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Parker Higgins needs our help making good matches.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — Parker Higgins, the constructor of today’s puzzle, made his New York Times Crossword debut in 2022 with one of my favorite puzzles of that year. I remember thinking that Mr. Higgins had a flair for developing brain-twisting themes, and today’s crossword left me feeling no different.The only thing solvers will need to understand Mr. Higgins’s puzzle is familiarity with a certain type of clue. I’m not saying that this kind of clue is actually in the grid, but it will definitely help to know about it.If you’re not sure what kind of clue I’m referring to, here’s a hint: It’s in the “More Types of Crossword Clues” section of our guide, “How to Solve the New York Times Crossword.”Today’s ThemeMr. Higgins has taken a fairly common cluing device and turned it on its head. We typically see partner clues, not partner answers.A partner clue wants you to come up with a word that is typically paired with a word in the clue, separated by “and.” An example would be the clue [Partner of live], with the answer being LEARN, as in “live and learn.” The trick to solving partner clues is to run through all the idioms you know that contain the clue word, add the word “and,” and then figure out which idiom fits.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

Barbara Lin reflects on common sayings.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Over the last few years, I’ve noticed the emergence of a strange tic in my speech: I swap the opening syllables of words. These swaps are called spoonerisms — and boy, do I spoonerize. I might think, for instance, about how much I enjoy solving crosswords, but then say aloud that I enjoy “crolving saucewords.” Ah yes, the saucewords! My favorite is “marinara.”I normally find these lapses in communication to be embarrassing, if not a worrisome portent of cognitive decline. But it’s likely that this tendency helped me to identify the theme of today’s crossword, which was constructed by Barbara Lin.Today’s ThemeTo allow a slang phrase or longer expression as a crossword entry, The New York Times’s puzzle editors have to deem it idiomatic enough to resonate with most solvers.Ms. Lin’s expressions are rather obscure in their forms as written; it’s only when you flip them that you discover something familiar. At 17A, for instance, to [Swim around, scare some people, ram a boat …?] solves to LIFE OF JAWS. That solution is true enough to the clue, but the more recognizable expression is its reverse: “Jaws of Life.” At 22A, a [Good quality for a midwife?] is a LOVE OF LABORS, but swap the nouns and you have the common expression “labors of love.”59A was my favorite of these reversals: [Jacket sleeves?] are ARMS OF COAT. Why yes, I thought, they certainly are.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 Bodily shows himself to be a man of letters.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow. Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. These sentences, besides describing the kinds of images I hallucinate after taking Benadryl, achieve something delightful: They use every letter in the English alphabet.Daniel Bodily accomplishes a similar feat in today’s crossword, which is his 10th for The New York Times. If any of you are inspired to come up with other phrases that feature the clue for 51A, a [Group whose members are represented completely (with no repeats)], I’d love to see them in the comments. Have at it — just don’t forget to pack my liquor jugs.Today’s ThemeCONSONANTS, the entry for 51A, abound in this grid; there’s nothing remarkable about that. But in the clues at 21-, 26- and 43-Across, we get all of the CONSONANTS in the English alphabet, each appearing exactly once. They appear inside the circled squares (in bold here): HEMINGWAYESQUE (21A), EXECUTIVE BOARD (26A) and J.F.K. PLAZA (43A).I suppose it wouldn’t be as impressive to pull the same thing off with vowels, since there are comparatively few. Still, I offer the following options free of charge to any enterprising constructors:“Audio, yes?”“Oily sauce.”“Ugly asteroid!”Tricky Clues1A. The lesson of this entry is that not every adjective needs a corresponding noun. The [Cause of a Richter scale blip] is a SEISM, as in the noun form of seismic. I will be the first to say that this sounds terrible.24A. On a computer, you can [Close the tab] with a simple click. But to do so at a bar, you have to PAY.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

Tim D’Alfonso makes his New York Times debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesMONDAY PUZZLE — Last week was the beginning of the academic year for many. The months of learning ahead are neatly planned out. But where does that leave those us of who don’t go to school? What lessons can we expect to learn, aside from how to cope with fewer hours of daylight (a Himalayan salt lamp, I’ve heard)?My suggestion is to bring a bit of scholarly rigor to your daily Crossword habit. If you haven’t made it past the Wednesday puzzles yet, push yourself to try the Thursday and Friday ones through the end of 2024. If you have Monday solving down pat, test your personal best with time limits or speed runs. And if you’re just starting the New York Times Crossword, welcome! Monday puzzles are the place to begin, and today’s grid, by Tim D’Alfonso, can be a lovely introduction.Remember that these courses of action are neither graded nor pop-quizzed by anyone but you. Our columnists and puzzle editors hold de facto office hours in Wordplay and in the Easy Mode newsletter in case you have questions — and you can always ask your fellow classmates in the comments section for help.Today’s ThemeGray is the default color choice for highlighting specific themed squares in our crosswords, since it’s friendly to black-and-white print. Today, that choice happens to be essential to the theme: To [Make a subtle insult] (63A) is to THROW SHADE. If you look at the shaded areas in Mr. D’Alfonso’s grid, you’ll see that they contain synonyms for THROW.A [Beach project that rarely survives high tide] (18A) is a SANDCASTLE, the [Sandwich specialty of Maine] (56A) is a LOBSTER ROLL and so on. If the idiom for a [State of total happiness] (39A) is HOG HEAVEN, though, why aren’t we saying “All hogs go to heaven”? And while I accept that a [Numbskull] (23A) is a CHUCKLEHEAD, what’s the difference between that and a knucklehead? I welcome your insights, theories and observations on these matters.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

Adrian Johnson opens our solving weekend.Jump to: Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — Let’s talk about stacks. But not just any stack; I want to talk about crossword stacks.Crossword stacks occur when constructors deftly pile entries on top of one another. There’s nothing unusual about that on the surface — the whole point of an American-style crossword is that the entries touch one another — but stacks are different. The entries are mostly the same length. Stacks should contain entries that are lively, and crossing answers should, at the very least, avoid junky fill or crosswordese.That’s not as easy as it looks. If you’ve ever tried to solve a crossword puzzle, you’ve no doubt run into an unfillable spot, or at least a spot where you try to rationalize to yourself that of course there is something called a qvorsk. Everyone knows that word, right?Adrian Johnson, who constructed today’s crossword, built a triple stack in the center of his grid, and not only does it work well, but it stretches across the entire puzzle. Let’s see if his stack fits our standard without spoiling any of the entries. Remember that this is all subjective, but the following is my opinion.Are all three entries lively? Yes, they are. 39A and 40A may sparkle a bit more than 32A, but then again I’ve always been a sucker for verbalizations.Does the stack contain any junk or crosswordese? Not to me. All of the crossing entries are pretty interesting, and there are no obscure words, abbreviations or acronyms. The answer at 37D is about as close to junk as these Down answers get, but I don’t think it crosses the line into crosswordese.There was a mercifully brief period in the early 2010s when a group of constructors decided to compete informally to see whose stacks were the largest. The winner was Joe Krozel, who holds the New York Times record with a quintuple stack that left all those puny quadruples in the dust. Of course, stacks can run Down as well as Across, and there were 13 quadruple-doubles, where each grid contained four sets of stacked 15-letter entries (two Across and two Down), but that’s really getting into the weeds.These days, stacks have assumed what I consider their appropriate place in puzzle making: They are nice if they are well executed, but I don’t necessarily go looking for them. I did appreciate Mr. Johnson’s stack, though.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

Are you feeling dizzy after solving Joe Deeney’s puzzle?Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — Well, hello there. I’ve been waiting for you. You are probably here because Joe Deeney’s very clever puzzle left you feeling confused and possibly a bit dizzy.I say dizzy because the grid lines in some parts of his crossword are not the typical straight ones. I mean, just look at this:The New York TimesI don’t think I had ever seen anything like this, at least not in the New York Times Crossword.If you were confused, all will be revealed in the theme section of this column. I will also be handing out Dramamine tablets should you need one.Today’s ThemeThe nice thing about crosswords is that the theme ideas tend to reveal themselves in plain sight. You just need to know how to look.Note that I didn’t say where to look. The how is much more important.In this puzzle, each theme entry is enclosed in grid lines that take the shape of the first word of its phrase, which is missing. For example, 16A’s [Tried getting on a Jumbotron, say] is enclosed in wavy lines, and when you’ve solved enough of the crossing entries, the answer as written is TO THE CAMERA. When the grid line shape is added to the rest of the phrase, the answer becomes WAVED TO THE CAMERA. That is indeed a good way to get on the Jumbotron, or you could be like George Costanza from “Seinfeld” and publicly and thoroughly enjoy an ice cream sundae at the U.S. Open.

Geoge Costanza Eating GIFfrom Geoge Costanza GIFs Tenor.comWe 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

Kareem Ayas waxes poetic.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — The rebus is the uninvited dinner guest of the New York Times Crossword: You never expect it to show up, and when it does, you have no choice but to accommodate it. I can tell you that everyone’s going to have to squeeze in for today’s puzzle, constructed by Kareem Ayas, because he has brought us a rebus — on a Wednesday, no less. The gall!As the host of this column, I insist that you not let this surprise spoil your appetite. Even the most timid early-week solvers are capable of tackling Mr. Ayas’s theme; we’ll just take it one course at a time.Today’s ThemeBefore we continue, let’s review what the heck I’m talking about. A rebus, in the parlance of the Times Crossword, is a visual trick within the puzzle that often requires the solver to enter more than one letter in a single square. (We go over the ways to do that in our rebus tipsheet.) The trick is revealed, usually through some kind of wordplay, in one of the grid’s entries. You’ll see what I mean as we go over Mr. Ayas’s theme.Today, we get a nice hint: The circled squares look to be our focal points for the rebus. 17-Across, for instance, can’t be solved without some kind of adjustment to its entry for [It will change the way you see yourself]. I wanted the entry to be “fun house mirror,” but crossings gave me only FUNHOU_RROR. And isn’t that [Red-haired toon who is always seeing red] at 39-Down supposed to be Yosemite Sam, instead of YO_TESAM?In a rebus puzzle, the revealer tends to hint at how to interpret its words in order to fill in any missing letters. All we get at 63-Across is that [First- and third-quarter moons] are examples of something that “hint to the puzzle’s theme.” At the first quarter and third quarter of its cycle, the moon looks like a half-circle. Oh, hang on — they’re SEMICIRCLES.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 crosses the floor.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — Of the many desks that make up The New York Times, Games is one of the few that doesn’t cover politics in any form or fashion. In the ocean of political discourse, we aim to be an atoll of apoliticsm. A flotilla of frivolity. A lighthouse of levity. What was my point again?Ah, yes: Today’s crossword, constructed by Alex Eaton-Salners, represents a minor deviation from our usual escapism. Its theme hinges on [Political configurations] with present-day relevance, and I recognize that it may inspire conversation on the subject. I must ask, however, that you please keep any discussions in the comments to thoughts on the crossword puzzle — for congeniality’s sake, but also because our EMUs (electronic moderation units) tend to gobble up anything that veers off course.Today’s ThemeThe [Political configurations suggested by the answers (and their circled letters) at 17-, 24-, 50- and 61-Across] are TWO-PARTY SYSTEMS. This phrase refers to each of the cited entries, in which two kinds of parties are represented — one is in circled letters, and the other is the entry in full.For example, a [Brand of kitchen storage containers] is TUPPERWARE (17A), which made up the centerpiece of many a midcentury social affair. The circled letters in this entry spell TEA — another kind of party, political or otherwise. Farther down, the HALLOWEEN party at 50A is [When the skeletons in one’s closet might be brought out]. Circled letters give us the HEN party, another name for a bachelorette celebration that’s used primarily in the United Kingdom (I knew this only thanks to a recent marathon of a U.K.-based installment of “Love is Blind,” which I didn’t not spend several days watching last week.)Other entries name political parties outright, like SOCIALIST (24A) and FEDERALIST (61A). These feel less inspired to me than the parties I mentioned above, but with the colorful inclusion of CAST parties and FRAT parties, Mr. Eaton-Salners still has my vote.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