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!