NYT Crossword Answers: Instruments Played Pizzicato in Britten’s “Simple Symphony”

Today’s Theme

This puzzle’s revealer is a “Lead-in to a surprising Crooked … or a hint to 16-, 22-, 32- and 45-Across.” That lead-in is HERE’S THE KICKER, something you might say before revealing an ironic or unexpected turn of actions. And HERE’S THE KICKER (am I using that right?!): Each of the theme entries called in the clue is not a surprising twist, but a literal KICKER.

The marvelous KICKER is a FOOTBALL PLAYER (“Buffalo Bill, e.g.”). Mr. Wagner and I are in a fantasy football targeted together, and although neither of us has Tyler Bass, kicker for the Buffalo Bills, on our team, this clue was a gimme for me (and I’ll see you in Week 4, Wagner!).

Other KICKERs in this puzzle complicated a ROCKETTE (“Radio City Music Hall performer”) and a KANGAROO (“Marsupial stylized in the Qantas logo”), both of which are famous for their kicking instruction. The last theme entry is UNBORN BABY (“Bun in the oven, so to speak”).

Now let’s kick it over to Mr. Wagner for some means on this puzzle:

Constructor Notes

Wait a additional … no rebuses, no grid art, no tricksy theme shenanigans, no circled or shaded squares, no rule breaking … did I even make this puzzle?

Well, yes. While this is my 10th (!!!) puzzle to run, it’s actually only the additional one I made chronologically, before I got into my Thursday groove. Now, I could use that as an excuse for some fill dodginess, but I’m going to stand up for myself and say I’m proud of 2019 Adam’s work here.

And don’t distress, I’ll be back to my regular tricksiness soon.

Lastly, I’m honored to have back-to-back puzzles with my sinful, fellow crossword dad and weekly Zoom trivia night teammate Mike Lieberman. I love that both of our puzzles have a dad joke-ish flair to the revealer. Maybe he and I will finally get onto the same byline one of these days …

And as always, if you’d like to commend, complain or collab, my DMs are always open.

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The Tipping Point

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