TUESDAY PUZZLE — Just a few months after I started writing for the Wordplay column, Hanh Huynh made his New York Times Crossword debut with a Thursday rebus puzzle that was easily the hardest crossword I’d solved to date. Granted, I was new, but it was still embarrassing to be undone by a puzzle so early in my tenure.
Once I got to spend a little more time inside Mr. Huynh’s brain, I started to appreciate his cleverness and looked forward to seeing his constructor byline. Today’s crossword by Mr. Huynh is a not-too-chewy Tuesday whose theme makes for a sly reveal. And if anyone knows of any reason this puzzle should not be solved … well, give it a go, anyway.
Today’s Theme
I love themes that you have to unlace a little to appreciate. The [Wedding officiant’s directive] at 58-Across is JOIN HANDS, a phrase that supposedly doubles as a description of what “both halves” of 17-, 25-, 35- and 50-Across do. To start, let’s solve those entries.
[Where some monster home runs land], at 17A, is the UPPER DECK. 25A’s [Pretty long time, in an idiom] is a HOT MINUTE. [Another plateful from the buffet, say], at 35A, is a SECOND HELPING, and the [Position of Rickey Henderson in M.L.B.] at 50A was LEFT FIELD (he died in 2024).
Each word of these entries appears with “hand” in a common expression: upper hand, deckhand, hot hand, minute hand and so on. Thus, the two-word terms represent “joined” hands. Eh? Eh?
Tricky Clues
9A/10D. This is a clever crossing of two entries that look the same but aren’t. The [British John] across refers to a person — ELTON — while the [British john] is a British-English term for a bathroom, LOO.
16A. Trick question: [Who “wants to be defeated” in “Beat It”]? NO ONE. They’re all too busy showing how funky and strong is their fight.
49A. The name of the [Greek goddess of the Earth] can be spelled more than one way. In this puzzle, it’s GAEA. In other puzzles, it’s “Gaia.”
5D. [Always at the pharmacy?] uses what’s known as a “veiled capital,” which is to say that the first word of the clue is a proper noun — in this case, a brand of PADS — even though it looks like a common one.
26D. Some might argue that the solution for [Just between us], ON THE D.L. (down-low), should have been indicated as slang in the wording of the clue. I can neither confirm nor deny that I am among the “some.”
34D. Plural clues generally indicate plural entries. But [Scanned lines, for short] refers to the collected lines of a universal product code, or U.P.C. — also known as a bar code — so it doesn’t need an S at the end.
45D. My first guess at the entry for [Infer (from)] was “deduce” because that’s the only way I’d refer to inferring. The correct answer, however, is DERIVE, a word that can mean either taking from a source or, less commonly, deducing information.
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.