Thursday, 11/23

NYT 4:21

Another constructorial debut in the Times, with a crossword by Ari Halpern. It took me a while to work out how any of the theme answers related to the central entry, FLOSS—which can also be parsed as F LOSS, hence the [Injured pitcher?] is LAME THROWER. For an added consistency bonus, the four theme entries all start with an L. Good fill includes QUESTIONS, JIGSAW, and STATE FLAG. This time REA wasn't clued in reference to actor Stephen, but rather, [New Deal inits.]. I learned this before (in crosswords, natürlich) but had totally forgotten it—it's the Rural Electrification Administration. A few tricky clues, such as [Lots] for REALTY and [In a cord?] for SPINAL. Congrats to Ari on his debut!

There's no Sun crossword on Thanksgiving, but the cryptic crossword (by Fraser Simpson) for Friday is posted. Those of you in the U.S., enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday! And don't forget to save a little room for dessert—I've made pecan pie.