Hello Sunday solvers who want hints rather than direct answers.   First, the theme…

Sometimes “getting” the theme is incidental to solving the puzzle, sometimes it’s absolutely necessary.  This is one where you really need to get the idea of the theme to move reasonably well through the puzzle.

Let’s start at the beginning, the upper left corner and see what we can discover about the long answer (22-Across) that we can safely assume is part of the theme.

1.-Across:  Drummers accompanier:  This is a pretty literal clue.  Who often plays alongside the drummer?  Think soldiers, not rock bands.

Now try 1-Down:  Try to shoot:  2 words.  The first word can’t be AIM, too short and doesn’t fit with 1-Across.  But it’s something that’s follows close behind aiming…

2-Down: Lays to rest:  Think of cemeteries, not beds.

Now, if you got those two, you’ll notice something very strange is happening in 22-Across

11-Down: It’s left on a keyboard.  I know you learned touch typing in school, but take a look at what’s right (or left in this case) under your fingers.  Now isn’t that also a rather strange letter to end a long phrase with?

Keep that thought and remember the clue for many long and a few short answers:  Back Down ( = I Surrender, right?  The clues actually could be “I surrender” instead of back down, but that might think the answers have to be self-referential/first-person, which they aren’t).

If you haven’t gotten the idea yet, start filling in as many individual answers as you can without worrying about the long clues.  Do you see some of the long answers ending with letters that you would expect in the opposite place in a phrase?

Take 100-Down for example (Welcome through the door).  It doesn’t mean that you yell hello through a closed door.  That wouldn’t be very nice!  So sometimes you might ask a person to enter or you might _____ (2 words) a guest.  Now if 117-Down isn’t an AUSSIE wearing a boa but a different sort of bird (and one that isn’t yet extinct) and 91-Down is 3 words that could be clued as “What you hoped to get by reading this blog.”  and you’ve filled in a couple more, are you ready to surrender, or does victory now appear to be just around the corner?  I hope the latter.  Keep on filling a checking those odd-looking long answers.  But don’t get too DOWN if you’re struggling, you can always come BACK next week!

Theme:  Ok, we’re looking for some kind of mark…They’re where you’d expect them:  In the long answers (though, admittedly, the long answers are, for a Sunday, relatively short…

Remember that when things don’t seem to fit where they should, there might be more than one letter in a square

And not all such squares are created equal.

And the things that go in the squares are, if you’re doing the puzzle on a computer, are right there under your fingers.   (by the way, Across Lite, wants letters, not something else.)

And 76-Down isn’t a theme answer at all.  72-Down, however, is a theme answer.

10 specific hints

65-Across – Thor’s domain:  Not a where but a what.   What is it that Thor, with his might hammer, controls?

101-Across – It might come out in the wash:  Out, damned spot.  (No, that’s from 33-Down Source of “what’s done is done”)  But other things than dirt, hopefully, come out as well.

116-Across – Had a senior moment.  I’m sure I can remember this answer.  Shoot, I just ______ on it.

119-Across – Work from a folder:  No not the kind of folder you put papers in, though paper is definitely involved in this.

114-Across – Relatively inexpensive wrap:  No, not the kind of wrap you put around a half-eaten fruit, but at least PETA won’t be after you if you do put it on.

109-Down – Plot:  No, not like a movie.   Not an acre, either, but that’s closer.

100-Across – China and environs:  2 words

96-Down – Opportunity creator:  Opportunity would be capitalized here even if it weren’t the first word.

49-Down – Car radio button:  Think cars in the last decade or so, old car radios didn’t have this feature.

35-Down – Ginger feature:  No, not the kind of ginger you eat with your sushi or spice up your food with (or listen to on your iPod either), though this ginger might go to your head all the same.

And a final hint that’s a theme answer:

15-Down – One of the usual suspects?:  Don’t think Kevin Spacey (even if you have been watching House of Cards)  This suspect is very two-dimensional and his choices of weapon and place to commit the murder are very finite, too.

I had thought I’d take a hiatus from blogging the puzzle.  Just too time-consuming and constraining.  But noticed a lot of you come by for the Sunday puzzle, so I think I’ll keep up with that.  My hint and tip blog will normally be there by noon each Sunday.

Tip 1:  Always keep the title of the Sunday puzzle rolling around in your mind until you’ve grokked (gotten) the theme.

Basic tip:  The “theme” is the particular word play that is the core of the puzzle.   When there aren’t other indicators (circles inside the grid; asterisks; etc.), the longest answers are related to the word play.  It’s highly unusual to be able to figure these out immediately, to be able to get the answer right off the bat.  Usually you need a lot of the clues that cross the long clues (often just called “crosses) before the tricky word play comes into focus.  In really cool puzzles, you get a real neat aha! sensation when you figure out what’s going on.

Possible strategy:  Most puzzlers work a corner at a time.   Across Lite lends itself to do doing all the acrosses and then all the downs.   I do this once without even seriously trying the long answers.  Once I’ve gone all the way through the acrosses and downs, I take a look at each other long clues.  Do I get the idea?  Or can I see what one or two of the words in the phrase would work?

This may not get you anywhere at first.  Now go to the area that has the most letters you’re pretty sure of and start seeing if you can build out from there.  I also will see how far I can go along one of the long answers that I feel I can almost get, doing all the answers that cross it.

IMHO, though, you gotta struggle to get some of the long ones, because once you get one, you’ll see the idea and it will help you get the others and the rest of the puzzle.

Today’s theme hint:  Between the title and a couple of clues, the word play in the long answers must be some kind of doubling.  All the long acrosses are some play on redundancy.  But this word play is a little different.  Strictly speaking, you don’t absolutely need the “?” at the end, because the answers are commonly known things that are not altered by more word play.  

5 specific hints:

67. Across – Roman Calendar Day:  It’s the one that Caesar was supposed to watch out for!

66-Across – Perfume sampling spot:  No, it’s not every annoying bunch of counters when you first walk into a department store.  It isn’t part of the store at all, but part of the  client.

81-Down – Hidden:  As in drugs.

79-Down – Nabisco treats sold only seasonally:  You’d think they’d sell ’em in a season when they wouldn’t melt.  These particular edibles are what gives meaning to life for many of us!  Think s’mores.  These are really made of the same ingredients!

36-Down – Amendment guaranteeing a speedy trial:  Ok, gotta be one of the first ten, probably going to end in the letters most of the first ten end in.  Only a couple a few five letter possibilities.

15-Across – Aces, with “the”:  2 words.  “Aces” is slang and so is the answer.   Or what some people hear every time they open a can of tuna.

17-Across – One getting poked in the eye?:  Not, not the eye on a face or a potato.  And the answer is the poker not the pokee

4-Down  – “The Hippopotamus” writer:  IONESCO fits, but he wrote Rhinoceros, not hippo.  2 inits, then the last name.

33-Across – Completely covers: I wanted BLANKETS but this isn’t a Thursday where you squeeze multiple letters into a single square.  Think of bombing runs or living rooms.

47-Across – Put on the line:  I wanted WAGERED, but that’s too short.  Turns out it’s not about betting at all, although it might involve betting on the weather.

30-Across – IRS settlement:  I don’t know if it’s a settlement exactly.  Guess so.  This way of “settling” can be very painful to some, but not to the IRS.

46-Across – Film hero chasing a motorcycle gang:  2 words…And who would have thought he knew how to speak Aramaic???

53-Across – Target of thrown bricks, in early comics:  What, they didn’t appreciate his singing?  No, they didn’t.  Guess he wasn’t the 15-Across.

Barry Silk’s (author of this puzzle) are usually a bit more approachable and this is no exception.  Themeless, of course.  Here we go:

19-Across 1964 Album that was #1 for 11 weeks:  And who else could have had a hit that topped the charts for that long back in ’64?   If you know the group, you know that last word of the answer.  And this was their first smash album, so does that help with the first two words?

2-Down Car ad catchphrase:  Not car ads in general, but a specific brand.  Is there an 21-Down in here?

55-Across Jack regarded as an object of devotion:  Not Jack ______.  Not even capitalized if it weren’t at the beginning of the clue.  No, not apple jack, though I’m sure it has many devotees.   Not religious devotion either.

46-Down Curia _____ :  And where is this Pope being assisted?  No, not the Vatican, but close by.

53-Down Flat sign:  No, not a flat tire.  This kind of flat is a lot roomier.

27-Down W., once:  Yeh, that Dubya.

43-Down Mascot since 1916:  Maybe he should have been the mascot for the Mets from ’62 to ’65!

37-Across 3-D Picture producer:  Normally seen on a much small image than you might think of off the bat.

Thursday puzzles are the most fun.  This is definitely a good one.

The theme is a common Thursday one.   It isn’t about the long answers.  Take a look at a few clues:  11-Down,  17-Across, 58-Down, and 28-Across.  Now, forgetting how many letters are there in the answer, do you know what the answer should be?  Could you put more than one letter somewhere?

67-Across “Subject of Final Jeopardy! question that knocked out Ken Jennings” is the key clue — the one that ties together many others, but unless you happen to know it, it’s likely to be the last thing you’ll find.

Let’s get to some details that might help:

1-Down Boobs:  Remember that the NYT has loosened up its rules a bit about what words can appear in puzzles.

2-Down Teammate of Robinson:  Add an S and you get a peanut cup company

34-Across Tinseltown terrier:  Probably the most common crossword puzzle answer ever.  So if you didn’t know this dog from The Thin Man before, learn it forever now.

51-Across Some pokers:  Not poker players, not pokers in fires, not imps, but the ones that make holes in things like belts.  Another word that’s extremely common.

Finally, a couple hints to the key clue (67-Across).  Look at the second “letter” of the answer and the down clue, 62-Down, Big source of reality TV.   Sometimes an shorthand way of saying something is so commonly how it’s called that it doesn’t get hinted at by the clue itself.  By “source,” in this case, they mean a particular cable network.   Could you put something only than a letter in space where the 67-Across and 62-Down cross?  If you know what makes sense of the clues that don’t quite “fit,” then you know what the first and third letters are.  So, Mr.  Jennings was tripped up by the same company that a lot of people are counting on not to trip them up this April.  You know what happens in April, right?  And I don’t mean April fools day!

Circles.  I suggest filling the grid quickly with  as much as you can with answers you’re reasonably confident of and then see what’s coming up in the circles and consider possible meanings of the key clue (57-across Result of not following through…).  Don’t worry about 57-Across until either a) you have many of the answers that cross it OR b) you’ve go a guess going of what the circles are about.

Do you see letters repeating in the different sets of circles.  Remember that not all words are straightforward.

Reward for frequent solver:  The same guy who is most famous for losing his toupee (sorry, _____, but it’s true!) who showed up a couple days ago in the NYT puzzle is here again today.

Oddity of the day:  17-Across could easily be the clue for 26-Down.

Specific clue Hints-of-the-day:

When it asks for keys, as in 63-Across, Fur Elise, with a 6-letter answer, you should immediately know that a)  the first letter must be one of the first 7 in the alphabet and b) the 2nd and the 6th letter can immediately be divined . And  (There are exceptions to these rules but they rarely are seen in early in the week NYT puzzles.)

60-Down U.N. Figure:  Abbr.  Think of thing every country gets one of.

1-Across Espousing crime?  Pay attention to that question mark.  Not a bad play on words here and not necessarily a crime, at least in some states.

52-Across Big Shot (Learn this one for future reference):  The last three letters are a man’s name, the first two might not be applicable. 

This puzzle blog is just for fun.  Take a wander around the rest of the site.  

Theme:  A cute one this time.  Question-marked clues long acrosses  mark the theme clue/answer pairs. (The long down clues aren’t part of the theme this time.)  Each one is the most common kind of word play:  A common expression / phrase is modified in some way to match the clue.  It’s rare that you can solve this type of clue without getting some of the down clues to fill in some of the long across answer.

Let’s take 57-Across as an example.  Let’s look at some of the down clues first:

57-Down Encouraging word:  What do you say to your kid when they say can’t do a homework problem?

59-Down “Star Trek” extra: Abbr.  Remember there aren’t just aliens in Star Trek, but the officers and crew, too.

22-Down Home of the California’s Screamin’ Roller Coaster:  And what started in California before adding to a World in Florida?

50-Down Like 125, to 5:  As in 5 times 5 times 5.

See if you can get a few more that cross 57-Across

Remember that answers sometimes include articles like Up ____ =  A TREE.   There’s one here.

So if 51-Down is “Cunning””: as in _____ like a fox, then we have the literal answer to the very special award when you successfully waste your waist!  And now you see the “missing ingredient” in the other long acrosses to turn ordinary phrases into word play clues!