FRIDAY PUZZLE — Today’s constructor, Aidan Deshong, has been busy. His previous Friday puzzle (which was his New York Times debut) ran the week before his high school graduation. Since then, he has been studying math and computer science at Harvey Mudd College, serving as an associate editor at Universal Crossword and continuing to craft grids for The Times. Today’s trophy of a puzzle is studded with long, sparkling entries and fun colloquialisms, with a few clue echoes as an added flourish. There are plenty of misdirects, too. Just be extra careful of the one at 10-Down.
Tricky Clues
1A. Puzzle over enough question-marked clues and the brain begins to make some wild connections. On first read, I thought [Dating around?] might have something to do with determining the age of a tree by its rings. I was not on the same page as the clue. I wasn’t even in the same book. The answer is CIRCA, which means dating around.
16A. It’s not the first time this clue has appeared in the Crossword, but it’s a winner all the same. [Stock exchange?] refers to livestock: bloviating bovines exchanging MOOS in cow conversation.
17A. R.I.P. to the [Soda once advertised as “Shockingly refreshing”], SIERRA MIST. A eulogy: You weren’t the most popular lemon-lime soda, but you also weren’t the second-most popular lemon-lime soda. And now, a 21 pop-tab salute — may you fizz on in the stars.
53A. The clue [Well-funded group?] refers to oil wells, so the answer is OPEC, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
8D. [California’s locale, according to natives’ lingo] is BEST COAST, a play on West Coast. I’m curious how often Californians actually use the phrase, or if it elicits eye rolls like the Hotlanta nickname does for Atlantans.
11D. A rule of thumb: If a clue ends in a question mark and contains the word “line,” it’s probably asking for a conversational phrase. So, a [Help line?] is a line said when you need help: DO ME A SOLID.
30D. This [Greenish black rock?] is CLEAN COAL, but I’ll emphasize that “ish.” The term “clean coal” was popularized by coal industry groups in 2008 and is often criticized as misleading, if not a misnomer.
49D. ESTE, Spanish for “east,” completes [Ciudad del ___, Paraguay’s second-largest city]. In a completely meaningless but still fun coincidence, you’ll find Ciudad del Este on a map of the country in the same place you’ll find ESTE in this puzzle: Both are in the southeastern corner.
Constructor Notes
I’m not really sure of the best way to make themelesses, but in case this helps any aspiring constructors, I’ve gravitated toward this process of constructing them:
1. Pick a grid skeleton other people have already used with some success. For example, this grid has been used by Robyn Weintraub and Hemant Mehta before, and surely some other people as well. (In fact, it was called “Robyn-Weintraubian” in the acceptance email.) I like to use grids with at least 14 slots of nine or more letters.
2. I use the incredible free word list Spread the Word(list), except I’ve gone through all of the nine-to-15 letter entries and increased the scores of the ones that I think would make for exciting long entries in a themeless. (They were scored at 51 because the highest score in STWL was 50, but now the highest score in STWL is 55, so I need to rescore them to 56.)
3. Force a score of at least 56 in the nine-plus letter slots, so every long entry has already been approved by me as themeless-worthy. I use Ingrid to construct, since it has this functionality built in.
4. Wait for Ingrid to generate a fill. Realize I don’t like the current fill for some reason. Take a section I really do like and see if there are other ways to fill the rest. Repeat for several dozen more hours until the whole grid looks good. Profit (occasionally).
That’s how this puzzle came about. I’ve since lowered the scores of SAUERKRAUT, STARTER PACKS, SIERRA MIST and EMAIL HOAXES and wouldn’t include them in a themeless today. At the same time, I’ve increased the scores of many other new entries that I wouldn’t have put into a themeless when I constructed this last November.
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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