NYT Crossword Answers for Thursday, July 27, 2023

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Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

THURSDAY PUZZLE — Guilherme Gilioli, from Bento Gonçalves, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, is the first New York Times constructor known to be from Brazil. He started solving English-language crosswords in 2016 to improve his vocabulary, and in 2021, he made his New York Times Crossword debut. Mr. Gilioli, a full-time cruciverbalist, creates puzzles in Portuguese, Spanish and English for books, apps, websites, magazines and newspapers.

This is his second puzzle in The Times, and I am not spoiling anything by saying that the theme involves addition.

I know, I know: You were promised no math. But let’s remember that Mr. Gilioli is a wordsmith, so the adding may not be quite what you expected.

It took me a while to figure out what was going on here. This puzzle held onto its secret until I was about halfway through solving it, but I enjoyed a good “aha” moment when I discovered the trick.

The clue format is “Answer 1” + “Answer 2” = “Answer 3,” but you may have to really stare at the grid until you figure out why Answer 3 is what it is. The design of Mr. Gilioli’s grid to accommodate this format is clever.

The first example of this theme is at 19A, where the clue is “17-Across + 18-Across = 19-Across.” So we solve 17A (EPIC) and 18A (ENTER), only to discover that 19A is CORE.

At that point, I was just happy that I had the correct answers, so I moved on and solved around the third row of the puzzle for a while. And then, as they say, it hit me: EPIC + ENTER = EPICENTER, a synonym for CORE.

That makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it? We combine the first two entries in a theme row to make a new word, and the third entry will be a synonym of that word.

Mr. Gilioli’s grid contains two more theme entries, at 43A and 59A. See if you can figure them out and report back.

25A. When a clue is in a language other than English, the answer must be in that language as well. “Once menos tres” means “11 minus three” in Spanish, so the answer is eight, or OCHO.

26A. “It’s a personal matter” can mean that someone does not wish to share an issue with others. Whether one does or doesn’t, of course, is a matter of personal TASTE.

32A. The “garnish for a shrimp taco” is LIME in this puzzle, but I think that LIME is a fantastic garnish for any type of taco, and several Thai dishes as well. It’s just a matter of personal 26A.

48A. I thought it was very kind of the puzzle editors to hint at which language the “Foreign refusal” was in by highlighting GERMANY at 37A. My first guess, because I had the N, was “nyet,” but I changed it to NEIN when I noticed the highlighted entry.

63A. The “Clarifying words” are AS IN, as in “C as in cat.” (Stop saying “as in,” Deb.)

6D. I tried to think of what “Most of 1999” was for me, and I must have had fun because I honestly can’t remember. That’s OK, though, because the real answer is NINES, as in three of the four numerals in the year.

10D. The “Bars for checking people out” are not always places to go to find romance. The bars in this puzzle are a UPC CODE, which is used to scan an item in a store while checking out.

34D. The New Yorker has Rea IRVIN, a graphic designer, to thank for the elegant font and top-hatted Eustace Tilley character he created.

37D. I was not familiar with Charles GOREN, the bridge champion, player and author who was known as Mr. Bridge to millions in the 1940s and ’50s.

49D. In the Showcase Showdown on “The Price Is Right,” contestants must “guesstimate” the PRICE of a showcase full of fabulous prizes.

I got the idea for this puzzle when I was walking on the street and saw a Land Rover Discovery. I thought, “Hmm, I can break the word into DISCO and VERY.” As these are two words that have nothing to do with the original one, it could be something I can use for a puzzle. After thinking a bit more about it, I came up with the format seen in the puzzle: Answer 1 + Answer 2 = Answer 3, giving no extra hints about the third one.

When I submitted it, I thought it could be used as a fun Tuesday, but had no idea they would accept it as a Thursday.

Christina Iverson, a puzzle editor, will send a weekly Friday puzzle with more accessible crossword clues right to your inbox, if you sign up for the Easy Mode newsletter. This extra bit of goodness is for those who would like to try the Friday puzzles but have heard all about how hard they are.

If you solve the early-week puzzles but feel as if you don’t have the experience to go any further, think of the newsletter as a set of cruciverbal training wheels. Use the easy mode clues until you don’t need them anymore, and then tell a friend who is struggling, the way you were, about how you prevailed over Fridays. Maybe that friend can benefit from this newsletter, too.

Take a look at the difference between the regular and easy mode clues below. The links are a small sample of the clue numbers from the Friday puzzle. When you click on them, you will see the version that will run in the puzzle and the easier version.

(Warning: Following are spoilers for the Friday puzzle.)

34A.

46A.

45D.

Not so tough, right? You can definitely solve Friday puzzles. You may just need some practice before you’re conquering them on your own.

To sign up for the Easy Mode newsletter, click the link here.

Almost finished solving but need a bit more help? We’ve got you covered.

Spoiler alert: Subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.

Trying to get back to the main Gameplay page? You can find it here.

Deb Amlen, the crossword columnist and senior staff editor of Wordplay, believes that everyone can learn to solve the Times crossword. She is the author of the humor book, “It's Not P.M.S., It's You.” More about Deb Amlen

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