NYT Crossword Answers for Aug. 29, 2023

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wordplay, the crossword column

Michèle Govier makes her New York Times debut.

By Sam Corbin

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

TUESDAY PUZZLE — Some mornings, I open up the day’s crossword and am struck by a sensation that might be best described by a lyric from the Talking Heads song “Once in a Lifetime”:

And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”

This is not my beautiful crossword; these are not my beautiful clues; and so on. I find that in these moments of utter disorientation, it helps to have a puzzle that uses not only words, but pictures, to remind me of where I am and what I’m doing. Today’s crossword, constructed by Michèle Govier, succeeded in bringing me back down to earth by using a series of whimsical shapes in its center column. I’ll have to reveal its theme in order to tell you more, so let’s dive in.

You might have noticed that Ms. Govier’s puzzle had something of a dress code: black-tie, perhaps?

At 6-Down, her revealer clue — ahem — cinches it: “With 61-Down, accessory worn by 19-/21-, 26-/29, 45-/49 and 54-/56-Across, as depicted four times in this puzzle’s grid.”

Together, 6-Down and 61-Down make BOW TIE. Four names of figures famous for sporting this accessory are split among partnered themed entries in the puzzle, including KRUSTY THE CLOWN, for “‘The Simpsons’ character who is a children’s TV host” (19-/21A), and COLONEL SANDERS, for the “fast-food spokesperson with a goatee” (26-/29A).

Once you’ve solved all four, take a bow.

14A. Did you get lost in space here, too? “Like Venus, but not Aphrodite” might seem as though it’s asking you to identify Venus as a planet, but the clue is merely pointing out that one name refers to the ROMAN god, while the other identifies the Greek one.

40A. It might have taken you a few reads of “Commercial ending with Water” to realize that “commercial ending” is its own phrase. The suffix you’re looking for is PIK — as in Waterpik, a brand of flossing toothbrush.

53A. There’s no shortage of ambiguity in “Block number, for short?” — the first word could be either a verb or a noun, and the second could be pronounced with either a hard or a soft “b” sound. I deduced it was SPF from crossings, but I still feel like I got burned.

3D. If something “Grows eightfold,” it OCTUPLES! I doubt you’ll have the occasion to find this debut bit of crosswordese outside of today’s puzzle, but keep the word handy in case you ever catch an octopus sprouting all of its legs at once.

8D. The “Apt rhyme for ‘stashes’” relies on a pronunciation borrowed from French, which makes it a little tricky. The answer is CACHES.

45D. Ah, so this is what it feels like to show one’s age. I find unexpected joy in imagining younger solvers encountering this clue — “Retractable feature of a PC or stereo, once” — and having trouble calling up the image of a CD TRAY.

I tried making my first crossword puzzle with pencil and graph paper when I was around 11. This was before home computers (at least in my home) and construction software. I quickly realized that it was not as easy as it looked, and I waited approximately 40 years to try again.This puzzle was inspired by another one I saw a while back that featured little “bats” made up of clusters of black squares. I wondered what other shapes could be made in that way, and came up with bow ties. Then, it was sheer luck that of the limited number of well-known people/characters who wear bow ties, there were enough that were the same length and could be split in two by their “bow ties” in a symmetrical way. I hope you’ll agree with the 11th Doctor (any “Doctor Who” fans out there?) that “bow ties are cool.”

Christina Iverson, a puzzle editor, will send a weekly Friday crossword with more accessible clues right to your inbox if you sign up for the Easy Mode newsletter. This extra bit of goodness is for those who would like to try the Friday puzzles but have heard all about how hard they are.

Take a look at the difference between the regular and easy-mode clues below. The links are a small sample of the clues from the Friday puzzle. When you click on them, you will see the version that will run in the regular puzzle as well as the easier version.

(Warning: The following are spoilers for the Friday puzzle.)

43A.

Friday clue: “Eponymous Belgian town”

Easy-mode clue: “Place for a ‘me day’”

49A.

Friday clue: “Light up?”

Easy-mode clue: “Twinkler in the sky”

6D.

Friday clue: “Building installations that work with beams”

Easy-mode clue: “Sun-absorbing gadgets”

Not so tough, right? You can definitely solve Friday puzzles. You may just need some practice before you’re conquering them on your own.

To sign up for the Easy Mode newsletter, click here.

The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online.For tips on how to get started, read our series “How to Make a Crossword Puzzle.”

Still feeling adrift? Subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.

Trying to navigate to the main Gameplay page? You can find it here.

Sam Corbin writes about language, wordplay and the daily crossword for The Times. More about Sam Corbin

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