “up.” The answer is EASES.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

Jack Scherban makes his New York Times debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesMONDAY PUZZLE — Familiarity breeds contempt, but in the case of language, it also breeds apathy. As a words’ usage shifts over centuries, its potency also fades. This means that we, usually with women and younger generations leading the charge, must redraw the boundaries of what’s considered extreme or taboo. (Wordplay’s own Deb Amlen published a brief history of insults last year, in case you’d like to revisit some barbs from biblical and medieval times).The fighting words that reveal the theme of today’s crossword — constructed by Jack Scherban in his New York Times debut — have been traced as far back as the 1930s. I don’t think I’ve ever used them. Instead, I avoid conflict altogether by deploying the most powerful defense mechanism of all: humor. Thankfully, Mr. Scherban has included a healthy dose of that stuff in his theme, too.Today’s ThemeA trace of snark runs through Mr. Scherban’s clues for his theme entries at 20-, 31- and 38-Across, as though to prime us to come up with an “Unfazed response to a threat” (49A) from the figures therein.The “Beatles album character who apparently is an infantry leader” — emphasis as clued — is SERGEANT PEPPER (20A). And a “Hotels.com mascot who must be a commanding officer” is CAPTAIN OBVIOUS (31A). We get a third military rank in COLONEL SANDERS (38A). And a witty response to a possible threat from any of these charactersmight be YOU AND WHAT ARMY (49A)?Of the words in italics in the clues, Christina Iverson, a puzzle editor for The Times, said they were “a fun way to emphasize the goofiness of the theme.” Goofy, perhaps — but clever, too.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

There’s more than one way to solve Hemant Mehta’s Friday puzzle. If at first you don’t succeed with a crossword, develop a good 21-Down.Jump to: Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — Where did you begin solving a crossword like Hemant Mehta’s? Did you just dive in anywhere, or did you start at 1A and proceed in clue order? Perhaps you scan the clue list first and fill in the answers you are confident that you know. Maybe your method changes depending on the puzzle in front of you.There is no right or wrong way to solve a crossword, in my opinion. That includes looking up things that elude you, although I know that not everyone agrees. The goal is to have fun and challenge yourself, but if the endeavor becomes an unpleasant struggle, why suffer?Use every tool at your disposal. If one method doesn’t work, be flexible and change things up. Be gentle with yourself, as my colleague Sam Corbin suggested on Wednesday. When you solve a puzzle with as much lively fill and clever cluing as Mr. Mehta’s, it will be worth it.And don’t forget to pat yourself on the back. Maybe you don’t know the name of the third guard from the left in the final scene of “Hamlet” — that’s OK, no one does — but you sure are resourceful. That’s a gift in itself.Tricky Clues14A. The “Place for student mixers?” is not a school gym where a party is being held. It’s a SCIENCE LAB, where the students are actually mixing solutions.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

Sarah Muchnick makes her New York Times Crossword debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — It’s not uncommon for beginners to miss or be confused by the theme in a crossword. They may even solve the entire grid without using the theme as a solving tool or without looking back to appreciate that the theme even exists. My heart always goes out to these people, because I think that deciphering the theme is a bonus, an extra bit of fun while you’re untangling the clues.Well, today it was my turn to be flummoxed. This doesn’t happen often, but I finished Sarah Muchnick’s clever puzzle and couldn’t figure out the theme. There was a revealer, and I technically understood what needed to be done, but it turns out that I was trying to do it in the wrong place. After a push in the right direction by Christina Iverson, a puzzle editor, the proverbial lightbulb went on, and I was able to get closure.Maybe you missed the theme, too, and you’re frustrated. No need to worry — I will spill the beans on this terrific New York Times debut in the theme section of this column.Today’s ThemeYes, I know. The theme entries and their clues seemingly have nothing to do with one another. As always, there’s a reason for that.Whenever a revealer has the format “___ for ___,” solvers usually need to swap one letter or word for another. The revealer clue at 63A reads “When read forward and then backward, motto that suggests how to interpret this puzzle’s starred clues,” and the answer is ONE FOR ALL (and ALL FOR ONE, when read backward). That means you are going to swap the word ONE where you see the word ALL, and vice versa.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

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