Masters of Bad Impersonations? – The New York Times

SATURDAY PUZZLE — Peter A. Collins is a familiar byline on New York Times crosswords: This is his 120th, and his eighth Saturday, but only his second grid in 2024. I was happily struck by the triple stack of entries in this puzzle’s center, two of which make for an intriguing story line. (Mr. Collins has done this before in past themeless grids like this one from 2021, which was more romantic and less creepy.)

As far as difficulty, today’s grid is tough enough and full of twists, but its trivia is mostly accessible and placed in helpful spots. Every time I thought I was getting sucked under, it seemed as if an actress whose name I knew came along and got me out!

Tricky Clues

6A. [“Hound Dog” singer Big ____ Thornton] is Big MAMA Thornton, who got into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year. “Hound Dog” was written in 1952 by Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber for Thornton, although the song more famously helped make Elvis, well, Elvis, four years later. I love how this version ends: “And bowwow to you too.”

22A. If you were sure that the [Fish whose egg casings are called “mermaid’s purses”] would be a shark, you weren’t wrong — these leathery capsules that wash up on shorelines can be produced by a shark as well as a SKATE. Some sharks, and all rays, hold their eggs internally until they hatch, but skate eggs develop in the open sea, encased in a keratin pouch.

34A./35A. Yes, the entry at 34A is innocent as clued — uplifting, even. The [Medical breakthrough of 1954 that yielded a Nobel Prize] is an ORGAN TRANSPLANT, the first of which was a kidney moved from one twin to another in Boston. I wouldn’t have given this span entry much thought, but its downstairs neighbor at 35A made me do a double take. It has a cute pun clue and would also be innocuous on its own: [Masters of bad impersonations?] are IDENTITY THIEVES. Maybe it’s just because Halloween is around the corner, but my brain was instantly cursed by thoughts of body part trafficking and “ambiguous embodiment.”