{"id":375953,"date":"2026-10-18T00:48:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T00:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375953\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T00:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T00:48:39","slug":"displaying-finesse-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375953\/","title":{"rendered":"Displaying Finesse – The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

SATURDAY PUZZLE<\/a> \u2014 August Miller\u2019s last construction for The Times was two years ago, another Saturday<\/a> grid that was memorably tough and brainy. I\u2019m sold on his quirky style and really impressed by his wordplay; sublime puns that look simple, but turn out to be showstoppers. The general trivia and straight clues are also tough, and there\u2019s a good amount of novelty, including 11 debut entries, a few oddballs among them, and one utterly brutal misdirect that significantly spiced up my solving experience.<\/p>\n

Tricky Clues<\/p>\n

5A\/55A. These entries make a good pair, and mirror each other at the top and bottom of the grid. At 5A, the [Award-winning culinary documentary series] in question is CHEF\u2019S TABLE, which started its run on Netflix in 2015<\/a>. At 55A, [Traditional Passover dish] solves to a debut entry: SEDER PLATE, not a meal itself but a ceremonial platter<\/a> that bears a selection of symbolic foods for the Passover holiday.<\/p>\n

23A\/31A\/34A\/25D. These are all short bits of fill, but they created issues. At 23A, the [Oslo Accords grp.] is the P.L.O., a reference to the 1990s peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel<\/a>. At 31A, [Party leader?] is just a cute clue for HOST, but I didn\u2019t guess it, and had no good letters from crossing entries to go on. The clue at 34A is poetry trivia: [One ___\u201d (Elizabeth Bishop poem that repeats the line \u201cThe ___ of losing isn\u2019t hard to master\u201d)]; ideally, people will realize that the two blanks in the clue are the same \u2014 ART \u2014 but I did not, at first. Finally, there\u2019s 25D, which is fun (a logic question, I guess?): [Things that ships, computers and wine retailers all have]. Kudos to solvers who knew this quickly \u2014 it\u2019s PORTS \u2014 because it went right over my head!<\/p>\n

2D. This is a great, evocative entry, with a clever clue. [Line of passengers?] solves to a whine: ARE WE THERE?<\/p>\n

8D. This is where that misdirect completely threw me off, and there\u2019s no way I\u2019m alone. What could the [Seafood-based ingredient in Eastern cuisines] here be but \u201cfish sauce,\u201d which fits the entry perfectly and suits its very specific clue<\/a>? \u201cSauce\u201d is the problem; it clashes with three small crossing entries, mentioned above, and I had to backtrack and deduce another fishy condiment. It turns out to be FISH PASTE, which is a Times puzzle debut. (Mystery lovers, does this stuff ring a bell? It was suspected to be a medium for murder in an Agatha Christie novel<\/a>, \u201cSad Cypress,\u201d although Hercule Poirot discovered that it was actually tea, spiked with morphine<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

31D. [Poison classification] is a pun clue, if you were still mulling over arsenic versus cyanide. The \u201cPoison\u201d in question isn\u2019t zootoxic, synthetic or corrosive, at least not medically speaking. It\u2019s a glam band from the 1980s<\/a> that exemplifies HAIR METAL.<\/p>\n

Constructor Notes<\/p>\n

Very excited to have a second Saturday in the Times! The seed for this puzzle was 55A, with its deceptively straightforward clue. I was gratified to see many of my favorite clues (among them 53A, 2D, 13D\/44D, and 31D) stand up to editorial scrutiny, and delighted by the editors\u2019 additions at 34A, 45A, 25D, and 47D. Hope you enjoy(ed) the solve!<\/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

Need a little more help? Subscribers can take a peek at the answer key<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trying to get back to the puzzle page? Right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What did you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SATURDAY PUZZLE \u2014 August Miller\u2019s last construction for The Times was two years ago, another Saturday grid that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44226,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-375953","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\/375953","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=375953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}