I Have a Dream – The New York Times

THURSDAY PUZZLE Man, did this one ever take me down. Congratulations to the constructor, Tracy Bennett. You win. And its only Thursday.

Maybe I just wasnt on the same wavelength with her today, because this is a great puzzle. Its clean and filled with a lot of exciting entries, AS NEAT notwithstanding. The theme is excellent. And yet it gave me more trouble than the average Saturday puzzle.

At first I thought it might contain a rebus element, because that is often the culprit when I am struggling to make progress in a crossword. Its not a rebus puzzle.

There was a lot of general knowledge in Ms. Bennetts puzzle, and the clues seemed a bit tougher than usual, but in general I think I just wasnt braining well today. These things happen.

5A. I totally missed this one. Hunk did not inspire me to think of GOB, but I guess they are synonyms: You can have a hunk of something and a whole GOB of it as well.

36A. Dont panic. We are not thinking of that kind of flasher. A Flasher at a rock concert is a STROBE light.

40A. My brain which totally betrayed me today, in case I havent mentioned it got stuck on the word unto for the clue Golden rule word. That doesnt fit, however. We are supposed to do unto OTHERS.

41A. Shout-out to Sam Ezersky, our associate puzzles editor and an alumnus of the University of Virginia. I didnt not know about the famed serpentine garden walls.

46A. I missed this one, too. The Confucian scholar in the clue is Chu HSI.

52A. Just stopping here to mention that this theme clue was initially my least favorite until I thought about it some more and then it cracked me up. The singer Barry White was known for his low baritone and would definitely be beyond the range of THE SOPRANOS in a singing contest.

59A. I had HALITE for the longest time and when the T was marked wrong, I ran through the alphabet to find the missing letter. Fortunately, I didnt have to go too far. The answer is HALIDE.

60A. The use of Just deserts versus Just desserts comes up a lot, so I will just leave this here for those who want to argue. The Cause of just deserts not desserts is BAD KARMA.

2D/3D. I liked the side-by-side clues Snorty ride (STEED) and Sporty ride, informally (VETTE).

25D. The DAW is a cousin to the black crow. Its been in the New York Times Crossword 75 times. You would think I would know it by now.

30D. Not up on your European rivers? Read Mr. Ezerskys 12 European Rivers That Will Help You Raise Your Crossword Game. The River through Spain in this puzzle is the EBRO.

31D. I will freely admit that I asked my kids about this one. The Playable kid in the Super Smash Bros. games is NESS. By the way, if you ever run into my children and they challenge you to a game, do not play them for money.

45D. Like many of the clues in this puzzle, I went in the wrong direction for this one. Things many people work on all day long sounds like projects to me, but no, its DESKS.

This theme hit me in two parts, which for my money was part of the fun. Two television shows are mashed together to make a wacky phrase.

At first I thought only the first part of each theme phrase was a TV show, but no, the theme was a two-word show plus a one-word show. For example, at 19A, the answer to the clue What to do if you want to win bar trivia? is GET SMART FRIENDS. That is the sitcom GET SMART plus the sitcom FRIENDS.

And look at some of this fill: VISIGOTHS! SMARM! FREE AT LAST! BAD KARMA! What a fun puzzle. I wish I could have solved it.

These days, most puzzle themes come to me in the liminal space between dreaming and waking. Other times Ill stumble on an idea while Im in a rabbit hole, researching a clue in editorial or fact-checking mode.

I dont remember how this theme idea began, but I do recall that the R&D phase was absorbing, because it involved sorting, combining and regrouping, tasks that I find soothing whether Im manipulating words, colored pencils or socks. I wanted to achieve formal as well as syntactic integrity in the theme, so I ultimately focused on television shows that would fit a two-word plus one-word pattern, though I considered other permutations along the way.

The first version I submitted had four entries, two of which were deemed stronger than two others. (Alas, my Kung Fu Entourage will have to kick ass in another theme.) I did a second round of brainstorming, and we settled on three solid 15s in a 72-word grid.

Its great to be back in The New York Times. I miss seeing my tribe at the A.C.P.T.!

Almost finished solving but need a bit more help? Weve got you covered.

Warning: There be spoilers ahead, but subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.

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I Have a Dream - The New York Times