Puzzles

Crossword (Thomas Joseph): Yesterday's answer

Crossword by Thomas Joseph

ACROSS

1 Molten rock

6 Spots for tots

11 Patriot Ethan

12 Kidney-related

13 Wasn't thrifty

14 Birdie beater

15 Badge material

16 Marked for life

18 Conclude

19 To date

20 Auditing org.

21 Paper pack

The New York Times Crossword

23 Parliament members

25 Moonshine holder

27 Massage

28 Egypt's Anwar

30 Geeky sort

33 Ab's neighbor

34 Opponent

36 Early auto

37 Requests

39 Bearded beast

40 Cut follower

41 Some apples

43 Love affair

44 Sioux language

45 Advances

The New York Times Crossword: Answer to previous puzzle

46 Old characters

DOWN

1 Learn completely

2 Skiing variety

3 Two-time Best Actress winner

4 Fellows

5 Fidgety

6 Inventive one

7 Back

8 Two-time Best Actress winner

9 Farm machines

10 Winter gliders

17 Animation frame

22 Coffee, in slang

24 Try for office

Crossword (Thomas Joseph)

26 Set electricians

28 Tahini base

29 Overly

31 Fail to follow suit

32 Throws water on

33 Vatican-based

35 Fielder's goof

38 Poker game

42 Buckeyes' sch.

The New York Times Crossword, edited by Will Shortz

ACROSS

1 Impediments to collaboration

5 It's the thing

9 Motion on a screen

14 Anchor's spot

Scrabble Grams

15 "I've had enough of this!"

17 People who worshiped the rain god Ilapa

18 Unexpected twists

19 Singer/actress Carrere

20 U.S. senators Warnock and Duckworth, for two

21 How often blue moons occur

22 Track-and-field challenges

24 Nods at a lot?

25 Barrel (along)

26 Big name in 23-Down

27 Lentils prepared with ghee, perhaps

30 Jazz Age Disney princess

31 Drives for money?

33 Actor Elba

34 A long time follower?

Cryptoquote

35 Expert in worldwide fulfillment and distribution operations?

36 "I'll wait for your update"

38 Attire for a high-pressure job?

39 Put down

40 Pad

41 Ramadan, e.g.

42 Particles in a particle accelerator

43 Comforts

45 Fairly low-risk investment

46 Chip source, informally

49 Guard at the gates of Mordor

50 Tool for adding sparkle to blackface prose?

52 Tiger ___ (spiky houseplant)

53 Steered too close to the shoreline, say

54 How one might feel at a support group meeting

Word Sleuth

55 "Ergo ..."

56 Wraps

57 [Look at me!]

DOWN

1 ___ Ann (classic Lily Tomlin character)

2 "That's brilliant!"

3 Hollywood post-broadcast fete

4 Export from Jamaica

5 Had a hankering

6 Sounds of fall?

7 Sound wave amplifiers

8 Network debut of 1981

9 Assessment of something enjoyed ironically

10 Sports

11 Part of a key chain

12 Prop in "The Matrix"

Scrabble Grams: Yesterday's answer

13 "Keep Commerce Human" website

16 Infer (from)

20 "I'll be sad if you leave"

23 Fabric related to chambray

24 Down under

26 Bricks used in some castles

27 Timbits from Tim Hortons, e.g.

28 Flawed protagonists

29 Trial that an attorney may not remember fondly?

30 Cash register part

31 Blue ___ (coral reef swimmers like Pixar's Dory)

32 Lacks

37 More compassionate

41 Candy bar in the jingle that begins "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't"

42 Ptolemy III?

43 Welcome advice from a financial planner

Sudoku

44 Lavender or lilac

45 City where Shah Jahan built a monument to his wife, Mumtaz Mahal

46 Film composer Silvestri

47 Pickle

48 Like silk or yarn

51 Pseudonym cited repeatedly in the 2022 Dobbs decision

52 "The pretty worm of Nilus," per Shakespeare's Cleopatra

Puzzle by Robyn Weintraub

Online subscriptions: Today's puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Cryptoquote

AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW

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.

ZVWI AQP VRFW TRNW RC TRIA THCLRYWC RC H VRFW LVWI AQP ORI UW RC XQQN RC TW. — ZQJEXRIX DPOY

Yesterday's Cryptoquote: LOVE IS SUPREME AND UNCONDITIONAL; LIKE IS NICE BUT LIMITED. — DUKE ELLINGTON

Goren Bridge by Bob Jones

Both vulnerable, West deals

Word Sleuth: Yesterday's answer

NORTH: ♠ Q J 4 3, ♡ A K Q 5, ◇ 10 9 8, ♣ 6 4

WEST: ♠ 2, ♡ J 4 2, ◇ Q 7, ♣ A J 10 9 8 7 5

EAST: ♠ 9 5, ♡ 10 8 7 3, ◇ 5 4 3 2, ♣ Q 3 2

SOUTH: ♠ A K 10 8 7 6, ♡ 9 6, ◇ A K J 6, ♣ K

The bidding: WEST 3♣, NORTH Dbl, EAST 4♣, SOUTH 5♣; Pass, 5♡, Pass, 6♣; All pass

Opening lead: Ace of ♣

Today's deal is from a recent Youth competition in China. North made a slightly aggressive double, South held nothing back, and the result was a pretty good slam. The slam was reached at many tables and many declarers went down by relying on the diamond finesse. East, the non-preemptor, was likely to have the greater length in diamonds and therefore was more likely to hold the queen. Not today. One South player, Jing Chen, found the winning line.

West led the ace of clubs and continued the suit. Chen ruffed and drew trumps. He cashed the ace of diamonds and ran all his spades, discarding a diamond from dummy. To keep all his hearts, East was forced to discard his last club and two diamonds. Chen cashed three high hearts and everyone followed suit. Who had the missing heart? If it was West, then East had three diamonds remaining and the finesse would work. If East had the last heart, then the diamonds were now 2-2 and the queen would drop. Chen decided that West might not have pre-empted if he started with four hearts to the jack-10 so he cashed his two high diamonds and made his slam. Well done!

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

Word Sleuth ALL —

Thursday's unlisted clue: WILT

Find the listed words in the diagram. They run in all directions - forward, backward, up, down and diagonally. Friday's unlisted clue hint: ALL — CONSIDERED

At once, Clear, Day long, Ears, Fired up, Fools' Day, Get out, Gone, Righty, The best, The rage, The same, Together, Told, Year round

Yesterday's Answer: BIG MEN OF THE NBA

Scrabble Grams

PAR SCORE 145-155, BEST SCORE 211, FOUR RACK TOTAL TIME LIMIT: 20 MIN

Sudoku: Previous answer

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 = 59, RACK 2 = 16, RACK 3 = 71, RACK 4 = 72, TOTAL 218. PAR SCORE 155-165

Sudoku, by Derek Bowman. Rating: Medium

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

Previous Answer