Oh, but both of those empty squares are in the same down entry - that would be 8-Down, which runs down the entire puzzle at its center, from top to bottom. I think I came to this subconsciously after filling in most of the crossing letters at 106-Across, which is one of the entries that is clued by just a “-” and solves to _ PAINTER another entry that’s a square too short for its boxes, only this time, that empty square comes at the beginning of the entry instead of the end. ” This one is also a letter too long, but HOUSE _ illuminated the clue for me that coat is colorful, and getting put on by a HOUSE PAINTER. Yes, that looks like a rebus at first the blank space could take “salesperson” or “operator” (maybe in 1995, Caitlin) - or something servicey-sounding who knows?Īt 123-Across, the clue sounds a bit punnish: “*One putting a coat on the outside. ” The answer that works here, given the crossing letters, appears to be TELEPHONE _ with an extra space for a letter at the end. Each of those job descriptions starts with an asterisk, as a theme indicator, and ends with another mysterious indicator of rungs, whatever that could mean, preceded by a number.įor example, 101-Across is “*Worker for AT&T or Verizon. The pairs are split into five clues that simply have hyphens as spaceholders (-) at 8-, 33-, 45-, 81- and 106-Across, and five clues that can be interpreted as job descriptions. This is an elaborate, inventive trick, and it took me many, many crossing letters to get to that “Aha!” But it was well worth it. Aha!” To complicate things further, there are 10 more clues in the grid that participate in this theme, by interacting with that visual pun. There are also a revealer at 65-Across and a visual pun at 8-Down that provides, with a zippy flourish, the opportunity to slap one’s forehead and say: “Ah.
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