Ones Writing Happy Birthday Maybe Nyt Crossword

Wordplay, The CROSSWORD COLUMN

Snoozefest

Trenton Charlson's attention-grabbing Sunday puzzle is anything but.

Credit... Maria Mavropoulou for The New York Times

Oct. 2, 2021

SUNDAY PUZZLE — Today's print introduction mentions that Trenton Charlson is 25, which makes me doubt time, frankly, because it feels as if we have been solving his Scrabbly grids forever. (It's actually been less than five years, but he's prolific — 32 puzzles and counting.) Will Shortz makes note of the modern tools of crossword construction, software and programs that help create thrilling word lists like the one here, but that's really just part of the equation. Mr. Charlson says, "I value the sort of 'X-factor' that makes a puzzle feel playfully and distinctly 'human.'"

In this case, that "factor" should be preceded by a different letter, and that freewheeling playfulness involves dad geography jokes, religious arcana and Dr. Seuss characters, just for starters.

Tricky Clues

Because this puzzle goes off-road quite a bit, some explanations of difficult entries may appear in the next section (which can be taken as a small hint to their content). I had a couple of little misdirects that could slow someone down — "holds" for HOSTS (it's been too long since I've had someone over, I guess) and "toe" for TOY in a stocking.

33A: This entry made 10 appearances in the crossword puzzle between 1943 and 1974, but it's a new one for me. There's something very whimsical about the word DEANERY, especially when you're trying to deduce it and think of "beanery." I settled on "de anero," from the Latin for expensive Catholic church officials (mucho de anero), but I couldn't figure out how to make that final "o" work in the palindrome at 36D. I had to look at 36D about five times over three days to register that "bakery" is part of the palindrome for YREKA ___, which is brilliant. (And something that we've encountered before, but I forgot until I saw it again.)

68A: If north is north and west is left, then MAINE is far to the right, on a map of the United States.

15D: Who knew that you could live off the income from making a slow motion "How to TIE a TIE" video guide on YouTube, meaning that you might never have to TIE a TIE again?

23D: Because of their nesting habits, WRENs are classified in the order Passeriformes, and the family Troglodytidae.

31D: Roses, on the other hand, are in the order DOZEN — you might want to order two DOZEN if you're really trying to impress someone (or in a bit of trouble).

89D: A beautifully-presented sport factoid: SHAQuille O'Neal played center for the Los Angeles Lakers for eight years.

Today's Theme

If you follow their symmetrical arrangement, you could say that there are six theme entries in the acrosses, as well as a revealer. But when you get the revealer, you realize that it encompasses many words that aren't included in the smaller theme set. What we really have is a theme letter, which fits Mr. Charlson's style to a T (if that letter only had a higher Scrabble score).

That revealer, by the way, is crucial to understanding the title of today's puzzle, "Snoozefest," but it's a one-way street — I didn't make much of the title until the whole puzzle was done, when it gave me a chuckle, but I don't think it helps with the solve. In fact, this puzzle solves like an extra-large themeless grid (21 x 22, if you're one who counts columns), with an interesting letter recurrence, until you get to that revealer.

Here's what I mean. I picked through the acrosses first, throwing in a sure thing here and there. I had OZZIE, ARROZ and NANTZ before I even got to one of the longer entries that I knew immediately at 86-Across, a reference to another letter game — "Wheel of Fortune" and its PRIZE PUZZLES. This is Mr. Charlson's specialty — his debut puzzle revolved around "XX" and he's made Saturday grids full of Q's and J's — so I figured the letter Z was part of the game afoot ("catching some Z's" didn't occur to me while solving, although it does now).

Of the other cultural references, the newest one was easy for me as well (that's clickbait, by the way). I didn't come up with the Dr. Seuss entry at center, which has a suitably loopy origin story; it's a debut and will presumably stand for some time as the Times crossword entry with the most Z's in it, unless Mr. Charlson can persuade someone to name a newly-found species the Zzzhuzhinzizziz Zezzle Zephyr moth (or fungus or what have you).

At 22-Across, the "Inaptly named bear of a tongue twister" is a kind of unhappy Easter egg — bear with me. I'm sure that most of us learned this one as kids and thought nothing of it — FUZZY WUZZY wasn't very fuzzy wuz he? — but there are those who know the character's origin, and I am now among them. It's originally from a colonialist Rudyard Kipling poem, and it's dreadfully offensive. I thought briefly that maybe "Fozzy Wozzy" might make sense for the muppet (nah), and Mr. Charlson also could have used "fizzy wizzy," a magic candy from the Harry Potter books. But if you think about it, those two references are almost definitely derived from Fuzzy Wuzzy, so we would ultimately be back where we started. It's certainly not the first children's verse with an ugly background, and it won't be the last.

The old RAZZLE DAZZLE isn't hard once you know what you're looking for — come to think of it, once you do start looking, a lot of entries start to fall in place. You'll see that there are some reduplications, and some double double Z's; you'll also notice double Z's among the downs, like JAZZ DUET, and TIZZY.

New to me? ZAMBEZI, spelled with two Z's, because I've grown Zambesi lilies; and EVZONEs, mustachioed members of the Greek Presidential Guard.

Incredibly, I don't think there's an awkward step in this ziggurat of a puzzle. I looked askance at AGAZE for a minute, but it's valid, as is ELZIE Crisler Sigar. There are 50 words in this puzzle with at least a "z" and even though only one of them is technically ZINGY, well …

That reminds me of the revealer at 111-Across, the "quick nap," which refers to the ZEES in this grid. That would be FORTY WINKS: one for every Z in this puzzle. Count 'em!

Constructor Notes

The idea of interpreting FORTY WINKS as 40 Z's is one that I'd had for a few years, but I just couldn't get it to work (imagine that). It's funny how sometimes the simplest of solutions can be the most elusive — somehow, I don't think I even considered the possibility of using a Sunday size grid until last year! After abandoning a mostly completed grid for a few reasons — using both FREEZING DRIZZLE and FROZEN PIZZA, what I suspected was too high of a word count even for a 22 x 21 grid (151), and some obscure answers — and doing some rejiggering, I found a grid that ended up working out much better than I had anticipated. Once I had a layout that could accommodate my symmetrically paired long answers, it was smooth sailing … other than the fact that I still had to work 13 extra Z's into the puzzle.

The upper-right area presented the most difficulties, and though there are some compromises, that actually might be my favorite part of the grid — EVZONE is one of my favorite Scrabble words, YREKA has a fun clue, GULLIVER and JAZZ DUET make for nice bonuses, and despite some tough vocabulary, I think the crossings are all ultimately fair. Of course, the biggest highlight for me is finally being able to work ZIZZER-ZAZZER-ZUZZ into a puzzle (after more than a few attempts).

Hope you thought this puzzle sizzled more than it fizzled :) Happy solving!

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