If you have a strong need for non-public space, Ross Trudeau’s puzzle may also appear chunky and invasive, but it presents a pleasant “aha!” second. Ensure you assert the “aha!” out loud so the puzzle can listen, or you may be prodded.
Tricky Clues
5A: “Execs who cope with the green” hints at the people who count the number of cash, which might be the CFOS.
20A: Out of interest, I seemed into this BUY A PIG IN A POKE expression because who does that? It turns out that the idiom harkens again to the Middle Ages; that is a ton of harkening, in case you ask me.
The phrase is an alternative to the Latin word caveat emptor or “Let the client beware.” Back earlier, red meat grew in little Saran-wrapped applications within the meat aisle of your grocery store (and they do grow there; they start as tiny meatball seeds and, with the assistance of these misters above the shelf, they develop into wholesome standing rib roasts), human beings would go as much as the farmer and say, “What’s properly inside the poke today? You were given any of that brisket?”
And the farmer could say, “No, however, I have a pleasing pig for you, although you mayn’t see it.” Sometimes, the conversation could give up properly there, with the farmer being burned at the stake for the witchcraft of developing invisible pigs; due to the fact (ironic shaggy dog story beforehand), this changed into pre-net, and people didn’t see nuance in addition to what we do now. Eventually, they realized the farmer pulled a fast one on them and sought to sell the meat that was no longer always from a pig. Thus, humans discovered that they had to inspect their dinner’s real poke and eyeballs to ensure they knew what they had been buying.
56A: I would like to welcome BROCA’S AREA back to The New York Times Crossword after a 41-year hiatus.
63A: If this clue appears incomplete, worry now; it is not a typesetting error. “My b” is short for “my bad,” a superb synonym for OOPS.
2D: Don’t bother studying approximately the ALOU family of baseball gamers. They don’t arise a good deal.
Kidding! If you’re a beginning solver and aren’t familiar with the ALOUs, you could familiarize yourself with them in this article about sports names that might be suitable to understand and become a higher solver.
4D: Remember, a foreign language in the clue means an overseas language answer. “Nueva York or Dakota del Norte” is Spanish for New York and North Dakota, so the solution is ESTADO, or “kingdom.”
11D: The “Furry ‘Star Wars’ creatures” on this puzzle are Ewoks; however, the permit also takes a second not to forget Peter Mayhew, who portrayed Chewbacca in the movies and died on Apr. 30 at age seventy-four.
25D: At this point in the textual communication, lovers have dubbed the singer Christina Aguilera “XTINA,” presumably because we are all living such busy lives that we don’t have the time to sort everything out.
26D: The “Abbr. For exchange” hints at coinage, and CTS is short for “cents.”
Today’s Theme
Mr. Trudeau offers a fixed of four reputedly disparate theme terms that everyone ends the form of contact. For instance, at 20A, the solution to the clue “Purchase something sight unseen” is BUY A PIG IN A POKE. Likewise, and this becomes my non-public favored theme access, the solution to 35A’s “1984 mockumentary with lots of ad-libbed speak” is THIS IS SPINAL TAP. The revealer, at 49A, is FINISHING TOUCH because the touches are on the top of the phrase. The non-subject matter fill is a bit gluey, as Mr. Trudeau says in his notes below. However, I liked EXOTIC PET, CRAISINS, NOT AGAIN, and O ROMEO.
