Autumn Flip Flops (New York Times 11/25/2020)

 

Try today’s puzzle here. (NYT subscription required) Answer key below.

In my neck of the woods, flip flops cease to be practical at the beginning of September. Unless you’re a too-cool-for-the-weather high schooler or a Canadian transplant who thinks our Midwestern fall and winter seasons are merely a nippy spring. But in today’s NYT crossword puzzle, authored by John Guzzetta and Jeff Chen, flipping and flopping is the name of the game!

For a Wednesday puzzle, today did not offer much in the way of a challenge. While taking my first pass at the clues, looking for low-hanging fruit, I felt like I knew the answers to many of them. I restrained myself from filling in every answer I thought I knew, convinced that there was some trickery going on. That clues that looked like gimmes (15A. “Polar ___ [weather phenomenon], 61A “Halloween hue”) were trying to lure me into a false sense of security. As such, after the first pass, much of the puzzle was still left blank.

After a second sweep, most of it was filled in.

15A was VORTEX just as I thought, and 61A was ORANGE, as if it could have possibly been anything else. The down clues offered a few long answers, all of which were simple with a few letters filled in. 3D “Concerns for Cinderalla and her stepsisters” … BALLGOWNS; 9D “Group at a wedding” … GROOMSMEN; 32D “Signed, sealed, or delivered” … PASTTENSE; 35D “One way to wait” … PATIENTLY. 

My answer to the first themed clue came at 50A “Golf Reservation” … TEETIME. At 63A came that clue’s flip-flop: “Herbal drink full of antioxidants [and 50 across flipped].” At the time I had 63A filled in as T?TM?T?A. See if you can figure it out.

No?

Me neither!

At 64D I had “N.F.L. stat: Abbr.” as TDS instead of YDS, which was throwing me for a loop. As soon as I fixed that mistake T?YM?T?A quickly became THYMETEA, and the rest of the themed answers fell neatly in place.

25A “Stamp on an envelope [and 16-across flipped]” became AIRMAIL, solving 16A “Prince, e.g.” … MALEHEIR.

31A “It takes a glider up to launch altitude” became TOWPLANE, while 44A “Basic kind of shoe [and 31-across flipped] … PLAINTOE.

With the themed clues finished, the rest of the puzzle fell neatly into place with two small exceptions. 53A and 54D offered a challenge with a bit of crosswordese and musical trivia respectively. 67A joined in, making for a difficult crossing.

53A “Helpful” should be solved as UTILE, a word I don’t think I have ever used in my life.

67A “Whole passel” became SLEW, admittedly only after I had solved 54D. I had to look up ‘passel’ in the dictionary when I was done. And yes, when I say dictionary, I mean Google! Had it been clued as “the whole group” I feel like I would have picked it up easier.

54D “Eldest von Trapp daughter in “The Sound of Music” was my saving grace here, solving both previous clues at once. Of course if you didn’t know the answer (LIESL) one would be hard pressed to guess it!

And speaking of guessing…

The intersection of 42A and 43D posed my least favorite type of challenge when it comes to solving a crossword. The crossing of two bits of trivia that can’t be logically sussed out by surrounding clues. 42A was clued as “Indian state along the Himalayas” while 43D was “Cable news anchor Melbir” leaving me with ASS?M and ?RI respectively. Thankfully, the missing space had to be a vowel which significantly limited my choices. For a puzzle that was otherwise simple and enjoyable, it makes me wonder if this meet-up of ‘you-know-it-or-you-don’t’ clues was what made this puzzle a Wednesday difficulty instead of a Tuesday level challenge.

Either way, the final answers were ASSAM and ARI, both bits of trivia I’ll hope to remember the next time we meet!

How did you fare with today’s puzzle? Did any other spots give you a headache? Let me know in the comments below, and here is the answer key in case you get stuck!

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