Wyna Liu’s New York Times crossword, “Do You Hear That?” —Nate’s write-up

01.08.23 Sunday New York Times Crossword Puzzle

Happy weekend! I hope 2023 has handled you nicely thus far and that you just’re settling in properly after a busy vacation season. Today’s puzzle makes use of fill-in-the-blank phonetic rebus clues to get us to frequent phrases or phrases, and the letters crammed into these blanks promise us a bonus reply on the finish. The puzzle’s flavortext notes: “Each italicized clue contains a blank, which should be filled in with a letter of the alphabet. When completed, the letters in order will spell out a two-word phrase.” Let’s dive in!

– 26A: PRINCESS DI [Presses CTRL+P + ___ + Easter egg coloring] | “prints + S + dye”

– 28A: AU COURANT [___ + Scroungy mutt + Parent’s sister, in some regions] | “O + cur + aunt”

– 44A: EUPHORIC [___ + Golfer’s cry + “Ugh!”] | “U + fore + ick”

– 46A: ROSE GARDEN [Column crossers + Sentry + ___] | “rows + guard + N”

– 66A: CANDY CANE [French festival, familiarly + ___ + Actor Michael] | “Cannes + D + Caine”

– 70A: ALL ACCESS [Punching tool + Chopping tool + ___] | “awl + axe + S”

– 90A: NON-APOLOGY [Tandoor bread + Harlem music venue + ___] | “naan + Apollo + G”

– 93A: AUTO-FILL [Word of obligation + ___ + Punxsutawney name] | “ought + O + Phil”

– 107A: TAE KWON DO [Rug rat + Magic stick + ___] | “tyke + wand + O”

– 110A: GOLDILOCKS [Soccer score + ___ + Scottish inlets] | “go(a)l + D + lochs”

The additional letters within the italicized clues, so as, spell out SOUNDS GOOD. Sounds good to me!

Once I found out how the themers on this puzzle labored, it wasn’t so exhausting to unravel them, however I’ll admit to having bother getting traction throughout the puzzle. It felt like there was the next proportion of crosswordese (OHO, AEIOU, EDER, CAREW, EMER, HIE, CLE, EES) than I’ve been used to of their Sunday puzzles of late, doable as a result of the formidable theme made use of so many themers that needed to go in a really particular, symmetrical order. Or possibly sufficient of the clues simply weren’t on my wavelength? One massive constructive that I’ll give this puzzle is that I’m notoriously terrible with phonetics (see any homophone clues I attempt to write in any of my cryptics), however the phonetics of those clues and solutions felt unimpeachable to me, which is not any simple feat. I additionally beloved the clue [Path covered with diamonds] for CARPOOL LANE. Nice!

Okay, gotta run, however tell us what you thought within the feedback part. Have an incredible week!