New York Times, Tuesday, March 29, 2022

This puzzle came about when I found myself thinking about metonyms, those quirky geography-based words that stand in for something bigger. I began to notice more and more of them; it was like they'd been hiding in plain sight.

It got me wondering if I might be able to form a linked set of very recognizable examples. You know, the kind that would "play in Peoria." These six are the most grid-friendly ones I could string together under the industry heading.

My first draft had BUSINESS CENTERS running across the middle to tie things together in a Monday/Tuesday-friendly kind of way. [Clue: Amenities at some hotels, or a hint ...]

The editing team felt the puzzle's concept spoke for itself, however, and a revealer (even as exciting as that one) wasn't needed. Here's hoping that was the case for you.

Thanks for solving!

I've done so many crosswords over the decades that it's rare to encounter a theme I can't immediately classify into an established genre. I love Jamey's angle, places that are the home of a certain industry. Don't worry, I didn't recognize the term metonym either!

I would have shrugged off this concept if it had been proposed to me, because it wouldn't have seemed possible to come up with enough possibilities to flesh out a crossword theme. And even if there had been enough, how could there possibly be any great phrases worthy of being themers? Don't forget about crossword symmetry!

All those knocks against it, and I'd have filed it away and never thought about it again. Glad Jamey stuck to it!

SILICON VALLEY and MADISON AVENUE are awesome headliners. Both are fantastic multi-word phrases that evoke all sorts of imagery. Amazing that they just happen to be the exact same length.

K STREET, NASHVILLE, DETROIT, and HOLLYWOOD aren't exactly entries that would win check marks on their own right, but they work fine.

It'd have been great to have some revealer — BUSINESS CENTERS didn't seem quite right, but perhaps the likes of IT'S WHERE IT'S AT? It'd be fun to brainstorm on that.

Even without a perfect revealer, the theme works well enough as is; a breath of fresh air in the piles and piles of crosswords drawing from well-trodden genres.

I'm going to disagree with Jeff on this one. The theme is excellent. Even if you don't know your metonyms from your synecdoches, it's clear these are all place names that represent something related. Adding a revealer would be like overexplaining a joke. We get it already.