Puzzle by Manny Nosowsky, edited by Will Shortz
What an ominous foreboding puzzle is this that forms a central square of nine letters that when anagrammed spell out NIGHT CUTS!…or…GUN STITCH! I worked this puzzle yesterday evening, maybe I should CUT NIGHTS! Or worse...! (That's right...you do the "math"!)
Little surprise what with the entries that cross: LETMEJUSTSAY (7D Remark introducer), RESIDENTIALAREA (8D Where no one has any business going?), TOUGHCOOKIES (21D Ones who can handle adversity) forming the vertical half of a cross whose horizontal half is formed by UNSUNGHEROES (31A Ones not getting their deserved acclaim), ASOLDDASTHEHILLS (34A Ancient), and DIDJUSTICETO (37A Treated fairly).
Continuing with the hostilities are OPPOSE (9A Buck), STEN (26A Tommy gun?), VALOR (44A Grounds for a medal), ASH (47A Bit of pollution), EERINESS (57A Creepy feeling), ONPATROL (12D Like the Coast Guard), CAPITALR (1A You can always identify a Republican by one), SOULJAH (24D Hi-hop’s Sister _____) [read “soldier”], SERIOUS (26D Grave), SINISTER (35D Ominous), and ITISAN (52A With 36-Down, “Very strange…”), ODDTHING (36D See 52-Across).
IT IS AN ODD THING indeed!
For further commentary:
LINDA at MADNESS...CROSSWORD & OTHERWISE
REX PARKER DOES THE NYT CROSSWORD PUZZLE
ORANGE at DIARY OF A CROSSWORD FIEND
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