Jump to: Tricky Clues | Today’s Theme
SUNDAY PUZZLE — Will Shortz, in his print introduction to this grid, writes: “John Kugelman, of Gainesville, Va., is a software engineer and musician. Remarkably, this is his seventh Sunday Times crossword since January last year — by far the most of any contributor. ‘All the time and creative energy I used to pour into music,’ he says, ‘now goes to crosswords. I used to spend my nights writing music. Now it’s all crosswords, all the time. It seems to scratch the same itch.’”
After seven Sundays, regular solvers know to expect loopy, funny puzzles (with spoonerisms, surprise insults and so on) from Mr. Kugelman. This theme fits right in — it’s light, but it’s well executed and fun to bubble through. I even came up with a bunch of themed phrases as I went, one of which was in the grid.
Today’s Theme
Where to begin? Well, if we start with the title of the puzzle, there’s your answer: “Square to Begin.” I admit that I first interpreted “Square” to mean a box for a letter and thought the theme might be visual, but it’s wordplay.
There are six examples of the theme, at 23-, 45-, 58-, 70-, 83- and 107-Across; each entry is a common phrase with the same modification. I stumbled on 70-Across pretty early in my solve because I knew a couple of crossing entries at a glance — KOKO and QATAR — and the letters that they lent to 70-Across, [Sound from freshly cleaned floors?], helped me tremendously. The answer to this is PLEDGE SQUEAK, a play on “pledge week,” which is a college event where students vie for placement in fraternities or sororities. (Oh, and PLEDGE, in this context, is a cleaning product used on wood since the 1950s.)
Squeezy, right? So, 107-Across — [Repeat something clever, as a parrot might?] — solves to SQUAWK A FINE LINE, a play on “walk a fine line.” My idea for “walk” was “squawk this way,” but I wouldn’t know quite how to clue it. The clues themselves are very good puns.
I think my favorite is 45-Across, [Tempest in a teapot?]. Even knowing the trick, the answer was a surprise and a delight: the GREAT SQUALL OF CHINA, meaning a porcelain tea set, of course. I also liked the one I guessed: 23-Across, [“Omigod, omigod, jackpot”!], which solves to SQUEAL OF FORTUNE.
Tricky Clues
19A. This is a debut that was bound to happen, but it’s a bit of an oxymoron if you ask me (as I vanish into an obsolescent mist). [Some computer-generated images nowadays] solves to, yes, A.I. ART.
40A. I had to look at this entry from a few angles to get it. [Atlantis and others] solves to SHUTTLES, as in space; the Atlantis launched the Galileo and Magellan spacecraft in 1989, and is still on view at the Kennedy Space Center.
67A. This answer references a canon figure in literature, but I didn’t think of a person when I tried to figure out [Whimsically imaginative, as writing]. The answer isn’t “quirky” or “fantastic”; it’s SEUSSIAN.
11D. [Deep, dark ocean caverns] solves to a Times Crossword debut (as a singular or plural): BLUE HOLES. These are natural phenomena. The Great Blue Hole, near Belize, was explored by Jacques Cousteau and is over 400 feet deep.
17D. This clue, [Brought in big bucks], sounds like a hunting pun, which doesn’t really land for me, so I was happy to find a reference to cash rather than critters: MADE BANK.
42D. This is another money clue that is actually a pun, but I didn’t get it at first. [Something strapped for cash?] solves to a PURSE, which has straps and is used to carry cash.
Constructor Notes
I had the idea for this right before heading out on a Mexican cruise with my family. “I’m sorry, guys,” I said as we left Cape Canaveral. “I need to work on this. It’s all I can think about.” While they were out exploring Mayan ruins I was in my cabin writing down puns. As one does on vacation.
Creating a puzzle with so many Q’s is no easy task. Thank you to the editing team for pushing me for more polish. My first draft had a lot of proper names and tricky words clumped together.
Pop quiz: What’s the longest one-syllable word in the English language? Hint: It’s in the puzzle.
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