NYT Crossword Answers: State Bird of Hawaii - The New York Times

Jared Goudsmit’s puzzle is a bit of a workout.

WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Congratulations to the constructor of this puzzle, Jared Goudsmit, on making his New York Times Crossword debut.

Goudsmit’s puzzle uses a fiendish trick that Monday-through-Wednesday solvers might be surprised to see — more on that below.

I don’t want to spoil the entire theme just yet for any frustrated solvers who turned to the column in hopes of a pointer, so instead I’m just going to drop a link to this helpful guide from Deb Amlen, the Wordplay lead columnist, as a nudge in the right direction.

I’ve watched just enough of the “Great British Bake Off” to know that there is such a thing as a crème anglaise, which I 100 percent confused for a “cor anglais” when I read the clue “Relative of a cor anglais.” Instead, a cor anglais is just a fancy way of saying “English horn,” which is a relative of the OBOE.

I know it’s only Wednesday, but this puzzle features a trick more commonly seen on Thursdays: the dreaded rebus.

The best way to recognize a rebus is if you are certain you know what the answer should be to a particular clue, but you just don’t have enough spaces to enter it.

For me, the clue that gave it away was 32D: “Hummus brand.” Now, I love hummus, and I knew that the only name-brand hummus that is widely known enough to make it into The New York Times Crossword had to be SABRA: But 32D has only four squares.

Seven other squares in the puzzle contain these same two letters, and, like ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN, all of the theme Across entries that contain a rebus actually contain two: GRABBED A BITE, INHABITABLE, and ABRA CADABRA.

I assumed while I was solving that the theme would have something to do with a six-pack of ABs, but in fact the count comes to eight rebus squares.

Goudsmit’s clever revealer at 61A (“Core exercises … or a hint to eight squares in this puzzle”) explains that the solver is doing AB CRUNCHES — crunching two letters into just one square.

Cracking Jim Peredo’s January 2020 New York Times crossword hooked me in as a newbie solver and sparked my interest in making a puzzle of my own.

The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online