NYT Crossword Answers: Actress Taylor of TV's "Bones" - The New York Times

2022-01-03 15:11:14 By : Ms. May Wong

Ring out 2021 with Meghan Morris’s second Times puzzle.

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FRIDAY PUZZLE — Wow, what a year! In so many ways, 2021 has been a banner year for the New York Times Crossword, and the highlight (for me, at least) has been the incredible number of debut constructors we saw. One of them is making her sophomore outing with today’s puzzle: Welcome back to Meghan Morris (who debuted in September). Thank you for joining us as we celebrate New Year’s Eve.

This has also been an exciting year for me. I joined the Wordplay team in June, and it’s been an honor and a privilege to break down Tricky Clues and Today’s Theme — and occasionally geek out over some impressive feats of construction — over the past six months. But today is extra special: It’s my first time writing up a themeless puzzle. And, shh, don’t tell the other columnists, but Friday puzzles are actually my favorites of the week. Don’t worry, I won’t try to permanently steal this slot from Deb Amlen, but I am downright delighted to be here. And I’m thrilled to get to write about such an engaging, sparkly, fun-filled Friday puzzle to close out the year.

10A. I adore the clue “Sudden inspirations” for GASPS, which comes without the traditional question mark signifier that lets you know something tricky is going on. Welcome to Friday, folks!

15A. The “Waltz onomatopoeia” is OOM-PAH-PAH, which is the sound that one might make to represent the 3/4 time signature of the waltz. It is also the name of a song from the 1960 musical “Oliver!”

19A. An “ambigram” is a visually symmetrical word that looks the same when rotated 180 degrees. (Just like most crossword grids.) The “Kitchen brand whose name is an ambigram” is OXO, which, when rotated, still says OXO.

21A. I got a kick out of the clue “More might come before it,” which on its surface is charmingly ambiguous. “More might come before what?” you might wonder. This is one of those clues where you’re looking for the words that might complete a phrase that begins with the word “more.” Today, those words are OR LESS, as in, “this puzzle is more OR LESS fabulous.”

30A. “‘___ me!’ (request to a fridge-goer)” is a fun clue that combines a fill-in-the-blank element with a humorous parenthetical comment to create a memorable mental image. Although I don’t think I’ve ever said “BEER me!” to a fridge-goer, I can definitely picture it happening. This clue checks all the boxes!

50A. The clue “Where to do as others do, it’s said” is the clue for IN ROME, alluding to the expression “When IN ROME, do as the Romans do.”

61A. If a stand-up comic or drag queen “Crushes it” in a performance, you might also say that she SLAYS.

62A. Ooh, this clue is a little frisky. The “Couple in the back of a car” is not, as the clue seems to imply, a set of young paramours, but rather a much more mundane set of REAR TIRES.

2D. The French “mother sauces” are béchamel, velouté, espagnole, hollandaise and tomato, the first three of which are made using a ROUX.

9D. I was initially stumped by, and then amused by, the clue “Ending with four or six, but not five.” Usually these sorts of clues (“ending with”) refer to a word that could follow the clue words, but in this case it was really just three letters: THS, making the words fourths and sixths (but not the nonword “fiveths”).

11D. Someone who “Does laundry or pays the bills, in modern lingo” ADULTS, which is to say he does the boring-chore part of being an adult. The use of the word “adult” as a verb is certainly controversial, but I don’t mind it.

29D. The “Trio of horrors?” is not the witches of Macbeth or the heads of Cerberus, but rather three letters found in the word “horrors,” which are ARS (the plural of the letter “R”).

33D. When a clue is in a non-English language, the entry will be in the same language. In this case, “Rosso o bianco” is Italian for “red or white” and is the clue for VINO, Italian for “wine.”

57D. The “Dictionary abbr.” VAR is also commonly seen after crossword clues. It means “variant,” and in a crossword puzzle it lets you know that the entry will feature a variant spelling.

I started constructing this puzzle just by building a grid that I thought looked nice and open. I then worked on the 15-letter entries that cross in the middle, as well as the NW and SE stacks. Once I had all that in place, I filled in the rest around it. Looking back at the puzzle now, I particularly connect with the arc formed by 22A, 25A and 28A. I [25A] convictions as a public defender; I have 4-year-old twins who love pretending to be [28A] who use magic to freeze their parents; and unfortunately I went to a [22A] recently because one of those twins broke her arm. That hasn’t stopped her from freezing her parents, though.

The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, which will reopen on Jan. 3. For tips on how to get started, read our series, “How to Make a Crossword Puzzle.”

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