FRIDAY PUZZLE — Ideally, crosswords incorporate a diverse range of trivia and cultural references into the grid. Today’s puzzle, Nam Jin Yoon’s 10th for The New York Times, has room for everyone: Crossing paths you’ll find a famous poet, a film auteur, an astronomer, a classic-rock frontman and more, all ready to serve as potential gimmes for solvers breaking into the grid.
But there’s also something to be said for when certain trivia categories are a bit more represented in the mix. If that category is to your taste, encountering it is like hitting a rich vein of cookie dough in a pint of ice cream. I was a zealous Greek mythology kid, so I loved digging into two longer entries in the puzzle that are based on the subject.
Of course, if the trivia category is not your preferred flavor — as was the case for me with the legal terms in this puzzle — then the cookie dough lode can feel more like freezer burn to hack at with a spoon. Still, I appreciate those entries’ inclusion: Not just because they’ll delight the legal minds in the solving audience, but also because they offer a bite-size opportunity to bolster an area of knowledge I’m admittedly weak in. Of course, it helps that our constructor did an excellent job ensuring that fair crossing answers are at the ready if we need them.
Tricky Clues
17A. It’s not crosswordese, but it is legalese (at least for me). Today, I learned about A FORTIORI, or [By an even stronger argument, at law]. An argument made a fortiori gives an even more convincing reason than one that has already been accepted. An example that helped me grasp it: “If an elephant cannot fit into the room, then a fortiori, it cannot fit through the door.”
51A. Today’s “Weird Singular” award goes to the answer of [Record of the year?], or ANNAL, which is almost always used in the plural. Annals are historical records arranged by year; the clue leverages the entry’s singular form to misdirect us.
56A. The [Much-anticipated rivalry game in soccer’s La Liga] is EL CLÁSICO, or the Classic, a matchup between F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid. Note that the Spanish answer is signaled by a Spanish phrase in the clue: La Liga, or the League.
58A. A task that’s [Extremely difficult and ultimately futile] can be described as SISYPHEAN, a word derived from Greek mythology’s Sisyphus. An infamous denizen of the Underworld, Sisyphus was sentenced to spend eternity pushing an enormous boulder up a hill, only to have it tumble back down each time just before it reached the top. Imagine laboring over the same essentially trivial task, every single day — I shudder to think of it. Anyway, I’ll see you all back here for tomorrow’s crossword.
4D. Some more mythology: [What Odysseus’ crew waxed on about?] solves to SIREN SONG, because his shipmates stuffed wax in their ears to block the melody that drove sailors to madness. But Odysseus, craving road trip tunes after accidentally dropping his mix CDs into Charybdis, must hear their song. He skips the wax and has his crew tie him to the mast instead.
9D. Now that you’ve survived the siren’s hypnotic spell, don’t stare too long at the SPIROGRAPH, the [Device geared to draw rotationally symmetrical shapes] that artists use to make dizzying designs.
10D. This clue needs to get its story straight. [Accounts for checking?] sounds as if it’s talking about the bank, but if we investigate further by solving the crossing answers, we find that those accounts are stories that need to be verified, or ALIBIS.
13D/33D. Here’s a nice bit of furry fill symmetry: 33D’s clue, [One who regularly takes a best friend out?], refers to man’s best friend and solves to DOG OWNER, while the answer to 13D’s [Some Navy aircraft during W.W. II] is HELLCATS.
Improve Your Crossword Solving
Work your way through our guide “How to Solve the New York Times Crossword.” It contains an explanation of most of the types of clues you will see in the puzzles and a practice Mini at the end of each section.
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