MONDAY PUZZLE — For many Americans, today is the end of both a holiday weekend and a certain [Summer phenomenon] known as a HEAT (19A) wave — and a HUMID (47D) one, too. Now that the air is cooling off, our solving muscles are free to warm up again. But no sweat, solvers: Alex Eaton-Salners is keeping things light and breezy in today’s crossword. It’s sure to start your solving week on a high note.
Today’s Theme
You can start off your week on any note as far as this puzzle is concerned, because its theme is [Sections of a choir … as hinted at by this puzzle’s circled letters]: VOICE PARTS (56A).
The four classic choral sections — alto, bass, soprano and tenor — appear in “parts,” spread out within entries using circled letters (set in bold here, for reference): The [Event that might include juggling, singing and magic tricks] at 17A is a TALENT SHOW. [Looks of total confusion] at 24A are BLANK STARES. A certain [Three-part fire safety technique] at 36A is STOP, DROP AND ROLL. And 46A’s [2009 comedy about a bachelor party and its aftermath] is “THE HANGOVER.”
Tricky Clues
27A. “As a [thing]” phrases are especially useful in solving clues that would otherwise be ambiguous, because English tends to group certain words together idiomatically. For example, [Calm, as a lake] refers to a word you’d use to describe a lake — as opposed to a person, say, or nighttime — so the answer is PLACID. In a tougher puzzle, the same entry might be clued only as [Calm], sans context.
65A. Whenever “like” begins a clue, the entry tends to be an adjective, as per the “must match” part-of-speech rule in crossword puzzles. [Like the crying face emoji] solves to TEARY.
10D/28D. I was familiar with the [Capital city between Baghdad, Iraq, and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan] at 10-Down, but didn’t expect the country to be included in the entry: TEHRAN, IRAN. I was especially surprised because in the same puzzle, the country is omitted from the entry for 28-Down’s [European capital that’s home to the Little Mermaid statue], COPENHAGEN.
39D. The frequently-appearing [Instrument played by a Muse] is a LYRE, not to be confused with the equally frequent instrument played by a troubadour, which is a lute.
Constructor Notes
I started working on this puzzle in late 2024 and submitted it in early 2025. The theme came together quickly, with the cornerstone being STOP, DROP AND ROLL at 36-Across. Without that entry, the puzzle wouldn’t have worked. It’s not always possible to find a crossword-worthy phrase that can hide a seven-letter word!
The other theme entries had more options, but I hope you enjoyed the ones I chose. No BLANK STARES, please!
This is my first Monday puzzle for The New York Times since 2021. At 74 entries, it’s well below the average word count for Monday grids. Likewise, with six Down entries of eight letters or more and an average word length of 5.11 letters, the stats are more typical of a Wednesday or Thursday puzzle, so it might play harder than usual.
Improve Your Crossword Solving
Work your way through our guide “How to Solve the New York Times Crossword.” It contains an explanation of most of the types of clues you will see in the puzzles and a practice Mini at the end of each section.