Parlor Trick – The New York Times

Those four entries are very cleverly clued, in a way that threw me off track a few times. For example, 3-Down is “Election night calculation … or what’s traced by the circled letters.” The answer is PATH TO VICTORY; I thought of political polling numbers and ballot boxes. (For a moment, I also thought those unchecked squares could be hanging chads. Too soon!)

At 17-Down, “Become clear … or make like the object represented by the circled letters,” I finally entered FALL INTO PLACE after a few fumbles (“Aticama” and “brr” instead of ATACAMA and CEE, if you were wondering).

At 103-Across, “Karaoke instruction … or what to do starting at 10-Down,” I was even more confused. The karaoke instruction is either “don’t try to do Adele” or FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALL, referring to a visual element in singalongs that predates karaoke by about 50 years. The karaoke part stuck in my head, so I looked at 10-Down for clarity: “Worker’s ‘on vacation’ inits.” — O(ut) O(f) O(ffice). Those O’s are the first three circled letters in that string of 14. As I followed that string in its vertical zigzag pattern, through GLOSS, OKAPI, AS FOR and MOWER, it became apparent that every letter in the circled squares was an O. Wait a minute, zigzagging or … bouncing? Yes, those O’s FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALL as it descends the grid, finally landing in the final position of 84D, TWO.

That final position just happens to be the bottommost unchecked square, the last of the eight unchecked squares in the grid. What of the first seven? TARP, CASA, ISAAC, TROTH, ADONAI, TOEBEAN, ALL I ASK, TWO. Your BOUNCING BALL has landed in the proper spot, the final O in THE NAME OF THE GAME — PACHINKO.

This puzzle’s title, “Parlor Trick,” is a reference to pachinko parlors, which are ubiquitous in Japan. They have an illustrious history that I was unfamiliar with; if there is a meaning to that last number TWO, let me know, please!

Constructor Notes

Matthew: While brainstorming Sunday-size themes this past summer, I sought an idea that would make an immediate impression on solvers as soon as they opened their New York Times Magazine or clicked the puzzle online. (“The Mystery of McGuffin Manor” by Andrew Chaikin, “Star Search” by Chandi Deitmer and “Season to Taste” by Laura Taylor Kinnel are some of my favorite recent examples of such puzzles.) The idea of a pachinko-inspired crossword eventually came to mind, and I reached out to Will to see about collaborating. He brilliantly laid out the P-A-C-H-I-N-K-O cups and the path of the ball through the middle of the grid, and we traded ideas for the other themers until we landed on the final set.

I hope the surprise of this funky looking grid paid off for you!

Will: Most of my Sunday ideas are more straightforward, wordplay-based themes, so I’m grateful to Matthew for approaching me with this one, which was a delightful architectural challenge to construct. It’s especially meaningful to me because my mother’s side of the family is Japanese, and my grandmother had a pachinko-based toy that I used to play with all the time. I hope this puzzle is as fun to solve as it was to make!