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Jump to: Tricky Clues
FRIDAY PUZZLE — When David P. Williams made his New York Times Crossword debut on Aug. 19, he left solvers with a somewhat cryptic note. He said that his puzzle was a tribute to a poem by Wallace Stevens called “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” and that his plan was to use identical, 66-word grid designs in a series of 13 puzzles.
As expected, Mr. Williams’s second puzzle, which was published in November, did indeed have the same grid, and this time his note was even more terse. He merely wrote “A second way,” linking his comment to the previous Wordplay column and to the poem.
Mr. Williams is back, and guess what. That’s correct — we have the third installment in his blackbird series, and it’s a good one. The fill is a lot of fun, especially the long, stair-step entries in the center of the grid.
But, for the life of me, I can’t figure out the connection between the puzzle series and the poem, aside from the fact that there are 13 ways of looking at the blackbird and 13 stanzas in the poem, and that Mr. Williams plans to make 13 puzzles.
I’d like to believe that each puzzle contains something that alludes to the corresponding stanza, but nothing is coming up for me. The third stanza reads:
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.
Maybe it’s as simple as 13 stanzas, 13 puzzles. What are your thoughts?
Tricky Clues
16A. In this clue, the word “breeze” in “Breeze for the beach” is not a comment on the weather. It means something that is easy. An EASY READ is a great thing to take to the beach. Just remember to keep applying sunblock.
22A. The “Set piece?” is a GEM placed in a setting.
28A. The question mark in the clue “Apple product?” indicates that we are not looking for something made by the company Apple. In this case, a product used on an apple (the fruit) might be a CORER.
41A. I confidently wrote in “ewe” as the answer to “Farm creature,” but that was not correct. Based on the crossings — I figured out 33D first — the answer is ANT.
49A. I love the word YOINKED (“Snatched, in slang”). It’s fun to say.
5D. “Dark side of the moon?” was a clever clue that I figured out only by solving the crossings. And when I did, I still had to stare at it to understand what a female horse had to do with the moon. It turns out that a lunar MARE is a flat, dark basin on the surface of the moon.
8D. The runners in “Goal for some runners” are not joggers. They are politicians running for office, and their goal is usually a SEAT in some elected capacity.
17D. The “Common spots for autographs” are not fan meet-and-greets. You can sign on the DOTTED LINES.
21D. I loved this one. “Concern for the 1%” is not suggesting that we should feel sorry for the wealthy. It’s that feeling you get when you look at your device and realize that you will soon have a DEAD BATTERY.
28D. The word “Best, in an idiom” is CRÈME, as in “crème de la crème.”
31D. The “One clever enough to win every argument … but not clever enough not to” is a SMARTASS. It reminds me of Abraham Lincoln’s remark “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”
32D. This was a new one to me. In slang, to “Deceive, especially to avoid responsibility for something” is to SHINE someone ON.
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