Trenton Charlson’s puzzle is an indication of more to come.
TUESDAY PUZZLE — Happy Tuesday, solvers! Today we have a puzzle from the constructor Trenton Charlson, who is making his 37th appearance in the New York Times Crossword. That’s a lot of crosswords, and if today’s puzzle is any indication, I suspect there will be many more to come from Mr. Charlson.
Today’s puzzle contained the clue “Not doing things the ‘rite’ way?” Setting aside the wordplay, as indicated by the question mark, it made me think about how there is a persistent belief among some solvers that there is a right way and a wrong way to solve crossword puzzles. The supposed right way, some argue, is to struggle through each clue until the puzzle is complete; stopping to look up an answer or peek at the column before you finish solving is wrong, the thinking goes.
Here at the Wordplay column, we firmly believe that the only “wrong” way to solve is in pen. (Kidding, that’s also not wrong. It’s just cocky!) We certainly do not think that looking up an answer or two, or coming here for a nudge in the right direction, is wrong. Do what you need to do. Enjoy the puzzle! At the end of the day, the crossword is a game, and we just want you to solve it in whatever way makes the game fun for you.
So if you’re here for help, please know that you’re still doing things “the rite way.” And on that note, here are the answers to a few tough clues from today’s puzzle.
Tricky Clues
35A. I encounter the word RIA (“Narrow waterway”) only in crossword puzzles, so this is a good one to file away for future solves. It has appeared in the New York Times Crossword 421 times, 110 of which were during the Will Shortz era. And seven of those times, the word appeared with a clue identical to this one.
36A. I wasn’t sure what to make of the clue “What dogs often do after a few rounds of ‘Go fetch’” because “run away and refuse to give the ball back” didn’t fit into the four spaces provided. It turns out the answer is PANT, which is also true, if somewhat less colorful.
19D. The clue “Rest on one’s ___ (take it easy)” also stumped me. I wanted “laurels” here, but that didn’t fit. I was unfamiliar with the expression “rest on one’s OARS,” but as an idiom it certainly makes sense: I can easily imagine rowing a boat and taking a break to rest on my oars.
41D. “Not doing things the rite way?” is the clue for ELOPING because people who elope get married without the formal “rites” involved in many traditional wedding ceremonies.
Today’s Theme
This puzzle features four theme entries and a revealer with the clue “Indication of more to come … or a hint to a feature of three consecutive letters in 18-, 20-, 59- and 61-Across.” The indication of more to come is DOT DOT DOT, which is also contained in the clue itself: an ellipsis. DOT DOT DOT also refers to the dots (a.k.a. tittles) that can be found atop three consecutive letters — i-j-i — in each theme entry. (This assumes, of course, that you are solving by hand and using lowercase letters.)
The first of these theme entries, SEIJI OZAWA (“Longtime conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra”), was totally new to me, as classical music tends to fall outside my wheelhouse. I am grateful to Mr. Charlson for giving me a reason to search for videos of SEIJI OZAWA conducting — he is a joy to watch! And, as the theme revealer indicates, his name contains three dots in a row above the last three (lowercase) letters of SEIJI.
The other three theme entries — HIJINKS, BEIJING and FIJI DOLLAR — all have a DOT DOT DOT sequence over three consecutive letters.
Kudos to Mr. Charlson for this neat theme and revealer. Let’s hear from him about this puzzle!
Constructor Notes
A while back, I had the idea to build a puzzle around a few theme answers including an ellipsis (like WHAT THE … and … OR ELSE), with the ellipsis taking up three spaces.
Words with the “iji” sequence would be directly below the ellipsis so that the dots would become the ellipsis. Like some of my more complicated ideas, this one never came to fruition; the fact that I felt as if I would have had to avoid extraneous i’s and j’s deterred me from ever even starting on a grid. Some time later, I had the idea for this much simpler version of the theme. I guess sometimes less is more (and I bet there are some solvers out there who would agree).
I enjoy working with stacks of seven-letter answers, so it was nice to get the opportunity to do so here. I think this grid turned out quite well, and I was also glad to see my clue for ELOPING make the cut. Happy solving!
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