By Tom Toce
Sixteen of the entries don’t fit into the diagram. Some have a leading letter that won’t fit in the grid, some have an ending letter that won’t fit, and some have an extra interior letter. If you place the extra letters on the outside of the diagram, on the nearest edge corresponding to the direction of the entry, reading clockwise from the upper left you will derive a sixteen-letter message describing what you’ve had to resort to in order to complete the grid. With or without the extra letter, every answer is a valid entry. That is, (S)WORD or BEA(S)TS might be an answer resulting in an S taken out of the diagram, but PASTURE could not be.
There are three proper nouns coming from the clues. There will be five in the completed grid. Two common nouns turn into proper nouns after removing the extra letters. Two other proper nouns turn into new proper nouns upon deletion. Everything else is playable in Scrabble, except for the two-word entries. Ignore punctuation, which is intended to deceive.
I was interviewed for an article in Games magazine by Hayley Gold, who is not an actuary but found the cryptic puzzles in Contingencies through her research and devotion to the history of crosswords and word puzzles. Hayley has written a book, a two-sided graphic novel called Letters to Margaret, with puzzles by New Yorker editor Andy Kravis, providing (according to Hayley) “dual perspectives into the war of the words happening in crosswords today, all packaged neatly into a romcom with wordplay hilarity.” Find out more at https://shop.lonesharkgames.com/collections/letters-to-margaret .
Thanks to Bob Fink, Eric Klis, and Jerry Miccolis for test-solving and editorial suggestions.
| Across Clues | Down Clues | ||
| 1 | Vociferously broadcasting, then hemming | 1 | SF newspaper: Guitar Backs Up One Who Digs |
| 4 | Any herb sounds dubious | 2 | Diving maneuver for some fish |
| 8 | Likely to be flat, Curt | 3 | Fuel dispenser is OMG one you want to kill (two words) |
| 9 | Rings not usually as near | 4 | Yes, Starr managed to be unfaithful |
| 10 | Alabama, California, and part of central Arizona appear in Birdman’s setting | 5 | Wave of ominous cronyism to be cut short on the double |
| 11 | Helps initially anyone in dire straits | 6 | Sensitivity inherent in syntactics |
| 13 | Sue breaks down at work | 7 | Amyl gas I ordered for muscular pains |
| 14 | Directed at GE: our indignity | 12 | Listening to Madonna’s book for a little bit |
| 16 | Drunk at the heart of Succession | 15 | Hold off on teak restoration |
| 17 | Duck’s out, as pesce is fresh | 18 | Expression of ten times n, per the commutative property |
| 20 | Explode a nuke, Neo | 19 | Sitting with original poster |
| 23 | Translate things in Latin and in French | 21 | Banquet starting late, towards sunrise |
| 24 | Give up and find a new tenant | 22 | Closer to Biloxi, in brief, it could have been much worse (two words) |
| 26 | Call Via; see ya | 24 | Sources of power from controversial creators |
| 27 | Sprout wings in apathy | 25 | Depressed but blossomed after a fashion |
| 28 | Bessie is a little chicken | 26 | Spot on! Let’s go, man |
| 29 | Art’s mixed up with Peter quite often or, one time, Paul | 31 | Down in the dumps as cruelty has no end |
| 30 | Bothers with random testing only at first (two words) | 33 | Wait, the president isn’t finished |
| 32 | Cheese dish as tavern counter trifle | ||
| 34 | I say pull for caviar | ||
| 35 | Desirable men having an obligation to be thoughtful | ||
| 36 | Fashionable young men from Turkey and Spain |
Solution to Previous Issue’s Puzzle—Hop, Skip, and a Jump
Hop clues
MOPPED—MOPED (“Scooter”) around P (“president”)
INDOOR—Outside “Indonesian tremor”
SAPS—Anagram of “pass out”
DREK—Inside “Repeated rekindling”
ONUS—BONUS (“Reward”) “after a bit”
EMAIL—Outside “Emma’s cocktail”
BROOM—BOOM (“big-time”) around R (“a bit of return”)
THREAT—Anagram of “Hatter”
GUEST—VAGUEST (“most cryptic”)—VA (“Virginia”)
NYLON—Anagram of “Lonny”
SCEPTRE—SC (“South Carolina”) + “Peter” rearranged
LAZY—LA (“Louisiana”) + first two letters of “Zydeco”
Skip clues
TENOR—TEN (“Hamilton”) + OR
ZEAL—Outside “Zenith’s spiral”
ESPOUSE—Anagram of “Poe uses”
ROGET—Anagram of “or get”
TRAMP—TRAP (“Prank”) around M (“married”)
YODEL—Outside “youthful zinfandel”
Jump clues
ORLY—Right side of “poorly”
SUCTION—Outside of “successful consolidation”
ABOUT—A + BOUT (“melee”)
TEMPS—First letters of “tire easily; maybe pay sucks”
