WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — The Halloween week — or Hallo-week, if you will — continues apace with another spooky crossword puzzle, this one by Daniel Grinberg. Horror fans should recognize most, if not all, of the classic films featured in the theme. The question is: Will you recognize the equally horrifying bits of punctuation they represent?
Today’s Theme
The five italicized clues in this puzzle, at 18-, 24-, 40-, 44- and 54-Across, make reference to characters from horror films, and the entries are lines that those characters say. For instance, at 18A, [Jack Torrance, in “The Shining”] is known for the line “HERE’S JOHNNY” (said while sticking his head through a door he’s just splintered with an ax). At 24A, [Dr. Frankenstein, in 1931’s “Frankenstein”] screamed, “IT’S ALIVE! IT’S ALIVE!” — several times, technically — when his monster began to twitch. The clues at 40A and 44A split a well-known line uttered by [Veronica Quaife, in “The Fly”]: “BE AFRAID BE / VERY AFRAID.” And at 54A, [Jigsaw, in “Saw”] is remembered for his signature phrase, “I WANT TO PLAY A GAME.”
These lines can be described by the [Indicators of irony], at 66A, known as SCARE QUOTES, punctuation marks used to denote skepticism of a given concept. Consider the judgment implied, for instance, if I were to congratulate Mr. Grinberg for a “clever” puzzle (as opposed to a clever puzzle, which is what it is).
Tricky Clues
15A. A medical term for the [Colored part of an eye] — specifically, the part of the iris that borders the pupil — is AREOLA. I’ve only ever known this word to describe an anatomical feature on the chest, but it seems both senses are in use.
22A. Question marks at the ends of clues indicate witty misdirection. One strategy to identify the real meaning of these clues is to shift the emphasis away from the word that you’d normally stress. [Top choices?] reads as a synonym for “favorites,” but if we emphasize “top,” the clue reads instead as a reference to one’s choices of top, which could be BRAS.
72A. If you’re one of those people who get distracted by eerie coincidences in the New York Times Crossword, come sit by me. Just last week, a puzzle featured “bruised rib” as a kind of boxing injury. Today, [Boxing match result, maybe] solves to BRUISE. This wouldn’t be notable but for the fact that boxing in the crossword puzzle usually clues a jab, a hook or a TKO.
1D. This is my first encounter with BAHA’I, the [Religion with the key text Kitáb-i-Aqdas]. The religion was founded in the 19th century in Persia, now Iran, and its practicing members represent less than 1 percent of the country’s population.
12D. Considering how well known this [Shuffling dance move popular in the 1990s] is, it’s amazing that RUNNING MAN is just now debuting in the Times Crossword.
33D. Diagonally opposite 12D is another Times debut: One who [Finalizes the business agreement, say] LANDS A DEAL.
53D. For the sake of my ego, please tell me I wasn’t the only one to mistake the [Word with freeze or hike] as “rent” rather than WAGE. I can’t think of another case where more than one “word with” word worked so neatly.
Constructor Notes
On paper, this puzzle seems like a no-brainer. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I love classic movies. However, right before making it, I was confronting one of the scarier things to befall a crossword constructor: a lack of inspiration. Try as I might, I just couldn’t come up with a theme idea that felt worth the effort. First it was a day of theme drought, then a week. At the two-week mark, I jokingly wondered if all the good themes had finally been used up. Then, at dinner that night, a friend made a pithy remark, and I replied, “I can practically see the scare quotes.”
I don’t remember much of the following conversation, because I was too invigorated by the concept of SCARE QUOTES. I was hunting for theme entries in my head, counting letters, praying to the gods of symmetry. When I got home, I texted my first draft of a theme set to fellow constructor Kameron Austin Collins for approval. To his credit, he looked it over and rightly said, “No, not yet.” I shifted to a 16×16 grid, retooled the entries and texted again. This time, he wrote back, “You may proceed.” With two 16-letter spanners, the grid was fairly constrained, and everything mostly fell into place. The fright of theme drought had subsided for now, but as with any horror villain, there’s always the danger of a sequel. Happy spooky season!
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