Brio – New York Times

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Wednesday's Puzzle — This is the 129th puzzle Peter Gordon has presented to The Times since 1989, and his 17th Wednesday grid. His vast collection includes many puzzles like Today's, with a visual element so strong and complex that you can't help but be amazed as you solve them (a great example is Mr Gordon's Sunday puzzle from 1993, which began the Will Shortz era).

His structures tend to be difficult (he edits the popular book fireball crosswordToday's table is a few steps up from yesterday's, especially when it comes to general information. Even if you can't find enough answers the first time you go through its clues (I did!), a little patience and several crossword puzzles will help you get through.

Today's topic

At first glance, this grid stands out because all the entries along its outer edge are made up of gray squares. There are 10 of these entries in total: 1, 5, 9, 65, 66, 67-Across, 1, 19, 45, and 49-Down. They all have something in common, even though their clues seem ordinary. There are three clues that provide special hints for the topic at 30, 36, and 45-Across.

I found these gray entries very attractive, so I tried working this grid from the outside in. I had some success but didn't recognize any common threads until I was over halfway through. At the top of the puzzle, I got the top row from the beginning: For 1-Across, [Update, as a kitchen] It is REDO, and for 5-Across, [It might be L-shaped] It is a SOFA. At 9-Across, [Scottie in the White House in the 1940s] It is FALA, the name of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's dog, which has been a popular entry in crossword puzzles since the 1940s.

Did you notice SOFA next to FALA? I noticed the repetition of FA, but didn't understand anything until I got to those hint entries in the interior of the puzzle. They're all cleverly misleading. First, at 30-Across, we have [Life-size … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme]; This solves for the full range. Then, at 36-Across, [Phone numbers? … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme] They are ringtones.

So, now we have a scale and color grading. The proof of 45-Across is [Marginalia … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme]which solves the side notes. Oh! All those gray entries are notes, on the sides of the puzzle—or, if you prefer, grid ringtones. And yes, they include a full scale.

All entries in the gray boxes consist of solfege syllables that make up the musical scale, notes that might make you think of “Sound of music“If we look at it this way, the top row of entries is RE-DO-SO-FA-FA-LA. At 19-Down, [Swampy ground] It is MIRE, but it is also MI-RE. Similarly, at 49-Down, [Texas city on the Rio Grande] It's a LA-RE-DO song. You can sing this theme, or Play it.

Hard evidence

22A. There is some trivia about the difficult names in this puzzle! [Icelandic poet Sturluson] He is Snorri, who in the 13th century wrote the Prose Edda, the complete account of Norse mythology.

59A. Usually, the evidence [Sees red?] It describes a moment of anger, but the question mark is a play on words, and the solution is “in debt.” Think of the red ink that signifies debt.

3D. [AIDS researcher who was Time’s 1996 Man of the Year] David Ho. He was a pioneer in antiretroviral therapy and is now Director of the AIDS Research Center At Columbia University.

59d. This is a small entry, but its hint puzzled me. [Scientist whose name is a unit, both forward and backward]is Georg Ohm, a German physicist who worked on currents and conductivity. I didn't recognize the “mho”, but it stands for Siemens, The unit of conduction which is the opposite From ohm, the unit of resistance.

Creator's Notes

The only good topics not used were FARE, MIMI, and TIRE.

Some of the bad ones not used were TILA Tequila, LADO (side, in Spanish), Burkina FASO and FADO.

Don't you have do re mi?

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