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wordplay, the crossword column
David Litman and Andrea Carla Michaels make a strong case together.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues | Solving Tip
MONDAY PUZZLE — In a recent column, I mentioned that both the clue word “Humdinger” and its corresponding entry, DILLY, sounded like inventions of the nonsense poet Edward Lear. It now occurs to me that Wordplay readers might like to know a bit more about Mr. LEAR, the “poet who wrote ‘The Owl and the Pussy-cat’” (62A). I’ll leave you to read that poem yourselves — its language is slightly too colorful to publish here — but by way of introduction, here is one of his many limericks:
There was an old person of Grange,
Whose manners were scroobious and strange;
He sailed to St. Blubb in a waterproof tub,
That aquatic old person of Grange.
And now, to business: This puzzle is a collaboration between one veteran constructor, Andrea Carla Michaels, and one making his New York Times debut, David Litman. Together, they’ve put together a lovely and accessible grid for all skill levels. Let us unpack it scroobiously.
Mr. Litman and Ms. Michaels play on the multiple meanings of a word to achieve their theme, as described in their revealer at 51-Across: “Words before legal action … or what one might exclaim to 19-, 24- and 45-Across?”
These words are “SEE YOU IN COURT!” In kind, each of the entries referenced in the revealer contains the name of a person who appears in a kind of court. At 19-Across, for example, we have VENUS WILLIAMS, the “Tennis great with a sister who’s also a tennis great.” Williams, of course, competes on a tennis court.
Courts referred to in the other themed entries are legal and royal in nature.
23A. I am constantly looking for business opportunities that would allow me to post “Ye OLDE Shoppe” outside my window: apothecaries, haberdasheries, things of that nature.
36A. “Rider’s handful” may look singular, but “handful” slyly indicates a plural noun: REINS.
5D. I haven’t had the good fortune of seeing a show under the big top, but I recognize a “Comically packed circus vehicle” as a CLOWN CAR because of how often I’ve seen it used as a gag on television.
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NYT Crossword Answers for July 31, 2023 – The New York Times
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