Grant Thackray warms us up for our solving weekend.
FRIDAY PUZZLE — Before we dive into Grant Thackray’s puzzle, the crossword editor Will Shortz has an administrivial announcement about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament:
Dear Friends,
The 2021 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, as you may have guessed by now, will be conducted online.
It will incorporate as many elements of the usual in-person event as we can fit in. There will be cash prizes.
A further announcement, with details, will be posted on the A.C.P.T. website in the near future.
You know you’re in for a ride with a puzzle when the very first clue you look at — 1A — makes you say “Wow.”
Not only is NBA MVPS a Scrabbly mouthful, but the clue! I knew something was up because “Star Bucks, say?” splits what looks like the name of the coffee company Starbucks into two words, and the clue ends with a question mark. The way we’re supposed to read it is “Star players on the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.” Some of my favorite clues are those for which I have to determine what else a word may mean.
There are a lot of really nice entries in this one, too. PLEADS TO, THE EURO, WATCH CHAIN, DERBY HATS and XXX RATED make debuts, and I also liked DO THE MATH, IT’S A BOY, MANSPLAIN (I wonder if anyone would like to explain this one to me in the comments) and PEACHY KEEN.
But it’s the cluing that really sparkled for me. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Tricky Clues
8A. When you read a terse clue like “Trap,” your first thought probably goes to the kind of trap that can be set. But remember that it’s Friday, and the constructor and the Times puzzle editors are up to something. The answer is the slang synonym PIEHOLE, as in something that should be shut.
17A. This was tricky because I first assumed that the “school” that a “famous” PAINTER might be associated with was a university. Silly me. Famous PAINTERs are often associated with stylistic groups called “schools,” like the Hudson River School of American landscape painters.
19A. I may be overthinking this one, but is a STAIRCASE always up to something? Once you get to the top, there’s no more STAIRCASE, so that means there is no more up. “It may be up to something” may be more accurate, but I think that “It’s always up to something” is funnier.
34A. “Melon” is a slang term for the head, so “Melon seeds?” are not the kind you plant in the ground. They are IDEAS.
63A. A VETERAN has already served, so he or she is “out of action” in the sense that they are no longer on active duty. Or in the middle of active fighting.
1D. I know. Your mileage may vary on this entry. If you object to an entry that can mean more than one thing but looks like a racial slur in the grid, please drop a note to The New York Times’s puzzle editors at NYTGames@nytimes.com.
2D. All together now: “Ohh, that kind of Eagle!” The Eagle Scout is the highest rank that can be achieved in the Boy Scouts of America, or B.S.A.
22D. If you haven’t seen this clue before, revel in the wordplay. The “arms repositories?” in this puzzle are not armories. They are SLEEVES, because that is what you put your arms into.
35D. Not the kind of “Bowlers” who try to knock down all of the pins. The “Bowlers” we should be thinking of are DERBY HATS.
55D. The rap artist Kool MOE Dee was a member of one of the original hip-hop crews, the Treacherous Three, until he went solo in 1986.
Constructor Notes
I don’t have that much to say about this puzzle, except that I’m glad the Times editorial team let me keep my favorite musician, Weird Al Yankovic, in the clue to 59-Down. I’m also proud of the unusual cluster of Scrabble-rich letters in 39-Down without making the Across clues obscure.
Other than that, it’s a pretty standard, regular old, nothing-odd-about-it Friday puzzle. Except for, I suppose, the cheeky little secret I hid in the grid. Let’s just say I left my mark on this puzzle in more ways than one. You’ll find it if you look down in a certain spot, and then head east. (The answer is at the bottom of the column.)
The Tipping Point
Almost finished solving but need a bit more help? We’ve got you covered.
Warning: There be spoilers ahead, but subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.
Trying to get back to the puzzle page? Right here.
Your thoughts?
Answer to Mr. Thackray’s puzzle secret: If you start at the third letter of 23D and read down, then read from left to right, he has slipped his name into his grid, just in case the editors forgot to give him a byline.
"up" - Google News
February 12, 2021 at 10:00AM
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Always Up to Something - The New York Times
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