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Wordplay, The Crossword Column

Acrobat’s Display

Andrew Spooner returns to open our solving weekend.

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· 6:51 min

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Stretch and warm up your brain for this Friday puzzle’s clever misdirects.

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Valery Hache/Getty Images

By

Sean McGowan

April 23, 2026,

10:00 p.m. ET

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FRIDAY PUZZLE

— Crosswords, like any artistic medium, can be judged on a variety of criteria. The cleverness of the theme, the aesthetic of the grid, the difficulty of the puzzle itself — these are all common yardsticks for measuring a crossword and are entirely subjective. How much weight to give each criterion is a matter of personal taste.

Other factors can be quantified: the number of words in the puzzle or black squares in the grid, for instance. In fact, these two metrics are correlated. When constructors build a grid, their considered placement of black squares defines the number of words in the puzzle. Generally, the more black squares, the more words.

Sometimes, black squares can be placed into the grid

without

affecting the word count. Among constructors, these are referred to as cheater squares, or more generously, helper squares. If you look at a crossword grid and remove a black square, and the word count remains the same, that’s likely a helper square. (Some don’t consider it a helper if the square is necessary for a theme answer.)

Take a look at the grid of this playful puzzle from Andrew Spooner, his second for The New York Times. There are zero helper squares, resulting in longer words, more interesting entries and (in my opinion) a cleaner-looking puzzle. It’s a real accomplishment to construct a grid without any helpers, so major props to Mr. Spooner.

His impressive feat of construction notwithstanding, there is nothing inherently wrong with cheater squares. The term is a misnomer — nowhere in the rules of construction does it say using the squares is cheating. In fact, they’re often useful for achieving cleaner fill. That’s why I prefer the term helper squares. After you solve and appreciate Mr. Spooner’s puzzle today, look back at some of your favorite crosswords. I bet you’ll find that many of their constructors employed helper squares to make the puzzles shine.

Tricky Clues

18A / 11D. [Low volume?] isn’t describing sound, but space: The answer is TEASPOON. I liked that it crosses with [Half of hip-hop’s Run the Jewels, alongside Killer Mike], a rap duo whose music demands to be played at higher decibels. I’m a big fan of EL-P (his name is pronounced like the two letters).

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