By Tom Toce
The Theme clues all have something in common. These duplicitous clues are presented in a random order. They are not cryptic clues. There are 13 proper nouns among the regular entries. Everything else is playable in Scrabble, except the two-word entry. And, to quote Stephen Sondheim, who brought cryptic puzzles to the U.S. in the 1960s, “Ignore punctuation, which is designed to confuse.”
Thanks to Jerry Miccolis for test-solving and editorial suggestions.
Click here to read the full puzzle and to find the solution to the previous issue’s Puzzle.