NYT Crossword Answers: Rodomontade – The New York Times
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Lewis Rothlein and Jeff Chen double down.
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THURSDAY PUZZLE — Administrivial Alert: Thanks for the bug report on 35A. It has been fixed on the web game (if it still looks incorrect to you, please try refreshing the page). For those who are still seeing the old version in the app, please go to the crossword archive, long press on the puzzle and then choose “update” on the pop up. The new version should appear.
Also, if you are solving in the Android app, please go into Settings and make sure that the “Show overlays” button is set to “on.”
When we last had a puzzle from Lewis Rothlein, he and his collaborator, Jeff Chen, were bending and twisting their theme entries inside the grid.
In this puzzle, Mr. Rothlein — accompanied once again by Mr. Chen — is bending and twisting the theme entries inside the grid. I think I see a pattern emerging here.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Mr. Rothlein, who is also a valued commenter on Wordplay, is a yoga instructor and is therefore in the habit of bending and twisting. Or, more likely, maybe it has something to do with a hobby that he and Mr. Chen have in common, as noted in their comments below.
Either way, I think you’ll agree that this crossword has the required amount of trickiness for a Thursday puzzle.
10A. “Round houses?” are not houses that are round; they are places where someone may buy you a round, or PUBS.
22A. This one made me laugh — once I got it. A show-stopper is usually a song or performance that brings down the house, but in this puzzle we’re looking for something that actually stops a show. That would be a REMOTE.
6D. It’s funny to me that the French word APRÈS — which means “after” — can be used as a prefix for “ski” or “midi.”
35D. Yes, this song was popular more than 50 years ago, but you know it. Shirley Ellis’s 1965 hit “The NAME GAME” is still sung at sleep-away camps everywhere.
36D. Having flown first-class only once — as someone’s guest — many years ago, I can only assume that it has LEG RESTS.
43D. Very nice clue. “Something well-placed” is not referring to finding just the right spot for a vase, but something that is placed in a well. That would be an OIL RIG.
If you are just wading into Thursday-puzzle territory, you may not have seen this type of theme before. First, let me reassure you that your puzzle is not broken, and that there is no need to write a strongly worded letter to The New York Times.
Next, you have probably realized by now that the theme entries don’t look right in their slots. The entry at 17A, for example, has to be written as NOW WHERE WE, in answer to the clue “Question after a digression.”
Whoops, looks as if we forgot the word “were” in order to make the phrase NOW WHERE WERE WE. Or did we?
We did not forget it. It’s in there, if you know where to look.
In sheet music, the signs 𝄆 and 𝄇 are used to indicate that the notes inside them should be repeated.
Let’s place the repeat signs where they belong and see what happens.
NOWWH𝄆EREW𝄇E
If you read the phrase up to the third W — which starts the word WE — and then repeat the letters inside the repeat signs (EREW) after that W, you get the correct phrase, NOW WHERE WERE WE.
I’ll wait here while you all send the strongly worded letters.
In all seriousness, this is a tight and mind-blowing theme that is tough if you don’t know what the repeat signs mean. I have not worked with sheet music for a long time, and at first I wasn’t sure what the lines and dots meant.
We do have the revealer at 47D. It’s a sneaky one, however, because it isn’t clear that the clue and the entry even are revealers, which typically have more of a connection to the theme entries. All we have is the clue “What two sets of dots within double lines indicate, in musical scores,” and the answer, which is REPEAT. And it’s just sitting there, whistling innocently like a regular clue.
Namaste, Mr. Rothlein and Mr. Chen.
If you would like more help with the rest of the theme, click any of the clues below to see the answers.
30A. Who wrote “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past”
𝄆GEOR𝄇WELL, or GEORGE ORWELL
35A. Classic John Donne line
NOM𝄆ANIS𝄇LAND, or NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
41A. Garden produce named for an Italian city
RO𝄆MATO𝄇ES, or ROMA TOMATOES
57A. Go on horseback à la Lady Godiva
R𝄆IDES𝄇ADDLE, or RIDE SIDESADDLE
Lewis Rothlein: I don’t know how Jeff does it. He is an overseer of XwordInfo.com, writes a review there of every single New York Times puzzle, writes novels that are published and has two young kids — enough to keep anyone more than jammed for time — yet somehow he fit in exchanging 130 emails with me over the final two months of 2019. It was a very rewarding back and forth, as we brainstormed, constructed and polished this puzzle. The brainstorming took two-thirds of our time, as we started with a completely different theme idea. Though that idea fizzled, it had a germ that eventually morphed into this puzzle.
For today’s puzzle, additional theme answers we considered were C𝄆ARDBO𝄇XES, PR𝄆IMET𝄇V, MATCHE𝄆SWIT𝄇H, and I𝄆STHI𝄇NGON.
I recently solved this puzzle, as the editors wanted our approval of their clue changes. Two points:
1. The editors who refine the clues are true artists. They are unseen heroes whose good work often goes unrecognized. Many of our clues remained intact, but sometimes the editors kept a clue’s intent but reworded it, and every time they made the clue better. And they put in a great one of their own: “Something well-placed?” for OIL RIG. High props, editors!
2. After two years of not seeing this puzzle, solving it felt like doing a puzzle I’d never seen before — and I liked it! Wishing everyone the same reaction!
Jeff Chen: Lewis and I are musicians, so I loved his idea of presenting these repeated letter strings as if they were within repeated measures of a score. Choosing ones that are four letters long — to mirror four quarter notes in 4/4 time — seemed perfect!
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