Dana: Crossword Puzzle

Today’s Theme

At 54A, our revealer asks us to name a [Statistical feat achieved four times in N.B.A. history]. But don’t worry, no one needs to bone up on their basketball jargon in order to solve it. We can tell that double letters are central to today’s theme just by looking at the starred entries at 17A, 24A and 41A: ACCESS HOLLYWOOD, MISS MISSISSIPPI and WELL WHOOP-DEE-DOO all contain four pairs of double letters. This compelled me to try QUADRUPLE DOUBLE as the revealer entry even though I had no idea whether it was associated with basketball. I was able to confirm my guess was correct by checking it against its crossings. Swish!

I mentioned earlier that Mr. Edwards’s theme was self-referential. Not only does his grid contain exactly four themed entries with double letters — achieving a QUADRUPLE DOUBLE of another kind — but the feat he alludes to has also happened only four times in the N.B.A.’s history, which feels like an added wink.

Tricky Clues

20A. We refer to clues that appear between quotation marks as vocalizations because they are written as though they’re being spoken aloud. These clues tend to solve to colloquialisms; we don’t use quotation marks in entries, but while solving you can and should imagine that they are present. A casual way to say [“Go ahead, I’m an open book!”] is ASK AWAY.

22A. The keyword in [Barbecue bite with a bone] is the word “bite,” which indicates that we’re looking for a singular term: RIB, rather than ribs. Whenever a clue contains a term like portion, bite, bit, unit or piece, its entry will reliably be singular. The clue can also lay this plain, as in 36A: A [Single curl or squat] is a REP.

61A. Ah, past participles! The true tricksters of The Crossword. Is [Already consumed] a verb or an adjective? This being a Monday puzzle, the constructor does us a solid by including the word “already,” which suggests a state, rather than an action. The answer is EATEN. (In an end-of-week puzzle, you’re likely to see a single-word version of this clue: [Consumed].)

10D. Although the clue [Formal confession] has no quotation marks, it does describe an utterance, so its answer is also a spoken phrase: IT WAS I.

47D. To be [Barred from a competition, informally] is to be DQ-ED. No, this is not short for “Dairy Queened” — it means disqualified.

Constructor Notes

I’m not a basketball player or even a basketball fan. I think I came across the revealer for this puzzle because the phrase “double double” randomly popped into my head … not the NBA stat, but the cheeseburger from In-N-Out. I couldn’t tell you why. I thought “Hmm, interesting potential for a crossword theme,” as one does when one has been bitten by the crossword construction bug — a mind virus that’s constantly scanning your thoughts and speech for double meanings. The internet told me that a “triple double” was a basketball thing. I thought, “there couldn’t possibly be a QUADRUPLE double,” but yes, in fact, there was.

I used ChatGPT to write some code to search my word list for phrases that used four sets of double letters. There’s a good amount of luck involved in finding workable crossword themes, and here, I got very lucky: There were only about 10 results, and the four best ones happened to be 15 letters long, thus satisfying the symmetry constraint.

This is my first puzzle published in the The New York Times! I got into constructing about two years ago and it has proved to be a satisfying and, frankly, somewhat therapeutic outlet for my wordplay-oriented brain. (Years ago I had a “problem” with compulsively spoonerizing words. It got so bad that my friend had to stage an intervention. Yank thou, Evan — I mean, thank you — I needed that.)

I’m grateful to have found a hobby where I can channel that dad-joke energy and, hopefully, bring some enjoyment to the solving public. Many thanks to my merry band of test solvers, and especially to Carly Schuna.

I’m currently a grad student at Columbia Journalism School, and I have approximately zero free time, so puzzle-making is on hold for now. But don’t worry! I’ll be back with more. :)