A strange theme to this Sunday’s puzzle.   The title doesn’t give us much.   The unusual shape tells us something’s up.   Quite different from my usual advice, I’d say forget the theme altogether this time.  I didn’t really see it emerge until after I’d completed the whole puzzle and, when I did, it elicited more of a “oh” than any big “aha!” and I don’t see how getting it earlier would have made a big difference.

So right on to the 10 specific hints I give each Sunday:

24-Across Most common elements:  Think statistical chart, not chemical elements

28-Across Opening words?:  Note the question mark at the end.  Think of a place where even where loud-mouthed kids are encouraged to open up.

86-Across Adventurer of Greek myth:  I tried ODYSSEUS first.  It fits, but it’s not him.   This isn’t an individual mythical guy’s name but one of a group.   They explored the unknown without going out of the atmosphere unlike their similarly named modern counterparts.

95-Across Bridge spot:  Forget teeth and cards, it’s not that kind of bridge

4-Down They may be shot at basketball games:  Or baseball games, or, for all I know, any other kind of sports events.  Of a lot more interest to the fans than the players.

7-Down Frigid:  3, count ’em, words;  Can apply to personalities as well as igloos.

60-Down Stupefying: One of the world’s shortest gerunds

66-Down Sierra ______:  No, not Bogart’s last stand in the movie that the Treasure of Sierra Madre;  This is a real place on the west coast of Africa

82-Down Racing vehicle:  Not a dragster, that’s for sure, this vehicle won’t go very fast without a little help from the terrain.

Theme:   The sooner you can get the pattern for this puzzle, the smoother your solving will go.   This time there are no puns (no clues ending in “?”) and essentially no wordplay.   As always, keep the title (Two-by-fours)  clearly in mind.   Hint #1:  The theme has nothing pieces of wood.  Hint #2 All the long clues (both across and down) contain the full pattern.  Hint #3:  Maybe start on 45-Across by getting as many of the down clues as you can figure out.   Since this is #1 on AFI’s all time musicals, it’s gotta be familiar and Hint #4 it’s gotta fit even though it looks like it can’t.

Once you get that 45-Across (or any of the other long acrosses), look for a similar pattern in all the other long acrosses.

Hint #5:  The same “trick” works for each of the long answers, but don’t assume the same letters are used in them.   (If there was logic to which letters went into each answer, I didn’t see it and certainly didn’t need to in order to solve the puzzle.)

Specific hints (if they  intersect with long answers, beware of the “trick” being embedded in them):

1-Across Mustard variety:  Think refrigerator or French sandwich, not herb garden or spice cabinet.

106-Across French or Italian bread:  Don’t try putting 1-Across on this kind of bread!

36-Down Pulitzer-winning composer Ned:  (Not a hint really)  If you didn’t know this one, lock it in your memory henceforth, ’cause this is a very common xword clue/answer known primarily for his operas.

93-Across Welcome sight after a flood:  Well, not just any flood.   This one happened a long time before Katrina.

69-Down Like some stores of years gone by.  Prices have gone up about 10 times since then!

35-Down Prize won by Alice Munro and Stephen King.  Most prizes are named after people who were champs at the particular skill.  No surprise ending here!

74-Down Eggplant casserole:  Well ratatouille won’t fit.  Think Greek.

21-Down All ______ :  What you may be when you finish the puzzle.

6-Down Rink jumps:  Cousin of toe loops, camels, etc..  Where do they get these names from anyway?  Especially the camels.  This is no place for a desert animal!

23-Down Fruit growers:  Since money doesn’t grow here, might as well enjoy the fruit!

Check out Why we solve crossword puzzles for my latest thoughts on the magic of puzzle-solving.

Theme:  Unless you’re a super-solver, do read the box that comes with the puzzle.   It’s needed to solve the clues with only dashes inside the land-locked middle square.   The theme is four long across clues (clearly marked) that form a “trivia question” that’s answered in the five circles in the land-locked middle.   Remember that it’s a trivia question and not a riddle.  You’ll likely have to get many of the down clues that cross the acrosses before you can start making educated guesses about the acrosses.   And it’s unlikely you’ll fill in the circles ’til you’ve got a fair amount the acrosses.  To solve the middle section, it’s a good idea to write down the ten starred answers.

I guess that’s more “advice” than  a “hint,” so here goes:  Most of our great grandparents’ (or grandparents’ or parents’, depending on how old you are!) generation ended up putting these in a glass before bed.

Since the theme’s all across clues, all the hints are crossing down clues:

Here’s my only one for a asterisked clue: 15-Down:  Since works is plural you might think the answer ends in “S” or “I.”  It doesn’t.

24-Down Horror director Eli:  Also know for his retirement accounts?

89-Down  Guttural:  You’d think such sounds would come from the gut/diaphragm, but think higher up

93-Down Sort of:   Often used as a prefix

82-Down Literary olios:  What happens when you’re sloppy eating breakfast while reading a book?  Just kidding.  Sounds like a girls name.   (A very common crossword puzzle word (usually in the singular), btw, so commit this one to memory once you get it.)

64-Down Dollar rival:  Think rent-a-car, not money

94-Down Ogling type:  No, not a leerer, but close

86-Down At it:  One word;  Think in a fight, not hard at work.

16-Down French lord:  Oh, so that’s where the French word for “Mister” comes from!

78-Down Mercury and Saturn:  Think of ancient Rome, not cars

Not a particular interesting theme.  A quick scan of the clues (something I always suggest for themed puzzles; i.e. all NYT puzzles except Friday and Saturday) you’ll see a series of clues relating to the same thing.    If you know nothing at all about this particular thing, the puzzle will be far harder to solve.  Not much of a hint I can except to say that what made all those magazine covers in 64-across could also be clued:  “Former Soviet Union political organ.” and that 46-Down is, aptly, three words.

Specific hints:

18-Across One of several Louises:  Think Louis not Louise

80-Down Certain templegoer:  Think fraternal organization like Elks, not religious group

79-Down Baloney:  No, can’t eat it.   Think dudes talking to each other

42-Across Like some Braten:   Just like some? You mean there’s a sweet version of this?  I never knew.

60-Across Raw meat dish:  Raw meat and a raw egg.   Not for the food safety conscious!

52-Across Star in the Swan constellation:  Could be cued as “Star that keeps showing up in puzzles and I can never remember what it is.”  Keep in mind that 4-Down and 33-Down are close cousins in that they are formed the same way.   This may help you get the last letter of this star’s name.  Once you get it, put it in your memory banks somewhere, it’s sure to come up again.

108-Across Units of force:   Who knew figs had this kind of power?

79-Across Stereotypical neighbors:  Since everybody’s trying to keep up with them, who are they trying to keep up with?  The Smith’s?

22-Across Slightest idea:   Almost always used in the negative, as in “I don’t have a(n)  ________.”   Is this what you don’t have when your pen runs dry?

Theme:  Ok, let’s start with this:  Neither Across Lite nor the NY Times own software will give credit for the correct answer.   How’s that for cruel.  Yes, Virginia, there is a rebus hidden here.  I wouldn’t normally be so direct in my hints, but the frustration of getting the right answer and being told it’s wrong was too much even for the NY Times own Wordplay blogger…and even her notion that “if the across is right, you’ll get Mr. Happy Pencil” isn’t correct either.  The puzzle software wants just one letter (the first letter of the rebus)  where clearly more are needed.   Enough grousing and on to one basic hint:   There is a key clue in this puzzle:  A single clue that makes sense of all the rest.  I won’t tell you which one it is, but look for it FIRST, before you struggle figuring out why clearly correct answers don’t fit.  (If this you haven’t read my blog before:  A key answer is one that explicitly refers to multiple other answers in the puzzle.  If you want to reduce your frustration level, always scan all the clues quickly when you start to see if there’s a key clue.  Still confused?  See 116-Across.)

Specific clue hints:

5-Down Terrestrial:  Two words, one of which is the first word that occurred to you as the answer.

94-Down Skating move:  Well, personally, I prefer a lutz or axel jump, whatever they are, but this one’s another two word description for one of those amazing things skaters do.

126-Across Wall St. workers:  A fancy word for “guessers”

46-Across Blazers, etc.:  Think cars, not clothes

41-Across ____ hers:  Think towels

122-Across Alvar who designed Finlandia Hall:  I though Finlandia was a cheese.  Maybe there are lots of cheeses in this hall.  Anyway, it seems all architects, even one’s not named Eero Saarinen require double vowels in their names.

110-Across Infection fighter:  Well, penicillin won’t fit.  You don’t buy this in a drug store.  Think biology, not pharmacology.

87-Down Songbirds in the Rubáiyát:  Well, since it’s unfair that this crosses Author Santha Rama ____, I’ll just tell you that it’s very unlikely you’ve ever heard of this bird (or will ever hear of it again), that there’s no rebus here though you might think there would be, that the crossing letter is a vowel but isn’t A E I O or even Y, and that the first three letters and second three are the same.

21-Down Sleuth in slang:  Cops may are called flat feet, right, so why wouldn’t a detective be known for the condition of his footwear?

Theme hint:  Ok, a fairly standard theme:  Long answers ending with a question mark to indicate there’s wordplay afoot.  The type of wordplay is a little unusual this time.  The title tells us its something about TV and Movies.  The first such clue is 23-Across which begins with “TV movie about…”  This phrase really precedes all the long across answers.   The most common wordplay is to give an unusual clue for a common phrase.   That isn’t what’s going on here.   This is more of a portmanteau phrase.  “Portmanteau’s” — amalgams that put two things together that don’t normally go together — are common crossword themes…And that’s what we have here.  Some of the answers are cute, though really nothing spectacular here.  As usual, get one of them and you’ll get the idea that works for all of them.

10 specific hints (since the theme answers are all across, again this Sunday, the hints are all DOWN clues):

3-Down Ones going to Washington:  These “ones” are usually accompanied by lots of larger denomination “contributions,” though occasionally you get some back.

6-Down Whale of an exhibition:  Or “in” or “at” an exhibition.

7-Down Miles Davis ____ (cool jazz group):   A relatively large group for Miles.  Think numerically.

49-Down Start to matter?:   Think prefix.   (Why are people against this stuff anyway?)

95-Down “I never played the game” memoirist:  In Woody Allen’s Sleeper watching this person was believed (in the 22nd century) to have been a particularly cruel form of punishment.  Many people in the 20th century agreed.

83-Down Retro dos:  “Dos”  can be:  1) big parties; 2) notes on a scale or, as here, 3) hairdos.  This big!

100-Down Long-tailed beach fliers:  Can be birds, but some come with strings attached.

35-Down Jerseys and such:  No, not the kind of jersey you wear

13-Down Become lenient:  2 words;  Somewhat deprecatory.  Or:  What may happen to the ice cream after a long shopping trip.

61-Down Standard part of a limerick:  Could be:  a loose  (very loose) homonym for what you don’t say aloud when you say how cute your grandchild is.

Here we have one of the more standard large puzzle themes:  Common phrases given a little “twist” hinted at by the title the puzzle.    You might think that “Befitting” is telling you that several letters will squeeze into a single box, but it’s actually much simpler than that.  A simple switch.  Once you get one of them, you’ll get the others.   So this one where it pays to get a bunch of the down clues crossing the long acrosses and see if you can get the wordplay that’s going on.

So I’ll concentrate my specific hints on down clues that cross them answers.  Here are this Sunday’s 10 hints:

(All Down clues)

3.  Near perfect rating:  Think Olympic gymnastics. Of course, these days, the answer that’s right here is actually less than what you’re going to need to get the gold medal.

4.  No longer fizzy:  Two words.   Think an opened soda can after a few hours.

26 Slowing down, musically:  If the second letter of the answer were and “E,” and being politically correct weren’t a requirement of a puzzle, the clue could be what the slow kid in school used to be called all the time.

65- Al _____ :  No, not Queda.  Think pasta.

87- Game of tag?:  Though in this game you’re not “it” but “out.”

11- Taverna offerings:  Remember that tavernas are Greek “restaurants,”  though the places you get these are more often “hole-in-the-walls” than “restaurants”

85- Fish trap:  Remember that you don’t have to have much in the way fins to be a fish.  Think of something akin to a lobster trap.

38- Leafy green:  Apparently eating these are what keep people living forever.  Is the health value of food proportional to its bitterness?

13- Salad ingredient:  Not for you vegans!

75- It has buttons but no button holes:  Clue could be:  An ancient communication device before iPhones, iPads, iWhatevers toook over the universe!

Bonus hint on long theme answers: 116-Across Fortuneteller’s protest demand:   The clue could be a Multiple Personality person’s protest demand.

Theme hint:

Interesting theme today.  A very “long-winded” answer comprising 5 long acrosses (see 29-Across for which they are) in sequence, summed up in a (very common) phrase going down the center of the puzzle at 24-down.   There’s no indication in the clues of what either the long or short version is going to be, so the approach to the puzzle is pretty straight forward:  Solve as many of the crossing clues and the long answers will gradually take shape.

10 Specific hints (of answers that cross the long theme clues):

First a few that cross the “simply put” phrase:

27-Across Swearing:  Though the clue is a gerund (-ing) the answer is a noun.

36-Across Validates: Letters, not a word as such

53-Across Shoes without heels:  Well, sandals won’t fit.   CLOGS would, but these are  a little more likely to be found in a workplace.

85-Across 180s:  As in turns drivers make.

90-Across Stout _____ :  Well, the clue gives with the blank after the word “stout,” though it could be considered an alternative to stout.  Don’t think fat, think pub.

And 5 Downs crossing the long acrosses:

4-Down Works the room:  Well, it isn’t GLAD HANDS, but that’s the idea and it’s also 2 words.

51-Down Not go beyond:  2 words.  Think of a time limit of an appointment

81-Down “Yeah, yeah”:  Only 4 letters, but 2 words

79-Down Nov. 11 Honoree:  And whose day is Nov. 11?  Not mom’s, though they could be mom’s.  4 letters, no words

76-Down Let someone else take over:  2 words.  Clue could be “Get out of my way, I’ve got to do the crossword puzzle before you!”

This is one of those themes where once you get the first one, it’s a big help to solving the other long clues.  Observe a couple things:  First the title,  crunch time should get you thinking about whether there might be a situation where a space holds more than it ought to be able to.   The second part of the title (Time) is also a clue to what might be crunched.   Your third indication 0f what’s up is that the long clues don’t have question marks at the end, so it isn’t about puns on familiar phrases.   And, last but not least, there are precisely seven long across answers.  Still stumped?  Check out the last specific hint, below.

10 specific clue/answer hints (since the long answer are all across, I’ll limit the specific hints to the down clues):

1-D   Gunfight locales:  Nope, not corrals.   Doc Holliday’s hangout.

8-D  It needs a signature:  Think government, not credit card

98-D “Fuhgeddaboudit”:  Remember that quotes around a word mean it’s something that usually spoken, not written and usually slangy, not proper.  2 words.  I’ve never heard anyone actually say “Fuhgeddaboudit!”  but it apparently means you aren’t gonna do what was asked.

102-D Sleep problem, to Brits:  You probably know that “to Brits” and such tell you that it’s how those people who don’t drive on the correct side of the road spell ordinary works incorrectly.   I know they say we’re the ones who don’t know what we’re doing.   That’s definitely possible.  I still don’t know why they keep sticking extra letters in words (“colour”  for “color”) for example.  Isn’t less more?

54-D Precipitousness:  What a word!  It doesn’t mean steep, so be quick about it.

50-D  Deli offerings:  Lox on a bagel with cream cheese?  No, that won’t fit, but maybe just as fattening!

82-D “Great” kid-lit detective:  Psst:  his name rhymes with his sobriquet.   (Sorry, I just have never had the chance to use “sobriquet” in a sentence before!)

58-D “Well, well”:  2 words.  The answer usually starts with “Well,” also.

17-D Corroded: 2 words.   Clue could be:  “What the imp did to the ice cream cake when no one was looking!”

88-D  Isak Dinesen novel setting (Double bonus hint:  This will help you with the theme if you haven’t got it yet):  It’s the name of a continent and it isn’t ASIA.  What could be going on here???

A little late getting to the puzzle today, but, as promised, hints by noon.

Fairly straightforward wordplay for the theme clues here.  Nothing fancy.  Could be titled “Speech impediment” but obviously that wouldn’t be politically correct.  A very simple switch turns common phrases into long across answers that literally mean what the clue says.    As is often the case, get one of them and you’ll be set knowing the same “trick” will be used in all of the long acrosses.

10 Specific clue hints (I’ll go mostly for down clues, so to help more with the long acrosses):

(All down):

39 – New releases?:  Think prison, not CDs

47- Plows leave them:  So do worries.

59- Show polite interest in: 2 words;  The “interest in” here is in someone who is not the person you’re talking with.

87- Late finisher: 2 words; Think horse race

38- Sidewalk cafe sight:  If the person at the sidewalk cafe has an fancy drink like a Mai Tai, you’d might have one of these under a much bigger one of these.

19- Lacking meat:  No, not vegan.  Think of physique, not food.

13- Trouser fabric:  I’ve worn these for years not realizing the word referred to their fabric rather than their color.  As my hint indicates, commonly pluralized, though singular here.

97- Cabinet members?:  Note the question mark (indicates that it’s a “joke” of some kind) and think of an office, not government meetings.

1- Elementary school group?:  Not the three R’s, but similar

35- E Equivalent:  Think musical scale.   Sometimes notes, depending on the key of the music, get named unusually.  This one is rarely seen, but one often sees this kind of thing in a puzzle (probably because it person who wrote the puzzle needed it to make things work puzzle wise).    For example, you’ll occasionally see B Sharp, which is far more commonly called C.   For your edification, these are called “enharmonic”:   A B-Sharp and a C sound exactly alike, but may be named this way by score writers under certain circumstances.

Enjoy your Sunday puzzle!

Theme:  A very pun-y theme this week.   Keep the the tile in mind and solve the crossing clues of the long answers with question marks.  A common premise:  Word play changes a common phrase to a phrase that literally means what the clue says.   Many of them are pretty funny once you get ’em.  The common phrase, in several of these, is close to the meaning of the altered phrase.  If you know any recreational/medicinal drug slang, look at 64-Across after getting as many of the down clues that cross it.  This is the pattern you’ll find repeated in all the clues that indicate they’re puns by the “?” at the end.  (One thing that’s a bit unusual here is that many answers that aren’t super-long also fit the theme.)

10 specific Hints:

107-Down Kipling’s “Follow Me ____”:   Remember that ‘e is English, like Eliza Doolittle.

108-Down It can be refined:  Yeh, I thought it was ORE, too.  As gunky as this stuff is, it still is far more refined than it was when it came out of the ground.

5-Down Regain clarity:  Think a night on the town, not wiping off your glasses.

31-Across Poetic pause:  The answer contains a relatively rare vowel sequence more commonly found associated with a type of salad named for a Roman emperor.

40-Across Piazza parts:  Not all “?” clues are theme clues.   Think letters.

97-Across Some tennis play:  Actually, one of the two kinds of tennis play that exist, so far as I know.

20-Across Dramatic response to “Who’s there?”:  More commonly clued as an overly formal response.

11-Across Hollywood hrs.:  Whenever you see the name of a place in the U.S. and something related to time, think of setting your watch as you fly across the country.

41-Down No. between 0 and 4:  Think college.

109-Across Cartoon boy with an antenna on his cap: Think of the TV cartoon family of prehistory transported to the space age future.

Theme:  See if you can get 59-Down, the “key” or “reveal” clue that explains how the theme works.   (Do this by solving as many of the clues that cross it as possible.)    A fairly straightforward one this week.  As soon you get one of the long down clues (unusual aspect this week is that all the theme answers are down clues).  Getting one will help with the others.

10 Specific hints:  (I’m going to give just across clues this time, to help with the theme answers.)

1.  91-Across  Circus Tent:  2 words

2.  98-Across  “I know the answer” : Amazingly enough 3 words.  Think little kid.

3.  29-Across No longer fit it:  Think plant that’s still in its original pot

4.  44-Across Naval flier:  Not a jet, but something on a pole

5.  24-Across One paying a flat rate:  This clue could easily have a “?” at the end;  i.e. it’s a form of word play.

6.  41-Across Worldly figure:  Think shape, not person

7.  81-Across Archer’s wood source:  Again, 2 words and the second one isn’t bush.

8.  23-Across “Bummer!”:  I had “Darn” or “Dang” at first;  the answer’s similar to these, but doesn’t start with “D”

9.  100-Across Response to “I promise I will”:   Yet again, 2 words.   Not the nicest response one could hope for.

10.  103-Across Where cruisers cruise:  And yet again, 2 words.  Well, the clue really should be where some cruisers cruise.  Think literally here:  We’re not talking about police cruisers or teens cruising the streets, here, your first association to cruiser is probably right.

And one extra (because it had me stumped for a long time):  18-Across Jesus for one:  No, not The Jesus.  This  particular Jesus is normally associated, in xwords, to other members of a particular sports family.

No mystery about the theme this time.   The clues themselves tell us all too directly that certain answers are anagrams related to other answers.   A help for anagram solving, I find:  Write out the consonants on one line and the vowels on a line below that one.  Lightly put a line through the letters whose position you already know from solving crossing clues.    This helps to see the letters out of their original context.

Tf you’re confident about the original, non-scrambled answer, any letters that show up in the anagram are likely to be wrong, so check those carefully.   Notice particularly the unusual letters.  Here G’s, B’s, Y’s and F’s show up.

Today’s hints:

27-Down  – Galena and cerussite:  What kind of things are “ite’s”?   No, not like urbanites, these things come up from under the earth.   2 words.

87-Down  – Like the word “curiae” in “amicus curiae”:   Aren’t you sorry now that you didn’t take Latin?  Or worse, aren’t you sorry that you did take it and still don’t know what “curiae” is.   Well, I tell you what you don’t care about:  the meaning is irrelevant.

88-Down – Was congenial:  Like the clue, 2 words.  The clue could be:  What someone might have done after insulting their spouse.

26-Across – British soccer powerhouse:  Or, where arms used to be kept.

14-Down Alters to allow development:  Think towns, not maternity dresses

113-Across Video store penalty:  And what makes streaming video so popular!

121-Across They’re on the left in Britain:  Around the big cities, seems like left and right of these fit the answer.  2 words.

86-Down – Completely:  Not a single word or even two.  Similar to a common 4-letter answer to the same clue.

Theme Hint:  Well, remember what today is (or was, if you’re doing the puzzle on a future day).   There’s a “meta” puzzle here — a puzzle within the puzzle — but I didn’t figure it out…and didn’t really care.  In terms of solving the puzzle itself, though, as soon as you get one you’ll get the wordplay trick that is in every starred clue.  It isn’t a very dramatic trick.  Remember title, “Special Features,” because all the long clues’ word play transform the same type of “thing”  (also hinted at by the  “key” clue (115-Across).

10 hints to non-theme answers:

41-Down Airplane area:  Or:  A kind of fever (particularly common among people who live in Northern climes as winter drags on.)

66-Down Nook:  Or:   Nook’s partner

68-Down Weekly bar promotion:  I guess you wouldn’t find these much in gay bars.

78-Down Solo companion:  A hairy companion, at that.   Don’t get hung up on the apparent paradox

26-Across Steaming beverage:  Think Starbucks

113-Across Kind of bean:  Or:  Car famous for its exploding rear end

25-Across It comes from the heart:  Literally, not figuratively

72-Down Wasn’t exacting:  2 words

72-Across Device Professor X wears over his head in X-Men:  He’s a real brain!

119-Across Nonstop:  2 little words

A different kind of theme this week.   There is a “key” clue 67-Across (Classic questions answered six times…).   It should prove a big help to solving the puzzle, but the down clues to land it aren’t easy, so this time my hints will focus on those clues/answers.   Each of the long clues tied to the key answer are totally different from each other and it’ll be the rare solver who knows them immediately.   Meanwhile the general level of clue/answer is a little tougher than an “average” Sunday, so it may take a while before all comes into focus.

So here are some hints for the clue/answer combos that cross 67-Across:

67-Down  Beside:  Note that the clue is beside, not besides.  Think of someone beside someone else.

68-Down Greek goddess of the seasons:   Or:  Plural of dances at a Jewish wedding held in ancient Greece?

45-Down Legislative assemblies:  Plural, so not SENAT; Plural, but no S or E or I at the end;

51-Down Fidelity:  It’d help if the clue mentioned that this is a word used a lot more a while back (say, in the Middle Ages) than it is today.

62-Down Compete:  Rhymes with TRY.

63-Down Traditional enemy of the Kiowa:   Another plural without an S or other plural ending.  A tribe that sounds like the answer to the question:  “Know what I seasoned the lamb with?”

69-Down Mimics:  Noun, not verb;   Or:  People who take care of large primates?

47-Down NBC vis à vis Meet the Press:  Or:  Person who takes the spring clothes out of the attic to get the moth ball smell out.

52-Down Service call?:  Think busy deli counter.