New York Times, Thursday, September 15, 2022

I enjoy puzzles that play with idioms — often by making them literal and thereby skewing their meaning entirely — so I look for idioms that give me such opportunities. I particularly enjoy finding idioms or phrases that can be depicted graphically in a puzzle. So I have made theme answers aptly cross each other, I arranged theme answers that create images, and I presented other idioms visually in their own lines. This can make it difficult to fit together a solid grid, but that's my fun, challenging part of the puzzle.

Initially, I thought I would include the complete raised/lowered words in an atypical grid with squares protruding above and below, but that would have made 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-Down all theme answers, and the grid itself would have revealed the theme pretty immediately. So instead, I left it to the solver to discover the need to write the extra letters above or below the grid. (I do, however, have friends who aren't crossword solvers but who enjoy hearing that I've had another puzzle published. Special for them, I made the easier version with the more obvious grid. It helps to have connections!)

Playing with up and down idioms and phrases, there were lots of options to work with. I could have "put down roots," "dropped anchor," "lifted weights," or "pulled up stakes." I hope that this puzzle "lifted your spirits" without "raising your hackles," even if you needed to ask a friend to "drop a hint."

Jim here, sitting in for Jeff Chen, who is counting the number of puppeteers needed to manipulate Topo Gigio, in Italian!

I think I understand this one. Some answers peek out the top. You have to raise oBJECTIONS, raise a sTINK, raise the mINIMUM WAGE, and raise a fAMILY to make the clues make sense.

Down below, you have to lower the VOLUMe, lower the TEMPERATURe, and lower the PRICe to fit the clues. And finally, in a bit of classic crossword humor, you have to please, for God's sake, for once in your life, lower the damn TOILET SEAt. (On the other hand, it bugs the heck out of me that some thoughtless people leave the seat down, which is just so very inconvenient! We aim for equally balanced offense here.)

Will Shortz insists that Thursday is simply "one harder than Wednesday," but we've come to expect Thursday to be gimmick day. NYT submission guidelines say they already have plenty of rebus puzzles, so what's a gimmickologist to do? One option is to color outside the lines. Today's example was brave because there's no explicit revealer, like GO OVER THE EDGE or DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS or THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX or MAN OVERBOARD. Hopefully, you had a nice Aha Moment.

If you're curious about how other constructors have broken through the outer wall, the complete list is here.

Our OneLook finder can help find phrases that start with RAISE or LOWER.