by Ned White

Created on: November 19, 2009

Tips on Solving the New York Times Saturday Crossword Puzzle

As most avid crossword solvers know, the New York Times crossword puzzles become more difficult as the week progresses, concluding on Saturday with by far the most challenging puzzle published anywhere in the country. Monday is very simple and straightforward, Thursday usually has a clever trick to it (and can be imposing), Sunday is like a Wednesday for level of difficulty, and Saturday is the be-all and end-all of head-scratching Google-blitzing cerebral torment. Many very good solvers never finish it.

All that said, it can be hacked, if you think a certain way, and you may not need Google (you really shouldn't use it, anyway). I can speak from experience, because I've constructed four such puzzles (three most likely for Saturday, one for Friday) that have been accepted by the Times for publication, and I've become pretty good at untangling my fellow-constructors' works. So here we go - not a complete guide, but hopefully a good start for you.

1) "The straightforward clue that's messing with your mind." Example: the clue in a recent puzzle was OVERHEAD SHOWER, with a 16-letter answer. Almost all of us hear "shower" as rhyming with "cower," and take "overhead" to be an adjective. Wrong in both cases. The answer was INCOME STATEMENT, a document that presumably shows overhead. If you see the clue RANK, avoid believing it has to do with status. Go instead with your sense of smell, and you'll probably be right. If I were ever to use the word TOLERATE as an answer, I'd love to use BROOK as its clue (if Mr. Shortz concurs...)

2) "The question mark clues." Many solvers are familiar with an early to mid-week clue that appears now and again: A LITTLE LOWER? with the answer being CALF (because calves "low" like all cows, except they're little). The question mark clue signals wordplay, sometimes fiendishly clever, so imagine the constructor to be a devious punster and you should have a leg up.

3) "Question mark clues taking advantage of initial caps." Unlike many other papers and magazines, The New York Times puzzle stylebook calls for all clues to start with a capital letter. This creates many opportunities for the constructor to trick you, as in TIME PIECE? Chances are very good that TIME is the magazine, and the answer will be STORY or ARTICLE or something similar, and have nothing to do with clocks or watches.

4) "Common words as proper names." The initial caps rule enables this trick very nicely. A simple example

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