96D: We had a recent appearance of this lovely word and device in the clues, so ORRERY seemed familiar, but solving using only crosses would be a challenge (particularly if you went all in with “wily”).

Today’s Theme

Matt Ginsberg’s last Sunday puzzle was a laugh riot of puns, so I came into this expecting the same and was not disappointed. This was a really fun doubleheader theme, meaning that the theme was present and interdependent in seven across and three down entries, as well as two crossing explainers at 113A and 73D. I loved the whimsy about it and I’m still in admiration that the whole shebang hangs off one little letter.

These theme entries are all clued with ending question marks. Of course, this is the standard “pun”ctuation for playful entries, so there are a bunch of innocent bystanders (including two “buck” clues that had me going for a while, but I think RODEO and DOE are just cute elements and not actual appendages to the theme).

We meet our first theme entry at 23A, “When you can ice skate outside?”. Well, ANY (C) OLD TIME will do — a common phrase becomes a fitting answer, with the addition of the letter “C.” Next door, at 25A, the “Poker player in the Old West” is a DEAD (C) HEAT — so we know that the same letter is being used to augment our phrases, in at least two of these cases.

My own solve mixed up acrosses and downs as I went, so I actually had the theme entry at 15D fairly early in the solve and was not sure what to do with it. This one made sense as is — “Arrangement in which you buy three tires but get a whole set?” solved to FREE RADIAL, as in radial tire (which, in a surprise to me, is not your only tire option). It did not occur to me for a minute that this clue was relevant to the theme until I was practically through with this puzzle, which gave me a lot of joy — the longer a constructor can prolong a gag, the more kudos I give, especially when it’s tight.

Back to acrosses — the next two at 50A and 58A were sort of irascible peas in a pod, WIN (C) E MAKER (whose clue was in no way self-referential, Mr. Ginsberg) and PAGE (C) RANK (that second one made me think of tech again — does “page rank” ring a bell for most solvers?). By this time the writing was on the wall for me, and it was simply an enormous letter “C.”

Then we had a really clever one at 77A, a barbecue reference, and at 85A, a bit of a trick — I thought a “Rookeries” would be “dove cotes,” but instead it was (C) ROWHOUSES. Then the last one, a play on a road trip stop, and for symmetry’s sake the revealer at 113A: NOW YOU SEE ME. See the “C?” Whee.