Games

Lynn Lempel stares into the space between.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — To explain what makes Lynn Lempel’s crossword theme so clever, I’d like to take a brief detour from the crossword and talk about Spelling Bee; I hope you’ll forgive the digression. The Bee, for those unfamiliar, features a honeycomb grid with seven letters and challenges solvers to find the pangram, a word that uses every available letter in the grid.I can’t seem to solve compound pangrams. When faced with jumbled letters, my brain doesn’t want to conceive of two words as one. Airflow? Gumdrop? Windfall? All invisible to me. It’s only when someone else looks at the grid and identifies the term that I can see it plainly.In her puzzle, Ms. Lempel put words together so slyly that the theme acted on my brain in much the same way that those compound pangrams do. I couldn’t have conceived of what she was up to without the revealer, but now that I’ve figured it out I’m wondering how I didn’t see it.Today’s ThemeUnlike professional sports, crosswords have no built-in “Game break” (63A) — that is unless you happen to be solving Ms. Lempel’s latest puzzle, in which HALFTIME not only exists but also serves as “a hint to interpreting the first parts of 17-, 26-, 36-, and 52-Across.”The clue at 17-Across is “Parent dressed up at a pride parade, perhaps?” and the answer, at first, seems to be MAIN DRAG. But taking the first part of this answer and halving it turns it to MA IN DRAG. The “Choice between a haircut and manicure?” is not DOORNAILS, but DO OR NAILS. And so on. See what I meant about putting words together in sly ways?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

Trent H. Evans sends out a few letters.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesMONDAY PUZZLE — Most crosswords that appear in The New York Times are themed grids, with the exception of Fridays and Saturdays. These themes come in all shapes and sizes. They may make use of puns or anagrams — or, in the occasional devilish Thursday puzzle, require the solver to enter more than one letter per square. In each case, cracking the code is up to the solver.In today’s crossword, Trent H. Evans gives us the runaround, using a distinctive theme style. The pattern is subtle, and takes no great pains to identify. Sam Ezersky, a puzzle editor for The New York Times, described it as “simple, but also executed very elegantly.”The theme’s simplicity is, notably, what makes this a perfect Monday puzzle. Mr. Ezersky encouraged those who are anxious about crosswords, themed or otherwise, to give this one a shot: “This puzzle is just the sort of puzzle I want to point to future solvers and say, ‘See, you can do this!’”Today’s ThemeMr. Evans’s themed entries struck me as having a certain cinematic quality: They seemed to be zooming out with each passing row.We begin in a close-up, with 17A: “In Europe, it’s known as a ‘twin town.’” That’s a SISTER CITY. Our frame widens with the “Hotly contested area in a U.S. election” (29A), better known as a PURPLE STATE. “France, for the 2024 Olympics” (45A) takes us wider with HOST COUNTRY, and we end on an aerial view with “Extraterrestrial’s home, to us” (60A), an ALIEN WORLD. Credits 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

Daniel Grinberg adds a themeless grid to his portfolio of New York Times crosswords.Jump to: Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — “Beware the Ides of March,” a soothsayer warned Emperor Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play. Sure enough — spoiler alert — Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 B.C.Thankfully, there is nothing remotely like that at stake for us this Ides, but Daniel Grinberg’s crossword is still a Friday toughie for those who are not used to the less straightforward nature of late-week puzzles. So beware the Ides, but by all means have fun.Mr. Grinberg incorporated a basket weave of six grid spanners into his 15×15 design, making the solve a bit more challenging but a lot more fun for me. Look at all those great, long entries! The placement forms a kind of frame or skeleton of the grid. The fill is mostly lively, with a nice mix of high-value Scrabble letters, such as J, Z and X. Those letters do not appear frequently in English words, so they are fun to find in a puzzle.This is the kind of crossword that newer solvers may enjoy if they take their time. Fill in the gimmes, take a break and try again. Be patient and keep coming back to the grid. If you’re persistent, you may find Mr. Grinberg’s first themeless puzzle for The New York Times a fun and satisfying brain teaser.Tricky Clues17A. PHILLIS WHEATLEY, who was captured from Africa and enslaved, went on to become a poet who is considered the first American of African descent to publish a book. Her story is moving and fascinating.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

Jeffrey Martinovic wishes us all a happy holiday.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — I am not really an observer of occasions such as the one that Jeffrey Martinovic highlights in today’s puzzle, but, if you are, please celebrate responsibly. Run in circles, eat desserts that are not cake. By all means, have a fabulous time.Just don’t round up numbers that should not be rounded up. More about that fabulous story in the theme section of the column.Today’s Theme (and a Great Story About it)You probably guessed Jeffrey Martinovic’s theme right away when you noted the date and saw the black squares in the shape of the Greek letter pi (π), which represents the constant 3.14. The amount of theme material here is a bit light, but his grid is flanked by the mathematical giants STEPHEN HAWKING (3D), who died on PI DAY (33D) in 2018, and ALBERT EINSTEIN (11D), who was born on that day in 1879. In addition, Mr. Martinovic’s puzzle includes Leonhard EULER (29D), whose famous mathematical identity ︎includes pi.The value of pi has been known for almost 4,000 years, but the mathematical constant that is used to help calculate the area of a circle had what is thought to be its first celebration in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium. In 2009, the House of Representatives recognized March 14 as National Pi Day, and we’ve been eating fruit pie on this day ever since.Speaking of government recognition, this declaration was not the first time that pi had been the subject of discussion in the halls of civic discourse.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

Drew Schmenner proves that constructing puzzles is his forte.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — As my colleagues and I have oft repeated in this column, there are many ways to solve a crossword puzzle. You can go Across, then Down; or Down, then Across. You can fill in only the three-letter entries or zigzag around the grid until you’ve found all of your gimmes. You can use the revealer — the clue that cracks a puzzle’s theme — either to fill in missing pieces of the puzzle or to interpret the meaning of an already completed grid. It’s your game to play.To decipher Drew Schmenner’s crossword, I had to use my solving techniques like battering rams against challenging parts of the grid. I broke through eventually, but Mr. Schmenner’s original clue phrasing and deceptively simple theme put up a brilliant defense.Shall we storm the crossword castle together?Today’s ThemeI don’t watch much basketball, but I found the “March Madness component” at 61A — which served as our “phonetic hint to 18-, 23-, 38- and 50-Across” — easy enough to discern from the themed entries I’d already filled in.A “Flag-waver’s specialty” (18A) is SEMAPHORE. “When the going gets tough, the early bird gets the worm” (23A) is an example of a MIXED METAPHOR. Already, a phonetic pattern is emerging. These answers, coupled with the spanner CHIWETEL EJIOFOR, the “Best Actor nominee for ‘12 Years a Slave’” (38A), give us a solid sense of it: March Madness’s FINAL FOUR (61A) is playing on a sound common to the end of each of these answers.The last of Mr. Schmenner’s entries is a New York Times Crossword debut: If something took place “In an unprecedented manner” (50A), it happened AS NEVER BEFORE. I expect this was tricky for several solvers, since a more colloquial — and common — phrasing replaces “as” with “like.”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

Andrew Kingsley and Garrett Chalfin have a pitch-perfect puzzle for us.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — With the exception of professional musicians, it seems as if everyone I know has, at some point, quit a musical instrument. “Quit” doesn’t mean “failed at” of course — or that’s what I keep telling myself about my stints with the piano, the drums, the guitar and, briefly, the ukulele. Some have even said that quitting with intention can be a leap toward your goals. (My goal was to stop having to practice piano.)Today’s crossword, constructed by Andrew Kingsley and Garrett Chalfin, may unite quitters and hangers-on alike in the joys of musical wordplay. The constructors’ themed clues are musical notes — but they have to be interpreted differently in order to be solved.Let’s dig in once more, with feeling.Today’s ThemeJust four themed entries are in today’s grid, but each one is positively delightful once you understand the game. At 17-Across, the musical note “A♭?” is read “A flat.” What’s another word for flat? APARTMENT. And how about “B♭?” (38A), which would read more like “Be flat?” That action sounds a lot like LIE DOWN.These are witty ways to “Follow a composer’s notation” (33D), or READ MUSIC. We interpret the themed clues by reading them — presumably aloud, in our heads — and then solving them as regular crossword clues.To “B♯?” (63A) — as in “be sharp” — is to LOOK ALIVE. If you are “E♯?” (11D), you’re TECH-SAVVY. (Think of the “E-” as an all-purpose prefix, like how it behaves on “e-filing” taxes.)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

Jackson Matz makes his New York Times Crossword debut.Jump to: Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — It’s always fun to welcome a new crossword constructor into the club, but there’s a special pleasure for me when I discover that the puzzle maker is young. People are discovering the thrills of solving and the rewards of constructing at a much younger age now, and I think it’s wonderful that this hobby has become popular with new generations. It looks as if the crossword puzzle has shed its image of being Grandma’s pastime.I mean, what were you doing when you were a teenager? I wasn’t making crosswords for The New York Times, that’s for sure.Let’s welcome Jackson Matz, 16, who offers a puzzle packed with lively entries and fun clues.Tricky Clues15A. While I was solving Mr. Matz’s puzzle, I had filled in this entry using the crossings, without reading the clue. I remember thinking to myself, “Huh. I don’t know how he clued THREESOME, but it’s going to be interesting.” Imagine my surprise, and confusion, when I saw that the clue was “Jonas Brothers, e.g.,” the trio of related singers. I laughed, Mr. Matz. I laughed.16A. I love this clue. “Needle on a thread?” makes you think about sewing, but the question mark means that we can’t take the clue at face value. This thread is a series of comments, and someone who needles the original poster or anyone else in the thread is a TROLL.25A. A VAN is “A mover … but not a shaker, one hopes.”26A. “Practice squad: Abbr.” refers to those with a medical practice, or DRS.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 O’Neill makes a poetic debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — My favorite magazine cartoon is a drawing of a conductor dressed in tie and tails, standing at his podium and reading a version of the score that reduces his job to its most ridiculous: “Wave the stick until the music stops, then turn around and bow.”In fact, that cartoon was the first thing that came to mind after I solved Joe O’Neill’s debut New York Times Crossword. His theme translates a work of art into something with considerably less gravitas as well, turning the puzzle into a 15×15 square version of Shmoop, the humorously down-to-earth literary study guide.According to Mr. O’Neill’s constructor notes, this happened because he needed a way to make his theme fit the grid and enable him to fill the puzzle well. So he distilled a famous poem down to a very plain-spoken summary.The challenge lies in figuring out what that summary says because it’s written in Mr. O’Neill’s own words, which are not as predictable as the poem’s text. The crossings will be invaluable. While that may make things a bit tougher for some solvers, it’s a cute idea, especially if you are an unostentatious elocutionist like myself.Today’s ThemeRobert Frost (1874-1963) was an American poet whose work realistically depicted rural life. Mr. O’Neill’s theme summarizes Mr. Frost’s 1923 poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” in what is probably the most colloquial way I have ever seen. To see the entire summary, please click on the following links from top to bottom.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