{"id":357326,"date":"2026-09-26T03:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T03:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/357326\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T03:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T03:06:17","slug":"mean-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/357326\/","title":{"rendered":"Mean – The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

SATURDAY PUZZLE<\/a> \u2014 This is Brian Callahan\u2019s first Saturday construction for The New York Times, although he has four previous bylines (including on a Friday crossword from April<\/a>, in collaboration with Carolyn Davies Lynch). Today\u2019s grid has a familiar pinwheel look to it: separated swaths of clues that often indicate a low word count and a difficult solve. This design is favored by a lot of constructors we see on the weekends (two of whom are cited by Mr. Callahan in his notes below).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a breezy quality to this puzzle as a whole, but the wordplay is great, and as you work through it, you\u2019re bound to hit some stumpers in the trivia. The subject matter is wide-ranging and Mr. Callahan includes a few deep cuts that I hadn\u2019t the foggiest idea on. Each time, though, I found refuge in crossing entries and was able to deduce a solution, or at least find all of its letters one by one (I\u2019m looking at 30D, here).<\/p>\n

Tricky Clues<\/p>\n

1A\/7A. What an intriguing top row \u2014 two culinary references that make a delicious little bite<\/a> together. At 1A, the dumpling: [Prepares, as shumai] solves to STEAMS. At 7A, the flavor: The [Paste commonly simulated by a blend of horseradish, mustard and green dye] is WASABI, which in its true form is a rhizome that requires such particular growing conditions that the plant runs the risk of vanishing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

37A. A [Kite feature] could be a string, a crossbar or a tail. If that tail is on a little predatory bird that\u2019s also called a kite, you might find a couple of TALONs nearby. Of course, kite referred to the bird<\/a> long before it was a flying device (or a check-writing scam).<\/p>\n

39A. [____ -corner] solves to CATTY here, and I anticipate a chorus of hisses from the kitty-corner contingent. It depends on where you\u2019re from, according to Question 6 of our dialect quiz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

30D. Sigh, I try, but when it comes to football knowledge my brain is a sieve. [Signature QB move included as a feature in 2012\u2019s Madden N.F.L. 13 video game] might as well have been a cryptic clue. The answer is TEBOWING, a reference to Tim Tebow, the devoutly religious player<\/a> who knelt and prayed on the field. The pose went viral and its popularity seems to have outlived his professional career<\/a> as a quarterback.<\/p>\n

32D. This is a genius pun that takes a minute to understand. [A bit corrupt, perhaps?] solves to DATA ROT, which is a Times Crossword debut even though it\u2019s been an acknowledged risk to information storage for some years<\/a>. Whether the corruption comes from external damage, internal degradation or system obsolescence, a lot of bits and bytes out there are crumbling into digital dust.<\/p>\n

37D. This one, I thought I knew cold: [Highly prized rewards on \u201cSurvivor\u201d] are coconuts, right? I have this distinct memory of someone holding one up triumphantly, but maybe I\u2019m thinking of \u201cLost.\u201d The answer here is TARPS, which are pretty useful in many aspects of life.<\/p>\n

Constructor Notes<\/p>\n

Much of the inspiration for this grid shape came from studying puzzles by Kameron Austin Collins<\/a> and Ryan McCarty.<\/a> The fact that each of them has produced so many excellent low-word-count, wide-open grids is mind-boggling. This puzzle has 64 words. Maybe one of these days I\u2019ll try to take a shot at 62. Wish me luck!<\/p>\n

Additionally, I\u2019ll be volunteering at the Midwest Crossword Tournament<\/a> in Chicago next Saturday. If you\u2019ll be attending, please come by and say hi. I\u2019d love to chat crosswords with you!<\/p>\n

Want to Submit Crosswords to The New York Times?<\/p>\n

The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For tips on how to get started, read our series, \u201cHow to Make a Crossword Puzzle<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SATURDAY PUZZLE \u2014 This is Brian Callahan\u2019s first Saturday construction for The New York Times, although he has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44226,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-357326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-crossword-puzzles","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}