New York Times Crossword February 7 2024 Answers

4D. It may surprise you to learn that this “right-leaning type?” It has no policy: it is just an italic.

12 d. If this entry for “GOING ALONE” – FLYING SOLO – has struck some everyday solvers as familiar, it may be because there was a similarly themed clue and entry in roughly the same situation in last Thursday's mystery, where “You have no co-conspirators.” “Solved by acting alone. (Coincidence? Almost certainly. But I'll gladly entertain any dissenting theories in the comments.)

Creator Notes

A few years ago, I heard Cisco's 2000 hit single “Thong Song” playing in a bar, and suddenly wondered if “thong, th-thong, thong, thong” could serve as an entry for a crossword puzzle…which it is… What it sounds like, those kind of words. Of something I wonder. It didn't do anything, but it made me think about the repetitive passages in the songs, which sparked this theme idea. I immediately thought it would be fun.

There was a brief moment of disappointment when I found that CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES had previously appeared in The Times Crossword (a 2014 Jeff Chen/David Benkoff collaboration), but fortunately the topic was entirely different. So it was off to the races: I had a grid within a day, sent it out, and to my delight, the editors liked it, too.

It wasn't until the modified puzzle was tested months later that the fact-checker realized that the way the first subject's answer — “Lo-lo-lo-lo-Lola” — was written was actually wrong, according to the Kinks. Official lyrics and sheet music! To my surprise, and unlike many lyric pages on the internet, it's no, it's not if. So, at the last minute, the editing team had to edit much of the northwest corner of the puzzle. So thank them even more than usual this time!

Of course, this wouldn't have happened if I had gone with “Yo yo yo yoda” instead of …

I'm really happy with the way things turned out, and I hope you enjoy the solution!

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