Claire Rimkus offers us a good reason to try solving Friday puzzles.
FRIDAY PUZZLE — I used to be terrified of themeless puzzles. There, I said it.
You may be feeling the same way if you have mastered the Monday through Wednesday puzzles and are now tinkering with those tricky Thursdays. It’s possible that you are glancing longingly at the Fridays, the first themeless puzzles of the week.
They’re scary, but they’re not that scary. The reality is that if you have been a regular solver of the Monday through Thursday puzzles, you already have the skills you need to solve a Friday crossword. Sure, they’re “one harder” than the crosswords earlier in the week, as Will Shortz likes to say, and you may need to take your time. You may sit and stare at the clues without being able to enter any answers for awhile. Sooner or later, though, you’ll find one that you know. And that’s all you need to get started. You’re in.
The upside of trying out the themeless puzzles is that you are not beholden to solving a theme (that you might not notice anyway), and you will be able to watch the constructors really let their hair down.
Trust me, pushing toward Fridays is worth it. You’ll get a taste of what that means after the spoiler alert.
Spoiler Alert!
You’re just not going to see entries such as NOT BY A MILE and REAL MATURE crossing the grid-spanning AT THE LAST MINUTE on a Tuesday. Well, you might, but odds are good that the placement of the theme would crowd them out.
And the cluing in a Friday puzzle can be challenging during the first read-through, but a bit more gettable on the second. Take a third time to read the clues, if you need it. No one’s judging you.
Remember, you’ve been training for this. Solving all of the crosswords during the week is not for the faint of heart. You’re ready to solve Claire Rimkus’s fifth puzzle for The New York Times.
Tricky Clues
14A. “They may get all tied up with rope” can refer to people who are tied up with rope or are very busy. In this puzzle, however, the clue hints at tied scores in CLOSE GAMES.
17A. If you hear pinging sounds and you happen to be driving, pull over. It may be a sign of CAR TROUBLE.
19A. This one made me giggle. A “Possessive noun?” in grammar is one where ownership is conveyed by the addition of an apostrophe plus the letter S (sometimes just the apostrophe if the noun ends in S) to the end. Here, however, the word “possessive” refers to the greedy OWNER.
20A. I had the G from 7D and wrote in “gear” — as in scuba gear — as my first answer to the clue “Breathing apparatus.” That’ll teach me not to be human-centric. The answer is GILL.
32A. The pop singer AVA Max was new to me, but I liked her Britney Spears/Lady Gaga/Gwen Stefani vibe.
7D. “Reel with hilarity?” sounds as if it hints at someone swaying with laughter, but this reel is a LAUGH TRACK.
54D. My brain immediately thought about meat when I read the clue “Chuck alternative.” There were only four letters, however, and the first was a C, so I tried to think about what else “Chuck” could mean. It’s a nickname for someone named Charles, and an alternative to Chuck is CHAS.
62D. A new IDA for the crossword, and a great one at that! IDA Noddack was a German chemist and physicist who codiscovered rhenium with her husband Walter Noddack and their colleague Otto Berg. She also was the first scientist to mention the idea later named nuclear fission, and was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Want to Submit Crosswords to The New York Times?
The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online.
For tips on how to get started, read our series, “How to Make a Crossword Puzzle.”
The Tipping Point
Almost finished solving but need a bit more help? We’ve got you covered.
Spoiler alert: subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.
Trying to get back to the puzzle page? Right here.
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