NYT Crossword Answers: Harold Who Sought the Republican Presidential Nomination Nine Times – The New York Times

Todays Theme

If you havent seen this theme type before, you might be puzzling over the clues. They hint at only part of each answer. And what are those circles for?

The key, as usual, is in the revealer at 60A. The clue reads On and on or how to read 18-, 27-, 37- and 51-Across to understand this puzzles theme? and the answer is ENDLESSLY. And its not merely an answer; its an explanation about those circles.

The circled letters are at the beginning and end of each theme entry, and we are instructed to think about them endlessly. That does not mean you have to keep this puzzle in front of you for the rest of your life. It means that you have to remove each end of the entry to get the answer to the clue.

Say it with me now: Ohhhh.

Lets look at 18A. The clue is Fencers cry, and the answer, of course is ZEN GARDEN. That would make for a very silly fencing match, so lets take off the first and last letters the ones in those circles. We end up with EN GARDE, a much more cromulent answer.

One of the tougher ones may be 37A, although your mileage may vary. The answer to the clue Spot for a dinner plate is STABLEMATE, which is not a suggestion to eat your dinner plate off the back of a horse (again, your mileage may vary. You do you.). Its an instruction to remove each end of the answer, which leaves you with TABLE MAT. Thats not as in-the-language for Americans as place mat, but its certainly discernible.

I made this puzzle last August, around the time I decided to use wordplay as a motive for learning to code again. I still cant make a website or a video game, but I can find all the words in a list that dont have the letter E in them in under a minute, so I would say I achieved my goal.

I really enjoy constructing themes like this one because its a good excuse to spend a few hours looking through lists of words with special properties. And while few of them translate into anything worthy of a theme, sometimes things work out. While the concept of removing letters can be a bit basic for a Thursday, I hope that the vivid fill and the fact that solvers have to figure out the end letters from the crossings should make up for it. Ill also be interested to see how well solvers know TABLE MAT, which my British-born parents knew well, but which the dictionaries felt a bit more skittish about.

A bit about me: Im a fourth-year linguistics major at U.C. Santa Cruz, my hobbies are photography, GarageBand and trying my best at piano, and Ive been making crosswords for about a year and a half now.

This puzzle is my Times debut, and Im really excited to contribute to this community. I hope you all enjoy it!

The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online.

For tips on how to get started, read our series, How to Make a Crossword Puzzle.

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.

Trying to get back to the puzzle page? Right here.

Your thoughts?

Go here to see the original:

NYT Crossword Answers: Harold Who Sought the Republican Presidential Nomination Nine Times - The New York Times