697 Sentences With "revealer"

How to use revealer in a sentence? Find typical usage patterns (collocations)/phrases/context for "revealer" and check conjugation/comparative form for "revealer". Mastering all the usages of "revealer" from sentence examples published by news publications.

type: All Declarative Interrogative Exclamative

structure: All Simple Compound Complex Compound-Complex

length: All <=10 words 10-20 words 20-30 words 30-50 words

But there would typically be a revealer for that, and there was no such revealer. from The New York Times
The "revealer" Revealer parents help their child discover the world by going to museums, libraries, exhibits, etc. from Business Insider
The ones I submitted were quite contrived and basically made the revealer unnecessary (I think I was still subconsciously resisting the idea of a revealer). from The New York Times
Sometimes a constructor notices a common oddity in the language and the theme is set before the revealer, but today Ms. Lempel confides that the revealer inspired the theme. from The New York Times
My initial attempt was rejected for an awkwardly split revealer (THREE and LITTLE BIRDS), but Joel had the idea that the revealer could be changed to A LITTLE BIRDIE. from The New York Times
Ms. Maymudes has built her puzzle around (and within, you could say) a rebus that appears in four squares, with a revealer at 44A and a bonus revealer at 34A. from The New York Times
Moving the revealer to 8A took all that pressure off and allowed me to load up on some interesting seven-letter entries, albeit at the expense of saving the revealer for last. from The New York Times
That would explain the revealer at 59 Across, GONE FISHING. from The New York Times
But it is, once you solve the revealer at 33A. from The New York Times
Mr. Markey ties that together with the revealer GRAVEYARD SHIFT. from The New York Times
That's the revealer you wanted to go with, Mr. Collins? from The New York Times
What you want to do is search for the revealer. from The New York Times
Then, scan the clue list for a revealer of some sort. from The New York Times
In any case, they suggested changing the revealer to METAL MUSIC. from The New York Times
Remember, look for a revealer, which is at 64 Across today. from The New York Times
And the clever revealer makes it a fun, early week puzzle. from The New York Times
" In fact, the revealer at 53A — clued as "Forget about it! from The New York Times
There's also a revealer, at 76D, to really drive everything home. from The New York Times
Because, as the revealer at 41A says, it's a P.O. BOX. from The New York Times
Getting a fifth square around the MICROLOANS revealer was so tricky. from The New York Times
Because it's a ROADBLOCK, as the revealer at 64A tell us. from The New York Times
And goodness gracious, the payoff in Mr. Zhou's revealer is terrific. from The New York Times
Or, I can just skip down to the revealer at 57A. from The New York Times
So thank goodness for the revealer in the center at 2101A! from The New York Times
What's on your menu for MEATLESS MONDAY (the revealer at 51A)? from The New York Times
The revealer, JULY, makes its appearance in the last Across entry. from The New York Times
Interviewing for a job Second, they looked at how the revealer vs. from Business Insider
He wraps up his theme nicely with the 36A revealer, FANTASY SPORTS. from The New York Times
And at 61A, the revealer is WORD SQUARE, the classic letter puzzle. from The New York Times
In addition, all three theme entries and their revealer are unique entries. from The New York Times
That left the revealer for the spot where you find it now. from The New York Times
There was also a revealer at 112A that provided that final push. from The New York Times
Besides the revealer at 57A, we have XMAS, WENT SOUTH, and NOEL. from The New York Times
Given this knowledge, the revealer at 35A makes perfect sense: UNITED NATIONS. from The New York Times
That's how I wound up searching for the definition of today's revealer. from The New York Times
So I went with the "cracked" revealer that fortunately echoed the theme. from The New York Times
It's a great character builder but more importantly, a great character revealer. from The New York Times
The revealer is at 15D, and the answer is RAISING THE FLAG. from The New York Times
Because what I really want to talk about is Mr. Collins's revealer. from The New York Times
Eventually we get to the revealer at 62A, which is FINAL FOUR. from The New York Times
The other thing I remember is being particularly pleased with the revealer. from The New York Times
I originally included a theme revealer, which I think was FORWARDED LETTER. from The New York Times
There are four starred clues, as well as the revealer at 61A. from The New York Times
I conflated the revealer clue with the answer, that's what I did. from The New York Times
So why the revealer "DOWN" THE PIPE, if the PIPE is zigzagging? from The New York Times
The very first version had three grid-spanning entries and no revealer. from The New York Times
Darkness is essentially a shadow realm, light a revealer and an animator. from Hyperallergic
Tying this all together is the split revealer at 35- and 44 Across. from The New York Times
At first, I questioned whether BALLOON DARTS, the revealer, were really a thing. from The New York Times
Ironically, DR. RUTH released a book with the same title as today's revealer. from The New York Times
If the revealer had not been there, would you have found the theme? from The New York Times
Then carrying the revealer to its logical conclusion led to the clue inflation. from The New York Times
We know it because of the revealer at 66 Across, for one thing. from The New York Times
What does all of this avian business have to do with the revealer? from The New York Times
Eventually I suggested DOWN FEATHERS as the revealer, which was the one accepted. from The New York Times
The revealer, 44D, indicates that the figure in the center is a PIÑATA. from The New York Times
Kudos to our constructors for debuting all four theme entries and the revealer. from The New York Times
Mr. Cee debuts VOCAL CORD, FLIGHT DECK and the revealer, MAKE THE CUT. from The New York Times
Trivia: what revealer ties together this theme I crafted for BuzzFeed in 2015? from The New York Times
As the theme entries were simplified, the space for a revealer was created. from The New York Times
What was once concealed will emerge, especially if you solve the revealer at 503A. from The New York Times
That's about as elegant a revealer as you can get, as split revealers go. from The New York Times
DAVID BOWIE appears as a split revealer of sorts at 35- and 43 Across. from The New York Times
But I get that people would have had too much trouble without a revealer. from The New York Times
What do these CALLs have to do with the revealer at 63A, CLOSE CALL? from The New York Times
Their revealer at 36A is the central entry EYELESS, a homophone of "I"-less. from The New York Times
Once I struck on the KEY WEST revealer I was sure it could work. from The New York Times
In fact, the constructor and editors have drawn an arrow right to the revealer. from The New York Times
The original version of this puzzle included the revealer INSANITY DEFENSE, so BEATLEMANIA, e.g. from The New York Times
A theme with an unconventional revealer that leads to quite the "aha!" moment. 2. from The New York Times
We finally have the full BEARD in the revealer at 57A, GROW A BEARD. from The New York Times
Your revealer is the central entry of this 15 x 16 grid, TEAM BUILDING. from The New York Times
I didn't see this until I got the revealer, COUNT THE SQUARES, at 35A. from The New York Times
THREE ON, a baseball phrase meaning that the bases are loaded, is the revealer. from The New York Times
Not too many fill issues, since there were four theme entries including the revealer. from The New York Times
That's why I didn't use the revealer clue as the headline for this column. from The New York Times
Ms. Lucido's theme is MIND THE GAP, as the revealer tells us at 39A. from The New York Times
The only clue that I found fairly tricky was the revealer clue, covered above. from The New York Times
I wanted badly to come up with a groan-worthy revealer in that tradition. from The New York Times
The revealer really sealed the deal for me, but we'll get to that. 1. from The New York Times
The revealer is the 'N Sync song "BYE BYE BYE," which was released in 2000. from The New York Times
Once I decided on using REDUNDANT as the revealer, the puzzle came together fairly quickly. from The New York Times
I think that the best place to start is by explaining the revealer at 16D. from The New York Times
The crossword gods were cooperating when my revealer idea turned out to be 16 letters. from The New York Times
Years later, "IT'S A SECRET" struck me as a good revealer, leading to this puzzle. from The New York Times
Because they are BACK CHANNELs, the "Covert means of communication" in the revealer at 60A. from The New York Times
Ms. Gray invites us to a BBQ today, as the revealer at 38A tells us. from The New York Times
Mr. Lincoln's famous words are truncated in the revealer to give us A HOUSE DIVIDED. from The New York Times
The puzzle needed a revealer, but ALLITERATION (or ALLITERATIVE) is 12 letters, a bad length. from The New York Times
Therefore, I was asked to revise the puzzle to just use the single revealer PLANETS. from The New York Times
And our constructors reinforce that theme creativity with a lovely revealer at 61A, THINK BIG. from The New York Times
I had the idea for this revealer while driving home from work in Nov. 2018. from The New York Times
It gives us SCOTCH ON THE ROCKS, the last part being the revealer at 56A. from The New York Times
You won't see why until you get to the revealer in the last Across entry. from The New York Times
Which obligation comes first: as a keeper of secrets or as a revealer of secrets? from The New York Times
It becomes clear why you need to make that change when you solve the revealer. from The New York Times
That stemmed, in part, from confusion about the revealer clue, but I'll get to that. from The New York Times
Mr. Kahn has placed the revealer in the long, central Down entry, and if you are puzzled as to why the phrase FRENCH REVOLUTION is the revealer, take a gander at the six words that are made up of the circled letters in the grid. from The New York Times
The honor of being symmetrical with the first theme entry, TOOTH EXTRACTION, goes to the revealer. from The New York Times
There's a trick to solving puzzles like this one, and it lies in getting the revealer. from The New York Times
There are a whopping 14 fresh entries here, including the four theme entries and the revealer. from The New York Times
The frosting on these CAKES is the symmetrical, two-part revealer at 13- and 51 Down. from The New York Times
The revealer at 37A, GENDER FLUID, makes its debut in The New York Times Crossword today. from The New York Times
The revealer at 60A tells us a bit about where we are going with today's theme. from The New York Times
I'm still not sure if today's revealer is a handy tool or an instrument of torture. from The New York Times
If you had, then your eureka moment would have been the revealer: THE END / IS NIGH. from The New York Times
I very much appreciate the improvements from the EDS, particularly to the wording of the revealer. from The New York Times
That was perfect because we found a revealer that was spelled from only "legal" letters — EYELESS. from The New York Times
There are only three theme entries beside the revealer, so I'll leave the others to you. from The New York Times
The key to Ms. Kinnel's theme is to recognize the homonym in the revealer, SPRING ROLLS. from The New York Times
The Beach Boys have such great music — PET SOUNDS immediately jumped to mind as the revealer. from The New York Times
That's one of the nice things about having the revealer toward the bottom of the grid. from The New York Times
All of these are neatly tied up with the revealer DOUBLE TREE, the Hilton Hotel chain. from The New York Times
It turns out that each of those dips can precede the first word in the revealer. from The New York Times
Mr. Arbesfeld has stashed his revealer, MOON, all the way in the southeast corner at 60D. from The New York Times
But you can't say that this revealer didn't shake you out of your midweek solving stupor. from The New York Times
On the second try, it was suggested that we go without the 15-letter central revealer. from The New York Times
As a result, my first submission didn't have a revealer — it seemed impossible to fit in. from The New York Times
This revealer appears as an entry in The New York Times crossword for the first time. from The New York Times
We were pleased to find a sweet spot for the revealer, TASTE, crossing two theme answers. from The New York Times
I tumbled to this theme fairly quickly, but wondered what the revealer, if any, would be. from The New York Times
If you solved the revealer early, down at 114 and 115A, it probably made a difference. from The New York Times
I'm also grateful for the revealer of sorts at 39 Across, THREE R'S, which helped a lot. from The New York Times
One day, the thought popped into my head to make the uncooperative word a revealer of sorts. from The New York Times
I did like Mr. Guzzetta's debuts: ROMAN GODDESS, BEAUTY TIPS, TANDEM BIKE and, of course, the revealer. from The New York Times
The revealer at 40A, THE JOY OF COOKING, pretty much spills the proverbial beans on today's theme. from The New York Times
Jonathan Kaye: I was stumped trying to find a good revealer answer for this J-HOOK theme. from The New York Times
Let's hear from him: The revealer definitely came first in this one, followed by the theme entries. from The New York Times
The revealer was heard and seen quite often at many campaign rallies, and it's 15 letters long! from The New York Times
I especially like how this is the first time this entry was used as a punny revealer. from The New York Times
Mr. Black offers us a set of three seemingly disparate theme entries and a revealer at 59A. from The New York Times
Ms. Burnikel takes the revealer phrase CROSS DRESSING (14D) and does just that with her theme entries. from The New York Times
Mr. Quigley offers a set of three theme entries and a revealer, HITCHING A RIDE, at 55A. from The New York Times
He urges us to make haste in his revealer, but at least he makes us breakfast first. from The New York Times
The revealer, at 49A, is FINISHING TOUCH, because the touches are at the end of the phrase. from The New York Times
That's pretty clever, and the revealer phrase is making its debut in the New York Times Crossword. from The New York Times
Think of these four entries as brown bags holding, as the revealer at 133 states, BEER INGREDIENTS. from The New York Times
My original submission featured that phrase as the central revealer rather than the more prosaic BEER INGREDIENTS. from The New York Times
Joel's was a 15x15 with 8 10-letter theme entries and a 15-letter revealer, quite impressive. from The New York Times
The revealer is simple, but the way it is represented in this puzzle theme is very clever. from The New York Times
Use September 8's energy to overcome your fears when agile Mercury trines Pluto, the great revealer. from Refinery 29
Four entries — 27A, 28D, 47A and 27D — form that RING OF FIRE revealer that lights up 59A. from The New York Times
Fortunately, the crossings around 62A are kind, so most should suss out the "World capital" revealer quickly. from The New York Times
Three noun phrases end (or terminate) in the names of airlines, with the revealer being AIRPORT TERMINALS. from The New York Times
The first revealer was just POSTAL CODES, but I worried that could be confused with ZIP codes. from The New York Times
As soon as I solved the revealer, MIND THE GAP, I knew I had seen it before. from The New York Times
And he also neatly tucked the revealer, BATMAN, down at the bottom in the last Across clue. from The New York Times
I pared it down to this 15x15 (daily sized) puzzle using the same TAROT CARD READER revealer. from The New York Times
The fact that they are hidden makes them INSIDE INFO, as the revealer at 56A tells us. from The New York Times
It turns out that the revealer, which calls on us to STICK 'EM UP, means just that. from The New York Times
There are eight theme entries scattered throughout, marked with an asterisk, and a revealer tucked in at 115A. from The New York Times
They suggested changing the order of the entries as well as having the revealer come before the garnish. from The New York Times
After noticing the duplicated ITs and stumbling upon the IT COUPLES revealer, I was off to the races. from The New York Times
Without the revealer, I'd call this a pretty tough theme to grasp for the beginning of the week. from The New York Times
Wordplay MONDAY PUZZLE — It is rare that I solve a puzzle and am surprised by the theme's revealer. from The New York Times
Without the revealer, the cruciverbal gymnastics that Mr. Woolf went through to fill his grid might go unnoticed. from The New York Times
A secondary revealer, 52A's "Like 100 vis-à-vis 403" for FIVEFOLD was a big hint as well. from The New York Times
Will suggested eliminating the revealer and reversing the order to make a Monday-suitable grid with cleaner fill. from The New York Times
For example, you would not appreciate it if I put the answer to the revealer in the headline. from The New York Times
The revealer, clued as "Adoring looks seen 10 times in this puzzle's grid," is GOO GOO EYES. Aww. from The New York Times
The revealer at 59A is ALTOGETHER, clued nonchalantly as "On the whole," but there's an extra instruction there. from The New York Times
And the revealer is split between 65A and 55D: Those Ts and Hs we encountered were COIN FLIPS. from The New York Times
At 53A, the revealer tells us that the six longest Across words in the grid are in YIDDISH. from The New York Times
Finally, we added YIDDISH as a revealer — I felt strongly that this would tie things together a bit. from The New York Times
It took me until I solved the revealer to figure out what the theme entries had in common. from The New York Times
Mr. Cee offers us a set of things that MAKE THE CUT, as the revealer at 65A says. from The New York Times
Pluto, the great revealer goes direct in Capricorn on Thursday, compelling us to take control of our lives. from Refinery 29
I'm also glad that Will chose to reference the revealer to Darth Vader and the "Star Wars" mythology. from The New York Times
This theme has been done before, but I don't think I've ever seen it presented with this revealer. from The New York Times
The game we are playing is HIDE AND SEEK, which is part of the central revealer at 40A. from The New York Times
It's Thursday, so don't expect much help in figuring out how Mr. Zhou's revealer applies to the theme. from The New York Times
The revealer, at 67A, tells us that we are "Suffering humiliation ...," which is the definition of LOSING FACE. from The New York Times
And what was the glue — the revealer — that would justify omitting TER at the ends of familiar phrases? from The New York Times
Not long after that, I realized that the revealer words themselves were synonyms suggesting a rift — well, duh! from The New York Times
It's Thursday, so don't expect much help in figuring out how Mr. Zhou's revealer applies to the theme. from The New York Times
For me, THE LOOKING GLASS was both a neat revealer and a good solution to the above problem. from The New York Times
The fill was crummy in the SW with the HIDDENENTRANCE revealer, so I switched to the current incarnation. from The New York Times
Suitably, the revealer is also cinematic, referencing a film from 2017, LADY BIRD, that starred the wonderful Saoirse Ronan. from The New York Times
Overall, 79% of people chose to date the revealer when his or her answers varied from 'never' to 'frequently'. from Business Insider
Still, participants tended to choose the revealer (even if they'd accidentally failed to answer some questions) over the hider. from Business Insider
Again, this happens even with a lack of resources; revealer parents get creative in how to accommodate such outings. from Business Insider
I figured out that the revealer had to do with morning news, but I got the genre totally wrong. from The New York Times
Today's revealer was originally going to be GET STUFFED ... good thing I checked out Urban Dictionary and Wiktionary first. from The New York Times
Ms. Guizzo offers us a set of common phrases that happen to be REDUNDANT (the revealer is at 61A). from The New York Times
What if I did a similar thing for the letter J, and used the "grid art" as the revealer? from The New York Times
LIKE synonyms camouflaged in phrases felt like a simple enough idea ... and wouldn't LIKE MINDED make a great revealer! from The New York Times
I was not familiar with the term TRIPLE DOUBLE, which is our revealer today, split between 37- and 39A. from The New York Times
The word ONE soars up out of its slot to ONE UP us, as the revealer at 69A says. from The New York Times
They're pretty close, though, and I liked the revealer at 53A (SEASON OPENERS), which helps those almost homophones emerge. from The New York Times
This gives us a HAM sandwich, because, as the revealer at 39A says, the meat is in the middle. from The New York Times
As the revealer wryly notes, since we're solving these names on the diagonal, we're working ON A SLIDING SCALE. from The New York Times
The word EYE crosses both the theme entry PRET A MANGER and the other part of the revealer, RHYMES. from The New York Times
It's worthwhile, though; they appear to be starting a few small businesses, or so says the revealer at 60A. from The New York Times
This allowed me to include nine examples of themed wordplay (plus a revealer) rather than just three or four. from The New York Times
One final note — I tried every which way to put the revealer at 63A or 64A and failed miserably. from The New York Times
The central revealer is the delightful DRINKS ARE ON ME, and his theme is a literal interpretation of that. from The New York Times
Similarly, (dirty) PICTURE runs right through the revealer, the movie "THE DIRTY DOZEN," which celebrates its 133th anniversary today. from The New York Times
There is a lot to reflect on in this crossword, and there is nary a revealer to help us. from The New York Times
Triple-checked squares are a construction challenge, and many of the parks had to run through the central revealer. from The New York Times
There are three theme entries in their crossword, the first being ESCAPE ARTIST, clued to the revealer at 58A. from The New York Times
This is one of those puzzles in which you really need that revealer leg up to grok the theme. from The New York Times
If that hadn't worked out, I would have used a stacked SEVEN/SEAS revealer in the lower-right corner. from The New York Times
Tracy Gray: Many thanks to Loren for coming up with the concept and spot-on revealer for this puzzle! from The New York Times
The revealer, at 62A, is a "Classic hairstyle," the FRENCH TWIST, which alludes to the twisting of the names. from The New York Times
The revealer clue goes on to say that we need to look at the ends of each theme entry. from The New York Times
When read from left to right and top to bottom, it's a revealer, but we'll come back to that. from The New York Times
The puzzle's layout was largely forced by the 11-letter revealer, LATE BLOOMER, and the two grid-spanning entries. from The New York Times
My original submission used that phrase as the revealer, thereby giving a raison d'être for abbreviating the chemical elements. from The New York Times
The fun part is that we have to decipher another clue inside the theme set to solve the revealer. from The New York Times
Another revealer I thought of was THE VOICE, a TV show, but also an instrument that fits the bill. from The New York Times
O.K., now we're getting somewhere, but just sticking OTHELLO into the grid as a revealer of sorts seemed inelegant. from The New York Times
Somehow "envision" got inked in here, before these final few acrosses were addressed (including the revealer of the puzzle). from The New York Times
Sometimes I have a tough time figuring out the revealer as a whole, but that's not what confused me today. from The New York Times
I guess KEROGEN and KOPECK ruined it for a Monday … The revealer /idea really just came out of the blue. from The New York Times
Today, we bear witness to a debut revealer that at least dips a toe once again into mentioning men's unmentionables. from The New York Times
The revealer at 62A, BREAK UP THE BANKS, is a hint that the ultimate answer to 17A is RIVER BANKS. from The New York Times
Kudos to Ms. Ohringer and Mr. Agard for choosing four fresh (spoiled food notwithstanding) theme entries and a unique revealer. from The New York Times
We're saying HI to a set of well-known JACKS in this puzzle, as the 39A revealer, HIJACKS, tells us. from The New York Times
There are eight theme entries, each with a circled letter, as well as a revealer at the puzzle's center, 69A. from The New York Times
Mr. Chen has thoughtfully placed his ENTER key, the revealer, in the last spot of the central row at 37A. from The New York Times
They sit in constructors' idea books, waiting for the perfect revealer or maybe another theme entry to complete the set. from The New York Times
The grid also contains a "revealer" of sorts at 35A that contains the word TRIG inside the entry LEFT RIGHT. from The New York Times
The revealer of TRIGGER / WARNING (26D/25D) — using this modern phrase in an unexpected way — was icing on the cake. from The New York Times
When I finally hit on the revealer phrase, I tried a number of parallel schemes before settling on this one. from The New York Times
And the revealer, the "Subject of this puzzle (who has himself done a 39-Across)" is, of course, HARRY HOUDINI. from The New York Times
It's not the type of revealer that flings open the door to realization, or at least it wasn't for me. from The New York Times
Fortunately, there is a perfect revealer at 57A: "Play a game during Hanukkah … with a hint to" the above clues. from The New York Times
" The revealer clue is "Like 20-, 28- and 45-Across vis-à-vis the female-sounding phrases they're based on? from The New York Times
After you've inverted these expressions, the revealer at 111A makes perfect sense: You've changed the subject by overcoming PASSIVE RESISTANCE. from The New York Times
Will and Sam were rightfully concerned that an early-week theme would be lost on some solvers without a revealer. from The New York Times
Today we have three starred theme clues at 20A, 37A and 48A, and a revealer at the very end, 65A. from The New York Times
It turns out that I solved around the revealer clue without really seeing it because I solved using the crossings. from The New York Times
For the revealer, I really wanted I NEED SOME SPACE, but at only 14 letters it would have required me to pinch the theme answers closer or add a little strip of cheater squares in the last column (to avoid an impermissible two-letter entry), and I liked those options less than tweaking the revealer. from The New York Times
There are two ways to figure out the theme: You can solve the revealer so that you have a hint as to what might be contained in the circled or shaded squares, or you can solve as many of the circled or shaded squares as you need to in order to figure out the revealer. from The New York Times
In short and off the top of my head: We've seen new ideas on presenting puzzles online, including one that you had to print out and fold to assemble the revealer, as well as the magical celebrity crossword by Neil Patrick Harris and David Steinberg, in which, if you solved online, the revealer actually disappeared. from The New York Times
Mr. Steinberg has hidden four types of animals that all make use of CAMOUFLAGE (the revealer at 163A) to protect themselves. from The New York Times
Part of the song's lyrics admonishes us not to mess with MR. IN BETWEEN, and that's our revealer at 37 Across. from The New York Times
I was pleased to connect the Ralph WALDO Emerson clue with the revealer, MIDDLE NAME, making it just a tad trickier. from The New York Times
I originally submitted this puzzle in reverse order, moving from the heavy to the light, using CRASH DIET as the revealer. from The New York Times
At the bottom of the racket, at 59A, is the revealer of the grid: THE US OPEN, which is on now! from The New York Times
There's a revealer, but it's not that intuitive, and your job is to figure out what those shaded/circled squares mean. from The New York Times
I knew I needed at least one more, or a revealer of some sort to put the puzzle into submission realm. from The New York Times
If you haven't already guessed, the theme set consists of the colors of the RAINBOW, which is the revealer at 48A. from The New York Times
I gave that a pass once I solved the revealer at 36A and realized what I was supposed to be doing. from The New York Times
The payoff, as always, is in the revealer, which is BUTTON DOWN (as in "The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart"). from The New York Times
The revealer clue is "Request needed to understand four clues in this puzzle," and the answer is GIVE ME SOME SPACE. from The New York Times
Mr. Koppy packs his grid with nine theme entries (quite a lot of theme material), not counting the revealer at 63A. from The New York Times
In my submission, I used a reference to Sinatra in the "revealer" in keeping with the nostalgic aspect of the puzzle. from The New York Times
There's a little trivia at 323D and one renegade in the corner, at 232D, which is the verbal revealer, I'd say. from The New York Times
The revealer at 13D lets us know where the animals are going: They are marching up the gangplank onto the ARK. from The New York Times
Five starred clues hint at today's theme and Mr. Schouwerwou wraps that up nicely with a DOUBLE TAKE revealer at 60A. from The New York Times
There's a pretty explanation for these machinations, and it's also in the puzzle: A whole revealer row, at 90 and 92A. from The New York Times
The entries seem to have nothing to do with one another, until you reach the revealer at 28D: LOWER THE BAR. from The New York Times
Special thanks to constructors Byron Walden, Robin Schulman, and Daniel Landman, whose "IDOIDOIDOIDOIDO" and "ITSAMADMADMADMADWORLD" puzzles inspired today's theme and revealer. from The New York Times
Near the end of constructing the bottom half, I noticed by chance that WEIGHS and SCALES fit symmetrically across the revealer. from The New York Times
Mr. Polin feeds us a diet high in fiber as we solve, and caps it off with a very funny revealer. from The New York Times
I wanted the longest puzzle slots (not including the revealer) to contain rebus squares, while preserving good flow through the grid. from The New York Times
It hit me immediately after trying the revealer in its current form that it would allow for two more theme entries. from The New York Times
And all three theme entries are Down entries, which makes them DOWN AND DIRTY, as the revealer at 22 Down, well, reveals. from The New York Times
Even when the revealer answered 'frequently' to all of the embarrassing questions, 64% of people preferred to date them over the hider. from Business Insider
Well, Mr. Agard has noticed a connection between those initials and an older nickname for cinema: SILVER SCREEN, that revealer I mentioned. from The New York Times
Today, Mr. Donaldson takes a SLIP AND FALL at 17A and suffers BROKEN BONES (the revealer at 55A) in four different places. from The New York Times
Let's visit Mr. Donaldson, already in traction: BROKEN BONES is one of those phrases that just begs to be a crossword revealer. from The New York Times
Mr. Zhou offers us a list of four porcine-based food items that are, as the revealer at 57A reports, NON-KOSHER. from The New York Times
I was lucky to find symmetric pairs of themers, and also lucky that my first choice for revealer was the right length. from The New York Times
While Will and crew liked the grid art, they didn't like the theme and suggested a redo, keeping just the PANDA revealer. from The New York Times
And what they have in common is that they all have ONE EYE, which is the revealer split between 39A and 32A. from The New York Times
As I mentioned, the revealer, at 62A, is OPENING DAY, because that is what the days do: They open the theme entries. from The New York Times
Now you solve the other two theme entries, and remember, you have some help in the revealer at 54A, at least INITIALLY. from The New York Times
Ms. Bérubé tucks her revealer into the center of the grid, where the answer to the clue "Intermittently" is ON AND OFF. from The New York Times
There are eight theme entries in the grid today, running across, each marked with an asterisk, along with one revealer at 117A. from The New York Times
I will admit that I got the revealer right off the bat, because what other advice is Horace Greeley really known for? from The New York Times
Anyway, you might have an easier time deciphering Alan Arbesfeld's revealer, but first you are going to have to do some math. from The New York Times
I'm going to put the clue to the revealer below, and when you click or tap it, you should see the answer. from The New York Times
That might be because I solved counterclockwise and ended in the center, so the revealer was a mystery for a long time. from The New York Times
There was a puzzle similar to this one from 2002, but instead of the revealer QUALITY TIME, the constructors focus on television. from The New York Times
The problems started with the revealer BLACK ICE being eight letters and not working in the center row of a 15x15 grid. from The New York Times
All three theme entries and their revealer make their debuts today, which is a good thing, because I like my food fresh. from The New York Times
You won't find out until you solve the circled squares, and even then you will need to solve the revealer at 55A. from The New York Times
We're playing SCRABBLE today, as the revealer says at 31D, and the first thing we have to do is set our racks. from The New York Times
I would have liked this a bit better had the revealer been AIRLINE TERMINALS, but the former is more in-the-language. from The New York Times
And that, my friends, is why the revealer is "Construction staples ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme," or TWO BY FOURS. from The New York Times
The circled/shaded squares are HIN and DI, separated by a black square, which gives us LANGUAGE BARRIER, our revealer at 41A. from The New York Times
That revealer happens to cross one of the theme entries, which will most likely help you figure out what's going on here. from The New York Times
Mr. Larson offers us four theme entries that might be or go ON A ROLL, as the central revealer (40A) tells us. from The New York Times
The revealer is at 66A, the last Across entry, and it's where we find out why that central square is so important. from The New York Times
But it's also unexpected because the revealer is an odd phrase, and not necessarily the way this particular gift is usually presented. from The New York Times
My original grid used the revealer FRENCH OPENS and had ETE VACATION, AMI REQUEST, OUI VOTE, and EAU BALLOON as the theme entries. from The New York Times
There are five theme phrases that all begin with even numbers, and if you want to see them and the revealer, click here. from The New York Times
I'm sorry, let me try that again: the revealer is there to remind you that we are adding IT to the base phrase. from The New York Times
We're not told what that clue is just yet, especially if you have not figured out what the other revealer is at 66A. from The New York Times
As it happens, our snack today is on both sides of a black square, as the revealer clues at 54- and 56A say. from The New York Times
I managed to solve the revealer, HEAD OVER HEELS, before I figured out the theme, which may or may not have helped me. from The New York Times
That made the theme and its revealer at 57A emerge slowly, which is just the way I like them (slowly emergent, that is). from The New York Times
I had a New York Times puzzle that day with some IC phrases (INNER CHILD, IVORY COAST, etc.) and an "I SEE" revealer. from The New York Times
Mr. Wilber offers us four theme entries whose second word might be found in that PURSE, which is the revealer located at 56D. from The New York Times
There is also a tiny revealer at 109-Across, but you already knew what it was before you filled it in, I'd wager. from The New York Times
Mr. Wechsler takes the phrase OBLIQUE REFERENCE — our revealer at 60A — and reinterprets it as reference books that are lying on a slant. from The New York Times
Today, consumers can avoid advertising by either zapping past television ADs or installing a browser extension called AD BLOCK, which is our revealer. from The New York Times
Full of energy and enthusiasm AS FRESH AS A DAISY Our bouquet is tied across the middle with a revealer at 35A: 35A. from The New York Times
Tl; Dr Four across clues all end in terms for something that "means a lot to me," to quote the revealer at 39A. from The New York Times
I like that the revealer is LEFT RIGHT, as the trig functions kind of march down the grid in a left-right manner. from The New York Times
At the time, that seemed like a reasonable trade-off — sacrifice the second revealer to remove four cheater squares and get better fill. from The New York Times
There aren't many, but it turns out that six (including five orcas plus the KILLER WHALE revealer) is enough for a small pod. from The New York Times
Not if they are "Completely successful" at passing with FLYING COLORS, which just happens to be the split revealer at 33A and 35A. from The New York Times
The revealer answer is GET THE PICTURE, and the last word in each of the theme entries is a synonym for a picture. from The New York Times
When you fill in OPEN HOUSE for the revealer at 61A, note that the clue is asking you what the phrase can do. from The New York Times
These expressions are: CAMPAIGN SIGNS (The letter "G") GENGHIS KHAN ("H") WRONG ANSWER ("W") A fourth long entry is the revealer, SILENT PARTNER. from The New York Times
Will's solution is much cleaner: Refer only to the NAs in the revealer and simply highlight the action sounds in the theme answer. from The New York Times
The theme's conceit changes midway through the puzzle, bisected by a split revealer at 38-, 39- and 40A, so watch out for that. from The New York Times
And since the good wishes are international (from four countries, at least), why not tie it together with the revealer WORLD PEACE (62A)? from The New York Times
Another cute play on the U.S.-India confluence in the puzzle is that TAJ (the symbol of India) joins with JULY (the revealer). from The New York Times
If you don't understand the CROP ROTATION revealer at 50A, some of the entries in your puzzle may read like gibberish to you. from The New York Times
This puzzle was inspired by a "Calvin and Hobbes" strip that mentions the YELLOW-BELLIED sapsucker (in the context of a crossword puzzle, no less!) My private title for the puzzle is PARTI-COLORED, which I considered using as a revealer; but I ended up leaving it without a revealer since PARTI-COLORED doesn't quite work and is a bit obscure. from The New York Times
If you are just starting out as a solver, here's a tip: When I see something like that, I go looking for a revealer. from The New York Times
That's our revealer today (at 57A) and, indeed, the word JETS is scrambled in the circled squares of each of the four theme entries. from The New York Times
Mr. Haight's theme includes two-word phrases whose words begin with S and T, and the revealer at 68A (ESTEE) ties these phrases together. from The New York Times
Today, it was tough for me to make that connection between the adding of the points in the theme entries and the historical revealer. from The New York Times
Once I hit upon the revealer, which is itself a theme entry, I knew my backseat passenger had given me a winning Monday theme. from The New York Times
The revealer at 56D is NO MÁS, which was purportedly coined by the boxer Roberto Durán after a 1980 match with Sugar Ray Leonard. from The New York Times
Although the grid restrictions made it impossible to position that in the lower right, I was able to put ATNO there as the revealer. from The New York Times
I tumbled to the whole thing just before I got to the revealer, making for a very pleasant "Aha!" moment for this midweek puzzle. from The New York Times
To figure out what's going on here, you're going to have to be someone who KNOWS EVERY ANGLE, as the revealer at 36A says. from The New York Times
The obvious first thought was to have small, medium and large in phrases going down, with the downsizing revealer as the final, fourth entry. from The New York Times
Even if you don't start there, all the "talk" of 23D in the clues serves to direct your attention to the movie title revealer. from The New York Times
In fact, I had not yet found a complete fill by April 20, when The Times ran Tom McCoy's puzzle with the same revealer. from The New York Times
Mr. Arbesfeld has set us up with four theme entries, at 17A, 23A, 50A and 57A, and a punny revealer at 35A, dead center. from The New York Times
A young DEER, FAWN, crosses the term HIND, and DOE crosses the revealer, which made understanding the theme just a bit harder for me. from The New York Times
Click on any of the clues to see the answer and the revealer at 71A that tells you what they have in common. 20A. from The New York Times
Then an "Aha!" moment occurred and I realized that 1 + 2 + 3 = SIX WAYS TO SUNDAY would work and also act as a revealer. from The New York Times
As it says in the revealer at 67A, you can put her name together using the last three letters of the four theme entries. from The New York Times
I placed the revealer and H8RSGONNAH8 in the grid as if I were building a themeless and tried to build the puzzle from there. from The New York Times
" The revealer, at 52 Down, is clued as "Word that can follow the ends of 20- and 54-Across and 4- and 503-Down. from The New York Times
I looked for a revealer and received an "Aha!" moment from the universe that was like a smack to the back of the head. from The New York Times
Saturday crosswords usually don't have themes (there is a revealer stating that there is a theme at 55A), so you know something is up. from The New York Times
For example, the answer to 18A is CARGO SHIP, and if you add the revealer words at 61A, you get SHIP IN A BOTTLE. from The New York Times
The surnames of three important figures who worked to advance CIVIL RIGHTS (the revealer at 57A) are the last words in the theme phrases. from The New York Times
The revealer is admittedly a very basic idea, but the team liked the liveliness of the theme entries and some of the bonus fill. from The New York Times
At 58D, there's a revealer entry that hopefully had its desired effect on you — it certainly did for me, a perfectly adequate fast talker. from The New York Times
There are 683 total theme entries, including what amounts to a revealer at 44A/D, so you'll have plenty to discover on your own. from The New York Times
The revealer at 38A, clued as "Big scare of a couple of decades ago … or a phonetic hint to this puzzle's theme," is Y2K. from The New York Times
You will probably be scratching your head before you get to the revealer at 59A, but as always, that should help clear things up. from The New York Times
There is definitely a theme there, and the revealer gives a good hint at it, especially if you say the theme entries out loud. from The New York Times
The revealer at 68A, if you landed on it before you got your hands on the sweets, was more than enough to be a spoiler. from The New York Times
Jeff Chen is back, and he's hidden his revealer way down in the southwestern corner, where the four squares there are either shaded or circled. from The New York Times
Mr. Last has wrapped his theme inside a two part revealer at 1003- and 113 Across, which reads IN ONE EAR AND / OUT THE OTHER. from The New York Times
We also have a revealer: 33A, "Like each letter of the alphabet in this puzzle, at minimum" for QUINTUPLE, hid the theme for a while. from The New York Times
You're required to figure out what is special about the circled squares, which Mr. Kwong thoughtfully provides in the revealer, BACK COUNTRY, at 61 Across. from The New York Times
In addition, the central 34A, ALBERT EINSTEIN MEDAL, has the AL on both sides and the revealer, ALUMINUM SIDING, is split between 45A and 42D. from The New York Times
There's also a revealer, at 119A, that I kind of think could have been a misdirection if you were relying on it for solving advice. from The New York Times
My original submission used PANDA reparsed as a revealer for two-word phrases starting with P and A (PARTY ANIMAL, PENALTY AREA and PUTTERS AROUND). from The New York Times
My original theme set was the same, but with THRONE OF BLOOD (a Kurosawa film based on Macbeth) included instead of the SHAKESPEARE PLAY revealer. from The New York Times
My favorite part of this puzzle was that the theme kept me guessing until I finally got the revealer toward the bottom of the grid. from The New York Times
Looking at the puzzle as it goes to press, however, I realize that without the additional ROMAN GOD revealer, the theme feels a bit incomplete. from The New York Times
While searching for potential theme answers, I happened upon MT. EREBUS and realized that it could serve as a tricky revealer in its own right. from The New York Times
One thing that would have been cute is a bit of material about the television show "FULL HOUSE," since the revealer is clued that way. from The New York Times
When I researched the phrase ADD TO CART I was surprised that it had not been used, as far as I know, as a revealer. from The New York Times
I think this puzzle has a lot of vibrant imagery while solving, and then you get double the imagery once the revealer is, uh, revealed! from The New York Times
Mr. Gordon offers us a list of four disparate phrases that all have a child hidden inside, giving us the revealer at 58A, INNER CHILD. from The New York Times
Fortunately, the clue for the revealer isn't too hard, and, fortunately, it's crossed by normal fill, nothing to do with the theme, so it's deducible. from The New York Times
Now for the good stuff: By making the revealer the central Across entry, Mr. Gulczynski essentially divides his grid into a left and right side. from The New York Times
The revealer in this puzzle (split between 54- and 58A) tells us that the ends of the theme entries are a hint to its answer. from The New York Times
The revealer at 55A is "Miscellany ... or a description of the final words in 15-, 23-, 30-, 38- and 43-Across" or ODDS AND ENDS. from The New York Times
Story at a glance Famed letter-revealer and "Wheel of Fortune" model Vanna White is a household name, having appeared on the show since 1982. from The Hill
Below the revealer, the theme entries at 47- and 59A have a letter B subtracted from the base phrase, also changing the pronunciation and meaning. from The New York Times
Mr. Gordon offers us three phrases that contain sports that one would participate in as part of a TRIATHLON, which is our revealer at 66A. from The New York Times
Luckily — because it is Monday, and you were smart enough to start here — there is a revealer that will help you make sense of it. from The New York Times
There aren't many double-alcohol phrases out there, but I was able to find a full theme set and a spot-on, grid-spanning revealer. from The New York Times
I thought the revealer would make everything obvious enough without them, and that people would have a nicer "Aha!" moment by seeing it on their own. from The New York Times
The revealer always answered all the questions but varied his or her responses, while the hider only answered three questions and chose not to answer two. from Business Insider
They all start with initials, which just happen to be E-I-E-I-O, which is also in the last Across entry as a revealer. from The New York Times
They debut 11 entries today, including the revealer NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, but I also liked BIONIC EYE, LIP LOCK, VEGAN DIET, MIND CANDY and NPR NEWS. from The New York Times
They offer us a list of four, two-word theme entries whose words start with TO- and DO-, plus the revealer at 59A, TO-DO LIST. from The New York Times
Mr. Kahn offers a set of four men of note whose given names are part of the names of cities in CALIFORNIA (the revealer at 58A). from The New York Times
At 17A, for example, we have the phrase NEW RELEASE, and RELEASE is a synonym for the word FREE in the 61A revealer, FREE AT LAST. from The New York Times
We deliberately chose phrases where that starting word had a different meaning than that hinted at by the revealer, to try for that nice "Aha!" moment. from The New York Times
Now that you have the revealer and know that the theme entries are film titles, you should be able to work this theme out for yourself. from The New York Times
Tom McCoy is back and he would like you to count the ANSWER LENGTHs of the theme entries, as it says in the revealer at 221A. from The New York Times
They all use ALLITERATION, the revealer at 18D, although Mr. Gordon has added an interesting twist: These entries are alliterative in sound, not in initial letter. from The New York Times
I was determined to come up with a revealer that had no O's, and then I had to avoid O's in the rest of the puzzle. from The New York Times
But I know what kind of reaction I had to it, and while I enjoyed the idea behind his puzzle, I did not enjoy the revealer. from The New York Times
Let's start with the revealer, just to get that out of the way, because it will make visualizing the rest of the theme a lot easier. from The New York Times
I considered using the word EÑE as a revealer, but once I hit on having SPANISH and ESPAÑOL cross EL NIÑO there was no turning back. from The New York Times
Mr. Kalish offers us a set of three seemingly disparate phrases that contain hidden flowers at the end, and the revealer at 61A is LATE BLOOMER. from The New York Times
Mr. Guzzetta does a riff on the GREEK CROSS, his revealer at 51A, which makes its return to the New York Times Crossword after 40 years. from The New York Times
My first attempt was to place five 16-letter entries in the grid (the theme entries you see here, the revealer, plus an ... AMERICAN theme entry). from The New York Times
Mr. Zhou asks us to follow a total of six steps to produce what ultimately becomes A RECIPE FOR DISASTER, which is the revealer at 106A. from The New York Times
Although the clues they appear in have no special descriptive qualities to indicate a theme, there is a revealer at 73D that refers to the circles. from The New York Times
He takes the common phrase BACK TO SQUARE ONE — which also functions as our revealer — and uses it to explain why the theme phrases seem incomplete. from The New York Times
I wish the revealer names of the marks had been closer to their name sakes, but I'm impressed that he fit them in there to begin with. from The New York Times
Mr. Polin's puzzle flowed in such a way that I didn't get to the revealer until the end, but that's when you really appreciate it, isn't it? from The New York Times
We also have a revealer at 52A that tells us that we would need CALENDAR REFORM in order to make any of the three theme entries happen. from The New York Times
Mr. Stulberg offers us a set of four phrases whose last word is something that you can technically find at an AIRPORT (the central revealer at 38A). from The New York Times
Will and Joel were very encouraging in their feedback, and suggested a second draft in which each entry had a prepositional phrase (bye, BEARS!) and no revealer. from The New York Times
The reason that the revealer is MULTIPLE CHOICE is because Mr. Haight has found a set of theme entries that have multiple ORs in each of them. from The New York Times
Woven into the snappy repartee in this grid there are three theme answers, at 19-, 36-, and 50-Across, with a revealer at 65- and 66-Across. from The New York Times
The revealer answers the question about why they are shopping: It turns out that they are doing it JUST FOR KICKS ("kicks" is also slang for shoes). from The New York Times
There is also a revealer, a well-known adage consisting of four five-letter words, that reads from top to bottom at 1A, 27A, 49A and 66A. from The New York Times
We placed our five symmetrical theme entries fairly quickly, but struggled with the revealer, even debating whether to split it between two answers with cross-referenced clues. from The New York Times
Wordplay SUNDAY PUZZLE — It's rare that a crossword puzzle spills its answers completely in the revealer, but if you have a sharp eye, you'll see it today. from The New York Times
Now you find the other two, and don't forget to note the revealer at 59A, where we learn that our ORCAs are a pod of KILLER WHALES. from The New York Times
Andrew Zhou returns today to unite various species from the animal kingdom by using the scientific principles of ANIMAL MAGNETISM, as the revealer at 278A informs us. from The New York Times
Put those together and you have today's revealer at 63A: "When TV viewership peaks ... or a hint to 17-, 24-, 36- and 53-Across," or PRIME TIME. from The New York Times
That's because four of the squares in today's puzzle are made of BLACK ICE (the revealer is in plain sight at 216A), that dastardly winter driving hazard. from The New York Times
But wouldn't it be great if there were some sort of law of physics whereby the bigger the bed you slept in, the greater the theme revealer? from The New York Times
So Mr. Redwine is encouraging us to put it back by filling in the word BLACK in the squares where the ASYMMETRY (the revealer at 35A) occurs. from The New York Times
We typically see the puzzle revealer in the center or at the bottom of a grid, but today, Mr. Haight places his toward the top, at 20A. from The New York Times
Mr. Whitehead offers us a set of what appear to be disparate phrases, but they can be tied together by the revealer word HOME, seen at 71A. from The New York Times
I considered myself quite lucky that the revealer was exactly 15 letters, but I was disappointed there were not any decent 15-letter entries starting with RUMP. from The New York Times
Four phrases contain circled letters that spell synonyms for 57A's DISGUSTING, the revealer of sorts for the puzzle (it is clued as "'Gross' title for this puzzle"). from The New York Times
At first, I thought just -ER had been added on to the ends, but that didn't get me very far as far as the revealer was concerned. from The New York Times
The revealer clue, "Indication of more to come ... or what 17-, 28- and 43-Across all contain" hints at DOT DOT DOT, also known as an ellipsis. from The New York Times
If it were not for that little revealer at the end, my "aha" moment would have never come, and consternation would have simply devolved into 29-Down. from The New York Times
Speaking of going over the edge, Mr. Mendelson elegantly gives us a shove with the revealer at 58A, which just happens to be GO OVER THE EDGE. from The New York Times
We've seen "word that goes after" themes before, where the revealer hints at a word that can be inserted after the theme entries to make different phrases. from The New York Times
It turns out that the revealer is the 1956 Screamin' Jay Hawkins song "I PUT A SPELL ON YOU," and we are doing pretty much just that today. from The New York Times
The revealer, SUBMERGES, tells us that the words around the perimeter of the grid will work a whole lot better when you "merge" the prefix SUB with them. from The New York Times
While a mid-grid revealer tips my hand, the placement far outweighs the structural challenges that arise by jamming a 7-letter entry into the final across spot. from The New York Times
If I were making this puzzle and had to fill around the theme answer at 45A and the revealer at 58A, I would look up alternatives in onelook. from The New York Times
Mr. House wraps this up nicely at 58A with the revealer clue "Children's game ... or the circled words in 20-, 28- and 48-Across," or DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE. from The New York Times
The revealer clue at 35A pretty much gives away the concept, although solvers will still have quite a bit of work to do to get the theme consistently. from The New York Times
While it's hinted at in the revealer, it's not explicitly stated that each of the films referenced in the puzzle was nominated for a best picture Academy Award. from The New York Times
This theme has parts of the leg hidden in three answers: 18A: BANK LENDING 25A: TROPICAL FRUIT 43A: RIDGEMONT HIGH The revealer at 55A is SHOW SOME LEG. from The New York Times
The revealer at 60A was necessary for my solve, at least — I'd have never gotten that last bit without it, and that last bit was the whole trick. from The New York Times
Mr. Markey offers us a list theme of phrases that feel fresh: Three of the four make their New York Times Crossword debuts today, as does the revealer. from The New York Times
Mr. DiPietro uses THE IDES revealer at 38A to give us a hint to his theme set in the Down entries, all beginning with the homophonic contraction I'D. from The New York Times
Zhouqin Burnikel just happened to notice something neat about a set of phrases, and there just happened to be a proper noun revealer that summed it up perfectly. from The New York Times
Will and crew thought that was a bit of a stretch (hah!), but still liked the basic idea enough to warrant another go-round with a different revealer. from The New York Times
Wordplay TUESDAY PUZZLE — Today's crossword, by Ross Trudeau, is light on connecting the theme material with a revealer, which it truthfully could have used, but I don't care. from The New York Times
Perhaps this is the cleanest puzzle ever published in The New York Times, because the word "dirty" has been neatly excised from all theme entries except the revealer. from The New York Times
That would have been the title if this went to a publication that used them, and the revealer would have been something other than TIRE, such as TREAD. from The New York Times
We've seen puzzles with the entry X MARKS THE SPOT before, even as a revealer in Patrick Blindauer's tour de force wrap-up of his 2014 crossword suite. from The New York Times
I chose what seemed to me the best symmetrically fitting possibilities consistent with my groan-worthy pun revealer, and I'm delighted that The Times has published the result. from The New York Times
Sport hinted at by the ends of 17-, 24-, 36- and 47-Across Revealer: VOLLEYBALL As a lifelong volleyball player, I have a soft spot for this puzzle. from The New York Times
And if you're going to give us a choice between an OLIVE or a TWIST (60 Across's brilliant addition — OLIVER TWIST — to the revealer), I'll have a twist, please. from The New York Times
The first word in each phrase is stated in French (Sorry, Matt) to obfuscate them, and the revealer at 60A explains why: Each theme phrase has a FRENCH OPEN. from The New York Times
The theme entries are typically two-word phrases and there is something in the revealer that can go with or be inserted before or after each of the words. from The New York Times
The best "What do these seemingly disparate things have in common?" puzzles are those in which you don't know the answer to this question until you hit the revealer. from The New York Times
Tl;dr The first names of four men of note can be placed after "San" to make the names of cities in CALIFORNIA, which is the revealer at 58A. from The New York Times
The clued theme entries follow the grid's mirror symmetry and appear at 259A, 226A, 27A, 31A, 94A, 96A, 109A, 43D and 593D, with a time-sensitive revealer at 59A. from The New York Times
Today's puzzle by Trent Evans, who made his New York Times Crossword in 2018, does not have a revealer, so figuring out the theme might make things more challenging. from The New York Times
For example, at 32A (which is above the revealer), the answer to the clue "Pontiff's gold treasure?" is PAPAL BULLION, which is "papal bull" with ION added to it. from The New York Times
The revealer was all his idea; I just happened to flesh out the exact wordplay and build the whole thing myself instead of including him in a collaborative effort. from The New York Times
The clue for the revealer — in this case the central 15-letter entry, DIAMOND JIM BRADY — tells us that his nickname hints at the starts of the theme entries. from The New York Times
The trick today is to make your way down to the revealer at 59A as early as possible, and hope to high heaven that you know your active volcanos. from The New York Times
The wife-and-husband team of Amanda Chung and Karl Ni return with a fresh and incredibly tightly themed crossword puzzle that definitely made me feel like their revealer. from The New York Times
Thus, with nearly infinite theme possibilities of this type, it's no surprise that Jacob Stulberg has come up with an interesting "circled letters" puzzle based on a fresh revealer. from The New York Times
This hand of three of a certain rank and two of a certain rank are known as a FULL HOUSE in poker, and that's our revealer today, at 57A. from The New York Times
I enjoyed Jeff and Ari's added level to their puzzle with the JOE SIX-PACK revealer and JOE-related theme entries passing through the six-packs in their grid. from The New York Times
Wordplay TUESDAY PUZZLE — When we last saw Michael Doran in 613, he and Will Shortz pulled a fast one by sneaking a single number into an otherwise "normal" revealer. from The New York Times
I wanted to get a good number and variety of landmarks in this puzzle and, with five well-known places plus a revealer, I think I did just that. from The New York Times
The revealer at 53A is DOWN THE PIPE, and the gray PIPE, if it is a PIPE, kind of zigzags down the grid from the northwest to the southeast. from The New York Times
David J. Kahn is back, and he has compiled an elegant list of Tony Award-winning plays that all won for BEST MUSICAL, as the revealer says at 66A. from The New York Times
Oh, and the slash, which you might remember is supposed to be in the puzzle instead of a circle but cannot be reproduced electronically, is part of the revealer. from The New York Times
Next I came up with the revealer SALAD DAYS, and the idea that my puzzle would contain movie stars with salad names who reminded people of their salad days. from The New York Times
It turns out that the only thing the revealer had to do with the bathroom is that sometimes we will see an OUT OF ORDER SIGN in the loo. from The New York Times
Second, a gender-specific revealer addresses the fact that all the theme entries are pairs of traditional men's names — pairs of women's names proved a lot harder to find. from The New York Times
Once you've solved them, take each of the tripled letters and put them together, top to bottom: You will have spelled out the word "dents," like so: ODDDUCKS = D FREEEMAIL = E SUEANNNIVENS = N PITTTHEELDER = T DRESSSIZE = S Now look at the revealer at 66A (I love the fact that Mr. Lieb was able to put both a theme entry at 1A and the revealer in its symmetrical partner, the last Across entry). from The New York Times
The references happen to be the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) and it crosses itself four times in his puzzle, with the revealer stretched neatly across the middle of the grid. from The New York Times
I was sitting across the table from Shimon when I asked him why he had had Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear secret revealer, arrested in a Mossad operation in Rome. from The Hill
Janice Luttrell is making her New York Times Crossword debut today and she offers us a nice Monday puzzle with a tight theme involving BREAD, the revealer at 37 Across. from The New York Times
Ms. Bennett offers us three desserts, ENGLISH TRIFLE, BAKED ALASKA and PLUM PUDDING, along with a humorous revealer, NO PIECE OF CAKE, which is what chefs would call the desserts. from The New York Times
What that gives us, as the revealer at 60A tells us, are four flavors of what appears to be soft-serve ice cream: CHOCOLATE, RUM RAISIN, BUBBLE GUM and PISTACHIO. from The New York Times
Usually, a revealer is in the puzzle to help with the solve and tip you off to the commonalities within the theme set, but today I spaced on that, too. from The New York Times
My hope was that, in doing this, you (the solver) might be misled enough on an initial pass through the puzzle so that the revealer could offer an "aha" moment. from The New York Times
Ideally, the shared possible letters for each pair of theme entries would be some combination of A, B, C and D, so that the revealer MULTIPLE CHOICE could be used. from The New York Times
The revealer, CARD HOLDER (clued as "One with credit … or a literal hint to 17-, 27- and 44-Across"), hints that each of these three entries holds a credit card. from The New York Times
All of this is neatly tied up by the revealer at 25D, SLASHER FILM, which is normally a phrase that describes a movie with a lot of carnage in it. from The New York Times
The revealer in Ms. Burnikel's puzzle is at 218A, a great place for the punch line of a puzzle where the grid has some weird stuff going on above it. from The New York Times
My idea for this puzzle started out as a 15x15 with all clothing-themed homophone swaps — Bow tie Tae Bo, Loafer Furlough, and T-shirt Surety — and the revealer, Refashioned. from The New York Times
The thing that holds this word salad together (and I mean "word salad" in the nicest way, because it can have negative connotations) is that the revealer crosses each one. from The New York Times
The answer to these questions lies both in the revealer at 64A and the ability to make that all-important mental shift away from the surface meaning of the clues. from The New York Times
The revealer is THE TIES THAT BIND at 254A, and the circled letters that form an X through the center are different items you can use to tie things together. from The New York Times
That revealer, STAND UP COMICS, is smack dab in the middle of the grid, yet there is not a stage-bound comic to be found, except in the revealer's clue. from The New York Times
Of course, I could have gone right to the central revealer, BOXING DAY, which is cleverly clued to misdirect solvers into thinking that "Present time in England ...?" means modern-day. from The New York Times
Don't forget to enjoy the "revealer" at 44A/D, in which the language of this puzzle at 44A is ENGLISH and the language of this puzzle at 44D is ESPAÑOL. from The New York Times
Maybe you're enough of an aficionado to have realized the secret when you reached the very subtle revealer at 107D, GENUS, the version of the game that I first played. from The New York Times
Anyway, Mr. Trudeau takes us on a trip through THE LOOKING GLASS, the central Down revealer, which divides the grid in half and reflects one half back on the other. from The New York Times
And, if so, was that the clincher, or did you need the revealer at 65A, which (once you have straightened out those pesky down entries we mention above) is ELVES? from The New York Times
Mr. Livengood tells us quite a bit about the technical aspects of his puzzle, so I'll turn it over to him: Interlocking 9s and 10s with a 7-letter revealer today. from The New York Times
Today, the revealer at 62A, "Don't wait for me to proceed …" or GO ON AHEAD, tells us that each of the words in the theme entries can proceed the word HEAD. from The New York Times
Originally, I managed to drop EGGHEADS in as the first theme entry, apparently not noticing that the revealer is HEADS WILL ROLL and it's probably not wise to dupe theme words. from The New York Times
When you finally tumble to the fact that the word CLIMATE was anagrammed in each of the four theme entries, you'll be able to solve the revealer, which is CLIMATE CHANGE. from The New York Times
When I got TRIPLE TIME for the revealer, "Minuet meter …" I first thought that maybe the starred theme entries could be read aloud in syllabic beats that matched a minuet meter. from The New York Times
Our constructors hint at what's going on in the revealer at 53A, where the answer to the clue "Amorality … as suggested by 17-, 25- and 41-Across?" is LACK OF CHARACTER. from The New York Times
The black square "arrow head" is actually a plane being followed by its CONTRAIL (the revealer at 40D), as demonstrated by the five CON rebuses wedged between the trailing black squares. from The New York Times
I was able to get the intent of the theme fairly quickly, but it took me a few seconds of staring at the revealer before my brain had its "aha!" moment. from The New York Times
All of this is to say that I really appreciated stumbling upon the revealer in Jules Markey's puzzle, even though it has nothing to do with Mr. Newhart or his comedy. from The New York Times
Putting the revealer at the bottom serves as that punch line, and it's an effective way to pull the theme together or at least send the solver off with a smile. from The New York Times
Ms. Carroll's puzzle is early week, so it wasn't terribly difficult to figure out the real theme to the puzzle, but I did get a good laugh out of the revealer. from The New York Times
Mr. Trudeau, who is all about the food like I am, says: This puzzle originally had DREAM WORKS as a revealer, which the editorial team vetoed because it made cluing tricky. from The New York Times
I believe that this puzzle will be upsetting to some people because of its timing, subject matter and revealer, and did not think I could be respectful or kind to it. from The New York Times
Putting together a puzzle like this one, where the theme entries cross each other, get MINCEd and where the revealer (93A and 45A) is centered in the grid is certainly 1A. from The New York Times
Suffice to say that he works on a game show where spinning occurs.. All of this is neatly wrapped up with a revealer that suggests we get some exercise: SPIN CLASS. from The New York Times
It's also a snappy phrase in its own right, and I like how the revealer lends a slightly unexpected sense of playfulness to what would otherwise be a more straightforward theme. from The New York Times
We were a little disappointed to see that the theme clues were edited into more straightforward definitions and paired with a revision of the southeast corner to add the revealer MUSIC. from The New York Times
Seven of the Across clues are starred to draw your attention to them, and as the revealer at 67A says, you will have to THINK QUICKLY to really understand the theme. from The New York Times
There have been puzzles where the idea for the theme came to me first, and I later went looking for a revealer, but the opposite is probably more common for me. from The New York Times
The revealer clue is "With 19-Across, reconsider … or a hint to the starts of the five starred clues," which means we are going to have to THINK TWICE about them. from The New York Times
The revealer clue is "With 19-Across, reconsider … or a hint to the starts of the five starred clues," which means we are going to have to THINK TWICE about them. from The New York Times
That seemed odd, even if you are not a romantic at heart, and the lesson I took away from it is that I should always read the revealer clue very carefully. from The New York Times
The answer is D.D.S. I got the idea of this theme fairly quickly, as I was solving around the bottom of the grid and got the revealer at 56A, DISAPPEARING INK. from The New York Times
You might feel that the revealer would have been more in-the-language if it had been HEAVY METAL MUSIC, but Mr. Evans describes why that didn't happen in his notes below. from The New York Times
For example, raise your hands if you've ever looked at the word PROVOCATION, read it as "PRO VOCATION," and thought that it would make a dandy revealer for a theme about professions. from The New York Times
After I couldn't find the revealer (ATHLETIC CUP) ever appearing in any crossword, I wanted to use the "holy grail" awarded in hockey, tennis, golf and Ping-Pong … oops, I mean soccer. from The New York Times
This one started off with JULY FOURTH as the revealer, but after some wise words from Will and Joel about "July" confusing the issue, what you see now is the improved result. from The New York Times
Well, there's a revealer at 60A that says "How many letters are in the longest answers in this puzzle — or how many of these answers there are," and the answer is ELEVEN. from The New York Times
Some more enjoyable back-and-forth followed, Andrea clued it all up and I changed only the clue for SAW to make it a revealer before mailing our opus off to Will. from The New York Times
I stumbled on INNER DEMONS as a nice revealer (albeit a bit dark), but you need some considerable luck to hide a five-letter word in reasonably interesting phrases of matching lengths. from The New York Times
The shaded squares — which are the sounds that certain animals make —made the puzzle much easier and the revealer at 64A a tad less fun to discover, but it is only Tuesday. from The New York Times
" The destination locations were clued with just an arrow, and the revealer clue was "Something to leave at the post office … or what the answers to the four starred clues each have. from The New York Times
But not only that, Mr. Stulberg tells us at the split revealer (28- and 45-Across) that each one is a SPREADABLE CHEESE, hence the recommendation above for the bread or crackers. from The New York Times
This puzzle was accepted two years ago, but I remember working for quite a while with just EIGHTIES as a revealer, and then being really happy to expand it to THE EIGHTIES. from The New York Times
What we actually wind up with from the theme answers is DARIN, but the full name is in the revealer at 69A, which happens to be the well-placed last Across entry. from The New York Times
I was working with short theme entries, so I felt that I should try to have as many as possible, but eight plus a revealer did make for compromises on the fill. from The New York Times
I only make this point because her revealer, MALE LEADS, refers to the four theme entries, which all have the name for a male animal as the first word (or the lead). from The New York Times
Mr. Hinz offers us a very helpful revealer at 51A, clued as a "Common security device ... or a feature of 20-, 33- or 38-Across," which turns out to be HIDDEN CAMERA. from The New York Times
And once you start to fill in some of the grayed squares, it's easy enough to guess the rest of the JOINT, which is the revealer in the center of the grid. from The New York Times
If you've solved the revealer at 343A, "Disney character hinted at by the circled letters" for PINOCCHIO, you know that the circled letters spell out NOSE, but the theme doesn't stop there. from The New York Times
The theme answers alone did not reveal the theme to me, so I hunkered down — my mother would be appalled at my hunkering posture — and figured it out based on the revealer. from The New York Times
MAKE MINE A DOUBLE, says the revealer at 39A, and Mr. Gulczynski must have looked high and low for four phrases that each have the name of a liquor in them twice. from The New York Times
We know this because the revealer at 37 Across tells us to look for the first word in each of the lively theme entries and then to apply the always/sometimes/never clue. from The New York Times
Mr. Trudeau noticed that the revealer entry TRIPLEX, another name for a three-screen cinema, can also be read as TRIPLE X if you introduce a space between the penultimate and last letters. from The New York Times
Annette BENING and Warren BEATTY At first, I was confused by the revealer, because JOLIE/PITT and BENING/BEATTY are notoriously successful couples, at least as far as their press agents are concerned. from The New York Times
The revealer, split between 1D and 61D (HEY / JOE) tells us that JOE can go before the first parts of the four theme entries to make fictional characters with the same first name. from The New York Times
Those three bubbles contain the same three letters, in five of six possible configurations, and the sixth way to order them can be found at the revealer at 69A, the last across clue. from The New York Times
Looking at the various ways to develop a theme, this seems to be a popular one; that is, the starting words of specific across entries are all tied together with a revealer entry. from The New York Times
That entry at 45D is the revealer, but it's tough to suss out what we're supposed to do with it, if you don't have a lot of mid- to late-week solving experience. from The New York Times
Puzzle notes: AMANDA AND KARL: We originally had LAST MAN STANDING as the revealer but realized after brainstorming that there were trios we liked with a non-"man" as the last one listed. from The New York Times
Click on this clue: "Easily ... and a hint to four answers in this puzzle" HANDS DOWN So now we have this revealer, and how does that tie in with those four-letter dips? from The New York Times
The phrases consist of two words, the first word starting with the letter A and the second starting with the letter T. The revealer, THE EIGHTIES, is a phonetic hint to the phrases. from The New York Times
Thinking back to the revealer, those bubbles have risen up to the top of the imaginary glass, as they are wont to do, and left the rest of the name — JOLT COLA — behind. from The New York Times
Mr. Stillman asks us to look into the night sky and search for URSA MAJOR (17A), also know as the GREAT BEAR (64A) or the BIG DIPPER, which is our revealer at 9D. from The New York Times
It turns out that all three theme entries (not counting the revealer) are phrases that start with a number, and that number has had exactly half of its value added on to it. from The New York Times
The revealer clue at 56A says "Comprehend … or what 20-, 29- and 47-Across do, finally," and that word "finally" suggests that we should be looking at the end of each theme entry. from The New York Times
So I was delighted he gave the nod to this puzzle, which has a couple of those old tropes (repeated clues for themers and a revealer which includes the day of the week). from The New York Times
To help get you there, our constructors and editors have hooked a FISH (1A) and shepherded a LAMB (34A) with a shepherd's crook to demonstrate the other revealer, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK. from The New York Times
What's more, she has hidden the revealer COMPACT CARS in the center of the grid just to play with you, because these car makes have been squeezed or compacted into one square each. from The New York Times
I'm happy with the final version, although I'm still somewhat disappointed about losing RESTART as a revealer as I felt like it gave the otherwise arbitrary add-a-letter theme a deeper layer. from The New York Times
"If Brexit can serve as a revealer - an awakening of consciousness on the grave crisis facing Europe (generally) - that would be a good thing," SFR Chairman and Chief Executive Combes told France's National Assembly. from Reuters
If you're still not sure what just happened to you, look at it this way: The F.A.A., as the revealer at 49 Across says, focuses in part on the investigation of airplane CRASH SITES. from The New York Times
My first grid (not submitted) had a revealer of sorts with the Neil Diamond song "FOREVER IN BLUE JEANS" (18) broken up into two 9's and three styles of jeans as theme entries. from The New York Times
In some cases, the surrounding fill could be better, but this is where we lug out the Scales of Cruciverbal Justice: Does the trick in the theme and the revealer make the solve worthwhile? from The New York Times
Let us now move on to Mr. Mengel and Ms. Gianette: As with many of our puzzles, we come up with a revealer first and then try to build a crossword theme around it. from The New York Times
Tip: When you see all the theme entries in the Downs, it's a good idea to think about whether "down" or falling or dropping or gravity might have something to do with the revealer. from The New York Times
Originally, KITTYCORNER was the only revealer — It was truly a stroke of luck that I noticed in the midst of filling the grid that LITTER BOXES both fit symmetrically and described the same gimmick. from The New York Times
When we finally get to the revealer at 57A — HOUSEBROKEN, clued as "Like most pet dogs … or a hint to this puzzle's circled letters" — we realize that Ms. Carroll has been playing with us. from The New York Times
No asterisks or italics here, but there's a revealer in the middle of the grid at 39A, a clue that helps you see the overarching theme of a puzzle and where to find it. from The New York Times
The revealer or hint that we are turning ourselves around is at 33D ("Often-forbidden maneuver … as hinted at four times in this puzzle"), and the colleges are in the circled or shaded squares. from The New York Times
Mr. Atwood offers us five theme entries — not including the BRITISHISMS revealer at 11D — that are familiar phrases containing a word that means something different in British English than it does in American English. from The New York Times
But it's one of those times where I had to remind myself that this is just a puzzle, and that there is an entertaining aspect to it even though the theme revealer startled me. from The New York Times
The new revealer worked much better because its 13 letters allowed for central placement in the grid — this flexibility and the removal of the song reference meant I could also include a fourth bird. from The New York Times
The set makes an odd quintet as far as making MUSIC goes — the revealer MUSIC is the last Across entry — but I was impressed that four of the five theme entries made their debuts. from The New York Times
Initially I was trying to do something with "boxcars" as the revealer but I found that the 11-letter "compact cars" made for a better grid layout, plus I think it is more fun. from The New York Times
Mr. Trudeau offers us a set of five theme entries, and the revealer at 52A tells us that each entry hides a piece of USED FURNITURE that might be sold at a garage sale. from The New York Times
Not only that, but they have managed to slash their grid with the center crossing COCKTAIL LOUNGES and 250D's revealer, DRINKS ALL AROUND, which is the inspiration for making the drinks go in circles. from The New York Times
All four theme entry actors make their New York Times Crossword debut, and the theme is wrapped up neatly by the revealer at 54A, "15-, 26-, 33- or 39-Across, punnily?" for CHARACTER ACTOR. from The New York Times
Mr. Trabucco wraps his theme men up neatly in a revealer at 62A, where the answer to the clue "Bachelors no more … or, literally, the answers to the six starred clues" is MARRIED MEN. from The New York Times
Usually, when we see a word formed in highlighted squares in different orders, it's a hint that the revealer will have something to do with mixing things up, but that's not the case today. from The New York Times
That revealer is at 55 Across today, and it says, "Carved decoration on a ship's prow … or a hint to the first word of 17-, 25-, 37- and 45 Across," which tells you two things. from The New York Times
In today's puzzle, roughly half the letters make up the theme, as you will discover if you reread the clue for the revealer at 65A: "Every other letter in this puzzle's grid" is a VOWEL. from The New York Times
That pattern, which Robertson and Ferguson call the "Formula," consists of eight roles: The Early Learning Partner, the Flight Engineer, the Fixer, the Revealer, the Philosopher, the Model, the Negotiator and the GPS Navigational Voice. from CNBC
The revealer literally tells us how to find the theme: The letters MR are IN BETWEEN the two-word theme entries, with the M ending the first words and the R starting the second word. from The New York Times
What the revealer does, however, is give us a hint that we need to be on the lookout for four-letter entries, and the answer lies mostly in the TWO-STATE part of the entry. from The New York Times
I was originally shooting for three such zones, but that just wasn't working — I didn't want any "extraneous" blocks to mess up the visual and I also wanted to squeeze in the revealer SPACE INVADERS. from The New York Times
As an added touch, our constructors placed a revealer at 58A that gives the list a reason to live: the phrase BIG PICTURE means something entirely different, but is an appropriate header for this list. from The New York Times
The best part is the way Mr. Steinberg was able to cross his revealer, F (OS)SIL (with the OS as a rebus) with the place where we are unearthing this behemoth, the DIG SITE. from The New York Times
In real life, when the cars are parallel, that's just the beginning of our flashbacks to high school Driver's Ed, but I liked the way having the cars parallel to each other signaled the revealer. from The New York Times
I didn't get the revealer until the end, but that is part of the charm of a Thursday puzzle, and it gave the reminder about how black people have fared in Hollywood an extra wallop. from The New York Times
Mr. Haight offers us a set of two-word phrases where the first letters are D and V. Taken together, the set is said to be "DVious," or DEVIOUS as the revealer at 20163D says. from The New York Times
I realized fairly early on in my search for a revealer that the movie characters in Peter Gordon's puzzle all had surnames that were birds, and also that the theme material placement was not typical. from The New York Times
My original cluing for the INBOX/OUTBOX revealer was to treat them as a unit (emphasizing the visual nature of the stacking), but hopefully solvers will still get the picture in the puzzle's current incarnation. from The New York Times
There's nothing to indicate their theminess at all, if you're still looking for patterns; there is a revealer at 14D but it's really helpful only after the fact, like 82D above, because of its vagueness. from The New York Times
Personally, Ms. Carroll's grids are so savory that I don't rush them, but even tactical speed-solvers must admit that until a solver gets to the revealer today, at 110A, this theme is pretty elusive. from The New York Times
Now you locate the other three channels, and don't forget the revealer at 64A, where Mr. Markey reminds us that it's all about the CABLE BOXES, a play on the channel rebuses inside the squares. from The New York Times
I know, I usually tell you to solve the revealer to get a leg up on the theme set, but I think Mr. Sessa's puzzle is more fun if you solve it the other way. from The New York Times
Also, I like "feminine sounding" better for the revealer clue, since we talk about gendered speech as either feminine or masculine, but maybe that had too many characters for the space allotted for the clue. from The New York Times
We'd want to have some sort of title or "revealer" theme entry that ties it all together — to explain in a funny way why we grouped all these phrases together — and I can't think of one. from The New York Times
After I finished solving, I wished that something had been done with the entry at 683A, CUE CARDS, because that would have made a spiffy revealer had the theme entries been clued in a jokey way. from The New York Times
This grid has a lot of constraints on it, which may be the reason for the fair-to-middling fill, although I liked the revealer and the long Downs, GRATUITOUS and the debut of ANGIE'S LIST. from The New York Times
But if you look at the revealer at 58A, clued as "Kind of test … and a hint to a word hidden three times each in 16-, 22-, 763- and 48-Across," the answer is MULTIPLE CHOICE. from The New York Times
The clue for the revealer is "Baseball rarities nowadays ... or a phonetic hint to the starts of 17-, 26-, 48- and 57-Across," so the beginnings (or "headers") of each theme entry are supposed to DOUBLE. from The New York Times
Let's take a look: Mr. Stulberg has made the revealer, THREE-RING CIRCUS, almost come to life: the grid contains three common circus performers arranged in a "ring" as indicated by the clusters of circled letters. from The New York Times
Ms. Burnikel's theme consists of four very lively phrases that contain the separated letter combinations AC and DC. They are apparently a POWER COUPLE, like Victoria and David Beckham, as the revealer clue at 36A says. from The New York Times
If you interpret the 15D revealer phrase "X MARKS THE SPOT" literally, X = SPOT, so it makes sense that where Mr. Rothlein has the letter X in his grid, solvers can also read it as SPOT. from The New York Times
There are quite a few examples of people and characters who would qualify to be part of this theme set based on the revealer at 45D, and Mr. Trudeau managed to fit four good ones in. from The New York Times
I might have looked for a SAND entry for that last one, but then the revealer ERODED, at 50 Down, would have to have been put somewhere else in the grid, perhaps as ERODE in the center. from The New York Times
If you look at the revealer at 39 Across, we are observing LEAP DAY, and the object in today's theme by Joel Fagliano is to find the special DAYs that require a LEAP over the black square. from The New York Times
Much to the relief of my copy editors, it turns out that Mr. Steinberg's theme has nothing to do with cursing, despite the FOUR LETTER WORDS revealer that he has stretched across the center of his grid. from The New York Times
I figured this out completely from crosses — it's a great, clean use of homophonic puns, but since there's no revealer and no instructions, I just stumbled around until a few entries filled in enough to make sense. from The New York Times
There are four across answers with circled letters, at 17, 23, 47 and 57; there's also a revealer at 35A, meaning a clue that's designed to tip you off to what you need to "get" the theme. from The New York Times
Mr. Polin's puzzle has mirror symmetry and five squares inhabited by the same three-letter rebus, which connect to become some universally recognizable (but asymmetrical) grid art, that I guess could be called the visual revealer. Phew! from The New York Times
It came back with a rejection from Will and team that said (as I recall) that they liked the idea, but pretty much nothing about our execution, including the revealer and most of the theme entries. Argh! from The New York Times
Will and Joel wrote back that they did not think my top entry was crossworthy and it would have been better to have something like FAIRY TALE as a revealer to make it a bit less obvious. from The New York Times
However, he must have spent some time thinking about this because he came up with the current layout of the revealer phrases and told me all I needed to do was work in the six theme entries. from The New York Times
I'll let you in on another secret, in case you're having trouble finding the revealer: I usually use that clue as a headline for my post, as long as it doesn't overtly spoil anything and it makes sense. from The New York Times
MONDAY PUZZLE — An amusing start to our solving week, with phrases that contain pairs of the word IT. Solving was easy, but the revealer — the tabloid phrase "IT COUPLES" — kept its secret from me until nearly the end. from The New York Times
He lists five men of note who happen to have avian surnames (each one is a BIRDMAN, hence the revealer) but, while I knew about JAYs, CRANEs, HAWKs and FINCHes, I missed the connection with WEAVER and SWIFT. from The New York Times
The real theme, not the one I made up in my head, takes the first two letters of each of the words in the four theme phrases and puts them together to make our revealer at 60D, COCO. from The New York Times
I thought "love-hate relationships" could make for an interesting Sunday concept and revealer, and first tried a "switch" idea (answers like love speech and hate handles), as well as conventionally hiding "love" and "hate" inside longer answers. from The New York Times
There are 10 pairs of eyes staring back at us from Mr. Ockman's puzzle, but I honestly didn't even realize they were eyes until I got to the bottom of the grid and solved the revealer at 66A. from The New York Times
Originally, I did indeed clue the theme entries that way, but thankfully Will and the crew suggested we give straightforward clues to the theme entries and add the fish revealer (some of the puns were pretty groan worthy!). from The New York Times
More specifically, I thought of the "build a word" idea, hoping that I'd be able to find a nice enough selection of words which could be built up so there would be a shot at an apt revealer. from The New York Times
Not only are solvers asked to solve for what that interesting thing is, but they also have to figure out the revealer, look at it in a slightly different way, and connect it back to the theme entries. from The New York Times
I'm lucky that SEVEN SEAS and CARIBBEAN are the same length and that CARIBBEAN is a good candidate for the top-left point of the 7 glyph, which means SEVEN SEAS can be symmetrically placed as a revealer. from The New York Times
The puzzle today has nine entries with sets of bubbled letters that have something simple in common, as well as a revealer at 803A and a few Easter eggs, I would call them, little touches here and there. from The New York Times
This is the kind of theme that might not make much sense until you get to the revealer at 52A, but that's O.K. There's something to be said for a Monday puzzle that holds its secrets until the end. from The New York Times
When I got to the revealer at 51A, I had a moment of "awww …" because I have friends who do this for a living and it seemed to me to be a nice tip of the hat to them. from The New York Times
The answers to 18-, 35- and 56A are: 18A: TEXAS RANGER (pronounced rayn'-jher) 35A: CLOTHES HANGER (pronounced hang'-er) 56A: PRET A MANGER (pronounced man-zhay') He ties this together with a cleverly placed, split revealer, EYE RHYMES. from The New York Times
I suggested upping the ante with 6O'S as the antepenultimate down entry to act as a revealer, since this position felt like the most likely slot to fill around — requiring only one entry that need start with a number. from The New York Times
The revealer at 61A, GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS, isn't exactly how I would begin a "mixed message," as the clue indicates — I would say "I've got some GOOD NEWS and some BAD NEWS" — but I get where it's going. from The New York Times
Mr. Eaton-Salners has cleverly tucked the revealer down in the south east and even managed to stack them, like the real thing: We have [IN]BOX at 69A and right below that, we have [OUT]BOX at 72A. from The New York Times
That might only make a bit of sense, but when you get to the revealer at 34A, ALTERED STATES ("1980 sci-fi thriller … or a hint to the answers to the six starred clues"), you'll know what to do. from The New York Times
We see a good number of letter or sound swap themes, but today's struck me as particularly fun because the revealer ties the reason for the swap to one of my favorite cartoon characters of all time, ELMER FUDD. from The New York Times
At first, I considered JOINT RESOLUTION in the center, but I wasn't sure how familiar it would be, nor could I think of any meaningful reason for RESOLUTION other than that it would make the revealer 15 letters long. from The New York Times
One of the things I really liked about her puzzle is that even though I didn't have to turn any real handsprings to solve it, it kept its theme secret from me until I got to the revealer at 49 Across. from The New York Times
Will and Joel decided not to use my idea to clue BIG at 40-Across as "like two of the letters used in this puzzle," but Nancy Schuster (one of Will's testers) told me she would NOT have wanted that revealer. from The New York Times
There are four theme answers in the acrosses, signified by asterisks, as well as a revealer at 64A, asking the solver to figure out what the ends of each of the themers have in common (and giving a little hint). from The New York Times
My submitted version didn't have the second half of the revealer clue (it was just "Riddled with ghosts") since I like the idea of a gimmick puzzle that has no indication anywhere that it's a gimmick puzzle — just clues and words. from The New York Times
It turns out that the rest of the consonants are not evenly spaced, but no harm, no foul; our constructors managed to get them all in there and leave room for a 15-letter revealer, ALPHABETIZATION, stretching across row 13. from The New York Times
Panda or no, this theme was fun and fresh: The revealer, THE ROUND'S ON ME, makes its New York Times crossword debut and variations like "This round's on me" or "This round is on me" have not been used either. from The New York Times
The first word of each of the theme phrases is a color, and Mr. Wiesenberg and Ms. Michaels have managed to pack seven theme entries and a revealer into a 15x15 grid, which is quite a lot for a weekday puzzle. from The New York Times
As far as the revealer at 54D, this is a good chance for solvers to get used to one of the infinite array of sneaky tricks constructors play on us, the unannounced replacement of letters with numbers in a crossword puzzle. from The New York Times
Given that we didn't have any other theme answers that long, we realized two things: We needed five theme answers (the longest across the entire middle row, with two above and two below); and the revealer would be tricky to place. from The New York Times
Along the way, I also changed the revealer from FULL HOUSES to the more natural-sounding FULL HOUSE, which opened up better cluing options, and aligned the three circled areas vertically to create a more ordered feeling for the grid. from The New York Times
The revealer clue is "Cramped spot for an plane passenger … or a hint to something hidden in 17-, 26-, 34-, 42- and 51-Across," and the answer is MIDDLE SEAT (Been there, done that, always ask for the aisle seat now). from The New York Times
The revealer in today's puzzle, at 32A, is the self-explanatory "DRINK DRINK DRINK" exhortation in "The Drinking Song" from the Sigmund Romberg/Dorothy Donnelly operetta: Two of the Down theme entries cross the Across theme entries, a nice touch. from The New York Times
So it is with pleasure and a sense of responsibility that I inform you that LLAMAs are much more than just a source of wool: My goal here was to make something very simple, with five theme answers and no revealer. from The New York Times
Mr. Cee offers us a set of four phrases whose first word is something one can pass, as the revealer at 61A tells us: "Barely adequate … or what the starts of 17-, 26-, 37- and 50-Across are" is PASSABLE. from The New York Times
I thought that CROP ROTATION would make a good revealer for a puzzle with answers going in multiple directions, and I decided to use rebus squares for the 'crops' so that both answers passing through the rebus square could 'rotate'. from The New York Times
Without them, alas, I imagine the puzzle will play like a not-very-well-filled themeless puzzle for anyone who doesn't spend the time to seek out all of the states, but hopefully the revealer still serves as a nice "Aha!" moment. from The New York Times
But I think that the revealer, STAR CROSSED LOVE, has less to do with the relative success of the couples and more to do with the fact that these pairs are stars who fell in love and are now crossed in the puzzle. from The New York Times
That means that the entries can also be read as follows: 17A: EGG [ROLL] 24A: BARREL [ROLL] 51A: DRUM [ROLL] 60A: LOG [ROLL] He also provides us with a revealer at 37A, which gives us a hint on how to understand the theme. from The New York Times
We have: 17A: MAIN COURSE 36A: LAST LAP 11D: DEAD BATTERY 24A: BENCHWARMER When we get to the revealer at 54A, we find out: a "Plan that has no chance of working" is a NONSTARTER, and so are the four theme entries. from The New York Times
The revealer, at 63A, at least helped by giving you the number of rebus squares; I didn't solve it completely until after I'd found a couple of them, so LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIPS had already been formed in the solving part of my brain. from The New York Times
Finally, Yacob came up with a heroic solution and found a Down answer where our revealer could cross three of the Across theme answers, et voilà: We had all of the thematic material placed, and the rest of the grid fell into place. from The New York Times
Mr. Doran offers us a classic "word that can go before each word in the theme entries" theme, and I had to read the clue for the revealer more than once to understand what was going on, which actually added to the fun. from The New York Times
When Will liked the idea but didn't like one of our theme answers, we ended up reworking more than half of the puzzle to replace it, and eventually lost the RESTART revealer to allow more flexibility with the fill in the SE corner. from The New York Times
There are two more mash-ups for you to find, and the revealer for this theme set is spot on: at 49A, the answer to "Organization founded in 1945 ... or a literal description of 20-, 24- and 44-Across?" is UNITED NATIONS. from The New York Times
For example, at 20A, we are referred back to the revealer clue, "What this puzzle's two-letter answers correspond with, given their locations in the grid," and the answer in that slot is CA (or Ca), the periodic table's name for calcium. from The New York Times
Fortunately, Mr. Stulberg stretches a revealer right across the center at 36A: the clue "Liability for a political candidate ... as depicted four times in this puzzle?" and, because they are checkerboards and because they contain the letters PAST, the answer is CHECKERED PAST. from The New York Times
Some of these work better for me than others, and I noticed that the ones that seemed stretchy to me were the ones that the 113A revealer, THE DOCTOR IS IN, matched most closely, which were the theme entries that had DR on the inside. from The New York Times
I rarely give the revealer right away, but the hint at 65A, "'Star Wars' droid ... or a phonetic hint to what's found in 17-, 26-, 41- and 1003-Across" for ARTOO DETOO comes as we heard of the actor Kenny Baker's death on August 13. from The New York Times
The main challenge, of course, was stacking good theme answers — and the central HEAD OVER HEELS revealer provided an extra challenge, since it doubled as a pair of theme entries in its own right and needed its own set of accompanying head and heel. from The New York Times
Oh, also, right at the puzzle's Equator, 70A, there's a revealer that reminded me that, yeah, you can actually watch any pair of these movies you want to, if you have a device (that's what we call televisions these days) that does PICTURE IN PICTURE. from The New York Times
Trace the path you take when you correctly cut around a slow-moving vehicle and compare it to one of the theme clues, and hopefully you can relate to the clue right under the revealer, at 113A, "'Yeah, that makes sense:'" I CAN SEE THAT. from The New York Times
It's a play on the word "fill," which refers to filling a cavity, so the answer is D.D.S. I make it a habit to scan the clue list before I start solving, so I found the revealer in the center at 39A almost immediately. from The New York Times
Let's take a look at the puzzle's three starred clue-answer combos: 17A: "Breakfast, in Burgundy" = LE PETIT DÉJEUNER 23A/20133A: "1787 Mozart composition" = EINE KLEINE / NACHTMUSIK 40A: "Repeated lyric in 'La Bamba'" = UNA POCA DE GRACIA The revealer at 62A is THE LITTLE THINGS. from The New York Times
It took a moment for the penny to drop for the revealer at 63A, but I really liked it when I got it: If you add up all those WAYs, you get SIX of them, which gives us the very lively SIX WAYS TO SUNDAY. from The New York Times
Sophia came up with the first themer and the idea for a "restart" revealer while she was working on a different theme last summer, and we quickly came up with a long list of possible theme answers that clearly wouldn't fit into a 15x15 grid. from The New York Times
Wordplay THURSDAY PUZZLE — The revealer in today's crossword by Lewis Rothlein has been in the lexicon long enough for most people to know that when one performs a MIC DROP, they have revealed something particularly impressive and then they "peace out," in popular parlance. from The New York Times
Among my favorites: SOMEONE HAS CAST THE DIE, IS ANYONE SERVING YOU and PLEASE SEDATE ME. My first choices for a revealer were VOICE ACTIVATION or VOICE ACTIVATED, but fitting them into the grid was a challenge, so PASSIVE RESISTANCE finally won the day. from The New York Times
After much trial and error, I finally hit on the pattern of long Acrosses in rows 4 and 12 (fixed by the 12-letter revealer) and long Downs in columns 3 and 13, which gave me a great deal of flexibility in black square placement. from The New York Times
Here's British magician and hoax revealer Derren Brown showing his own target how he managed to fool her in a horse-racing prediction scam (jump to 35:13): Perhaps the easiest way to see the prediction scam in action is to look at self-proclaimed psychics. from Vox
I wrote a script to find all the five-letter words in my word list which would work (daring not even dream a six might work — I did confirm this later though!), and was very happy to see BEARD pop out, immediately thinking of today's revealer. from The New York Times
In fact, I had to solve all the way down to the BATTLESHIP revealer at 60A — "It's four units long in a popular board game (with the game's other pieces hinted at by the circled letters)" — before I understood what I was aiming for, so to speak. from The New York Times
I'd still be stymied if it weren't for figuring out that revealer, mostly using down entries to give me crosses: IT MEANS A LOT TO ME. A lot, also known as a great amount, refers to HEAP, SLEW, PACK and MASS, all terms for a quantity. from The New York Times
I thought it was particularly clever that Mr. Blindauer used the word SCOOP at 57A as an anchor for his revealer and placed SINGLE, DOUBLE and TRIPLE in such cool places (SINGLE and DOUBLE are symmetrical in the north and TRIPLE crosses SCOOP in the southwest). from The New York Times
It's not like I can just solve an entry like LARCH without posting the Monty Python sketch: The revealer clue at 61D is "'That's correct' … or a hint to the ends of 17-, 28-, 45- and 59-Across, in different languages," and the answer is YES. from The New York Times
We have five types of JEANS cuts in the theme today, and you can find them in the beginnings of the theme clues: 17A: BAGGY EYES 20163A: SKINNY DIP 41A: LOW RISE BUILDING 51A: FLARE GUNS 66A: CUT OFF SAW Ms. Gray offers us the revealer JEANS at 58D. from The New York Times
Originally, I was just playing with a basic 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 progression and then the "Against All Odds" revealer came out of desperation, as having five theme answers was a pain to work with (the "four" entry having to be in the middle of the grid). from The New York Times
Once the top of the puzzle came together, I looked for interesting longer entries for the bottom that would fit well with the ZZ TOP revealer (which I guess could have gone anywhere in the stack, but it just seemed strange to not put it on the top). from The New York Times
I put 49A's revealer, FINANCIAL MYTHS, in quotes because it is, indeed, a "clickbait" type of phrase as Mr. Hawkins mentions in his notes below, and not really in the language any more than, say, "piano tuning myths" (should you need to be disabused of any of those). from The New York Times
Then there's crossing SAFE ZONES with the symmetrically placed revealer, and having to connect BOOK O(F) RA at the F. Don't forget that CY(B)HICS / BERETTA still needs to find its way into the grid somewhere … and now we're up to three theme answers being accounted for. from The New York Times
There's no indication on each clue that makes it special, but the revealer at 54D clears the air: You're to take the first word from each of those entries in turn to form a new phrase that happens to very much embody the spirit (for some) of that decade. from The New York Times
Wordplay MONDAY PUZZLE — I can tell you from personal experience that it really does not matter what size bed you sleep in: If you lay your head down at night and you have hair on that head, you will wake up with the theme revealer in Neville Fogarty's puzzle. from The New York Times
Ron and Nancy Byron are a father-and-daughter constructing team, and today they offer us a theme that solves normally until you get to what we refer to as the revealer, a clue/entry pairing that tells us that there is something "extra" to be noticed about the theme. from The New York Times
For those who might be unfamiliar, the FANTASY SPORTS originate from these works: 18A: CALVINBALL, "Calvin and Hobbes" 23A: PODRACING, "Star Wars" 52A: QUIDDITCH, "Harry Potter" novels 58A: POOHSTICKS: "Winnie-the-Pooh" CALVINBALL, PODRACING and POOHSTICKS all make their New York Times Crossword debuts today, as does the revealer, FANTASY SPORTS. from The New York Times
Remember, themes can live anywhere in a grid, so the revealer, "With 28-Across, what this puzzle features, literally" for PICTURE / FRAME as well as 24A's "Organization that honored those referenced in the 603-/260-Across, with 'the'" for ACADEMY (as in "I'd like to thank the ...") is especially helpful today. from The New York Times
He has only brought four items today, so we might have to share: 613A: IN THE DRINK 23A: MEMORY CHIPS 38A: KNUCKLE SANDWICH 47A: SMART COOKIE The revealer at 60A, LUNCHBOXES, took me back to the days of actual metal ones with latches that always broke halfway through the year. from The New York Times
The inspiration for this puzzle was bird poop — I was going to end my blurb there, but I'll go on — which morphed into the more refined bird droppings, which became the original revealer for this puzzle, in which four five-letter bird names are embedded in the long Down entries. from The New York Times
We both ended up making two lists of theme entries, all of which had between 213 and 235 total letters, which felt like "no puzzle's land" in that they were too few for a Sunday even with the revealer, but too many for a daily without many compromises in the fill. from The New York Times
There are four theme entries in addition to BED HEAD, and each one is a two-word phrase starting with (or "heading") a typical size of bed (TWIN PEAKS, FULL HOUSE, etc.) I like the fact that REST AREA is nestled in there, along with the appropriate UNSHORN crossing the revealer. from The New York Times
They are, of course, and thank goodness for the revealer at 50A, BOY MEETS GIRL, or "The beginning of a rom-com ...": each of the theme entries are actors whose names consist of a first name that can be a "BOY" name and a surname that can be a "GIRL" name. from The New York Times
I had a puzzle published in another venue with the title "Top Dogs" — down phrases that started with a dog breed — and then I came upon the phrase "Downward Dog," which I thought would be fun as the revealer for another puzzle, with Down entries ending with a dog breed. from The New York Times
I had a puzzle published in another venue with the title "Top Dogs" — down phrases that started with a dog breed — and then I came upon the phrase "Downward Dog," which I thought would be fun as the revealer for another puzzle, with Down entries ending with a dog breed. from The New York Times
Mr. Berry has found 28 words or phrases that contain double letters, which is not a great feat in itself, but he also has managed to arrange them in a quote by YOGI BERRA (a revealer at 114A) and then fill a Sunday-sized puzzle with them and some pretty cool fill besides. from The New York Times
The bridge exists in the circled squares, split between four very lively entries: 3D: LONGSTEMMED5D: STAND ON ONE'S HEAD7D: SOCIAL LUBRICANT9D: WENT OVER THE EDGE I got the BRI in SOCIAL LUBRICANT first, and couldn't imagine why those three letters were circled, but the revealer at 26D, FALLING DOWN, gave it away. from The New York Times
In other news, I liked OLLIE, DEBT CEILING, ONE HOP, HACKY SACK, the revealer HIT IT, CHECK MARK, WESTERN WALL, SEGWAYS, CLAM SAUCE, SUSSED (we use that word a lot around here) and I KNEW IT. Five of the six theme entries in Mr. Cee's puzzle are debut entries, which is nice. from The New York Times
The two-part revealer stayed in its current place from the very start, as I immediately noticed that BROWNIE would work nicely crossing it, and coming up with TIPPING was indeed a tipping point for the puzzle, as it allowed not only PRESSURE but also GRADE and STAND to form theme crossings. from The New York Times
The there is I MEAN COME ON at 54A, and all we have left at 61A is the small pebble of a STANDING O. Pouring like water over I MEAN COME ON is our revealer, "Natural process illustrated by the last words of 583-, 24-, 37-, 54- and 61-Across," or EROSION. from The New York Times
Here are a few alternates that didn't quite make the cut: HYPER/CRITIC/ALLY INTER/MEDIA/TING TOUGH/MINDED/NESS LIEU/TENANTS/HIPS APP/RENT/ICES/HIPS STAND/OF/FISH/NESS The first version we submitted included the revealer THE SPLITS clued as [Show of flexibility ... and what 16−, 25−, and 40−Across each do]. from The New York Times
After a lot of trial and error, I found the "H-A-T-E" strings hiding in those two longer answers, and realized I could intersect them both with the centrally placed revealer (It seemed logical for the "L-O-V-E" strings all to operate horizontally, because Across clues appear first in print). from The New York Times
The big break was when Will Shortz allowed me to expand it to 22 columns, which both gave me more maneuvering room for my space-intensive theme and let me put the revealer in the middle, which fit a lot better than in the lower right, where I had tried to put it initially. from The New York Times
We just need to figure out one more water feature, something in Italy that works with this pattern — hopefully you have heard of the RIVER PO. The revealer refers to the initial word in this succession of deletions, POUND, because in order to whittle down to that little PO we have to LOSE WEIGHT. from The New York Times
The first is that he was able to use a different spelling of the sound for each of his entries and the second is the payoff in the revealer, which I didn't notice until I finished: at 42D, we are informed that the reason those sounds are in the middle is because the whole set is phonetically MIDSIZE. from The New York Times
The revealer is tucked away at the very end at 333D, where Mr. Gordon or perhaps the editors had to stretch to make the clue end the way it was supposed to: "End of each word in 17-, 27-, 43- and 54-Across — as well as every clue (and that's a fact!)" is the word TEE. from The New York Times
We're dropping the word segment TER from familiar phrases today, as shown by a careful reading of the revealer at 55A: The answer to the clue "Opening at the post office ... or, when read as three words, a hint to the answers to the starred clues" is LETTER DROP, but when read as three words as directed, it becomes LET 'TER' DROP. from The New York Times
But there's a pun hiding up there, which is answered by the revealer at 52A: Click on this clue: 52A: "Rock band whose name is suggested by the first row of this puzzle" zz top That's a fun and relatively easy way to get into the Friday puzzles, because at least solvers have a theme to hang on to, assuming that you can solve the puzzle. from The New York Times
This was one of those puzzles where the students became the teachers — the J.A.S.A. class came up with the revealer, brainstormed the best theme pairs, drew up the skeleton of the grid, and even bailed us out of a bad fill moment: They dropped in OH MY LORD where we'd had OH MY WORD and were coming up empty or trivial [in the surrounding fill]. from The New York Times
Still, this was just a thought — I couldn't believe my luck when I discovered not only that DESTROYER, CRUISER, SUBMARINE and CARRIER could all be incorporated into lively, nonnautical-related entries, but also that along with BATTLESHIP as a revealer, these entries could be arranged symmetrically when their respective boat names were replaced with the number of squares corresponding to the boat's length in Battleship! from The New York Times
For those of you just joining us, a list theme is one made up of a list of items tied together by the revealer, as opposed to one where all the theme entries are affected by adding or subtracting a letter or sound Mr. Madison offers us a list of some of the MAC OPERATING SYSTEMS that have existed since Apple started naming their versions after big cats in 2001. from The New York Times
So: NINE MONTHS = NINE = 32 THE FOUR SEASONS = FOUR = 22 SIXTEEN CANDLES = SIXTEEN = 42 ONE FINE DAY = ONE = 12 In order to get four movies and a 16-letter revealer into her grid, Ms. Burnikel went up to 81 words (78 is a typical maximum for an early week puzzle), and THE FOUR SEASONS bothered me a bit because it's the only theme entry where the number is not the first word. from The New York Times
If you are solving on the app, the way to enter more than one letter in a square can be found in this handy Clip 'n Save graphic: While we're taking our shoes off and waiting patiently in line, please note that there is a revealer at 250A, CHECKPOINTS, clued as "Border stops … or a hint to four squares in this puzzle," which tips us off to the fact that something is up here. from The New York Times
BRO + N.C.O.s The Denver BRONCOS 26A: Actor Lundgren + Elected officials : DOLPHINS Actor DOLPH + Ins (those who are elected are 'in') The Miami DOLPHINS 50A: Butter square + Hilarious people Butter PAT + RIOTS The New England PATRIOTS 52A: London's Big ___ + Ladies Big BEN + GALS The Cincinnati BENGALS 66A: U.S. soldier + Little scurriers G.I. + ANTS The New York GIANTS Amanda Chung and Karl Ni: TEAM BUILDING as a revealer came about as we brainstormed for a different puzzle. from The New York Times
If you need help, click on any of the clues to reveal the answer: 20A: What 7-Down is biochemical 58A: Shape of 7-Down double helix 11D: Creatures with 23 pairs of 25-Down human beings 25D: Genetic bundles chromosomes And, of course, there's the revealer: 66D: Subject of this puzzle DNA This was my only puzzle submission over the last two years, so I was very pleased to receive an unqualified "Crossword — yes!" from Will and Sam. from The New York Times
There are seven theme entries in Mr. Dewey's puzzle (the clues are starred), plus the revealer at 65A, A AND W. The list of theme entries is fairly disparate, until you realize that they all have one thing in common: they are two-word phrases whose first letters are A AND W: 1A: AD WAR 6A: ACID WASH 202.53A: APPIAN WAY 36A: ARIZONA WILDCATS (If there's going to be an "awww ..." associated with this puzzle, Mr. Dewey made this his banner entry because, as he states below, he found true love in Tucson.) 49A: ALTAR WINE 64A: AIR WAVES 6D: ABIGAIL WILLIAMS • 16A: Remember, in a tricky crossword, "locks" can be hair as well as locks on your door. from The New York Times