Displaying Finesse – The New York Times

SATURDAY PUZZLE — August Miller’s last construction for The Times was two years ago, another Saturday grid that was memorably tough and brainy. I’m sold on his quirky style and really impressed by his wordplay; sublime puns that look simple, but turn out to be showstoppers. The general trivia and straight clues are also tough, and there’s a good amount of novelty, including 11 debut entries, a few oddballs among them, and one utterly brutal misdirect that significantly spiced up my solving experience.

Tricky Clues

5A/55A. These entries make a good pair, and mirror each other at the top and bottom of the grid. At 5A, the [Award-winning culinary documentary series] in question is CHEF’S TABLE, which started its run on Netflix in 2015. At 55A, [Traditional Passover dish] solves to a debut entry: SEDER PLATE, not a meal itself but a ceremonial platter that bears a selection of symbolic foods for the Passover holiday.

23A/31A/34A/25D. These are all short bits of fill, but they created issues. At 23A, the [Oslo Accords grp.] is the P.L.O., a reference to the 1990s peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel. At 31A, [Party leader?] is just a cute clue for HOST, but I didn’t guess it, and had no good letters from crossing entries to go on. The clue at 34A is poetry trivia: [One ___” (Elizabeth Bishop poem that repeats the line “The ___ of losing isn’t hard to master”)]; ideally, people will realize that the two blanks in the clue are the same — ART — but I did not, at first. Finally, there’s 25D, which is fun (a logic question, I guess?): [Things that ships, computers and wine retailers all have]. Kudos to solvers who knew this quickly — it’s PORTS — because it went right over my head!

2D. This is a great, evocative entry, with a clever clue. [Line of passengers?] solves to a whine: ARE WE THERE?

8D. This is where that misdirect completely threw me off, and there’s no way I’m alone. What could the [Seafood-based ingredient in Eastern cuisines] here be but “fish sauce,” which fits the entry perfectly and suits its very specific clue? “Sauce” is the problem; it clashes with three small crossing entries, mentioned above, and I had to backtrack and deduce another fishy condiment. It turns out to be FISH PASTE, which is a Times puzzle debut. (Mystery lovers, does this stuff ring a bell? It was suspected to be a medium for murder in an Agatha Christie novel, “Sad Cypress,” although Hercule Poirot discovered that it was actually tea, spiked with morphine.)

31D. [Poison classification] is a pun clue, if you were still mulling over arsenic versus cyanide. The “Poison” in question isn’t zootoxic, synthetic or corrosive, at least not medically speaking. It’s a glam band from the 1980s that exemplifies HAIR METAL.

Constructor Notes

Very excited to have a second Saturday in the Times! The seed for this puzzle was 55A, with its deceptively straightforward clue. I was gratified to see many of my favorite clues (among them 53A, 2D, 13D/44D, and 31D) stand up to editorial scrutiny, and delighted by the editors’ additions at 34A, 45A, 25D, and 47D. Hope you enjoy(ed) the solve!