![]() ![]() ![]() Truth be told, the trick finally dawned on me in a reverse maneuver. ![]() How does “sea” fit with CHARLEY, though? I still wasn’t quite there. “Leg cramp” is a pretty specific clue for a strangely-named vexation, the CHARLEY HORSE. It was then that I looked at the second clue set (if I hadn’t, I’d probably still be scratching my head, although I’ll bet people figured this out somehow without the help). HORSE works with its crosses, but there are seven squares remaining when only three are needed for “sea.” This has to be “seahorse,” of course, but now our sure thing is too short. I then moved on to 84-Across, “Fish with a prehensile tail,” and encountered the opposite problem. A handful of crosses confirmed this to me, except that it just didn’t quite fit: CONTACT worked perfectly, but there were only two squares left at the beginning of the entry for “eye.” Ay ay ay, I thought to myself, I sure hope this isn’t a rebus. Most of the grid clues are rather clear - suspiciously so, in retrospect - and caused me much befuddlement.įor example, 63-Across, “Something avoided during awkward situations” is clearly “eye contact,” no? I can’t imagine an alternative. There is far more wordplay than trivia, and I enjoyed the smattering of million-dollar-word synonym clues like “Cacophony,” “Lachrymose,” “Panache,” “Excoriate” and “Shenanigan” (try and use all of those in a conversation!).įor starters, as you know, each of those across entries has another clue, the one that’s in the grid itself, and they are infernally mystifying until you get the gist of this theme, which is not EZ. Most of the fill today is congenial, which is a lifesaver - without crosses, I don’t know how I would have gotten a firm footing on this puzzle’s theme. Standard clues for these answers appear here in mixed order:Īccounting total Communicating (with) Leg cramp Peyton, to Eli Manning Showing gratitude Unlikely election winner Where golfers practice short strokes Tricky Clues Seven clues in this puzzle relate to their answers in a manner for you to discover. This puzzle has an explanatory note that will go a long way toward demystifying the odd feature of some letters that makes its theme work: If you’re a recent Sunday solver, or if you haven’t gotten to past Tom McCoy Sunday puzzles, they are always creative and interesting, especially if you appreciate subtle tweaks that make you realize all the strange coincidences hiding in letters, words and language. This fall, he will begin a postdoctoral program at Princeton, which might be easier to juggle with crossword construction (probably wishful thinking on my part). McCoy, who lives in Wexford, Pa., recently defended his doctoral dissertation in cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University, on the subject of how language is represented in artificial intelligence systems and what that tells us about language in humans. SUNDAY PUZZLE - This grid marks the Sunday return of Tom McCoy after a far-too-long absence - nearly two years - that likely corresponds to a period of intense study. ![]()
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