WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Solving the theme of today’s crossword, constructed by Dana Edwards, reminded me of those actors (or stereotypes of them) who stress different words of a line to convey its meaning: “To be or not to be … ” “To be or not to be. …”
Try it for yourself. Experiment with possible emphases of this puzzle’s revealer, at 55A, to make sense of the grid’s three themed entries.
As was the case with last Monday’s constructor duo, I have gotten to write about all of Mr. Edwards’s crosswords for The New York Times thus far — this being his third, and no two are alike. Mr. Edwards debuted with a crossword that highlighted an interesting letter pattern. His second grid made clever work of visual representations of typefaces. This time, it’s all about figures of speech. There’s no telling where he’ll take us next — and I think I much prefer it that way.
Today’s Theme
One might invite you to criticize a subject by reassuring you, at 55A, THAT’S FAIR GAME, which doubles as [a comment one might make about 20-, 34- and 41-Across?]. These entries don’t necessarily look related at first. 20A’s [Honorable conduct on the field] is SPORTSMANSHIP, while 34A has to do with [When hunting restrictions are lifted], i.e., OPEN SEASON. And the [Carnival diversion requiring precision] at 41A is a BALLOON POP. When no obvious connection between the words in the themed entries exists, you can expect to have to do a little witty interpretation.
“Fair game” may be how one characterizes a sport in which players exhibit good 20A. The word “game” can also refer to wild animals, 34A being when they can “fairly” be hunted. And 41 is a “fair game” because, well, it’s a game played at the fair.
Tricky Clues
24A. Don’t you just hate it when two possible answers share the same number of letters? [On-schedule] is not “prompt,” but TIMELY.
45A/9D. Clues for entries in a foreign language — which, for the purposes of the Times Crossword, means anything besides English — often hint at their entries by using cities or regions where that language is spoken. So [Bikini season, in Bordeaux] describes summertime in a French-speaking place, i.e., ÉTÉ, and [Naps, in Nicaragua] are Spanish SIESTAS.
67A. [They go for bucks] isn’t referring to money, but male deer. The answer is DOES.
25D. Upon consideration, LOONY is a better term for [Bonkers] than “loopy,” which is what I had, and which left me with the bizarre crossing term “fropt.”
59D. This sleight of word is known as a veiled capital, because the first word in [Thunder setting, in brief] seems like a common noun about the weather, when it really refers to the Thunder, Oklahoma City’s team in the N.B.A.
Constructor Notes
I used the phrase “fair game” at some point a year or so ago, and noticed that both “fair” and “game” have multiple meanings that could be mixed and matched in a crossword theme to (hopefully) amusing effect.
I had trouble settling on the final theme entry, because there is very little standardization in the names of FAIR games! Is the game where you throw darts at balloons to pop them called BALLOON POP or “balloon darts” or “balloon dart toss”? Is the one where you throw a ball into an impossibly bouncy bucket called “ball and bucket,” “ball and basket,” “bucket toss,” “bushel basket toss” or “tub toss”?!
My research shows no clear consensus, but one thing is certainly clear: “Fair games” are definitely not fair! They are ways to lose your money in pursuit of a giant stuffed animal. 🙂
Hope you enjoy the puzzle. Shout out to SILENT BOB, the co-star of several juvenile movies from the 1990s and early 2000s that I thought were incredibly funny as a 12-year-old, but which I’m sure have not aged well.
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