1203-09 New York Times Crossword Answers 3 Dec 09

This is my solution to the crossword published in the New York Times today. If you are doing the New York Times crossword in any other publication, you are working on the syndicated puzzle.

Here is a link to my answers to today’s SYNDICATED New York Times crossword.

In this puzzle, the # symbol represents the word ROME.

As referred to in 7-down, the theme of the puzzle is ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME. The diagonals spell out four types of ROAD:

  • LOGGING ROAD
  • PRIVATE ROAD
  • WINDING ROAD
  • UNPAVED ROAD
A tough puzzle for a Thursday, but a good one!

7 thoughts on “1203-09 New York Times Crossword Answers 3 Dec 09”

  1. Save one like this for Saturday. I feel robbed of one that (usually ) I can actually solve!

  4. Hi there,

    I think you mean 7 down. The answer is ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME, with ROME being the center square. If you read the diagonals as shown by the arrows that I have drawn on the grid, you'll see that the four types of road mentioned (LOGGING, PRIVATE, WINDING, PRIVATE) all point to the center square, namely Rome.

    Complex, huh?

  5. Thanks Bill; but I'm still confused. What's the significance of "(3,5,4,2,4)" in the clue to 7 down? What do these numbers refer to? The length of the words? That makes sense, but it'd make more sense if they were all words in the puzzle somewhere… which is impossible, since "to" is only 2 letters.

  6. Hi again,

    It's a very unique puzzle, and I found it hard to work this one out. But maybe, the version that is in your newspaper doesn't have the right clue. In my version, the clue for 7-down reads:

    "There are four hidden in this puzzle, which together suggest a familiar five-word saying (3,5,4,2,4)"

    The answer to 7-down is ROADS, and the hidden "roads" referred to in the clue are in the diagonals of the grid:
    1. LOGGING ROAD
    2. PRIVATE ROAD
    3. WINDING ROAD
    4. UNPAVED ROAD

    Each of the "roads" above start at different corners of the grid, and end at ("lead to") the center square. The center square contains not one letter, but four … ROME (the center of denve-R OME-lette, and o-ROME-o). So, the four hidden roads lead from the corners of each grid to the center square … ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME.

    Hope that helps.

  7. The parenthetical numbers in 7-down (3,5,4,2,4) refer ti the letter count in the ther=me statement- All (3) roads (5) lead (4) to (2) Rome (4).

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