Below are the answers to what I consider to be the 48 hardest clues in what I consider to be the hardest New York Times crossword puzzle ever
published (at least since 1972).
If you don't know how you got here, go here first.
If you're sure you don't want to work
the puzzle, go ahead and scroll down to see them.
But before you do, see the sidebar at right about the single most baffling clue, not listed below, that I found in the Hardest NYT puzzle,
and what happened about it.
And while you're on that subject, read
more about this whole puzzle from someone whose opinion is better-informed than mine.
Levantine coffee cup
ZARF
Coloratura Mills
ERIE
Vale of -----
TEMPE
Lavabo
RITE
Hills
MOTES
Midianite ruler
EVI
Oswego tea
BALM
Direction from Levine
ARIOSO
Defunct Russian parliament
DUMA
Prada offering
ARTE
Beanie
DINK
He was: Lat.
ERAT
Kepi part
VISOR
The Cornish Wonder
OPIE
Trammel of baseball
ALAN
Catfish
DORAS
English river
NENE
Georgian Aryan
OSSET
Thessaly peak
OSSA
Rigoletto's forte
JEST
Leaflet-base appendage
STIPEL
Buddhist sect
BRUNEI
Schoenberg's "Moses und -----"
ARON
High fashion
TON
He played Big Daddy
IVES
Abstract being
ENS
Japanese kombu ingredient
KELP
Annuli
RINGS
Father of King Hadad: Gen. 36:35
BEDAD
He, in Tarantao
ESSO
Dispatch boat
AVISO
Great Wall town
LINYU
A U.N. member: Var.
KATAR
The raisin capital of the world
FRESNO
Remnants, in Roma
RESTI
Author of "The Augustan Ages"
ELTON
Honshu port
KOBE
Cubiti
ULNAS
Portuguese dollar
ESCUDO
Rosary bead
AVE
Eastern Roman
ZENO
Roman family group
GENS
Poetry of a people
EPOS
Sights on the Atl.
STRS
One-man shows
SOLI
City having a casbah
ORAN
Ancient wall word
MENE
Have, in Haddington
HAE
How many of these 48 hardest clue-and-answer relationships in this Hardest
NYT puzzle did you get right?
The clue that used up pretty much all of my day after Christmas in 1987, a day I should have been outside playing with my new sled, was 13-Down.
The clue for 13-Down is the single word "Trilbies," and the answer is FEET.
Do you know why that answer is right? I didn't until January of 1999, over a decade later, when I got help from people who stumbled onto this page
and researched the question. Ain't the Internet grand? I'm now quite sure their
explanation about trilbies is correct.