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WORDPLAY, THE CROSSWORD COLUMN
Creature of the Internet
Erica Hsiung Wojcik offers solvers a challenging 66-word puzzle.
Jump to: Tricky Clues
SATURDAY PUZZLE — Well, hello there! I know you’re used to seeing Caitlin Lovinger’s name at the top on Saturdays, but she is taking a well-deserved break this weekend and will be back next week.
It has been ages since I last tackled a Saturday puzzle and, while it was good to stretch my solving skills with Erica Hsiung Wojcik’s lively grid, I have to admit that I was nervous. Summoning the courage to try something for the first time or, in my case, something you haven’t done in a long time can be difficult.
Don’t let that get in the way of a good time, though. If you are doing well on the Friday crosswords and gazing longingly at the Saturday puzzles, I say go for it.
The idea that the Saturday New York Times Crossword is the hardest puzzle of the week can really do a number on one’s head. Remember, though: You have mastered Fridays, and the Saturdays are not that much harder. The clues may be a bit trickier and maybe the entries are not as familiar, but the process is essentially the same:
Find your gimmes, which are the answers you know for sure.
Fill in the crossing entries as best you can.
Succeed in finding only a few things that you know and go rooting around in the kitchen cabinets for some chocolate. (Trust me on this.)
Eat the chocolate. Wash it down with the tears you shed after rereading the almost impenetrable clues.
Put the puzzle down for a while and take a walk. Enjoy the sunshine and listen to the birds sing. Tell yourself that you have done many hard things in your life and, in comparison, this is not so bad. If your officemate can do these late-week puzzles so can you, and he once accidentally set his wastebasket on fire.
Pick up the puzzle again. Fill in a few more entries, which you somehow miraculously now know. There, that’s better! Who said this was impossible?
Continue.
The solving process for Saturday puzzles is nearly the same, except the chocolate gets swapped out for vodka.
The reward for trying to solve the so-called hardest puzzle of the week is that you will be treated to some of the best misdirected cluing and the liveliest answers.
Ms. Wojcik’s puzzle definitely lives up to those standards, and if you are going to start solving the Saturday crossword, this is a good one to try. Not because it’s easy; it’s not. Start with this one because the reward — the entertainment value and the boost to your self-confidence — is so much greater than the fear.
Tricky Clues
15A. The “It’s” in the clue “It’s a drag” is a placeholder for the answer. We need to think of a word that is a synonym for “drag.” A drag can be something that is a pain in the neck, but it is also a synonym for a roadway. The answer is AVENUE.
16A. Nice alliteration in the clue “Muttonchops moisturizer.” I am not that familiar with BEARD OIL, but it sounds like a useful grooming product.
19A. A “Helping of gravy?” is not just something that you ask for at Thanksgiving. Gravy can also be a word used to describe any profit or dividend. The answer is BONUS.
20A. LODES are veins of metal ore in the earth, and “Silver streaks, e.g.” can be one type.
31A. “Green paint” is a phrase used in crossworld to describe an answer that sounds fairly random or made up. Brendan Emmett Quigley, the well-known crossword constructor, defined it as the “industry shorthand for a crossword answer that while definitely exists in real life, doesn’t feel ‘conversational enough’ to be a truly legit entry in a puzzle.” When I wrote in MEME ACCOUNT for the clue “Source of some popular Instagram or Twitter postings,” I felt that the entry was green paint-y.
Shows you what I know. I found that MEME ACCOUNT apparently has 379 million hits, including this description from a website about influencer marketing.
32A. SYNESTHESIA is a fascinating “neuropsychological trait” that can present in different ways. Fun fact: Sam Ezersky, a Games puzzle editor, has a type of SYNESTHESIA called chromesthesia, and can see sounds. “A song in C makes me think of the color blue,” he said in a message.
38A. “Don’t do it, doc!” is a fun way to summarize the part of the Hippocratic oath that says, “First, do no HARM.”
50A. “Gave a look?” can mean that someone is eyeing someone else, but in this puzzle, they STYLED them.
6D. This clue sounds as if it is looking for a number, but the thing between “one and many” is the word TOO, as in “one TOO many.”
8D. “As I Was Going to St. IVES” is a traditional English nursery rhyme that always makes me flash back to the SATs. Bonus points if you know the answer.
As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits:
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,How many were there going to St. Ives?
24D. A “Makeup set?” is not the one that involves cosmetics. The set in this clue involves the makeup of your body, and the answer is GENES.
Constructor Notes
This puzzle’s grid was based on a themeless by Kameron Austin Collins. I loved the intersecting 11s and the flow of the grid from a solver’s perspective.
I’m happy with the mix of entries I got into the center area. Fun fact: I debuted the singular form of 21D a few weeks ago, and here I am premiering the plural form today! It was not at all on purpose. That entry is made up of crossword-friendly letters, and it’s really wordplay-friendly for cluing.
The northeast and southwest corners are my favorite parts of the grid. And here’s an alternative clue for 32A: “Neuropsychological trait that may make you feel blue?”
Want to Submit Crosswords to The New York Times?
The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online.
For tips on how to get started, read our series “How to Make a Crossword Puzzle.”
The Tipping Point
Almost finished solving but need a bit more help? We’ve got you covered.
Spoiler alert: Subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.
Trying to get back to the main Gameplay page? You can find it here.
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