The road to completion in a Ryan McCarty puzzle is rarely a straight line .
A crowd of bathers tossing a woman on a blanket in 1932.Credit.Fox Photos/Getty Images
July 16, 2021
SATURDAY PUZZLE This grid reminds me of yesterday’s themeless, rotated and with its middle filled in. I like the second bit and I like to think that the solving thrill of those six long-crossing entries in the center, four of them debuts, is the kind of thing that Saturday solvers can have to themselves, even though I know it’s not true.
On the other hand, Ryan McCarty has been exclusive to Saturdays for a couple of years now in The Times at least. (Check his notes for more offerings, many of them tough as nails.) This puzzle is typically challenging and creative with thrills, chills, and references to both newsprint and the proletariat.
The Last of the Ptolemys
Sophia Maymudes and Kyra Wilson, together again.
The Rosetta Stone, a key to understanding hieroglyphics, dates to the reign of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes (204-180 B.C.E.).Credit.Amir Makar/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
July 15, 2021
FRIDAY PUZZLE Some of us get really excited about puzzles. It could be working through one that feels made just for you, or reaching a peak in your streak or (bingo!) seeing the byline of your newest fave constructor(s). This week I’m thrilled to be writing about a Sophia Maymudes/Kyra Wilson production. I’m also a bit cowed. Can I solve it? This is a team whose grids I first encountered at The Inkubator, the subscription service that publishes edgy work and is dedicated to groups underrepresented in the conventional crossworld.
Max Carpenter grumbles his way through his debut.
The zipper of a boot worn by a model at a show during the 2018 New York Fashion Week.Credit.Anna Webber for Oxford Fashion Studio, via Getty Images
July 14, 2021
THURSDAY PUZZLE One of the best parts of solving puzzles everyday for a living other than the fact that I get to solve puzzles everyday for a living is watching how constructors can take an idea, put their own spin on it and make an entirely unique crossword.
The revealer in Max Carpenter’s puzzle made its debut in a 2001 crossword by Brendan Emmett Quigley, and when it was published, there was a good amount of awed hubbub in the constructing community that someone had managed to get such a great phrase into a grid. In fact, the crosswords editor Will Shortz later included it in his book, “Will Shortz’s Favorite Puzzles From the Pages of The New York Times,” with the blurb “My favorite part of this puzzle is 23-Across, a colorful, funny phrase that everyo
NYT Crossword Clues: Actor Foxx of Sanford and Son nytimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nytimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
With Trenton Charlson in the spotlight, the crowd roars.
The luchador Lil Chicken indulging in some fancy footwork in Los Angeles as part of a performance celebrating Mexican culture on May 5, 2009. Credit.David McNew/Getty Images
July 9, 2021
SATURDAY PUZZLE Is it Christmas in July? Trenton Charlson has come down the chimney with his 30th puzzle for The New York Times, and Caitlin Lovinger is taking a well-deserved weekend off, so my stocking is overflowing. I have the distinct privilege of bashing my brain repeatedly against Mr. Charlson’s devilish clues and then writing about the experience.
To add another dimension to the fun, this puzzle, which packs six 15-letter stacks, introduces four phrases heretofore unseen in Times crosswords.