SUNDAY PUZZLE -- Will Shortz, in his print introduction to this grid, writes: "Kelly Richardson is a freelance writer in northern Michigan. This is her second puzzle for The Times and her first Sunday. Its starting point was the timely 71-Across. Amazingly, every answer that crosses it is related. Kelly is a columnist for her hometown paper, The Traverse City Record-Eagle, which syndicates the Sunday Times puzzle. Now she has something personal to write about for her next column."
I honestly got a little bit emotional as I uncovered this puzzle's feature, which presents itself quite elegantly. This is also a very fluid and enjoyable grid to work through, with a lot of interesting elements playing supporting roles.
Today's Theme
This grid is 22 columns wide, one more than normal, and it looks like a themeless puzzle. There are no obvious theme clues, nor is there a series of symmetrically arranged, longish entries throughout to draw the eye. There is, however, a full-length entry right in its middle, at 71-Across, whose clue, [March 8 observance connecting billions of people around the world ... including the 22 people whose names cross this answer.], clearly lays out the puzzle's trick. It's a feat of construction, and even though the clue spoils the slow discovery of what those crossing entries have in common, it's still interesting to uncover each one. Also, full disclosure, I did not guess the long entry immediately and needed a few of its crosses to fill it in -- more of a "shame on me" moment than any sort of "aha."
A lot of the clues for those crossing entries are a little basic to solve, but I love how they draw from sources of all eras and parts of the world. 33-Down, [Tubman of the Underground Railroad] can only be HARRIET, for example, and the [2014 Peace Prize laureate Yousafzai] at 39-Down is MALALA. Does 26-Down’s difficulty make up for those? The [First (and last) queen of Hawaii] is Queen LILIUOKALANI, who was deposed in a coup.
There’s a bit of interesting trivia, like the factoid at 53-Down about TINA, the [Turner who was twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame] -- she got in with Ike in 1991, and then on her own in 2021. I had a few of those entries that started above the main entry, and then got 71-Down, [Rae who co-created "Insecure"], or ISSA, and 72-Down, the [Singer and civil rights activist Simone], or NINA. At this point, the entire revealer entry was guessable: It’s INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY.
This occasion, which grew from women's labor movements around the world, is roughly the same age as Mother's Day. It's a good reminder of how many people in the world are working for women's equality.
Tricky Clues
28A. [Spot for a grill] made me think of a patio and, weirdly, someone’s teeth, before I gradually figured out the answer here, which is an AIR VENT.
42A. There’s a bottle of this in my refrigerator but I avoid it, so I did not make the connection between [So-called "rooster sauce"] and SRIRACHA, the spicy chili condiment. The most popular brand in America has a rooster on the bottle, but there are a lot of other variations.
102A. This clue solves to an entry that’s technically of another era: [Like raw footage, vis-à-vis enhanced footage] solves to GRAINIER. “Grain” is a feature of actual film, either microscopic silver halide crystals (in black and white) or dyes (in color). But when using digital cameras, unedited shots can be blurry or “noisy,” which is sometimes described in terms of graininess. There are a lot of techniques to reduce digital noise, and there are also ways to emulate the romantic look of grain.
35D. This entry is a Times debut: The [Indigenous people of the Great Lakes] here are the ODAWA, who are also known as the Ottawa.
92D/115D. So many of the clues in this puzzle are straightforward that these two took me by surprise. At 92D, [Skydiving requirement] refers not to an airplane, a parachute or a harness, but to the NERVE required to even think about participating. At 115D, the [Floor show?] in question is coming from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and solves to CSPAN.
104D. [Roggenbock, e.g.] is easy for anyone who can parse "Roggenbock," but I had to reverse engineer the answer after filling in some letters from crossing entries. It's a RYE BEER, which is in the same flavor family as kvass, an ancient drink that is made from actual rye bread.
Constructor Notes
Last year on March 8, my sister challenged our family to write down the names of 100 women as quickly as possible. Afterward, I kept looking at our lists. There was something that felt really powerful about seeing so many names together on the page.
Eventually that feeling turned into an idea, and the result is the celebratory garland of names across this puzzle's center.
I'm honored to have this puzzle in The New York Times on a day I find so special. I hope solvers enjoy the crossword celebration of International Women's Day!