Puzzles

Crossword: Yesterday's answer

Crossword, By Thomas Joseph

ACROSS 1 Interstellar cloud 7 Fundamentals 11 Starting bid 12 This is one 13 Writer Defoe 14 Gift-wrapping need 15 Line about 23° from the equator 17 Physics amount 20 Egyptian crosses 23 — Dhabi 24 Relinquish 26 Fist bump 27 Brynner of "The King and I" 28 Refiner's supply 29 Eroded 31 Depressed 32 French thanks 33 Lairs 34 Sweet drink 37 Physics topic 39 Plaza resident of children's books 43 Act the nomad 44 Fan 45 Nasty 46 Radio-emitting star

DOWN 1 Silent assent 2 Clean Water Act org. 3 Stiller of films 4 Pecks and pounds 5 Lewd look 6 Singer Guthrie 7 Stage work 8 High-gravity phenomenon 9 Trophy 10 Look upon 16 Sao — 17 Sir's counterpart 18 Ease up 19 Exploding star 21 Canadian native 22 Gushes forth 24 Jaded type 25 Ump's call 30 Old suppliers 35 Maryland player, for short 36 Noted baseball family name 37 Radius's place 38 Low digit 40 "— not for me to say" 41 Yacht spot 42 Mess up

The New York Times Crossword

The New York Times Crossword, Edited by Will Shortz

ACROSS 1 Important info to have while you're waiting in a cellphone lot, for short 4 Fall or fell 10 Cause of a sudden change in interest, informally? 14 Close 15 Pho soup garnishes 16 Conduit of neural signals 17 Early models 19 Relative of a gull 20 "Ain't gonna happen" 21 Big bang cause 22 Chilling 24 The remotest of remote jobs? 27 Kid 28 Supermodel Banks 29 Break into loud cheers, as a crowd 31 Answer to "Who's ready to go?" 33 Broadcast 35 Uno + due 36 Mononymous Irish singer 37 Animated film that was the highest-grossing movie of 1992 40 "Impossible!" 43 Hibernation spots 44 Dip target, maybe 46 Things entered in a sudoku grid: Abbr. 47 Messy dorm room, figuratively 48 Fruits often seen in still lifes 50 Take back, for short 53 City haze 55 Canine guard? 57 Dishwasher cycle 59 "A form of madness," it's said 60 Actress Pinkett Smith of "Girls Trip" 62 Singer/songwriter Mitchell 63 Fruits named after a mythical drink 66 Noted cartoon dog 67 Its first video, "Me at the zoo," has over 400 million views 68 State whose outline can be made by connecting seven particular squares in this puzzle 69 Valley 70 Give a once-over 71 Crafty

DOWN 1 Channel with "2" and "U" spinoffs 2 Pharynx setting 3 Post-mortem 4 General on a Chinese menu 5 Decide one will 6 Hester of "The Scarlet Letter" 7 Grab-and-go breakfast option 8 Guitar relative 9 Gas brand seen in Edward Hopper's "Portrait of Orleans" 10 Betting odds, e.g. 11 Concern for a gymnastics judge 12 Certain pickleball shot 13 Greenwich Village's Stonewall, e.g. 18 Groups of four 23 Paper competing with the W.S.J. 25 Debugger? 26 Remedy for a missed exit 30 Lowly worker 32 Farm sound 34 Ready to eat 36 Small hound that doesn't bark 37 What a premium subscription may help you avoid 38 "Time to go!" 39 Very soon 40 By 42 What "Coco" is a nickname for, for tennis's Coco Gauff 45 Military hairstyles 48 Family-friendly movie ratings 49 The Sphinx, for one 51 Classic comic strip that's the source for nine Emmys and two Tonys 52 Folding a fitted sheet, it may seem 54 Edible bulb 56 Many Moroccans 58 Mononymous Irish singer 61 Grayish 62 Profile pic format, in brief 64 Dawn deity 65 In medias ___

The New York Times Crossword: Answer to previous puzzle

Puzzle by Peter Gorman

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Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crossword

Scrabble Grams

PAR SCORE 145-155. BEST SCORE 219. FOUR RACK TOTAL. TIME LIMIT: 20 MIN.

DIRECTIONS: Make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. Add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. "Blanks" used as any letter have no point value. All the words are in the Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary, 5th Edition. SOLUTION TOMORROW

Yesterday's answer: RACK 1 = 61, RACK 2 = 65, RACK 3 = 74, RACK 4 = 22, TOTAL 222. PAR SCORE 160-170

Scrabble Grams

Cryptoquote

A X Y D L B A A X R is L O N G F E L L O W

One letter stands for another. In this sample, A is used for the three L's, X for the two O's, etc. Single letters, apostrophes, the length and formation of the words are all hints. Each day the code letters are different.

Cryptoquote

MJH THEZ MTXOB XA MK AMEP EZXYH EA ZKVW EA PKD ZXYH. — EVV ZEVCHTA

Yesterday's Cryptoquote: FIND THE GOOD. IT'S ALL AROUND YOU. FIND IT, SHOWCASE IT AND YOU'LL START BELIEVING IN IT. — JESSE OWENS

Word Sleuth: Possessive Brands

Tuesday's unlisted clue: CHILD

Word Sleuth: Possessive Brands

Find the listed words in the diagram. They run in all directions - forward, backward, up, down and diagonally.

Wednesday's unlisted clue hint: BETCHA CAN'T EAT JUST ONE

Arby's, Domino's, Kohl's, Macy's, Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Levi's, McDonald's, Culver's, Hershey, Lowe's, Wendy's, Denny's, Kellogg's, M&M's

Yesterday's Answer: PRETTY GOOD COOKS

Scrabble Grams: Yesterday's answer

Goren Bridge, Bob Jones

North-South vulnerable, East deals

The bidding: EAST 1♡, SOUTH 1♠, WEST 3♡*, NORTH 4♣. All pass. *Heart raise with values

Opening lead: Queen of ♡

Goren Bridge

Psychic bidding, making a deceptive bid that has no relation to your hand, was a part of the game in the early days. It has pretty much gone out of fashion, for good reason. A psychic bid is sure to antagonize someone at the table. Your opponents will be angry if it works or your partner will be angry if it doesn't. Why take an action that is sure to make someone angry? East in today's deal was Boye Brogeland, from Norway. His team was in the final of a World Championship and trailing badly late in the match. He didn't care, under these conditions, if someone got angry. He was determined to try and create a swing, hopefully gaining points for his team in the process. He opened one heart as East and sat back to see what would happen. Poor North, an expert player, had a terrible problem. He had an opening bid on his left and values shown on his right. What was left for partner? He bid a game he thought he could make and watched as his partner made two overtricks, losing only the spade finesse.

At the other table, Brogeland's teammates bid to seven clubs and made it when the queen of spades fell doubleton as declarer was trying to ruff out the queen. A huge gain for Brogeland's team, but it was not enough to win the match. Good try!

Bob Jones welcomes readers' responses sent to Tribune Content Agency, LLC., 16650 Westgrove Dr., Suite 175, Addison, TX 75001.

Sudoku, Rating: Easy, By Derek Bowman

Sudoku

How to play: Fill in the grid so that each row of nine squares, each column of nine and each section of nine (three squares by three) contains the numbers 1 through 9 in any order. There is only one solution to each puzzle.

Previous Answer

Word Sleuth: Yesterday's Answer, Pretty Good Cooks

Sudoku: Previous Answer