Table of Contents
![Cram In](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/stsp/to_webp,q_lossy,ret_img/https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/06/01/crosswords/01wordplay-runestone/01wordplay-runestone-facebookJumbo.jpg)
SATURDAY PUZZLE — This is Eric Warren’s second puzzle for The New York Times after his Friday debut in March 2023, and I think the two grids are at about the same level of difficulty. They have a similarly low word count, which is challenging for both the creator and the solver. Today we have only 66 clues, most of which lead to longer entries presented in stacks and stairs. This configuration looks imposing, but there are mild entries that made it solve quite smoothly for me.
A couple of examples are in modern slang, but they’re “real ones” — not “cringe.” There are also some odd spellings that might gray a hair or two by the end of your solve, as you hunt for that last wrong square. The wordplay throughout is sublime, and a lot of the entries are so interesting that you’ll think about them well afterward.
Tricky Clues
8A. This “Arrangement following a union agreement, perhaps,” is BACK PAY, which is compensation for time working for lower wages, rather than backbreaking labor (though both situations could apply). If you’re curious about your case, you can look up employers on the U.S. Department of Labor’s website.
16A. Odd spelling alert: The “Title woman in a 1968 Turtles hit” here is ELENORE, not “Eleanor” or “Elinore” or “Elanore.” I eventually figured it out, but it would be nice if the Turtles spelled it out.
22A. Sometimes I fall into a rabbit hole of galactic dimensions when I look up something for this column, like the answer for “Flighty sorts, in two senses.” This is a great clue for SPACE CADETS. The term originated in 1940s science fiction, when it referred to skilled people exploring outer space, and had that definition through the 1950s, when the Space Age was starting. People went space crazy then, and there was a moment on a 1955 episode of “The Honeymooners” where Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton buy a television and argue over what to watch. Ed keeps switching to a show about space rangers, and, in exasperation, Ralph calls him a “space cadet.” It’s a funny line, and it comes from one of America’s seminal insult lobbers, but its meaning here was still that of an aficionado of all things space. The term’s second meaning, someone out of touch with reality, came along in the 1960s or ’70s, probably out of drug culture.