Joe Deeney’s puzzle may recall your English-class days.
Jump to: Tricky Clues | Today’s Theme
WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — I’m an assistant community engagement manager for the Games section, filling in today to write Wordplay. I’m an infrequent solver, and I didn’t know what to expect from my first Wednesday solve in front of an audience. What I got was a puzzle that achieved exactly the balance I look for: It tested the limits of my knowledge and educated me with facts I grasped by piecing together other clues. A fun theme added an extra dose of play.
I searched online only once, when I was working on my last clue to complete the puzzle. I did ask some of my best friends for help with clues, routing the appropriate ones to the geography whiz in our group chat. Some of these people were the same friends I started 2023 with, working on the year’s first crossword in a kitchen in Boston, a special memory I recalled when solving with them again.
This is Joe Deeney’s 17th puzzle and third on a Wednesday. In his past work, he has debuted words like AFTERCARE and HELLACOOL, and today’s grid showed similar creativity.
How quickly did the revealer come together for you? For me, it was one of the last bits of the puzzle to materialize, and I didn’t grasp the theme until I was finished. Let us know in the comments.
Tricky Clues
8D. I was extremely stuck on “freight in flight”: AIRCARGO. For the entire first half of my solve, I had AIR penciled in but no idea what would follow it. I was even able to grasp why AIRCAR fit the clue, but could not figure out the remaining two letters (see 34A).
34A. Names are tricky. I tried to make AIRCAREO or AIRCAMEO work for the above clue when I had HELEN penciled in here. The correct name of the Norwegian-born U.S. suffragist is HELGA Estby.
28A. I had never heard this expression before: POWDERKEG, an explosive situation. It was one of the last answers to come together for me.
30D. This is the first time this word has appeared in a New York Times Crossword. It’s the name of the Ikea founder, Ingvar KAMPRAD. It would have been easy to search for, but I figured it out with help from neighboring clues. The P and D had me thinking it was LEOPOLD at first.
42A. This one was clever. “Inflation measure” recalled the economy and how eggs in my local grocery store are now pushing $8. But the answer was PSI: a measure of tire pressure.
47A. The revealer tripped me up because of the phrase “this puzzle’s architecture.” I took a visual approach and stared at the symmetrical puzzle throughout the process, racking my brain for some symbol that could be compared to an architectural feature. Turns out I was overthinking it. The clue was simply speaking to the puzzle’s theme: POETSCORNER. Each corner of the puzzle is graced with the name of a poet.
Today’s Theme
April is National Poetry Month (perhaps because it’s the cruelest month?), and a poetry-themed puzzle was right up my alley, since I was a literature major. I appreciated this puzzle’s shout-outs to four brilliant poets, though it clued them using other meanings. Pope became the leader of a small country. Rich was clued as “loaded.” Stein was a drinking vessel. Frost was the most cleverly contrived of all: “coat put on when it’s cold,” describing the coating that appears on branches, trees and structures. I had not heard of any of the poems named in the crossword’s clues, so I enjoyed expanding my poetry database with them.
Constructor Notes
It was the editorial team’s idea to add parenthetical poems to the theme clues. Their selections inspired me to read a few poems; I hope for the same for many solvers today. Of those highlighted by the editing team, I wasn’t familiar with “Diving Into the Wreck,” “Sacred Emily,” “Channel Firing” or “A Maypole” — nice to get some breadth in the reading list.
Want to Submit Crosswords to The New York Times?
The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online.
For tips on how to get started, read our series, “How to Make a Crossword Puzzle.”
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