New York Times, Thursday, January 21, 2021

Thursday is my favorite New York Times crossword day: I love puzzles that stump me until, at some point, it clicks. This one is my second published "Tricky Thursday," and I hope the theme gives solvers a bit of that "aha!" feeling.

My first attempt at this theme just had the "signals" applying to Down answers, signifying the direction to continue from the circled square — so an "L" meant you'd proceed toward the left side of the grid. But as I started to fill it in, I realized it felt completely wrong, since turning left when driving south sends you east, not west. So, I decided to aim for actual "turning" and to make it work for both Down and Across answers. To find word pairs that could support that, I wrote a computer script to help crunch through millions of possibilities. Thankfully, I found enough decent pairs to make it work.

All those crossing theme entries put a lot of pressure on the fill, but after some back and forth with the editing team and a couple of revisions, I'm pleased with the result, and I hope you enjoy it!

Some favorites in the puzzle:

• Clue that hit the editing room floor: "Golf tournaments for which one might qualify by being a celebrated guitarist" for PRO-AMS
• Beverage: AMARO
• Place: the Temple of Dendur at the MET
• Clue the editing team wrote: "People calling the shots at the zoo?" for VETS

Finally, cheers to my lovely wife and our wonderful extended family, and here's to a happy and healthy 2021 for everyone. Happy solving!

Did this puzzle get you all turned around? Good!

About two years ago, Will Shortz said he has too many "turning" puzzles accepted, so put a quasi-moratorium on them. Today's isn't your ordinary turning puzzle, though. After staring at it for ten minutes, I still have only the vaguest sense for it. There are two "real" answers, both of which turn in the same direction — right on an R or left on L — but the straight answers … are random?

Chances are you're still confused, so let's go through one example. 17-A [Not radical] isn't MODERNISTS, but MODE(R)ATE. 5-Down isn't BORATE on a long car trip, but BO(R)EDOM, reusing the first letters of MODERNISTS.

Some folks have a tough time with spatial reasoning, so you might have to imagine yourself in a car, starting at 5-Down and driving south. A right turn would be heading west, from your perspective. I know some will argue that that's actually turning LEFT since left and west are usually synonymous.

Don't worry; I nearly failed physics when it came to frames of reference, too.

Finding pairings like MODE(R)NISTS / BO(R)EDOM isn't a snap, but the constraint is so loose that there are dozens of options. Then comes the odd part: the rest of the answer to BOR___ is not just totally free — any entry starting with BOR is wildly open — but unclued. You're essentially getting unchecked letters at the ATE of BORATE. God help you if you didn't take chemistry!

Placing four of these T-shaped crossings in the grid, plus TURN SIGNAL isn't easy. Any time you have to fill around crossing themers, you're bound to have difficulty: see AMARO (I count this as a liability, not an asset since if you've never heard of it, it's going to look bizarre), NCO, and HABIB in the NW alone.

There were some crunchy patches that I'd have liked smoother, but overall, the idea was kooky enough to help overcome the execution issues. Although I got stuck many times in fits of trafficky frustration, I appreciated the creative concept.