New York Times, Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Inspiration is often born of scarcity, and such was certainly true here — the scarcity in question being that of PlayStation 5 consoles on store shelves, which led me to the tongue-in-cheek INCONSOLABLY answer (we gamers can be a temperamental lot). That clue has aged remarkably well in the year or so since I submitted this, though I understand availability is finally improving (just in time for the new God of War — woo!).

I built the grid around that centerpiece, thinking it would be fun to give a lively glow-up to the tried-and-true Swifty formula. I hope the answers elicit ample chuckles or at least groans.

I continue to enjoy gaming, moviegoing, creative writing--screenwriting in particular--and, of course, crossword construction. My best friend recently helped me launch my own crossword blog, which has given me a rewarding outlet for some of my more idiosyncratic creations.

I hope to be back in the NYT with more puzzles soon, said Ryan enigmatically. Thanks for solving!

Jim here, sitting in for Jeff Chen, who is trying to figure out whether NENE and ISIS are reduplicative or just duplicative.

The jokes in this puzzle, in case you've led a sheltered life, are called Tom Swifties. You don't need to know that, but if you find them amusing, you can now search for lots more. "I can't remember what I was supposed to buy here at the store," said Tom listlessly. And so on. A Tom Swifty crossword relies on the cleverness of the answers, and these are all good. I appreciate that two of the four end, not with simple adverbs, but with phrases. IN VERY POOR TASTE is tasty. FRANKLY INCENSED is hilarious.

LMFAO is clued delicately as "Electronic dance music duo," but we all know it stands for Laughing My Ass Off. Or something similar. Crosswords, at least at the NYT, has always danced close to the edge between titillation and offense, and that edge changes over time as culture changes. Innovative words creep in, sex references are more common, but it's not just an expansion of acceptability. As sensibilities adapt, we become squeamish about certain words that used to feel fine. (Anyone who watches the news knows that describing this as "woke" can praise or insult.) Why is it ok to see IDI AMIN in a crossword but not HITLER? It's complicated. Words like CANCER are avoided even though there's an anodyne astronomy meaning. Let's not talk about the baseball term BEANER.

Who gets to decide if an answer word is amusing or offensive? That would be the editor, and this is a game no editor can win. Will Shortz knows he can't please everyone, so he and his team try to thread the needle as best they can.

Indie puzzles can be instructive counterexamples, often finding humor by pushing traditional taste boundaries while striving to be more culturally expansive. From the perspective of mainstream publications, they provide a helpful laboratory for how their own puzzles might evolve.

There sure have been a lot of IAMB-related clues recently, I think. (Therefore, iamb?)