Response to a Funny Name Crossword
wordplay, the crossword column
Drop a Line
Rob Baker's debut brings us a quip with a twist.
WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Congratulations to the constructor, Rob Baker, who is making his New York Times Crossword debut today. As Mr. Baker mentions in his notes, he has been submitting puzzles on and off for more than 15 years, so major kudos to him for his perseverance!
Today's puzzle, as we learn in the clue for the first long Across entry at 17A, is what we in the crossword business affectionately call a "quip" puzzle. Quip puzzles are built around a clever one-liner or joke broken across several entries in the grid rather than around a series of wordplay theme entries. Some people love 'em, some hate 'em, but no matter how you feel about quip puzzles, you better get used to solving them! Although they are less common than they once were, you can bet that quip puzzles requiring you to drop a line across the grid aren't going anywhere.
Fortunately for those solvers who roll their eyes at quips, Mr. Baker's puzzle has a unique element that makes it stand out. Before we get to that, though, let's take a look at some of the tougher clues and entries in this puzzle.
Tricky Clues
5A. Today I Learned that the INCA empire was "a.k.a. the Realm of the Four Parts" — each of the "parts" was one of the regions of the empire in the north, south, east and west.
43A. For the longest time I thought the entry AT SEA (meaning "Disoriented") was only ever used in crossword puzzles. But after solving as many puzzles as I have, AT SEA has somehow wormed its way into my vocabulary — I recently described my own state of confusion by saying I was AT SEA, despite being fully on dry land. Thanks a lot, crosswords!
54A. A question mark in the clue indicates a pun — in the case of "Drop a line?" we're not talking about the idiom meaning to get in contact with someone but rather to FISH.
13D. "Dit's counterpart" is DAH in Morse code, as in "dit dit dit DAH DAH DAH dit dit dit" for SOS.
38D. The clue "Head to the office?" plays on the meaning of the word "head" — typically "head to the office" is a verb phrase meaning "go to work," but if you treat "head" as a noun, you might say that the head to the office is the C.E.O.
42D. "Ones ordering lab tests?" are VETS, who often order tests for Labrador retrievers.
59D. A "Shot, for short" is HYPO, which is short for a HYPOdermic needle.
Today's Theme
As I mentioned above, today's puzzle is a quip puzzle, but it comes with an added twist: To make the joke in the quip work, the solver needs to treat one square in its final line as a rebus.
The quip reads "NO MATTER HOW MUCH / YOU / PUSH THE ENVELOPE / ITS / STILL STATION[E/A]RY. The rebus square is the E/A — you need to enter both letters to make the down entry crossing through it ("Rips [five letters]") work. There are only four spaces there, but the clue tells you that you'll need to enter five — the entry here is T[EA]RS. With both letters entered, you can see the joke: An envelope is a piece of stationery, and it remains so even when pushed. On top of that, "stationary" (meaning "motionless") is a pun on "stationery."
Wednesday rebus puzzles are unusual but certainly not unheard-of. (This is the 48th rebus appearance, by my count!) Still, I'm betting that some solvers will be tripped up by the unexpected, lone rebus square at the end of an otherwise straightforward puzzle. Thank goodness for the circle on the rebus letter! Solvers who don't check their crosses might not even notice the "[five letters]" in the clue for TEARS. Without the added visual hint that something funky is happening in that square, it's entirely possible that a solver could enter STATIONARY, see the valid word TARS in the Down entry and not have any reason to suspect that something is off.
Constructor Notes
Hello from a Barrington, Ill., high school English teacher!
I may be the person who took the longest to get a New York Times puzzle accepted. I submitted my first puzzle in 2007. Thirty-ish rejections later, on June 16, 2021, an email from The Times arrived, including the glorious word "YES!" Weeping perhaps ensued.
This may also be the first puzzle constructed with psychic help. After receiving conditional acceptance pending extensive revisions, I chatted with my friend, the psychic Marla Frees, who, without seeing the puzzle, intuitively guided me to the very thing I had to do to overcome "reviser's block"!
I dedicate this puzzle to my parents. Both were alive when I submitted my first puzzle but have since passed away. I also dedicate it to my awesome brother Rick.
Today's quip isn't original, though I feel I made it my own with the 15/3/15/3/15 layout and the solitary rebus. Including exciting longer fill was hard, though I like SAWHORSE, TAKE FLAK, LIT OUT, SURE DO and COOL TO. Ideally I'd have replaced FRUTTI, KISSIN and PENH, but I'm happy to have included Agatha Christie, my favorite author when I was a teenager.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2022-06-15.html
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