It’s “Type A.”ġ7D: Notice the space in the clue “Needle point?” The craft of needlepoint is spelled without the space, and there is a question mark in the clue, so we need to think about something else. I got the answer to “Foreign capital whose name sounds like a blood grouping” through the crossings, and then I sat there thinking “TIE PAY is a blood grouping?” No, Deb. I’m used to thinking of the word “locks” as hair in wordplay clues, and with the clue “One strengthened by locks?,” it was easy enough to remember the story of SAMSON.ģD: The “Cuban bread” that you eat is delicious, but the “bread” in this puzzle is slang for money, so the answer is PESO.ĩD: Even after I got the answer TAIPEI I had to think about this one, because I mis-parsed it. (Yes, I know the answer in the puzzle is NERDS: I’m calling it artistic license.)ĥ9A: I have to admit that this was also a gimme for me. Also, PAPER TOSS makes its New York Times Crossword debut today.Ĥ3A: Wordplay alert! “Did crew work” in this puzzle refers to rowing crew, and the answer is OARED.Ĥ9A: Do you know about Sporcle and its fun quizzes? Go NERD out. He got promoted shortly after that, which taught me a lot about the business world. He was also a smoker, and one day, as I was coming back from a meeting, he ran past me in the hallway holding his trash bin in front of him, which just happened to be on fire.
I also knew the “Old Asian capital,” EDO (the old name for Tokyo), and a few more entries on which I could build.Ĥ1A: Back before we were supposedly a paperless society, I once shared an office with a man who liked to play PAPER TOSS. Loeb and the Down entries in the northwest, that was the only way I was going to get 13A’s ICE BOWL (clued as “Nickname of the subzero 1967 N.F.L. And thank Heaven for her, because between Ms. Ries, was our Friend of the Crossword LISA LOEB, the singer who also collaborated on a celebrity puzzle with the constructor Doug Peterson in 2017. My first gimme in Friday’s fabulous puzzle, by Andrew J. The clues are written and edited to make sure that no matter who you are or where you come from, there will be something that you know. Well, it also boils down to getting a foothold so you can eventually solve the whole thing, but it’s not that hard. It boils down to practice, and to evicting that voice in your head that says, “I am strictly a Monday-Wednesday solver, and I can’t do anything else.” I became a regular solver of those frightening, late-week grids. And here is the deep, dark secret of how I eventually became a regular solver of those frightening, late-week grids: Now I really enjoy them, both for the challenge and for the palate cleanser they provide after a week of themed puzzles and the constraints they contain. Who was I to think that I could conquer a Friday or Saturday puzzle, the hardest ones of the week? FRIDAY PUZZLE - Confession time: I used to be terrified of themeless puzzles.