Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — When struggling to understand a crossword theme, I find that the answer often comes to me if I just start typing a message to the puzzle editors. I get about as far as “Can someone explain ——” before it hits me, at which point I quietly delete my message and slink back to my column.
This was precisely how I succeeded in understanding the theme of today’s puzzle, constructed by Adam Vincent. Although Mr. Vincent’s most recent crossword was published in July, it’s been a little over a year since I wrote my first column about his puzzles.
Today’s Theme
The central entry of this theme appears, handily, at the center of the grid, split between 6- and 32-Down. Combined, these entries make a phrase that means to [beat an opponent soundly]. The expression is to CLEAN ONE’S CLOCK (a little confusing, since “one’s” suggests that the clock-cleaning might be self-inflicted), and it’s surrounded by entries that interpret the idiom literally. For instance, at 15A, [A reason to act this very instant … or why you might 6-Down 32-Down?] solves to THE TIME IS RIPE, because “ripe” refers to odor that might merit a cleaning. At 34D, a [Bottleful that might 6-/32-Down?] is HAND SOAP — the “hands” in question are those of the clock. And one more, [Bottleful that might 6-Down/32-Down?], at 39D, is FACE WASH, for the clock’s face.
You had to be rather “clockwise” to solve this theme, eh? (Unless you stand firmly against the notion of requiring wisdom to solve it … in which case I’d call you counterclockwise.)
Tricky Clues
13A. [100%] can mean any number of things — a perfect test score, resounding approval or, as it is here, ALL of something.
26A. A good way to think about question marks in crossword clues is that they are signs to question your first assumptions. [Chance to see the big game?] seems as if it refers to sports, which means that the answer almost certainly doesn’t. “Big game” is another way of referring to large wild animals; the answer is SAFARI.
34A. This was the entry I had to correct at the end of my solve. I’d made a mistake on the first letter, imagining that 34D must be something called “sand soap,” perhaps relating to the sands of time or a sand timer. In any case: To [Pawn] something is to HOCK it (and to advertise something is to hawk it).
52A. [Pirates’ support group?] is no sharing circle — it’s a collection of PEG LEGS. And if you didn’t groan at this punchline, you’re going to have to walk the plank.
58A. Like 13A, [10 out of 10] suggests a test score. It’s more of a qualitative assessment, though: an IDEAL.
35D. There’s a brilliant ambiguity to [Love of the past], which one might take to be a kind of nostalgia but which refers instead to an OLD FLAME. It’s not the past that’s loved but the love that’s past.
Constructor Notes
The seed for this puzzle was HAND SOAP, a phrase I spent a lot of time looking at on a soap dispenser in the cramped bathroom of an old apartment. CLEAN ONE’S CLOCK immediately sprang to mind, then FACE WASH, and THE TIME IS RIPE fell after a little brainstorming. But then I had to sit on this theme set for a few months, as I couldn’t figure out how to cleanly fit entries of these unusual lengths (8, 8, 13 and 14 letters) into a symmetrical grid.
The break came, literally, when I realized I could split CLEAN ONE’S CLOCK into two entries. The result is a little clunky, but it saved me from having three adjacent 14-letter words running down the middle of the grid — a section that would have been very challenging to fill cleanly even without the added constraint of the intersecting THE TIME IS RIPE. A lesson I’m learning as a constructor is to be less strict about adhering to conventions that don’t serve the puzzle, and to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
A small joy of creating crosswords for me is sprinkling in entries and cluing angles from my own life so that each puzzle is like a secret personal time capsule. In this case, when I was first constructing this puzzle, I had recently finished watching “Better Call Saul” (hence 59-Down) and was working in my day job with Afghan scholars who were threatened or displaced amid the Taliban’s 2021 takeover (thus 2-Down).
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Work your way through our guide “How to Solve the New York Times Crossword.” It contains an explanation of most of the types of clues you will see in the puzzles and a practice Mini at the end of each section.
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