Do a Crossword, Say (Published 2021) (2024)

MONDAY PUZZLE — Happy Monday, and welcome back to the Wordplay column, where your intrepid columnists endeavor to help you “do a crossword, say” (4D) while trying not to be distracted by pictures of baby zebras. Today’s “crossword, say” is from Tomas Spiers, a debut constructor whose puzzle will bamboozle, then utterly delight you.

I loved the meta clue “solve a crossword, say,” that jumps out early in the solve, and I thought I’d use it to reflect on the extremely common but often misunderstood crossword signal known as “, say” (pronounced “comma say”). New solvers ask me all the time, “What is this doing at the end of the clue?!,” and their confusion is certainly understandable. Comma say is the constructor’s way of telling the solver that the clue is just one example or possible meaning of the entry.

Let’s consider one of my favorite clues from last week: Margaret Seikel’s “Reactions to stepping on Legos, say” for OWS. This comma say is telling you that “stepping on Legos” is just one possible explanation for the ensuing OWS. Essentially, comma say means that the entry and the clue can mean the same thing, in certain contexts, but they’re not a perfect 1-to-1 definitional match. The clue for OWS could just as easily (but perhaps less evocatively) have been “Reactions to ear pinches, say,” and the relationship to the entry would have been unchanged.

More on comma say below when discussing the tough clue at 4D.

Tricky Clues

43A. As they say on the internet, IANAL (“I am not a lawyer”), so I sometimes have trouble remembering whether TORT is a “Legal wrong” (it is) or a delicious cake (it is not).

44A. When a clue has a geographic signifier like the one we see in the clue “Love on the Loire,” it’s letting us know that the answer will be in the language spoken in that place. In this case, since the Loire is in France, “Love on the Loire” is AMOUR.

68A. A question mark clue means there is a play on words occurring, so “Where to sit for the bar?” is not the place to take the bar exam to practice as a lawyer (who might know something about TORTs) but rather where you might sit at a bar, which is on a STOOL. I wonder if this bar serves torte?