New York Times Crossword October 20 2023 Answers

Jump to: Difficult evidence

Friday Puzzle – This is Jacob McDermott’s sixth New York Times crossword, and although he’s mostly made Tuesday and Wednesday puzzles, he’s no slouch on the themeless Friday section either.

Today’s puzzle is his second Friday crossword, and he’s filled it with quite a few lively entries. I don’t have to tell you what it is; You’ll find it for yourself, and you might even like some of the things I just had the pleasure of doing.

That’s the nice thing about a puzzle that has a lot of answers. There is something for everyone.

Difficult evidence

21 A. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see the word BENDY in the crossword puzzle. When my kids were young, we tended to use words that were more descriptive than appropriate, like “I’d like a lollipop with juice, please.” At one point, I bought my kids a swing set for the backyard, and when the salesperson asked me what type of seat I wanted for the swings, I couldn’t think of an exact name for it, so I told her I wanted it to be the bendy type. There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone line, and then she asked, “You mean flexibility?”

32 A. I didn’t remember that term Party errorbut if someone were to spill a drink on another attendee or dance on the host’s couch, as the guide says, I think I’d consider that a foul.

39 A. “the other half?” It can be part of a football, soccer or basketball game, but in this puzzle it refers to the other side of a person. The answer is alter ego.

11 d. It seems as if parents will have to find another source for “DIY booster seats” because phone books are becoming scarce.

15 D. The idea “Oh, the humanities!” He is a scumbag on the reporter Herb Morrison’s eulogy During the Hindenburg disaster of 1937: “Oh, humanity!” The answer is liberal arts.

32 D. I freely admit that my first thought was about ice cream when I read the guide “Rocky Road Ingredient?” But this question mark alerted me to the wordplay, and I began to focus on the road materials. In this puzzle, the answer is PEA GRAVEL.

37 D. “Stingy type?” It is a borrowed guide. The word “stingy” can mean ungenerous, but the answer is a bee, and we all know that bees are givers. But if you pronounce the word “stingy” with a hard G, as in one who might bite, the answer makes more sense.

Creator Notes

Over the past six months, I’ve spent a significant amount of time working on a list of words that I use to help fill out my puzzle grids. Each word in the crossword puzzle word list has an editable “score” associated with it, and I try to give a higher score to the more colorful and interesting words.

At last count, I reviewed scores for about 150,000 words, and adjusted scores for about a quarter of the words I reviewed. The process is rather tedious: I import my word list into Excel, then go word by word, making a judgment call on whether or not I should change the outcome of the words. This is one of the first puzzles I’ve created using the updated word list.

Hope you enjoy it!

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