You’ll discover one thing odd instantly upon opening the puzzle: Seven theme clues are represented by enjoying playing cards quite than phrases. How will we interpret that? You may begin by attempting to work out as most of the crossing solutions as doable earlier than one of many theme solutions comes into view, however the actual key to unlocking the theme is to easily state the worth and go well with of every card. These signify the theme clues, and their solutions are punny descriptions of the playing cards. As well as, every theme reply accommodates a circled letter.
- The 9 of diamonds is at 23A and its reply is BASEBALL TEAM. A baseball workforce is made up of 9 gamers on a baseball subject, or a diamond. Technically the diamond is simply the infield with the 4 bases, however there are 9 batters in a batting order, and people gamers run on the diamond. Anyhow, there’s a circled A on this reply.
- The 2 of hearts is at 28A and its reply is VENTRICLES. The human coronary heart has 4 chambers made up of two ventricles and two atria. The reply has a circled C.
- The king of golf equipment is at 50A and its reply is ARNOLD PALMER. Palmer wielded loads of golf golf equipment throughout his life and he was nicknamed “The King,” so this appeared like an particularly apt card to explain him. The reply has a circled E.
- The ten of diamonds is at 63A, and its reply is MOHS NUMBER. This card relies on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, and diamonds have a hardness worth of 10. The reply has a circled H.
- The three of hearts is at 79A and its reply is MÉNAGE À TROIS. Three lovers in a sexual or romantic relationship means they’ve three romantic hearts for one another … and now I’m solely simply realizing that LOVE TRIANGLE may have match this identical card, too. I’ll come again to this. The reply has a circled I.
- The queen of golf equipment is at 94A and its reply is DRAG ARTIST. That will be a drag queen acting at nightclubs. This might have additionally utilized to the king of golf equipment for drag kings, however ARNOLD PALMER has that job for now. The reply has a circled G.
- The ace of spades is at 103A, and its reply is HEAD GARDENER. A head gardener is an worker who manages a workers of gardeners, like on an property or at a park. Presumably this might be an professional (or an ace) wielder of a spade used for digging up soil. The reply has a circled H.
So our seven playing cards are the 9 of diamonds, the 2 of hearts, the king of golf equipment, the ten of diamonds, the three of hearts, the queen of golf equipment and the ace of spades. There are additionally two different bonus theme solutions. 22A: [Places where people hold hands] is CASINOS, however the extra direct revealer is at 106A: [Seven-card stud player, e.g., who’s holding this puzzle’s cards (their best hand is spelled out in the circled squares)] which is GAMBLER. If you happen to think about this card participant is enjoying seven-card stud poker, they weren’t precisely dealt probably the most highly effective hand. However the circled letters spell out their greatest five-card hand from these playing cards: ACE-HIGH. The gambler didn’t have the luck to attract even one pair, in order that they’ll both should bluff their technique to successful this spherical or simply fold their playing cards and take a look at once more on the subsequent hand.
I’ve had just a few card-based theme concepts sitting in my notepad for some time, although I felt they might in all probability work higher in a smaller puzzle. In most of those half-baked themes, the solutions could be the enjoying playing cards themselves, and it’s simply simpler to keep away from repeating one of many 4 fits in a 15×15 grid than in a 21×21 if you want extra theme materials. Again in August 2022 I used the answer SHORTSTOP in a themeless puzzle with the clue [6 of diamonds?] since a shortstop is represented numerically on the sector by the quantity 6, however for some motive I didn’t pursue this concept for its personal theme till now. As soon as I got here up with a few totally different playing cards that might apply to different phrases, that’s after I received the thought to make use of the precise playing cards within the clues quite than phrases like [Nine of diamonds] or [King of clubs]. That will have given you an additional step to determining the theme, however I believed it gave the puzzle a neat visible impact, and the playing cards make it a bit simpler to see what the gambler’s ultimate poker hand was as properly.
It was solely after I had perhaps 5 – 6 playing cards picked out that I began contemplating whether or not I may match an additional meta reply into the puzzle as properly. Fortunately, ACE-HIGH had pretty handy letters to work with … so handy that an apt alternate reply like LOVE TRIANGLE utterly slipped my thoughts. That’s the identical size as MÉNAGE À TROIS, it may have match the [Three of hearts] description, and it may match the meta with its useful I. Oh properly, it’s not the primary time that I’ve missed an excellent theme reply and had some gentle remorse over it. Then once more, how usually am I gonna get the possibility to make use of MÉNAGE À TROIS in a puzzle?
Final thing: Credit score goes to Slate’s new crossword editor Quiara Vasquez, who recommended DRAG ARTIST because the [Queen of clubs]. My authentic thought for that card was going to be LPGA GOLFER the place the [King of clubs] was going to be MALE STRIPPER, however I appreciated DRAG ARTIST extra, and ARNOLD PALMER being nicknamed “The King” was too good to move up for that card. You possibly can remedy Slate crosswords here, the place Quiara constructs puzzles and edits others written by Chandi Deitmer, Hemant Mehta, Nancy Serrano-Wu, Sid Sivakumar and Ben Zimmer.
I hope you performed your playing cards proper this weekend. What did you suppose?
