What’s in a Bonus Puzzle clue?
This is the third installment in a three-part series on the making of the monthly Bonus Crossword, focused on our celebrity collaborations. Today I’ll be wrapping up by talking about what goes into writing clues for the Bonus crossword. Unlike the Daily, the theme in the Bonus Crossword is sprinkled throughout the puzzle. Generally speaking, if we think of a natural way to tie any entry into the topic of the puzzle, we’ll do so. This generally ends up accounting for about 50-60 percent of the clues in the puzzle. With the celebrity collaborations, we’ve met virtually for clue-writing sessions. Typically I’ve shared my screen with my collaborator, and we look together for entries in the grid that might be able to be clued in a thematic way. When I met with Gabby Windey, who was on “The Bachelorette” and “The Traitors” among others, for our reality television themed puzzle, she was bubbling with fun ideas of how to tie words into the theme. For C.E.O., for instance, she immediately thought of Bethenny Frankel, the “Real Housewives” star who is also the founder and chief executive of the lifestyle brand Skinnygirl. For AGE, Ms. Windey suggested [What a woman in Hollywood might try not to do]. The documentarian Ken Burns also had many thoughts about how to tie words and phrases to the American Revolution that I wouldn’t have considered. For instance: [N.Y.C. neighborhood whose streets are named for Revolutionary generals] for SOHO and [River whose valley was coveted by colonists] for OHIO. Most of the time, I meet with a collaborator for about an hour to write the clues that could be thematically tied into the theme and then take care of the nontheme clues myself. When my hourlong meeting with Jeff Tweedy, best known as the frontman of Wilco, was wrapping up, I reassured him that he didn’t need to worry about the clues that didn’t pertain to our ’70s rock music theme. To my surprise, he asked if we might be able to meet again to wrap up. Maybe it shouldn’t shock me that as a songwriter and author he would want to feel connected to the clues that were to be published under his name. We ended up making a shared spreadsheet, some of the lines containing multiple ideas for clues. We met one more time to make final decisions on the clues, with Tweedy calling in from his tour bus. With more celebrity collaborations underway (stay tuned!) it has been fun to see how different people work and what parts of the process people are drawn to.
Solve Friday’s Crossword on Easy Mode!
For expert hints on today’s puzzle, read the Wordplay column. Were you able to solve the Friday puzzle with Easy Mode? We want your input! Share your experience with us by email. Easy vs. HardIn today’s daily puzzle, 3-Down is clued as [Line of attack?]. This is one of my favorite kinds of misdirects, to play with the word “line” to indicate a spoken phrase. In Easy Mode I went with a more straightforward quote akin to the answer: [“I’m gonna get those jerks!”]
How are we doing? Thanks for playing! Subscribe to New York Times Games. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it regularly here. P.S. The answer to Easy vs. Hard is LET ME AT ’EM.
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