Easy-to-Resolve Situation (Published 2021) (2024)

WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — This is Hal Moore’s seventh crossword for The New York Times and, as the revealer clue at 58A says, it’s an easy enough situation to resolve.

You might need to stare at the finished grid for a while before the theme makes itself visible to you, though. That’s NO ACCIDENT (26D), and there’s nothing wrong with that. As far as I’m concerned, it just prolongs the pleasure.

Tricky Clues

1A. Lead-ins mean that we are looking for a word that would go before the examples in the clues. The “lead-in to love or care” would be SELF, as in SELF-love and SELF-care.

17A. Don’t panic if you didn’t know “Number that, in Chinese languages, is a hom*ophone for ‘longevity,’ and is thus considered good luck.” If you noticed that the answer is a four-letter word beginning with N (from SSN at 1D), the answer has to be NINE.

18A. I love this pun. The Greek writer AESOP created fables and morality tales, so you will often see him in crosswords clued as “Man with morals,” or “Fabulous guy.”

27A. The shaka sign is a fist with the thumb and pinkie fingers extended, sometimes waggled. SURFERs are or were known to use this sign as a greeting.