TUESDAY PUZZLE – This is a wonderful first grid from Bryan Kaproth-Gerecht. It’s packed with enough thematic elements to make for a great Sunday puzzle, but it’s presented with such finesse that the complexity of its construction may not hit you until the last minute, as was my experience. It’s also still a Fair Tuesday puzzle, given its well-known topic, but it’s lofty and complex enough to achieve a satisfying solution. Today’s ThemeSolvers, feel free to look directly at the center of this puzzle, where there is a cheerful little representation of a sun. That’s a visual clue to this issue; another is a series of eight circular squares spread across the grid. There’s one more artistic element that appears when you’ve completed your solving that really makes the puzzle shine (as long as you solve it online, which is highly recommended). Regarding the established theme, there are eight basic clues that are simply a numerical sequence, from [*1st] in 34-Through [*8th] in 1-Down. The scientific solvers’ senses might have begun to tingle at this point: a sun and eight related inputs? – but there are also two revealing tracks on 44- and 45-Down that should focus the issue for the rest of us. 44-down, [Like the paths of 45-Down, as visually depicted in this puzzle]resolves ORBITAL; 45-down, [Celestial “wanderers” … or what this puzzle’s circled letters represent] solves PLANETS. Indeed, those are the ones that make up the eight consecutively numbered tracks. I had many letters of crossed entries in place, so I filled in MERCURY, VENUS, EARTH, MARS, JUPITER, SATURN, URANUS, and NEPTUNE without even taking note of their locations on the grid; I was impressed to see that the eight planets fit together. Then, I looked at the eight letters in circles. I’m sure some of you also thought of the mnemonic “My very polite mother just served us nachos” (or, perhaps, “My very polite mother just served us nine pizzas,” which lost its pizza when Pluto was stripped of its planetary status in 2006). However, the circled letters are not the initials of the planets, nor do they spell anything when read from top to bottom or rearranged. When you finish the puzzle, it becomes clear that the letter itself is not the point of the circle. In an inventive twist, a series of rings, as if drawn by a compass, appear to emanate from the sun; each ring passes through a circle. They represent their planets, all in their own orbits at different distances from the sun. For example, the circled H on EARTH is three squares south of the central sun, and the circled E on JUPITER is five squares east. Now you can see how specific the locations of these eight entries are; Surprisingly, they create a two-dimensional model of the solar system. Difficult tracks 4A. He [One-named Senegalese American singer with the #1 hits “I Wanna Love You” and “Don’t Matter”] has appeared in several New York Times puzzles, but I didn’t recognize the songs mentioned and had to deduce AKON using letters from cross-entries.16A/20A/47A. I loved finding these Easter eggs or clues that are within the scope of the puzzle theme, and they’re all good trivia too. In 16A, the [Summer meteor shower named for a mythological hero] They are the PERSEIDS, which occurred just a couple of weeks ago. He [Billion years, astronomically] in 20A there is an Aeon, which is the same as an aeon and, in most cases, just means a very long time. 47A, the [Moon believed to have a subsurface ocean]is TITAN, which orbits Saturn and which some say could be habitable (the buried ocean may actually be pockets of liquid water inside sludge ice).58A. This is a difficult entry for a puzzle from earlier in the week: The [Mexican beer brand] in question is TECATE, which is less known than Corona and Modelo.6D/25D. I also found both conversation tracks difficult for a Tuesday puzzle, as they allow for so many possibilities. 6D, [“Wowza!”]solves OH DAMN; 25D, [“Man, that’s hardly fair!”] is AW C’MON, which is a strange combination of letters. None of these expressions appear frequently in Times puzzles.39D. [Like someone emerging from freezing cold water, typically] solves SHIVERY, another uncommon term that last appeared in a Times grid in 1968. Builder’s Notes I’m so excited to make my puzzle debut and share this puzzle with my fellow NYT solvers! This puzzle is rooted in a lifetime of love for the natural world. I grew up in Ithaca, New York, playing on the flat rocks near Taughannock Falls, swimming in a too-cold Cayuga Lake, and looking at the night sky on warm summer nights. As an adult, I enjoyed learning about the history and physics of our solar system, and a puzzle with all the planets in orbit was one of the first themed ideas that really sparked my excitement to start building. After a few iterations of the grid for almost a year, I came up with this final puzzle layout. I’m delighted that I was able to fit PERSEIDS and TITAN together with the planets and only regret that I couldn’t fit in the theorized Planet X. I hope this puzzle is as fun to solve as it was to create! My spouse and I first discovered our love for crossword puzzles during the difficult early times of the Covid-19 pandemic, and solving them together became a way to connect over something new and creative each day. Our crossword community has grown these days: we love unraveling the tricks of the Thursday crossword puzzles with my parents over video chat, and the weekly Boswords crossword leagues have been an absolute delight. I especially enjoyed Boswords’ interviews with crossword editors and builders, and about two years ago, looking for a new winter hobby, I decided to try building myself. Since then, I’ve found some wonderful people at Crosscord eager to help new builders (thanks, John Kugelman!) and, especially as a non-binary builder, I really appreciate the support of the Crossword Collaboration Directory (thanks, Anna Shechtman!) and the NYT Diverse Crossword Builders Scholarship. To all the people who have helped me, thank you! Improve your crossword solving Work on our guide “How to solve the New York Times crossword puzzle.” It contains an explanation of most of the types of clues you’ll see in the puzzles and a Practice Mini at the end of each section. Do you need a little more help? Subscribers can take a look at the answer key.
