Try Again on the New Lawn Crossword
wordplay, the crossword column
Make it With Good Spirits
Michael Lieberman'southward puzzle is a peach.
TUESDAY PUZZLE — Today's constructor, Michael Lieberman, made his New York Times Crossword debut just over a year ago, and in that fourth dimension he has already published half dozen crossword puzzles and four variety puzzles. That'south a pretty impressive tape!
And if yous don't traditionally solve the diverseness puzzles, y'all may want to give one of Mr. Lieberman'south a shot — he links to a recent one in his constructor notes below. I like diverseness puzzles because I can go into one with absolutely no expectation that I'll be able to finish information technology. It's kind of liberating! I honey wrestling with a variety puzzle to endeavour to figure out its tricks, but if I don't succeed, I can get out in the same skillful spirits in which I arrived; my ego is never bruised by defeat at the hands of a variety puzzle.
And so if you've been considering branching out into The Times'due south noncrossword offerings, maybe today is the solar day you try your hand at a Diagramless; a Puns & Anagrams; or a Split Decisions. Allow us know how it goes in the comments!
Tricky Clues
1A. You know the answer to the clue "xc° from norte" is going to exist in Spanish because the inkling includes a Castilian word. "Norte" means north, and so xc degrees from norte will either exist the Spanish word for east or west, and only one of them fits (ESTE).
5A. The inkling "Bit in Bartlett's" refers to the reference text "Bartlett'due south Familiar Quotations," so a bit in Bartlett's is a QUOTE.
10A. "Dogs' 'dogs'" roughly translates to "dogs' feet" (because sometimes feet are jokingly called dogs, as in the expression "my dogs are actually barking!" meaning "my anxiety hurt!"). Therefore, "Dogs' 'dogs'" are PAWS.
28A. Clues in quotation marks that are conversational expressions require entries that are also conversational or vernacular and mean approximately the aforementioned affair. In this case, "Gimme a pause!" is the inkling for "YEESH!" because they might both be said in exasperation.
54A. A question mark signals wordplay, so you'll need to look for a word in the clue that can have multiple meanings. "Reminder to arrive with good spirits?" isn't about reminding your guests to come in a good mood, but rather reminding them to come with their own potent potables — B.Y.O.B. ("bring your own canteen").
6D. As with 28A, the quotation marks signal that we're looking for a conversational equivalent of the inkling "Expect, what if …", which in this case is "UNLESS …!" (The ellipses and, in my opinion, the exclamation betoken, are implied.)
21D. When a clue contains an abbreviation, that'due south commonly a good indication that the entry will besides be an abridgement. D.D.E. are the initials of President Dwight David Eisenhower, so "D.D.E. follower" is his successor, J.F.Thou., or President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
57D. A "Source of unwanted feedback?" isn't a back-seat driver or a harsh critic, merely rather a source of audio feedback — a MIC.
60D. The "Lender to a mom-and-popular store: Abbr." is the Small Business Administration, abbreviated S.B.A.
Today'southward Theme
There'south only one thing to say about this puzzle: Information technology'S THE PITS! Just kidding, of class — this puzzle is far from THE PITS, but it does feature the revealer It'Due south THE PITS ("'Awful!' … or a hint to the common element of 17-, 23-, 36- and l-Across"), also as four theme entries that have pits.
The get-go of these is GREEN OLIVE ("Classic martini garnish"), which has a pit if it hasn't been removed and replaced by pimento or some bluish cheese, which is how I personally prefer my GREEN OLIVEs. Impressively, GREEN OLIVE is the simply food item of the bunch — I would accept expected to run into a "peach" or a "cherry" in there somewhere, but Mr. Lieberman deftly avoided repeating this type of pit, which I very much capeesh.
The second theme entry is CASINO Floor, a "Locale for baccarat or roulette." I was vaguely enlightened that casinos accept pits, mostly because I know that casinos have "pit bosses," merely I'm not certain I would have been able to come up with this theme entry on my ain if I were asked to proper name things with pits. The other two theme entries are also places with pits, although they have vastly different functions.
This is a cracking theme with a fun, fresh revealer, and it's a pangram to kick! What more could y'all inquire of a Tuesday puzzle? Congratulations to Mr. Lieberman on this far-from-the-pits offering — let's hear from him about the serendipitous origins of this puzzle.
Constructor Notes
This is somehow my 10th puzzle for The Times, assuming you count my Puns & Anagrams puzzles (and why wouldn't you?). I volition take the opportunity to plug those Puns & Anagrams puzzles — try one!
As for this puzzle, the theme idea came serendipitously. While working on a different puzzle, I wrote a clue for the entry PITS that was something like "What cherries and casinos both have." The very next solar day, my blood brother Matt used the phrase "it's the pits" in conversation, and my "that would brand a perfect revealer" alarm bells all started ringing at once.
This puzzle is a pangram (meaning information technology contains all 26 letters at to the lowest degree once), which I must acknowledge didn't happen by accident. I'm not sure if all that pancramming was worth the trouble, but I do quite like the QUOTE/QUOTA crossing and the inkling for JAY-Z.
I hope y'all enjoyed the puzzle!
Desire to Submit Crosswords to The New York Times?
The Tipping Signal
Almost finished solving but demand a bit more assist? Nosotros've got you covered.
Warning: At that place be spoilers ahead, just subscribers can take a peek at the answer cardinal.
Trying to get back to the puzzle folio? Right here.
Your thoughts?
Try Again on the New Lawn Crossword
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2022-03-15.html
0 Response to "Try Again on the New Lawn Crossword"
Post a Comment