Administrivial Puzzle Contest Alert! All the puzzles this week, from Monday to Saturday, have been created by one person, Patrick Blindauer. Keep your solutions handy, because the Saturday puzzle conceals a meta-challenge involving the solution grids of all six. When you have the answer to the meta-challenge, send it to crossword@nytimes.com. (Please do not post them here on the blog; they will not be counted as submissions.) Twenty correct solvers, chosen at random, whose entries are received by 6:00 p.m. E.T. Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014, will win one-year online subscriptions to the New York Times crossword. Only one entry per person, please. The answer and winners’ names will appear on Friday, Oct. 31, at www.nytimes.com/wordplay. Good luck to all who enter!
Administrivial Links Alert! As many of you have noticed, the box that contains the links to the puzzle and the syndicated Wordplay posts is not working. I am removing it from posts until it gets fixed, so until then, please download your copy of the puzzle from the main puzzle page. Thank you for your patience.
THURSDAY PUZZLE – One of the things most native New Yorkers know is that the last place they would want to be on New Year’s Eve is Times Square (on the ground, at least; watching from a penthouse doesn’t count). It’s not that we’re not capable of having fun; rather, it boils down to not wanting to spend the frigid last night of the year packed like sardines amongst the revelers, where you might get pushed around, trampled or have your pocket picked. It’s much more cozy to watch the goings-on on television in the warm embrace of friends and family, with a delicious meal and a glass of champagne.
How is it Thursday already? This week is just zipping by, and we have Patrick Blindauer and Will Shortz to thank for that. Mr. Blindauer takes us on a field trip to Times Square today, and we actually visit it four TIMEs in his puzzle. If you look at the letters surrounding the lone black squares near each of the four corners of the grid, you’ll notice that the letters spell out TIME twice. And they’re in a square shape, so that’s our TIMES SQUARE.
As Mr. Blindauer notes in his comments below, it would have been nice if there had been a TIMES SQUARE revealer somewhere in the puzzle, and if I didn’t know that this was part of a larger puzzle suite for the contest, I might have felt disappointed that the theme didn’t really go anywhere (no revealer, no mentions of landmarks in TIMES SQUARE, etc.) Some of the entries feel a little forced, like SASHIMIS and SARAS, and I am sure this had to do with placing the TIMES squares in the grid. Those four squares are interesting from a constructing standpoint, but I found myself trying to figure out how this fits into the three puzzles we’ve already solved for this suite. Is TIMES SQUARE a red herring? Or is the luminous Waterford crystal ball at 56 Across that drops on New Year’s Eve in there to light our way as we proceed to the meta-challenge? There are also some odd plural entries in this puzzle, like SASHIMIS, SARAS and INTIMATES. Could that be a clue?
In nontheme news, I noticed HATEMAIL (clued cleverly as “Letters that are hard to read?”), OVEN MITTS, OH PLEASE and BASE METAL. I liked seeing Michael CHE of “Saturday Night Live” appear for the first time, because it means we can let the revolutionary leader rest in peace.
Clue of the Day for me is “Odd couple?” for DEES.
Let’s hear from Mr. Blindauer:
Constructor’s Notes
New York-y grid play! This is bound to play like a themeless unless you stumble on 56 Across early. Using only one leg of black squares on the top and bottom edges allowed for some longer entries, and I tried my darnedest to get another TIMES SQUARE in the center of the grid, but it just wasn’t happening. The four spots do make the shape of a square, though, so maybe it’s all for the best. Thrilled to get Michael CHE into the grid; my favorite clue I wrote is [Trailer for "Rocky" or "Rambo"?] for III, and my favorite clue I didn’t write is [Letters that are hard to read?] for HATE MAIL.
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost the end of 2014, isn’t it? Soon it will be time to not gather in TIMES SQUARE and not stand elbow-to-elbow with total strangers. I can’t wait. Here’s the TIMES SQUARE ball drop from New Year’s Eve, 2014. Watch to the end to see why I prefer to see it on television:
Your thoughts?