SATURDAY PUZZLE -- I really flailed my way through this puzzle, the third New York Times construction from Kunal Nabar (his others were a nice Sunday collaboration with Emily Sharp and a Friday debut that was also no walk in the park). Mr. Nabar has a skill for very slippery misdirects and has scattered them liberally throughout this grid -- I feel as if I got tripped up by more than half of the clues, although there is some helpful short fill without which I'd still be muddled. (There is also some short fill that is unhelpful and hilarious.)
What's especially maddening yet gratifying about a solve like this is that only a few entries are at all obscure or difficult in retrospect. The clues are just that gnarly, enough to make this a pretty challenging Saturday.
Tricky Clues
1A./17A. Both of the top two clues in this puzzle are slick misdirects, and the second example is slightly bonkers. At 1A, [They help you see the big picture] had me thinking of all manners of spectacles, but only the type you look through, not at. The answer is MOVIE TICKETS. At 17A, [Swing states?] solves to OPEN MARRIAGES, a Crossword debut, which refers to matrimonial states of swinging -- definitely nothing new.
54A./59A. Both of these entries are appearing in the Crossword for the first time. At 54A, the [First science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship] also won many of sci fi's other top literary awards: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER is considered a visionary whose work predicted a lot of dystopian elements of modern times. At 59A, [Many TV panelists] solves to TALKING HEADS; I can think only of the band and wonder how it had never made it into a Times puzzle before.
5D. There are quite a few names in this puzzle with which I was unfamiliar; this one was by far the least deducible, despite the ridiculous specificity of its clue. [_____ Okafor, 6'10" Charlotte player who was the N.B.A.'s 2005 Rookie of the Year] is EMEKA, short for Chukwuemeka.
22D. This entry was unexpected, but of course makes perfect sense when you consider it: [Unites after a break] solves to KNITS, referring to how a bone repairs itself, not to a couple that breaks up and then gets back together.
27. This entry was also unexpected, which at this point in the solve was unsurprising. [Ones with big blocks?] didn't bring anything immediately to mind -- city planners, maybe? -- but I certainly didn't think of mental blocks, or memory gaps, which are characteristic of AMNESIACS.
39D. [Bread whose dough is rolled on a chakla] is CHAPATI, another debut entry. A chakla is a round, raised surface made of wood or other materials.
Constructor Notes
Excited to be back in The Times for a Saturday puzzle! I started this grid off at the top, but I'm really happy with how the bottom turned out. I noodle around with this type of grid shape often, and I tend to struggle with the intersecting longer entries in the corners, but this one fell into place nicely. My favorite entries are OCTAVIAEBUTLER, NBAGAME and CHAPATI.
When I submitted the original puzzle, my clues were definitely more at a Friday level. I appreciate the puzzle editing team's changes, especially on some of the shorter entries, to make it feel more like a Saturday!
I hope you enjoyed the puzzle.
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