I’d written final August that I included a pair of 18-letter solutions for “Themeless No. 18,” a 19-letter reply for “Themeless No. 19,” and a pair of 20-letter solutions for “Themeless No. 20.” So, what do we now have for in the present day’s “Themeless No. 21”? Six interlocking, grid-spanning 21-letter solutions:
- 23A: [“Stranger Things,” e.g.] is NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES.
- 66A: [“Obviously!”] is “THAT GOES WITHOUT SAYING.”
- 109A: [Labour organiser, at times] is LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION.
- 3D: [Like gory films among those who are squeamish, say] is NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.
- 9D: [“Look, this is the best we’re gonna get”] is “BEGGARS CAN’T BE CHOOSERS.”
- 16D: [Group in between the Bushes] is CLINTON ADMINISTRATION.
I can’t sustain the development of utilizing matching-length solutions for every successive themeless puzzle perpetually, so I don’t anticipate “Themeless No. 22” could have a 22-letter reply. That signifies that the 22-letter phrase THEMELESS SUNDAY PUZZLES will possible not see the sunshine of day in a single my crosswords. But if I discover a actually good 22-letter phrase and give you what I believe is a killer clue for it … who is aware of?
Working with six grid-spanning solutions like this constrains what you are able to do with the remainder of the grid, however listed below are another solutions and clues of word:
- 27A: [Animals that were domesticated around 8000 B.C. in what is now western Iran] is GOATS. I realized that from this New Scientist article from June 2021.
- 31A: [Language introduced in L. L. Zamenhof’s 1887 book “Unua Libro”] is ESPERANTO. I hadn’t recognized till now that it’s been round for over 130 years. I additionally didn’t know till now which you can learn it on Duolingo.
- 34A and the following Across reply at 35A have the identical clue: [“The Addams Family” character who speaks using seemingly unintelligible sounds]. That could be ITT and LURCH, respectively.
- 53A: [Where some soldiers are stationed?] is ANT FARM. I’m picturing that these ants participate in little army parades, with tiny drums and fifes. Admit it: So are you.
- 72A: [Flash point?] is STROBE. My favourite clue in the present day.
- 94A: [Nice words?] is FRENCH. Using town of Nice as a misdirect for a French phrase is an previous standby for crosswords.
- 100A: [Ocean-surveying images obtained by reflecting sound waves] is ECHOGRAMS. File this below “thing I didn’t know existed until I wrote this puzzle.”
- 120A: [Childish but truthful reply to “I went to Mars for vacation!”] is “DID NOT.” The “childish reply” class of reply is a bane for a lot of solvers and constructors, in all probability partly as a result of there are such a lot of of them (like AM SO, IS TOO, IS NOT, and so forth.) and so they’re nearly at all times clued the identical manner. I believed it is likely to be enjoyable to spruce up this reply by imagining a dialog that two youngsters may need on the playground the place one among them would possibly say DID NOT.
- 12D: [Images of Belle and Sebastian, e.g.] is CELS. This is in regards to the Disney characters, not the band.
- 36D: [Star’s output] is HEAT. I used to be tempted to give it a Miami Heat clue because it’s close by BRON at 29A: [NBA star James, informally].
- 61D: [Occasional Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year, oddly] is PHRASE. I suppose Words of the Year doesn’t come off proper even when it’s a two-word phrase. This yr the winner was “goblin mode.”
- 97D: [Early 20th-century senator Reed who becomes pointless to debate if you remove the first letter?] is SMOOT, who turns into the phrase MOOT in the event you delete the S. It’s odd how simply final week I had one other senator from yesteryear in STENNIS and I went to a wordplay angle with him, too.
- A pair of World Cup-related clues at 111D: [Cry one may hear after “¡Goooooooooooool!”] which is OLÉ and at 114D: [World Cup target] which is NET. Who are you predicting to win in the present day’s closing match? I’m rooting for Lionel Messi to win in what could also be his closing World Cup, however France has seemed very, superb (arguably a greater crew than Argentina so far) and it wouldn’t shock me if Kylian Mbappé takes residence the Golden Boot trophy. (And no, FRENCH being within the grid at 94A was not my manner of creating a prediction.)
Finally, right here’s a heads-up about subsequent week’s year-ending puzzle: It will not be going to be an everyday crossword. If you bear in mind final yr’s “Haunted House” meta suite — which featured some smaller, nonstandard puzzle codecs — it’s going to be like that, however unfold out over one web page quite than two. I had been hoping to write one other meta suite for some time, however didn’t discover the hook I’d wished till round Thanksgiving. Go large or go residence, as they are saying, and because it’s the ultimate difficulty of The Post Magazine, it felt additional essential to go large. Good luck and I hope you’ll take pleasure in it.
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