Solution to Evan Birnholz’s April 16 crossword, “From Top to Bottom”



Here’s an announcement about next week’s puzzle: It wasn’t me! The April 23 crossword was written by a pair of guest constructors that really impressed me when they showed me their work, and I asked them if they’d like to take my spot for a day. I think you’ll like what they did. My next puzzle will publish on April 30.

It’s not often that I’ll write a puzzle where the theme answers run down rather than across, but the title “From Top to Bottom” gave me a good reason to do that. I took the first letters (the top ones) of 10 thematic Down words or phrases and moved them to the bottom, creating truly bizarre answers. Moving from left to right in the grid:

  • 3D: [Co. that keeps its doors shut securely?] is LOCKED INC. Start with clocked in and move the C to the end.
  • 67D: [“Verily, behold yon ruby-colored wild Australian dog”?] is “’TIS RED DINGO,” based on Otis Redding moving the starting O.
  • 28D: [High school dance with a “Novel About a Window Cooling Unit” theme?] is AC BOOK PROM, based on MacBook Pro moving the starting M.
  • 76D: [Supernatural ability to know when former QB Tony wants a flaky fish?] is ROMO COD ESP, based on promo codes moving the starting P.
  • 9D: [Prayer to the aquatic mammal who collects a bit of sports info?] is “O STAT SEAL,” based on lost at sea moving the starting L.
  • 82D: [Drink served when making a formal proposal at a hearing?] is MOTION ALE, based on emotional moving the starting E.
  • 11D: [Greeting to the canonized hirsute Addams Family cousin?] is “HI, SAINT ITT,” based on “This ain’t it” moving the starting T.
  • 59D: [White House staffer who won’t utter any cries of disgust?] is NO-UGHS AIDE, based on “Enough said” moving the starting E.
  • 15D: [Daredevil Knievel accompanying director Brooks?] is EVEL WITH MEL, based on “Level with me” moving the starting L.
  • 85D: [Start of a radio communication between a 1982 film alien and former FBI director James?] is “E.T. TO COMEY,” based on yet to come moving the starting Y.

These aren’t just any random transformations. The starting note says that “10 letters in this puzzle, read left to right, spell out a word whose clue is this puzzle’s title.” Take the 10 starting letters that moved to the bottom, read them left to right in the grid, and they spell out COMPLETELY — a one-word term that means “from top to bottom.”

I’ve written two crosswords of this type that I can recall. The first one was “Back to Square One” from May 2018 which did the opposite trick of moving the last letters of phrases back to the beginning. The second one was “Jumping to Conclusions” from May 2022 which has the same pattern as in today’s puzzle, just with a different final meta-like answer.

One thing I forgot about those previous two puzzles is how tough it can be to find viable phrases that can be reasonably clued when you shift a letter. Ninety-five percent of the time the transformation will just produce a string of gibberish. A related thing that I keep forgetting is that the answers I pick for this kind of theme invariably end up being so strange that I’m never sure how people will react to them. I think of them as absurdly amusing, but I can understand if they’re too odd for others’ tastes. They’re certainly tougher to uncover than your standard punny theme answer. Still, as my friend and former crossword blogger Jim Quinlan once said when he reviewed one of my puzzles, “If you’re gonna go wacky, go big or go home.”

Some other answers and clues:

  • 21A: [Original language of the 1888 novel “Chandrakanta”] is HINDI. This book was written by Devaki Nandan Khatri and it’s is said to have been the first bestseller in modern Hindi.
  • 58A: [Form an artistic movement?] is ANIMATE. My second-favorite clue today.
  • 17D: [Movie stars?] is RATING. My favorite clue today. I came up with this clue a couple of years ago for the same answer when Rachel Fabi and Claire Rimkus did a project for their blog Just Gridding where they co-constructed a themeless grid but crowdsourced the clue-writing to others. I just needed to wait for my chance to finally drop it in a puzzle of my own, and here we are.
  • 47D: [___ Bru (rhyming Western coffee shop)] is TRU Bru. This isn’t the usual angle for TRU, which is often about Truman Capote’s nickname or the play of the same name by Jay Presson Allen. I just wanted a little variety.
  • 74D: [Soccer moves in which the ball is kicked or dribbled through the defender’s legs (named after a certain spice)] is NUTMEGS. This 2005 article from the Guardian explains the possible origins of the term, that “nutmegging” had come to mean “deceiving” when nutmeg traders in America would trick their British trading partners by shipping wooden replicas of nutmeg to England.
  • 103D: [Musical key that’s an anagram of 73 Across] is A MINOR and 73A: [Miami Dolphins legend Dan] is MARINO. Just a lucky coincidence that I discovered while writing clues.
  • 119D: [___ of Eternal Stench (“Labyrinth” swamp)] is BOG. “Labyrinth” was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, so this was a good excuse to throw in a reference.

Once again, here’s a reminder that next week’s puzzle is brought to you by a couple of guests. I hope you enjoy it and I’ll include a Q&A with the constructors so you can learn more about them.

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