SATURDAY PUZZLE — This is Brian Callahan’s first Saturday construction for The New York Times, although he has four previous bylines (including on a Friday crossword from April, in collaboration with Carolyn Davies Lynch). Today’s grid has a familiar pinwheel look to it: separated swaths of clues that often indicate a low word count and a difficult solve. This design is favored by a lot of constructors we see on the weekends (two of whom are cited by Mr. Callahan in his notes below).
There’s a breezy quality to this puzzle as a whole, but the wordplay is great, and as you work through it, you’re bound to hit some stumpers in the trivia. The subject matter is wide-ranging and Mr. Callahan includes a few deep cuts that I hadn’t the foggiest idea on. Each time, though, I found refuge in crossing entries and was able to deduce a solution, or at least find all of its letters one by one (I’m looking at 30D, here).
Tricky Clues
1A/7A. What an intriguing top row — two culinary references that make a delicious little bite together. At 1A, the dumpling: [Prepares, as shumai] solves to STEAMS. At 7A, the flavor: The [Paste commonly simulated by a blend of horseradish, mustard and green dye] is WASABI, which in its true form is a rhizome that requires such particular growing conditions that the plant runs the risk of vanishing.
37A. A [Kite feature] could be a string, a crossbar or a tail. If that tail is on a little predatory bird that’s also called a kite, you might find a couple of TALONs nearby. Of course, kite referred to the bird long before it was a flying device (or a check-writing scam).
39A. [____ -corner] solves to CATTY here, and I anticipate a chorus of hisses from the kitty-corner contingent. It depends on where you’re from, according to Question 6 of our dialect quiz.
30D. Sigh, I try, but when it comes to football knowledge my brain is a sieve. [Signature QB move included as a feature in 2012’s Madden N.F.L. 13 video game] might as well have been a cryptic clue. The answer is TEBOWING, a reference to Tim Tebow, the devoutly religious player who knelt and prayed on the field. The pose went viral and its popularity seems to have outlived his professional career as a quarterback.