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Fired Up, Again
The New York Times • • technology
Key Points:
- Katie Hoody has quickly established a distinctive puzzle-making style this year, favoring wordplay and conversational clues over trivia, making her puzzles engaging and pleasantly challenging.
- Notable tricky clues include 17A, where "What might provide you an opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes?" cleverly answers GARAGE SALE, and 38A’s idiom "I’M IN THE SAME BOAT," appearing for the first time in the New York Times Crossword.
- The puzzle features subtle misdirection, such as 57A’s clue for "Second person seen in ‘Hamlet’," which can be answered as either the character Francisco or the pronoun THOU, reflecting Shakespearean language.
- Another clever clue is 11D, where "Coach’s lack, often" refers not to sports but to an airplane section often lacking ELBOW ROOM, demonstrating the puzzle’s playful use of language.
- The puzzle also introduces a debut term in 33D, with "Ambient sound said to be more soothing than its ‘white’ counterpart" answered as PINK noise, reflecting current wellness trends.
