Be a Sponge (2024)

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — If I have occasionally joked about my slight distaste for math-related clues and entries in the daily crossword, it’s only because I think of numbers and language as standing somewhat at odds with each other. One represents pure logic, the other creative expression. How can you love both in equal measure?

E. M. Capassakis offers one possible answer to this question via today’s crossword puzzle. In her New York Times debut, numbers and language not only coexist but are codependent. Solving the grid may invite you to consider whether we need to separate the two at all.

Ready to go? I’ll count us in.

Today’s Theme

Revealerless puzzles are sneaky but fun, because they leave us to identify patterns and crack the theme. In today’s grid, a series of numerical clues — at 17-, 19-, 31-, 47-, 62- and 64- Across — add up to our answer.

The clue “101” is shorthand for a beginner’s understanding of a subject — an INTRO CLASS (17A), in other words. And “007” is a longtime code name for James BOND (19A). These automatic associations are no accident: Numbers double as words. We can say “420” and refer to CANNABIS (31A), euphemize “666” with THE BEAST (47A) and so on.

Tricky Clues

16A. The “End of a noodle?” isn’t a slurp: It’s an IDEA, since this refers to the kind of noodling done with the mind.