NYT Crossword Answers for Thursday, July, 20, 2023
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
THURSDAY PUZZLE — This is Drew Schmenner’s fourth crossword in The New York Times, and I think he is slowly trying to bat for the cycle. In crossword terms, a constructor who has bat for the cycle has had a puzzle published at least once on each day of the week. Mr. Schmenner’s first three Times crosswords each ran on a Monday, a Tuesday and a Wednesday, and this puzzle is his first Thursday grid.
And it’s a doozy. I may need a nap after solving this one.
Today’s Theme
A few things occurred to me as I was bouncing around this puzzle, other than the fact that it has more than its share of Z’s, and they helped unlock the theme for me:
1. All those Z’s represent sleep, which is explained in the revealer at 59A: SLEEPING CAR.
2. The “car” parts are the makes of cars hidden in the theme entries.
3. The number of Z’s in each theme entry represent the number of letters in each car make.
4. The puzzle is not a rebus, for which we can all be profoundly grateful.
Instead, we are substituting letters in order to complete a theme entry. For example, at 17A, the answer to the clue “Worth discussing, as an issue,” as written in the grid, is UPZZZZEBATE, which made me think of the static that one hears when tuning in a radio station for some reason.
Source: The New York Times
