daily crossword column

The Secret Geeky Part of You

Evan Kalish brings out the best in us.

CreditCreditEmily Berl for The New York Times

MONDAY PUZZLE — People used to use the term “nerdy” as either a put down or, if they were referring to themselves, as a self-deprecating term, but I’m happy that times have changed and that there is a whole “nerd culture” now.

I, personally, wear my nerdiness like a badge. To me, nerdiness is a sign of curiosity about the world around you. People who exhibit nerd tendencies are passionate and love to “collect” information. What’s so bad about that?

The answer is, there is nothing bad about that. Just because I love “Doctor Who” and have read every Douglas Adams book twice doesn’t mean that I am a social pariah, even if it does occasionally make people at cocktail parties excuse themselves to refresh their drinks by leaving the building.

My point is, you should let your nerd flag fly whenever possible. Passion, curiosity and sharing information make the world a better place, and apparently, Evan Kalish agrees.

Very straightforward and smooth cluing, although 66A confused me a bit.

This felt like an oddly vague clue for a Monday, and I’m not entirely sure the clue and the answer match. The answer to “Jewish observance” here is SEDER, and yes, there is a SEDER involved. But you observe Passover, and you attend the SEDER.

Mr. Kalish finds his INNER NERD (60A) hidden in and stretching across five phrases that are fairly familiar. For example, we have the clue “Dachshund” at 17A, and the answer is WIENER DOG. I’ll bet you didn’t even know that your family dachshund was a NERD.

Kudos to Mr. Kalish for debuting eight entries. My favorites were WIENER DOG, BANNER DAYS, INNER NERD and AND IT’S GOOD.

Astute observers will note that this is very similar to my debut offering from July. I have other ideas, I swear! My future offerings differ in core concept and thematic density. That said, I’ve had this idea for some time … Everyone’s got an inner nerd! I’ve got, like, six of them.

You know how they say starlight is a glimpse into the past? Sunlight takes (roughly) eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles from the Sun to Earth, so sunlight we witness at 10 a.m. is a look at stellar reactions that occurred at 9:52. Telescopes help us witness the universe as it evolved millions — even billions — of years ago. Since I submitted this puzzle, I’ve been gaining experience and evolving as a constructor. It’s been only a year, but it feels like a lifetime ago. You, dear solver, are looking at cruciverbal starlight.

If I were to write the puzzle today, I would do things a bit differently. I would likely remove two of the entries: DESIGNER DRUG, which I first heard about as a promising potential cancer treatment (but which also has an unfortunate meaning); and SCREENER DVDS, which is a bit of an outlier in terms of familiarity. I’d look to replace those two entries with just one in the middle row, leaving more opportunity for ‘bonus fill’ and cleaning up suboptimal entries like SSN, TOV, and P.L.O. in the process.

It took me a minute to realize, but that lower-right corner isn’t mine. My submission had:


I suspect it was the PPP/PDFS crossing that was deemed unfriendly for Monday solvers. I dig classical music, but if you don’t, then PPP could prove difficult. This said, there are myriad fill possibilities for the corner … G’DAY is fun, but I would not opt for NAS/ALIA myself. It’s interesting to see what happens behind the crossword curtain.

Props to the New York Times crew for the fresh clue for (Idris) ELBA!



Trying to get back to the puzzle page? Right here.

Your thoughts?
