THURSDAY PUZZLE — Did you knock Monday’s puzzle out of the park? Today’s grid is here to throw you a curveball. Thursday is The New York Times’s favorite day of the week to publish crosswords with twists, surprises or extra layers of trickery to puzzle over. Today’s fun comes from Jill Singer, her first Thursday offering and her fourth puzzle for The Times overall. It’s a closed-off grid with sequestered chunks and guarded corners, so solvers may have to bounce around a bit to complete it. Keep plugging away, and I promise the puzzle will fall. It’s designed to.
Today’s Theme
This is a rebus crossword, in which some squares contain multiple letters. Rebuses aren’t disclosed to the solver, but there are telltale signs. Start by studying the puzzle’s theme revealer, which is often the clearest indicator of a rebus.
The revealer is at 55-Across, clued with [Obstacles … or a hint to three squares in this puzzle]. The clue’s mention of three specific squares could indicate three rebuses. That hunch is further supported by its answer, STUMBLING BLOCKS. When theme revealers contain “blocks,” “boxes,” “cells” or other words that could refer to squares, that should set off the rebus alarm — it suggests that certain squares require special attention. Similarly, be wary of words that could describe multiple letters in one square, such as “packed,” “squeeze” or “jam.”
To find the rebus squares, look for entries that don’t fit their allotted spaces. At 17-Across, [Patriotic recitation since 1892] seems as though it refers to the Pledge of Allegiance, but that’s longer than 15 letters. There must be a rebus square here, which solvers can pinpoint by cracking the entries that intersect 17A. The clue at 7-Down, [Happen to], seems as though it could be “befall,” but that doesn’t fit either, which means that the intersection of 7D and 17A is a rebus square. If we enter FALL into that square with the rebus function, we get PLEDGE O(F ALL)EGIANCE and BE(FALL). And because “fall” is a synonym for “stumble,” this must be one of the STUMBLING BLOCKS!
Armed with this method, solvers can triangulate the remaining two rebus squares. The clue at 27A, [Expresses support without meaning it], solves to PAY(S LIP) SERVICE, which crosses with the answer to 28D’s [Moccasins and loafers, e.g.], (SLIP)-ONS. At 44A, [Obsolescent credit card feature] is a MAGNETIC S(TRIP)E. The entry is intersected by 32D’s [Hallucinatory experiences], or ACID (TRIP)S.
Tricky Clues
16A. [Features of gathering clouds?] solves to AEIOU because the phrase “gathering clouds” contains each vowel, exactly once, in alphabetical order. When a word or phrase contains exactly one of each of the five vowels (apologies to the letter Y), it’s described as supervocalic. Supervocalic phrases are catnip for word nerds. It’s also an autological word: “Supervocalic” is supervocalic.
39A. The [Cruz known as the “Queen of Salsa”] is CELIA Cruz, one of the best-selling Latin music artists in history. You may have heard her hit “Bemba Colorá.” If not, give it a spin.
48A. If you encounter a clue tagged with a question mark that includes words like “once” or “in olden days,” it often means the answer is an archaic word. The clue [Is long ago?] wants the Latin word for “is,” or EST.
63A. For early-week puzzles, this clue would most likely have been the ho-hum “___-frutti.” But a Thursday crossword demands more of us. It asks if we know that TUTTI can also describe [All together, in music].
9D. While it doesn’t appear in the Crossword as frequently as the Otoe or the Utes, this [Great Basin tribe], the PAIUTE, is worth knowing. The Paiute are credited with originating the Ghost Dance, a ceremony practiced by many Indigenous tribes to invoke the spirits of the dead.
23D. The [Mexican revolutionary Emiliano] ZAPATA was a guerrilla leader of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. His political philosophy, Zapatismo, aimed to reform Mexico’s land ownership by restoring farmland from privately owned haciendas to ejidos, or plots tended by the community.
Constructor Notes
I’m not sure how I came up with this theme; let’s just say I fell into it! I love solving and making rebus puzzles, although I know it’s not an opinion everyone shares. I hope this one didn’t cause you to trip up! Two of my favorite theme entries that didn’t fit: Jack oF ALL trades and line-drive TRIPle. Thanks for solving!
Improve Your Crossword Solving
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