Read this -- don’t waste your time doing this nasty Sunday construction which is more akin to a big-grid Saturday with an ort of a theme thrown to the solver -- after struggling through numerous coy clues and arcane answers my postganglionic neurons were flat on their back.
“In Other Words” (title of puzzle) indicates anagrammed words -- the long answers have one or two un-anagrammed words mixed with an anagrammed word or words that relate to two other anagrammed word(s) which cross each other in the four corners of the grid. Each of the four long answers indicate the elusiveness of the anagrams with the words "masked", "in disguise", "undercover" and "secret".
50D MASKEDAVENGERS = 96D ENGRAVERS and 123A NERVEGAS,
67A BLESSINGINDISGUISE = 127A BSINGLES and 91D GLIBNESS,
76A UNDERCOVERFBIAGENT = 23A BEINGFAT and 19D FANGBITE,
93A SECRETADMIRERS = 24A = DISARMER and 5D MARRIEDS
Hanging dead-center of the puzzle there is REDRUM (11D clued as "reverse mantra of 'The Shining'"), which is an anagram of "murder", and an antigram ("red rum"), dangling from the top of the work like a dagger and presiding over this slice-and-dice, mix-and-match clever construction like a monstrous clue.
There, I’ve spoiled it! Be glad! -- unless you have nothing better to do this Easter Sunday (hey, there’s a subject for a “theme” -- but no!). Hell, you may want to unearth some words that no one ever uses, such as AMARANTH, ENTRAINS, ECUS, NAIAD, CARNELIAN, AITCH, DELED, TAVERNER, MOLOCH, and VENTI. Maybe devious cluing is your FORTE (Piano’s counterpart), then you’ll enjoy “It begins here” AITCH, “pommes frites accompanier” SEL, “what goes to your nose to make noise?", ANI. Maybe initialed answers like BGIRLS, BSINGLES, FTSMITH, FBIAGENT, TBAR, UPENN, ALGEBRAI or just initials themselves, EMI, LGA, RNA, LBJ, MGM, PAC, DSL -- oh, how’s your grasp of the other languages to help you with HAUS, ESTADOS, SEL, NISI, CIELO, and places like the SAONE, or obscure gods and actresses? -- they're all right? Well, if they are, then don't read this! -- for the love of Heaven, do the puzzle!!!
Illustrations: 11D (Reverse mantra of "The Shining") REDRUM, and 99A (Caravaggio’s “The Sacrifice of _____“) ISAAC .
Left click to enlarge.
Puzzle by Byron Walden - Edited by Will Shortz
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