Solution to Evan Birnholzs Nov. 21 Post Magazine crossword, Playing With Your Food

I mentioned a little while ago that I was one of the constructors for this year’s Boswords Fall Themeless League. This past Monday, Nov. 15, was my turn. It’s been a while since I published a 15x15 themeless crossword — I think my most recent one before Monday was in October 2015 in the New York Times. But I was happy to have the opportunity and appreciate that I got to work with editor Brad Wilber and organizers John Lieb and Andrew Kingsley. I was also interviewed about this puzzle and other crossword matters, but I’ll wait to post that interview until at-home solvers receive the complete set of Boswords puzzles in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, if you aren’t currently solving as part of the league, you can order the puzzles at this link and you should receive them on Nov. 30.

I’ve made several Halloween puzzles and Christmas puzzles before, dabbled in New Year’s and Valentine’s Day puzzles on occasion and even once made a puzzle about banishing snakes from a grid for St. Patrick’s Day. But until now I don’t believe I’d ever made a Thanksgiving puzzle. Like the Nov. 7 puzzle “Time Change,” this one is sort of a Frankenpuzzle in that it has more than one theme.

In the top half of the puzzle, four phrases feature circled foods whose letters are split up on the sides, described by SIDE DISH at 46A: [Thanksgiving serving, and a hint to the circled squares in this puzzle]:

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• 22A: [Java server] is COFFEE URN, which splits up CORN.
• 24A: [He won the 2002 U.S. Open in the final match of his career] is PETE SAMPRAS, which splits up PEAS.
• 44A: [Party for a princess] is ROYAL BALL, which splits up ROLL.
• 64A: [Show featuring traditional Irish music and fancy footwork] is RIVERDANCE, which splits up RICE.

These same four foods can be found in a different way in the second theme. 86A: [Thanksgiving serving, and a hint to four special squares in this puzzle] is STUFFING, which means that CORN, PEAS, ROLL and RICE have been squashed into rebus squares:

• 68A: [Component of inflation] is P(RICE) INCREASE, crossing T(RICE)PS at 62D: [Muscles strengthened by dip exercises].
• 88A: [Cheshire Cat’s creator] is LEWIS CAR(ROLL), crossing T(ROLL)S at 85D: [Beasts beneath bridges, in folklore].
• 109A: [14th-century English rebellion led by rural workers] is (PEAS)ANTS REVOLT, crossing AP(PEAS)ES at 95D: [Pacifies].
• 112A: [Start of a boxing announcer’s intro] is “IN THIS (CORN)ER,” crossing S(CORN)ED at 106D: [Showed disdain for].

I don’t have any immediate plans to write another Frankenpuzzle, but I have to admit that it does give me a bit of relief. It saves me the trouble of trying to stretch one gimmick out to seven or eight or more theme phrases. Why not just use two themes with a more manageable four phrases for each one? As long as the themes coexist well enough, that’s fine with me.

Some other answers and clues:

• 1A is OWL and 18A is ROO, both clued as [One of Pooh’s friends]. I didn’t plan this beforehand.
• 26A: [2021 World Series runner-up] is ASTRO. I think Atlanta had just won the World Series when I first wrote this clue.
• 70A: [Global defense?] is OZONE. My favorite clue today.
• 74A: [1970s rock subgenre that features strong and catchy melodies] is POWER POP. I hadn’t heard of this until writing this puzzle, but the Raspberries and Cheap Trick were practitioners of the genre.
• 83A: [Feature of the series “Squid Game”] is GORE. I’d recently finished watching this series when I wrote the puzzle. I’d recommend it, if you don’t mind the gore and violence, that is.
• 117A: [Partake in a Thanksgiving feast] is EAT. It seemed like an appropriate clue for the puzzle.
• 89D: [Food ___ (reactions after Thanksgiving feasts)] is COMAS. Another clue that I thought seemed apt.
• 91D: [“Russian Doll” actress Natasha] is Natasha LYONNE. She’s a major fan of solving crosswords, and even once teamed up with Deb Amlen to co-construct a crossword for the New York Times in 2019.

A heads-up that next week’s puzzle is going to be a little bit unusual. Not necessarily harder than normal; just odd. You’ll see.

What did you think?

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