Variety: Two-for-One Crossword

Variety: Two-for-One Crossword

TWO-FOR-ONE CROSSWORD — Today we have an interesting challenge: two matching grids with one set of clues. To solve, you need to figure out two entries for each clue, one for each grid; you’re given only a few letters as hints to determine which entry goes where.

Does it look a bit confounding? Hear me out — this is a perfect exercise for solvers of difficult puzzles. Its constructor, Derrick Niederman, made seven puzzles for the Times between 1997 and 2016, every one of them a Sunday, which is quite unusual. I think this is relevant because the thought process I went through while solving this puzzle is very similar to the way I break into a Sunday grid, which can honestly be a little emotional. It’s that cycle of anxiety, trepidation, hope and confidence that I’m talking about: Scanning for familiar clues leads to taking a chance on one or two, then deducing some crosses, then solving a solid block and expanding on that to the rest of the puzzle.

The first clue in the grids is a great example, 1-Across. You have exactly two choices for the “1970s bandmate of Nash and Young” — CROSBY and STILLS, each six-letter entries. The test is figuring out which name goes in which grid. Those hint letters are crucial, of course, but they give hardly anything away: All we have to work with is an “L” in the entry below this one, which is connected to it by three crossing entries at 1-, 2- and 3-Down.

For 3D, fortunately, there’s another binary clue: “save the ____ for ____” is BEST and LAST. Guess what? You can put ST in both grids, since it’s the same for both choices. While 2D might not be strictly an either/or situation, “black liquid from a well” is either OIL or INK, as far as I’m concerned, and that works for this endeavor. Lo and behold, now you have the choice of two letter runs in that left grid: LLS or KLS. That second choice looks impossible, so it’s safe to pop OIL into 2D on the left, which forces your hand at 1A to CROSBY. And you’re off to the races!

I found some of the longer entries here extremely difficult and took several sessions to solve both grids. The world capitals were so hard that I went online and scrolled down a list (the one on the left is Caribbean, the one on the right is European). The album question was so broad that both of them just came to me after enough crosses (think Carole King, and the King of Pop). Also, as an extreme devotee of dogs and cheese, I felt betrayed by my own brain when I drew a blank on both of these — funny, because one of my own dogs (while neither small and hearty nor giant) will take her vitamins only when they’re covered in the cheese on the left, so I’ve always got some.

Nursing Home Deaths Plummet

“I’m almost at a loss for words at how amazing it is and how exciting,” said Dr. David Gifford, the chief medical officer for the American Health Care Association, which represents long-term-care facilities.

The nursing home data add to the evidence that the vaccines don’t just work in research trials — they work in the real world, too. (A new study of Israel, published yesterday in The New England Journal of Medicine, offered the same message.)

2. Another vaccine looks excellent.

The Food and Drug Administration released a report about a vaccine that it has not yet approved — from Johnson & Johnson — and the data were extremely positive.

Like the two vaccines that are already being administered in the U.S. — from Moderna and Pfizer — Johnson & Johnson’s eliminated both death and hospitalization in its research trial: About 20,000 people received the vaccine in the trial, and not a single one was hospitalized with Covid-19 symptoms a month later.

“I’ll never stop being amazed at zero hospitalizations among vaccinated in study after study,” Dr. Aaron Richterman of the University of Pennsylvania wrote. “It’s astonishing.” Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert, called the results “terrific.” Dr. Kavita Patel wrote: “I would definitely recommend it for myself and my patients.”

Sealed With a Kiss

SUNDAY PUZZLE — Lisa Bunker, who makes her Sunday debut with this idiosyncratic construction, is a member of the New Hampshire House of Representative and an author with two published young adult novels, “Zenobia July” and “Felix Yz.” Those titles definitely indicate a word lover’s touch, and their plots are similarly inventive, involving a trans girl cyberdetective and a boy fused with a four-dimensional alien life form. Boom! Now you have a taste of what we’re working with here. I love the Scrabbly elements in this grid — they’re everywhere — and I found a lot of the fill very challenging and satisfying, especially the north by northeast third.

If you recognize this constructor’s name from past Times puzzles, you’ve got a great memory. Ms. Bunker constructed a handful of daily grids in the early ’00s, as she relates in her notes, back when online solving was still pretty new and puzzle submissions were done via snail mail. I love that the concept for this puzzle dates to then as well (I think it feels modern and fresh), and I love happy returns like this one — they give me hope for the ideas I’ve filed away myself, for “someday.”

Tricky Clues

This grid presents some excellent obstacles! The theme is tricky to get your head around, and the fill is very bright and offbeat. As much as I stumbled through a wide swath at the top — the corner area roughly outlined by PAN, STOP and BETS — I have to bow down to Ms. Bunker for crossing CASQUE, which last appeared in the crossword in 1953, with SISQO (who remembered how to spell SISQO? Also, he’s still working).

23A: Very savvy for our constructor to stuff in a little catnip for the word community. Here we have STEFAN Fatsis, whom I mostly know as an engaging sports-biz commentator on NPR but is also a Scrabble hound; at the bottom of this puzzle, a nod to another puzzle, the VERTEX, and another letter game that gives RSTLNE to its finalist, every show.