Puzzles

Crossword by Thomas Joseph

Crossword by Thomas Joseph

ACROSS 1 Doles (out) 6 Croc's cousin 11 Banish 12 Barcelona buddy 13 Prairie State capital 15 Weed whacker 16 Dict. entry 17 Spot 18 Beaver State capital 20 Kiss 23 Crunch's cousin 27 Skating group 28 Leia's brother 29 Make sense 31 Door sign 32 Gem State capital 34 Reggae kin 37 Recipe amt. 38 Descriptive wd. 41 Sunshine State capital 44 Poet T.S. 45 Manicure targets 46 "I agree!" 47 Be patient for

DOWN 1 Netlike fabric 2 Trade show 3 Bike part 4 Yale rooter 5 "In the Night Kitchen" author 6 Blunders 7 French friend 8 Binds 9 Look lewdly 10 Took the bus 14 Salon stuff 18 Wash vigorously 19 "Winnie-the-Pooh" author 20 Mud bath site 21 Fuming 22 Help out 24 Chiding sound 25 Luau instrument 26 For each 30 Fries source 31 Sevilla's nation 33 Kinda: Suffix 34 Rose part 35 Healthy green 36 Stepped down 38 China setting 39 Sub spot 40 Witty remark 42 Brit's bathroom 43 Carpentry tool

Yesterday's answer: CAFE, HAHA, HUMID, ADAPT, ORATE, DOZES, LAZING, IMA, ETON, RADNER, YEN, MALIGN, MAZES, TRAGIC, SPA, GRATIN, OMAN, LIZ, GAZING, OVINE, DALES, WINES, DWELT, AGES, SASS.

The New York Times Crossword

Edited by Will Shortz

ACROSS 1 Laffy ___, candy with a rhyming name 6 Poker buy-in 10 "The windows to the soul," metaphorically 14 Frighten 15 Villain's hideout 16 American Girl toy 17 Cringey ad campaign going viral, for example 19 Madonna's "La ___ Bonita" 20 Goes out with 21 Piglet and Pooh's marsupial friend 22 "Well, in that case ..." 24 Clic Stic and Wite-Out brand 26 Character at the heart of the "Who shot ...?" cliffhanger of 1980s TV 27 Colombian cornmeal cake 29 San José, ___ Rica 30 Oculus Rift or Meta Quest 3 32 Opposite of chaos 36 Texter's "I think ..." 37 Started a game of blackjack, say 38 18-wheeler 39 Agrees nonverbally 41 Red root vegetables 44 Kind of rally at high school 45 Put up, as a building 47 Many characters on "The Pitt" 49 "Quick!" 51 Group holding a nominating convention 52 Scannable squares often used in place of paper menus 55 ___-Wan Kenobi 56 Rang, as a bell 57 Pooch's bark 59 Paddington Bear's country of origin 63 What a light bulb represents, in comics 64 Puppet dragon of 1960s kids' TV 67 Bottom-heavy fruit 68 Britney Spears's "___! ... I Did It Again" 69 Perform better than 70 Daughters' brothers 71 Exam 72 French fries-to-be

DOWN 1 Cough syrup amts. 2 Farmland measure 3 Haircut that transitions from shorter sides to longer top 4 Ultimate ___ (team sport) 5 Word of consent 6 Too 7 Grp. with a phonetic alphabet 8 Cause for overtime 9 Screw-ups 10 Conflicts over Wikipedia content 11 Mario's dinosaur sidekick 12 Actress Pompeo of "Grey's Anatomy" 13 Vernacular found in Urban Dictionary 18 Place for coin-op game machines 23 Kind of high-fat diet 25 Tablet with Pro, Air and mini versions 26 Scribbled (down) 27 Knight's wear 28 The "R" in R.I. 29 The "log" in "ants on a log" 30 Trellis-climbing plant 31 "Light" Jedi weapons 33 Railroad station 34 Manicurist's filing board 35 Laces (into) 40 Well-educated sorts 42 Fill back to capacity, as a glass 43 Healing cover 46 "Lose the ___, dude!" 48 Causes to make a mistake 50 Bit of fiery cinnamon candy 52 Cotton swabs not recommended for ear canal use 53 Cowboy contest 54 Fresh from the dishwasher 57 Grindr and Tinder, for two 58 Sign of decay 60 "___, Brute?" 61 "Ant-Man" star Paul 62 Sights that make you go "What the ...?!" 65 ___ v. Wade (1973 Supreme Court decision) 66 Rejections

Scrabble Grams

PUZZLE BY NATE CARDIN

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: JEEP, EGGS, MELEE, ACRE, GNAT, EVANS, BOATHOUSE, RATES, RIBS, ELM, ERE, CASINO, BREADBOX, EMT, DORA, GIRL, LIES, SISI, DUOS, SPLIT DECISION, SCAB, SHEL, DMED, ONES, ISLA, EAR, SLUGFEST, SNARKY, LIN, ORA, ATOM, OTTER, GO BANANAS, THERE, EVER, ZERO, HORSE, SALT, EWES.

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.

10-20 CRYPTOQUOTE SOKX QIM WCCX. OQ'U LTT LDCZKX BCZ. SOKX OQ, UICVGLUM OQ LKX BCZ'TT UQLDQ AMTOMROKW OK OQ. — NMUUM CVMKU

Yesterday's Cryptoquote: IN OCTOBER ANY WONDERFUL UNEXPECTED THING MIGHT BE POSSIBLE. — ELIZABETH GEORGE SPEARE

Word Sleuth: Pretty Good Cooks

Monday's unlisted clue: PRETZEL

Cryptoquote

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

Tuesday's unlisted clue hint: JULIA —

Bastianich, Beard, Bourdain, Cora, Escoffier, Garten, Hom, Keller, Lagasse, Oliver, Puck, Ramsay, Ray, Silverton, Waters.

Yesterday's Answer — DOUGH

Goren Bridge

BY BOB JONES

North-South vulnerable, West deals

NORTH ♠ A 10 5 ♡ Void ◇ K Q 7 5 2 ♣ A 10 9 8 6

WEST ♠ J 7 ♡ 10 8 7 6 5 4 ◇ 9 ♣ Q J 4 3

Word Sleuth

EAST ♠ 9 ♡ A J ◇ A J 10 8 6 4 3 ♣ K 7 5

SOUTH ♠ K Q 8 6 4 3 2 ♡ K Q 9 3 2 ◇ Void ♣ 2

The bidding: WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH 2♢* Pass 2♠** Pass Pass 2NT Pass 3♡ All pass *Multi, a weak 2-bid in either major **Pass or correct, good hand for hearts

Opening lead: Queen of ♣

West in today's deal was Dominika Lucka. She is a 22-year-old woman from Poland who has been building a strong reputation. She and her partner were playing Multi two Diamonds, as do most players in the world except for in North America. Her two-diamond opening showed a weak two-bid in either major. Her partner judged his hand worth a raise to three hearts, if Lucka had hearts, so he bid two spades. This showed a hand that did not like spades much but was willing to compete to the three level in hearts. Lucka realized that her opponents must have a big spade fit and might be cold for game or more in spades, as East's bid was limited to invitational values at best. She made the remarkable decision to pass two spades! This showed that her suit was spades and put North-South under enormous pressure.

North bid two no trump, showing both minors. Which minor would you prefer as South? South decided to try his luck in hearts. After all, North had at most one spade and might have two or three hearts. The result was down three. At the other table in this team match, West opened three hearts and was raised to four. North-South, surprisingly, never bid and four hearts by East-West also went down three. A great result for Lucka's team. If you find yourself playing against this young woman, you would do well to remember that she can't be trusted.

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

Scrabble Grams

PAR SCORE 160-170 BEST SCORE 222 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

For more information on tournaments and clubs, email NASPA - North American SCRABBLE Players Association info@scrabbleplayers.org. Visit our website - www.scrabbleplayers.org. For puzzle inquiries contact scrgrams@gmail.com

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Sudoku

RATING: EASY BY DEREK BOWMAN

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.