Toon Youve Done It Again Crossword
wordplay, the crossword column
Kisses and Hugs
Trenton Charlson outfoxes us by thinking outside the box, without pushing the envelope.
FRIDAY PUZZLE — A Trenton Charlson puzzle is a expert companion for a gray day, a blah mean solar day — or a day when you find out that in spite of all those precautions your faraway friends teased you for taking, yous take landed in the Covid zone.
I'grand particularly indebted to Mr. Charlson, and then, for distracting me with a great puzzle that arrived at nigh the same time the coronavirus did. When hugs and kisses, even with the dog, are off limits, there's e'er the Fri themeless to keep you absorbed.
I can attest to the fact that Covid-19 dulls the wits, and I could no more edit a deadline story right now than I could win the World Serial of Poker. Merely I could chip abroad at this crossword at my own pace, with a loving cup of hot elderberry tea that I couldn't actually taste. I could close my optics when I needed to, and selection it up again later. The puzzle, that is.
Tricky Clues
I love, love, love this clue: 53A, "Fictional narrator whose commencement proper name is a fruit." A family member also ill with Covid strolled past and suggested, through her mask: Lemony Snicket. Good guess, only it wouldn't fit in four letters, and the examples I could think of — lime, plum — didn't make sense. But when FINN started to take shape, I remembered that the name Huck was short for Huckleberry. Like the character, huckleberries are said to abound wild. Before you take that factoid, withal, endeavor to define precisely what a blueberry is. I started down that rabbit hole but found I didn't have the motivation.
At 60D, "High rails" made me think of cribs, bed rails and other child safety paraphernalia, like those huge knobs that make your kitchen range look like a giant toy. But the answer was ELS. (Good heavens! Has this pandemic pause curtailed our commuting vocabulary to such an extent that nosotros have forgotten elevated trains?)
But in that location's more in store at 26A, with "Rail construction." The answer is NEST, I deduced from the crosses, only I have no idea why it's NEST. I spent some time with the OED, to no avail. I know the Crossword community will enlighten me in the comments.
I got a kick out of the northwest quadrant with its YOO-HOO and YO HO HO, which I later appreciated even more when I realized the constraints Mr. Charlson was working nether.
At 52D, we have "His brother was no keeper," which was expert for a laugh. Surely I'm not the only one who mixes up those sons of Adam and Eve? Thanks to a crossing word, I was ABEL to distinguish one from the other.
Puzzle constructors piece of work very hard to go along 3-letter of the alphabet answers to a minimum, and Mr. Charlson showed admirable restraint here, but when these pesky little words are necessary, it's far more entertaining to see choices similar KOP (57D, "Keystone figure") than something similar "era" or "spa."
When I hit 23D, "Network of nerves in the abdomen," I was befuddled. "Vagus nerve" was too curt and repeated a word from the clue. My synaptic connections concluded there. Information technology wasn't until I got a hint of the crossing answer TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE, with its prominent 10's, that I took another expect. I had no idea that the SOLAR PLEXUS was a bundle of nerves, though I certainly knew its general location, thanks largely to my early exposure to this number from the movie "Pajama Game" in which Doris Solar day and John Raitt exert maximum effort — and nervus.
That brought me closer to the heart of the puzzle. "Tiny bit of concern," at 19A, fabricated me think of "iota," which is tiny only carries no connotation of business organisation; 5D, "Fair," evoked abstract thoughts of equity and level playing fields. Information technology wasn't until I somewhen realized that sometimes people don't give a HOOT most, say, foreign policy, but might be thrilled by a gem and mineral EXPO, that I glimpsed the impressive underlying mycelium, as it were, of this puzzle, which Mr. Charlson explains in his notes.
Thus, at 15A, "Kisses and hugs," I expected the respond to incorporate a devious X (X-ray) or O (Oscar), but I did non foresee the feat that was XOXOXOXO. Bravo! What is stranger still is that this is not fifty-fifty a debut entry — unlike XYLOPHONE MALLET and Autumn EQUINOX. The New York Times Crossword has been hugged and kissed before! Across that, my lips are zipped.
Constructor Notes
This puzzle was a long time in the making. Dorsum when I first started constructing, I had the idea to put Xxx at 1-Down, as I thought information technology would be cool if I could stack three long answers starting with Ten. The resulting stack, and its symmetrical counterpart (which began with the 2-X grid-spanner TEXTBOOK Case), took shape early on, merely the rest of the grid was a different story. I tried out many unlike arrangements of blackness squares before I found this ane, which fortuitously also allowed for SOLAR PLEXUS and Fall EQUINOX. This might be the themeless puzzle I have spent the most time working on, and I'1000 quite happy with the way it turned out.
As far every bit clues go, I particularly like my clues for 1-Beyond, 17-Beyond, 37-Downwardly, and 52-Down, and I retrieve the editing team'southward clue for 3-Down is a fun add-on. I'm too glad to come across my clue for PHOBIAS ("Admissions to a counselor") in the final version. I have felt in the by that some clues in Times puzzles have not been sensitive enough regarding mental health concerns, and so a clue like this is definitely a step in the correct direction (in no small office considering the clue doesn't come off as at all judgmental, as some clues for PHOBIAS might). Anything that helps remove some of the stigma from counseling — and getting help, in full general — is a proficient thing.
Hope yous enjoyed the puzzle!
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/14/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2022-04-15.html
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