Setter’s Activity - The New York Times

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SATURDAY PUZZLE — This is a fun, gritty solve by a couple of serial and nonmonagamous collaborators, Brad Wilber and Doug Peterson. I don’t think that I can tell between single and double-byline puzzles with any accuracy, but I assume that co-construction is an amiable affair practiced mainly by amiable folk, so I’m always predisposed to like these puzzles when I notice their origin.

There are quite a few references to shady behavior in the grid and some examples of such, including a couple of super sneaky puns, misdirects and some tricky squares, at least for me.

Tricky Clues

The bottom half was easier for me than the top to solve, but I think I found more earworms and endearment in the top half after figuring things out. I really love the clue for DELI, which reminded me instantly of a 24-hour bodega at 87th and York where everyone behind the counter treated the customers like celebrities (in the wee hours, at least).

1A: I love this racy clue, setting the tone for the whole puzzle, and for a debut entry no less. I was pondering the willingness of our crossword editing crew to run “fetish wear” in a puzzle, then I got sidetracked by putting “gen x” instead of XERS in at 7D. I wound up realizing this tantalizing entry, SILK BOXERS, quite late in the solve.

20A: So this “pad” isn’t a Post-it, nor a lily, but it is a creature’s home; and “sticky” doesn’t mean gluey and adherent. It refers to “the sticks,” but not in a backwoodsy way, rather, in a woodsy way, as in “sticky,” meaning made of sticks, like a NEST.

58A: This small stack of entries kind of forms a sequence; I solved them all backward, and I think this one is the trickiest because of its vague clue. This entry — ECOLOGICAL — is back for the first time in almost 40 years, which is strange to me. It runs above a verdant affair, which I associate with the bottom entry here because I’m conflating floats with stages.

8D: I figured this was some “money guy” type term for the business school in Pennsylvania, and was so pleased to see EDITH. Remember, “the air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.”

27D: No idea how to handle references to our inevitable robot overlords. Can they be offended? If so, do they hold grudges and take revenge? Can they click web links (caveat lector, but I saw this clue the same day I saw this article). Anyway, I can’t wait until I’m surrounded by friendly, helpful cyberpals to help save frail me from constant HUMAN ERROR.

38D: This is a kid-in-the-car pun, but in this puzzle’s swindle-happy context it’s great. After figuring out SCAM ARTISTS, HUSTLE and TORT, I thought of something like insider trading when I saw “Quick buck,” rather than ANTELOPE.

Constructor Notes

Brad: Doug and I not only construct puzzles but also fact-check them for other people, so our browser histories are full of wacky, wide-ranging searches all done in service of fresh and accurate clues. Social media picks up on that, of course, such that if you’ve looked high and low for a fresh angle on “stogie,” you’re deluged with ads for Cigar Aficionado magazine. On this puzzle, for me, the post-research ad encroachment was ChapStick (Julius ERVING did ChapStick commercials in the early 1980s) and THE CITADEL. I don’t know much about the college, but “The Citadel” also refers to a favorite novel of mine (later a film) about a reform-minded young doctor in a Welsh mining village.

Doug: Yes, my search history is wild. It would take the N.S.A. months to sort it out. And I’m quite prone to falling down the clue-writing rabbit hole. I’ll start with a simple search, something like “What year was ’Jane Eyre ‘published?” or “How many Oscars has Daniel Day-Lewis won?” And 20 minutes later, I’m hip-deep in the Sailor Moon Wikipedia page, my clue long forgotten.

Google, what’s a five letter word for —

Subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.

Trying to get back to the puzzle page? Right here.

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