Clever Clue of the Month

September 2017
Clue: Components of ranch dressing?........STETSONS
Constructor: 'Marie Kelly'; Editor: Mike Shank
Wall Street Journal, Friday, September 8, 2017

Clever Clue Nominees

Please vote for the best clue from September (either by email or comments below). The Clever Clue of the Month will be announced on Tuesday.

Civic spaces?...........................LOTS
Components of ranch dressing?...........STETSONS
Execute camels, e.g. ...................FIGURESKATE
Go on and on, possibly about flying
robots..................................DRONE
Chamber of commerce?....................SHOP
Flight specialists?.....................COWARDS

24 Years of NYT Crossword Answers

Here's a great article covering crossword data during the Will Shortz era of editing the NYT Crossword Puzzle. 'jtanwk', the author of the article, answers the following questions:

• What are the most common answers?
• Are words getting longer?
• Average length of crossword answers by day

• How does letter density vary by day?
• What words have emerged recently?
• How lexically diverse are crosswords?

Click here for full article

Clever Clue of the Month

August 2017
Clue: Toy used on flights?.......................SLINKY
Constructor: Jeffrey Wechsler; Editor: Rich Norris
LA Times, Friday, August 28, 2017

Clever Clue Nominees

Please vote for the best clue from August (either by email or comments below). The Clever Clue of the Month will be announced on Labor Day.

Foment unrest, in a way?................SNORE
Toy used on flights?....................SLINKY
National defense figure, say?...........RELIEVER
Deadhead's hits?........................LSD
Double-digit figure?....................PEACESIGN
Ransom paid from the sale of 
automobiles.............................OLDS

Clever Clue of the Month

July 2017
Clue: Seat in a British pub?..........................ARSE
Constructor/Editor: Evan Birnholz
Evan Birnholz's Washington Post Crossword, Sunday, July 2, 2017

Clever Clue Nominees

Please vote for the best clue from July (either by email or comments below). The Clever Clue of the Month will be announced on Thursday.

Seat in a British pub?..................ARSE
Cooking class?..........................FOODGROUP
Chemistry test..........................HOTDATE
Kind of boid that catches the woim?.....OILY
Salt facility...........................SEALEGS
Second-hand item, perhaps?..............TIMEPIECE