FRIDAY PUZZLE — By the time some people work their way up to solving the themeless Friday and Saturday crosswords, they seem to have made an interesting leap from not being so sure they are ready for a tough challenge to the alarmingly confident “Bring it on, (Will) Shortz! And make it really hard this time!” I see comments here on Wordplay and on social media — particularly on Crossword Twitter, a fascinating microcosm of the solving universe — that suggest that the puzzle was so easy for them that they were forced to solve it blindfolded and standing on their heads in order to make it feel challenging.
I am here to tell those of you who are just starting to solve, or those who are just moving on to the hardest puzzles of the week, to pay no attention. Let these people have their moment, but don’t let them deter you from giving a tough puzzle your best effort. You do you.
Remember, these “supersolvers” — the people who rank in crossword tournaments — are a minority and do not reflect the real world. The only thing you, personally, are competing with is the puzzle, and maybe the harsh voices in your head that tell you that you should be doing better. Tell the voices from me that they need to shut up.
Of course, what makes a puzzle “hard” is not something that is easily pinned down. Sometimes your wheelhouse might not be in the same neighborhood as the constructor’s wheelhouse. Maybe you have a lot on your mind, as we all do right now, and your attention span is on the fritz.
I had a tough time breaking into Brian Thomas’s grid, and I’ve been doing this for a long time, Fridays and Saturdays included. But I’m glad I stayed with it. Mr. Thomas’s puzzle rewarded me for my persistence with lively fill that made me smile, such as REPOST, IVAN PAVLOV, DIET POP, CREAM SODA, JEANETTE RANKIN, NOT SO FAST, CAT BURGLAR, MUESLI, COOL DUDES, ROSA PARKS, I’VE DONE IT, RAISE CAIN, CENTER ICE, IMMENSE, STOPS DEAD and JOE BOXER.
So push yourself a bit, but please don’t allow yourself to be bothered by those who say they find a given puzzle to be easy. Remember your ultimate goal: You want to finish the puzzle, enjoy yourself while you solve, and feel good about what you — and you alone — have accomplished. And trust me on this: That is more than good enough.
On an administrivial note, Caitlin Lovinger will be on a well-deserved vacation this weekend, and you will be in the capable hands of Helen Verongos, a New York Times editor, who also happens to have the byline on the current Inkubator crossword. The Inkubator requires a subscription, but you can also sign up for a free trial. Please make Ms. Verongos feel welcome, and enjoy your Labor Day weekend.
Tricky Clues
1A. If you hang out on social media sites like Reddit, you will often see someone post a meme that has undoubtedly been posted many times before — which that person was probably unaware of — at which point the commenters will yell “REPOST!” and humiliate the poster for not having known that. Remind me again why social media was a good idea?
14A. I knew the answer to the clue “Nobel Prize winner whose name should ring a bell?” had to be PAVLOV (as in the classical conditioning experiments), but I could not for the life of me remember his first name. I got stuck on Anton, for some reason. I got the I and the V through the crossings and that helped me guess that the answer was IVAN PAVLOV.
25A/30A. This puzzle seems to cover both names for carbonated drinks, with DIET POP at 25A and CREAM SODA at 30A.
29A. Yes! “Year, in Portuguese” is indeed ANO without the tilde. Mazel tov.
34A. Fascinating central entry, and a fascinating woman. Congresswoman JEANETTE RANKIN (1880-1973) was a suffragist for women’s rights and the first woman to hold federal office in the United States.
41A. I can’t say that I didn’t learn anything from Mr. Thomas’s puzzle. TIL that BEETLES, our new insect overlords, are the largest animal order on Earth, with over 350,000 species. That doesn’t bug me at all.
43A. A tricky one, because we don’t know whether the clue “Tears” should be read with a long E sound, as in the tears we cry, or the long A sound, as in someone going on a tear. In this puzzle, it’s the latter, and the answer is SPREES.
6D. I had to read this clue twice. “It is avoided while playing it” refers to the person who is “it” while playing TAG.
13D. Another learning moment: Can you imagine someone trying to fill an Olympic swimming pool one TEASPOON at a time, 500 million times?
26D. I didn’t get this one. If you are going away, you are IN A ROMP? The phrase has been used once before in 2009, and clued as “Overwhelmingly,” so make of that what you will. Other definitions for ROMP do not suggest going away, but getting much closer.
33D. Note the question mark in this clue. “In a mean way?” does not hint at being cruel, it means the “mean,” or ON AVERAGE.
Constructor Notes
Very, very excited to seed this puzzle with the first female congresswoman in United States history. JEANNETTE RANKIN is fascinating to read about — she was elected for two separate terms, in 1916 and 1940. As a devout pacifist, she was the only person to vote against the United States’s entry into World War II (knowing the vote would pass anyway). And, for a small part of her life, she lived in my hometown, Spokane. I’ve spent time off and on for the past year trying to track down any information about her time here, to no avail beyond where she worked. If you do happen to know anything, please let me know!
Shout-out to the editing team for cleaning up a few clues, particularly 33D. Construction-wise, I began by getting the middle to work with CREAM SODA and NOT SO FAST, then the top right/bottom left, and finally the other corners. I’m always content to break up a triple stack into a double if it makes the fill cleaner — which is what had to be done in the northwest and southeast.
The Tipping Point
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A Name That Rings a Bell - The New York Times
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