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wordplay, the crossword column
Kenneth Cortes makes a glowing New York Times debut.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
MONDAY PUZZLE — Where’s the best place to have an epiphany? It’s hard to say. Unlike “coffee shops with good Wi-Fi,” there’s no obvious keyword search for such a place. Moreover, the site of inspiration differs for everyone. We don’t know whether Archimedes actually had his “Eureka!” moment in a bathtub; and while some of us still do our best and most lasting planning while bathing, others just contribute to the “r/showerthoughts” subreddit with wisdom such as “Nickelback sounds the way Nicolas Cage looks.”
There may yet be hope. Kenneth Cortes, a debut constructor, purports to lift us out of creative ennui with a crossword whose theme is a kind of epiphany of its own. I felt a little thrill after solving it, as if my thinking engines had cranked suddenly back to life after a season of disuse. Eureka!
In keeping with the Halloween season, this grid is something of a shape-shifter: In print, themed entries feature lightbulb-laden boxes; on digital platforms, the boxes appear in white against a grid that’s shaded in gray.
Regardless of their appearance, all four special sections in today’s grid highlight the same string of letters: I-D-E-A.
And that, indeed, is the BRIGHT IDEA behind this puzzle, clued as a “Stroke of genius” in the revealer at 56-Across. The other three themed entries split the word IDEA between more than one word, as follows:
Something “Not difficult at all, in slang” (18A) would be described as STUPID EASY.
A “Seeing Eye dog” (26A) is a kind of GUIDE ANIMAL.
You’ll recognize the “Game in which one might shout ‘Ready or not, here I come!’” (44A) as HIDE AND SEEK.
“Hidden word themes are common early-week puzzle fodder,” said Sam Ezersky, a puzzle editor for The New York Times. “So it’s always delightful to receive a new twist that still feels easy to grasp.”
Credit goes to Mr. Cortes for the brilliant theme idea — with an honorable mention to Will Shortz, The Times’s crossword editor, for the variation in the crossword’s appearance.
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NYT Crossword Answers for Oct. 30, 2023 – The New York Times
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