This is the second in my “Variety is the Spice of Puzzles” series about under-appreciated NYT Variety puzzles. The first looked at Acrostics.
Puns and Anagrams, aka PandAs, are like regular crosswords except the clues rely heavily on, well, the title explains. They tend to be easier than Cryptics, but like Cryptics, they are sometimes tricky to break into until you know what’s going on.
Start with a friend
Like Cryptics, PandAs are more fun if you solve with a friend. Toss ideas back and forth, one will spark another, and suddenly it’s raining “Aha”s. Warning: unlike hyper-precise but convoluted Cryptic clues, PandA clues can be both loosey and goosey. They get away with that by having a fully checked grid — each answer is part of both an Across and Down answer. Cryptic answers are checked in a different way that we’ll cover in a future post.
Spoilers ahead
We’re going to look at some typical PandA clues by examining this weekend’s May 14 PandA by the mysteriously unphotographed Alex Eaton-Salners. If you’d like to try solving the PandA first (you should!) try this link on your Mac or PC. (You need an XWord Info account.)
Puns
- The clue is “Ancient ___ (stovetop woe)”. The answer is GREASE.
- “___ over (happy situation for a debtor)” is LIEN. Another pun.
Anagrams
- “Sinatra’s Catherine and Alexandra” is TSARINAS, an anagram of Sinatra’s.
- “All ads for this 1980s show featured Larry Hagman” is DALLAS, and anagram of all ads.
Hidden words
- Recording from Evita Peron is TAPE.
- McGriddle middle is RID.
Fill in single-character blanks
Usually, you’re looking for letters that fill in the blanks such that the results phrase is a synonym for those letters on their own.
- “_ _ bo _ t” is TOO because TOO means TO BOOT.
- “Bo_ ing ro_ _ ine_s” is RUTS because RUTS means BORING ROUTINES.
Word completions
These ones can be very loose. The answer will be part of a word, but also a (usually unrelated) legitimate word on its own.
- “Kind of tern” is CIS because CISTERN is a word.
- “Kind of ant” is GALL because GALLANT.
- “Nation’s leader” is STAG because STAGNATION.
Cryptic-like (cryptic-light?) clues
- “E(D)S is DINES because it’s D in(side) ES.
- “1-18-5-1” is AREA CODE, the word AREA in the simple A=1, B=2, etc. code.
Mysterious
Often in PandAs, I can complete the puzzle because of the checked squares, but I still have no idea how some answers compute. “What an elevator operator, interior decorator and color commentator all do” is ENDOR? Is that because each word ends in OR? I suppose. “Cash back” is MERE? Ok. Fine. You can explain that one to me, and I’ll feel stupid, but I’m clueless. Again, solving with a friend helps.
Update: Jeff Chen explained to me that MERE is the back end of CASHMERE.
Give it a try
The solve link is here and the entire solution is here.
Many more PandAs are available here — look for the links next to the pink boxes.