Anne Grae Martin makes her New York Times Crossword debut.
TUESDAY PUZZLE — Welcome to Ms. Anne Grae Martin, who is making her debut today in the New York Times Crossword.
One of my favorite parts of solving an early-week crossword puzzle (like a Monday or Tuesday puzzle) is using the long entries to predict what the theme will be before I reach the revealer. In fact, this is advice I give to many new solvers who are feeling stuck.
Trying to guess the theme is good practice for learning how themes “work,” and what sorts of themes appear regularly in crossword puzzles. More important for new solvers, however, is that guessing the theme can help you solve. If you can deduce the theme from a pattern you’ve already uncovered, it can offer a toehold into all or part of the theme entries that might feel elusive at first.
Of course, sometimes this advice may prove hard to follow, especially if the theme pattern is so subtle that you need to identify the revealer to uncover it. This was true for me today, as the theme entries (typically the long acrosses) unspooled without any obvious connection that I could deduce. When I finally did reach the revealer, it provided a satisfying “aha” moment, but the moment was too late to provide any help — oh well! So much for all that guess-the-theme advice nonsense!
Tricky Clues
12A. I enjoyed the clue “Address that can’t receive packages” for URL. And I mean, you can try to send a care package to Wordplay at https://www.nytimes.com/column/wordplay (we love cookies!), but we probably won’t be able to get it there.
15A. I didn’t realize that ONE UP (or, more commonly, 1UP) was the term for an “Extra life, in video gaming” for GAMEs (48A) other than Super Mario Bros., in which the green mushroom is a ONE UP, but the internet tells me other GAMEs use the term too.
50A. The trick here is to shift how you mentally parse the words in the clue. “What turns on a farm vehicle” is not a tractor key or automatic starter to turn on a farm vehicle, but rather is a thing that turns on a farm vehicle, or a WAGON WHEEL.
66A. A place “Where ‘don’t sweat it’ is hard-to-follow advice?’” has to be a SAUNA, where the whole point is to sweat it.
71A. Newer solvers may be unfamiliar with the bracket notation that you sometimes see in clues, as with “[Send assistance!]” in the clue for SOS. In general, brackets are telling you that the words within them are being communicated in a nonverbal manner. In this case, it’d be with Morse code. Another example of this clue type might be “[More tuna please!”] as the clue for MEOW (OK, I wrote that clue).
11D. I only recently learned that Bolivia has a separate “Judicial capital” that is not LA PAZ but does share the same number of letters as LA PAZ. That capital is SUCRE.
57D. “Sassy behaviors, in slang” are TUDES, short for attiTUDES.
Today’s Theme
The theme of this puzzle is built around the clever observation that there are many “LITTLE RED” things in the English language. This is a take on the common theme type of “the words at the beginning of these common phrases can all follow the words in the revealer.”
For example, the first theme entry, BOOK SMART (“Educated, but not streetwise”), yields the “LITTLE RED / BOOK” when you add the revealer phrase to the start of the entry. The LITTLE RED BOOK is also known as “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung.” I had never heard of HEN BERRIES (“Eggs, in diner slang”), but I do know the fable of the LITTLE RED / HEN, who asked for help baking bread and then declined to share that bread with the animals who had refused to help her bake it.
There are two other LITTLE RED phrases generated by putting the revealer in front of the first word of the theme entries, one of which I recognized (50A) and one of which I did not (40A). The theme set is pretty tight, meaning that Ms. Martin has found and used most words that could possibly complete the LITTLE RED ___ pattern. A couple that appear conspicuously absent are LITTLE RED Riding Hood and LITTLE RED Corvette, but I can’t think of any phrases that could conceal “Riding Hood” or “Corvette.”
Congratulations to Ms. Martin on her fabulous debut — I look forward to solving her next puzzle!
Constructor Notes
Hello Wordplay Blog! I’m so excited to be making my New York Times Crossword debut. This blog was the reason I began solving puzzles regularly in the first place, and I’m so grateful to Deb in particular for her friendly and inclusive manner in making anyone feel like they can do the crossword any day of the week.
A little bit about me. I am a third-year law student based in Washington, D.C. I started solving crosswords regularly when I was studying for the LSAT and began constructing in 2019 before starting law school. Constructing and solving have been great outlets for me during the more stressful moments of school.
This theme was one that came together very quickly once I set my mind to it. I liked that there was a weirdly high number of phrases that fit this theme, but not an excessive number. Fitting them into the longer answers came pretty easily as well, and from that point it was really just a matter of getting as clean of fill as I could manage.
One last note, The Little Red Hen has always held a special place in my heart, and it feels apropos that my debut pays homage to it. I had a seizure when I was very little, and the first thing my mom read to me after it was The Little Red Hen to make sure I could follow along. I’ve always associated that story with gratitude for health and family, and this is especially true after this year. I hope if you’re reading this you can take time to appreciate something in your life you’re grateful for right now.
Thank you to the entire Crossword team for working with me to help this get ready for production. Thank you, too, to my parents, friends, and boyfriend for being so supportive of all of my hobbies over the years. I hope everyone has as much fun solving this puzzle as I had constructing it!
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.”
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