Mean – The New York Times – TALKS TO THE POINT

SATURDAY PUZZLE — This is Brian Callahan’s first Saturday construction for The New York Times, although he has four previous bylines (including on a Friday crossword from April, in collaboration with Carolyn Davies Lynch). Today’s grid has a familiar pinwheel look to it: separated swaths of clues that often indicate a low word count and a difficult solve. This design is favored by a lot of constructors we see on the weekends (two of whom are cited by Mr. Callahan in his notes below).

There’s a breezy quality to this puzzle as a whole, but the wordplay is great, and as you work through it, you’re bound to hit some stumpers in the trivia. The subject matter is wide-ranging and Mr. Callahan includes a few deep cuts that I hadn’t the foggiest idea on. Each time, though, I found refuge in crossing entries and was able to deduce a solution, or at least find all of its letters one by one (I’m looking at 30D, here).

Tricky Clues

1A/7A. What an intriguing top row — two culinary references that make a delicious little bite together. At 1A, the dumpling: [Prepares, as shumai] solves to STEAMS. At 7A, the flavor: The [Paste commonly simulated by a blend of horseradish, mustard and green dye] is WASABI, which in its true form is a rhizome that requires such particular growing conditions that the plant runs the risk of vanishing.

37A. A [Kite feature] could be a string, a crossbar or a tail. If that tail is on a little predatory bird that’s also called a kite, you might find a couple of TALONs nearby. Of course, kite referred to the bird long before it was a flying device (or a check-writing scam).

39A. [____ -corner] solves to CATTY here, and I anticipate a chorus of hisses from the kitty-corner contingent. It depends on where you’re from, according to Question 6 of our dialect quiz.

30D. Sigh, I try, but when it comes to football knowledge my brain is a sieve. [Signature QB move included as a feature in 2012’s Madden N.F.L. 13 video game] might as well have been a cryptic clue. The answer is TEBOWING, a reference to Tim Tebow, the devoutly religious player who knelt and prayed on the field. The pose went viral and its popularity seems to have outlived his professional career as a quarterback.

32D. This is a genius pun that takes a minute to understand. [A bit corrupt, perhaps?] solves to DATA ROT, which is a Times Crossword debut even though it’s been an acknowledged risk to information storage for some years. Whether the corruption comes from external damage, internal degradation or system obsolescence, a lot of bits and bytes out there are crumbling into digital dust.

37D. This one, I thought I knew cold: [Highly prized rewards on “Survivor”] are coconuts, right? I have this distinct memory of someone holding one up triumphantly, but maybe I’m thinking of “Lost.” The answer here is TARPS, which are pretty useful in many aspects of life.

Constructor Notes

Much of the inspiration for this grid shape came from studying puzzles by Kameron Austin Collins and Ryan McCarty. The fact that each of them has produced so many excellent low-word-count, wide-open grids is mind-boggling. This puzzle has 64 words. Maybe one of these days I’ll try to take a shot at 62. Wish me luck!

Additionally, I’ll be volunteering at the Midwest Crossword Tournament in Chicago next Saturday. If you’ll be attending, please come by and say hi. I’d love to chat crosswords with you!