THURSDAY PUZZLE — Administrivial alert! Thanks to all who reported that Wordplay was pulled behind the pay wall. The web team is working on the issue with large amounts of coffee and power tools. We appreciate your patience as we rescue the emus.



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This is Grant Thackray’s fifth crossword for The New York Times, and he seems to be settling into a mid-to-end-week groove.

His theme in this puzzle falls into the category of “easy to figure out, but tricky to parse,” which might be why it was scheduled for a Thursday.