Saturday Riddle – This is David B. for the New York Times. Williams’ second crossword puzzle, following his debut in August, also ran on Saturday. As promised by Mr. Williams, both puzzles have the same grid pattern and appear to be the second part of a series inspired by the poetry of Wallace Stevens.Thirteen ways to look at a black bird” Who doesn’t like a touch of excitement with their solutions? Only one comment on August Network’s Wordplay post mentions a reference to Stevens, but he doesn’t make it clear, and I don’t see any connection between poetry and every puzzle. It could be hidden in the puzzle’s geometry. , as it is fixed, or in the crosshatching of entries in between. If anyone finds breadcrumbs please share.
Today’s build is nice and very difficult, although overall not as difficult as Ryan McCarty’s Swamp of Lumberjacks a week ago. I encountered the biggest problem in the same place as Mr. Williams’s August puzzle, the southeast corner, which seems a coincidence. But we’ll see what happens when we get the next part.
Hard evidence
4 pm The hyphen in “run-down” makes it an adjective. There is also a verb form, “rundown” and a noun, “rundown”, which is a word like “low” or “skinny” and means the actual shovel. “Run down” means worn out, or running down in this puzzle. I love the sound of that word; In LatinIt means “from cracks or breaks”, as in old, dry, dusty.
7pm We seem to be looking for the word Janus, OK contradictory, here; “Spicy… or the opposite of spicy.” However, the word “spicy” has a pun; In the manual it either means “dangerous” or serious, or has a stern tone – like “déjà vu” in “é”. The opposite of a sharp accent is a GRAVE accent – like the “à” in “déjà vu”.
