435 Members of the House of Representatives Crossword
wordplay, the crossword column
Elevation-of-the-Line
Lynn Lempel's puzzle is a yard ol' time.
Monday PUZZLE — Talk about meridian-of-the-line: This is Lynn Lempel'due south 97th New York Times Crossword! And they don't phone call her the Queen of the Mondays for nothing — of those 97 puzzles, this is her 70th Monday puzzle.
Ms. Lempel writes in her Constructor Notes that she knew this puzzle would run on a Mon, which naturally raises the question: How did she know that?! Does Ms. Lempel have superpowers? Does she have a direct line to Volition Shortz's brain? Or is at that place something peculiarly Monday well-nigh this theme?
My bet is on the theme. Mondays just take a vibe that's pretty easy to pin down: They're straightforward yet engaging, and the theme entries are more often than not words that are both easy for constructors to clue and for solvers to gauge. All these things are true of today'due south puzzle, and beyond that, there are also some "theme types" that run more than ofttimes on Mondays than on other days. Today'south theme falls squarely in that bucket — we'll become to that in a minute — but first, permit'due south check out some of the tougher clues and entries from this puzzle.
Tricky Clues
36A. When I get-go started solving crossword puzzles a couple of hundred years ago, I was certain that "Top-of-the-line" was the inkling for A-ONE considering of the steak sauce brand, which I thought was the most delicious condiment on earth. (To be off-white, I was a child!) Now that I am quondam and wise, I know that A-Ane just ways "the very all-time possible," but I still take no sense of why this is the case. (I'm fairly certain it'due south not related to steak sauce.) It may be related to the fact that "A" and "1" are each the first entry in a series, then A-One is doubly commencement-charge per unit? If anyone in the comments has a improve (non-condiment) explanation, I'd love to hear it!
37A. A journalist who EMBEDS with a military unit attaches to that unit of measurement, going on deployment with information technology and reporting back from the site of conflict, and so "Places amid the troops, as a journalist" is the clue for EMBEDS.
46A. "One of 435 in D.C." is a REP, short for 1 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives. Since D.C. is abbreviated, you know the entry will as well be abbreviated.
51A. The "Org. promoting oral health" is the ADA, or American Dental Clan. (Sorry, non-American solvers!)
11D. When a clue ends in a preposition, equally in "Fix one'south gaze on," it's quite likely that the entry volition too end in one. "Ready one'south gaze" ways STARE, but with that "on" tacked onto the end, the entry must be STARE AT.
15D. Ben Gurion Airport is in Tel Aviv, so the "Carrier based at Ben Gurion Airport" is the Israeli airline EL AL, which means "to the skies" in Hebrew.
27D. Churchill Downs is the site of the Kentucky Derby, then the "Minty drink at Churchill Downs" is the beverage of choice for horse racing fans who attend the result: the mint JULEP.
29D. The word "informally" in the clue "Capitol insiders, informally" lets you know that the entry will exist abbreviated or slangy in some way. In this example, the "Capitol insiders" are POLS, which is a Capitol insider style of saying either politicians or politically active people.
36D. One of my 2022 New year's day's resolutions was to learn the departure between AXEL and AXLE, and I learned common cold that an AXEL is a "Figure skating jump" and an AXLE is a car function. Small victories! Let's hope I practise equally well in 2022 learning the divergence between Mauna LOA and Mauna KEA.
Today's Theme
At first, I wasn't certain there was a theme in this puzzle — the long Across entries did not seem to have terribly much in mutual as far equally I could tell, and there was no obvious revealer entry. After a scrap more thought, I realized that all the long Across entries did have something in common: They all end with the same sound. And, on summit of that, all of those rhyming words were spelled with different variations on that sound.
For instance, the start long Beyond entry is CEREAL Basin (17A: "Where to go one'due south Kix?"). This entry ends with -OWL. The next theme entry is Billy JOEL (25A: "Singer/songwriter nicknamed 'Piano Man'"), which ends with -OEL. Despite the different spellings of the -OLE audio, Basin and JOEL rhyme! This is true for all half dozen of the theme entries: LOST SOUL, Get out POLL and so forth all share a rhyming last word with a unlike spelling.
This is i of the straightforward but elegant theme types that appear from time to fourth dimension, about exclusively on Mondays. In fact, equally Ms. Lempel notes below, it is a bit of a throwback — yous don't see themes like this as often equally you lot did possibly xx years ago, so it's always fun to encounter them on the rare Mon when they make an appearance.
Overall, this is a nice, simple theme — so uncomplicated I virtually didn't notice information technology — which just makes me capeesh information technology more. The subtle execution of this rhyming theme is a perfect showcase for Ms. Lempel's talent of crafting tidy theme sets surrounded by clean, crisp fill. Non a bad way to offset the week!
Constructor Notes
The vagaries of English language are e'er fun to play around with. Way back when, it seemed pop to publish puzzles with rhyming words: theme answers like TRAFFIC LIGHT, PRIZE FIGHT, Phase Correct. In coming up with rhymes, I e'er institute information technology a lot more interesting when the spellings were different.
"Make clean coal" as an respond gave me a slight pause because information technology'south debatable whether there really is such a affair. My original inkling included something of a hedge ("Dubious term for a greener energy source"), but the editing team didn't recall that was needed. Actually, there weren't many clue changes overall. It patently helped with clue-writing to know that this would definitely be slated for a Monday.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2022-01-10.html
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