Cryptic crosswords are having a moment in the crossword puzzle world in the States these days, especially after shout outs during last weekend’s Lollapuzzoola Crossword Puzzle Tournament from Stella Zawistowski and Francis Heaney. The American Values Crossword Puzzle and The Inkubator have included cryptics among their offerings, and the New Yorker has brought back cryptics first published in the late ’90s. I suspect one reason for this renaissance was the American v. British cryptic crossword puzzle contest on the opening night of ACPT 2018. I had been afraid of cryptics before that night; I’ve been hooked since and now I’m making them!
Anyway, this week’s puzzle – again, multiple elements of the puzzle hint at a song. What is it?
The single, unclued squares are relevant to the answer but can remain blank, UNLESS YOU ARE SOLVING IN ACROSS LITE. Crossfire, the program I use to create the puzzle, does not allow the creation of a .puz file with empty squares, so I put X’s in them. So, make sure to put X’s in the solitary squares or you will never “finish” the puzzle. The X’s are meaningless.