VOWEL-LESS CROSSWORD — This puzzle is the latest installment of a variety grid that comes around roughly once a year. It’s also Evan Kalish’s third such construction and a ton of fun. I am definitely not getting better as a solver, because there are really no developable skills or strategy I can think of that would help me. So it’s more likely that this is a deducible, entertaining set of entries.

There aren’t even any instructions for this puzzle; its title explains it all. Solve each clue and chuck out every A, E, I, O and U in the solution; if you get it right, the remaining letters fit. Each clue comes with a letter count for the full entry — vowels and consonants — in parenthesis. In the case of multiple-word entries, the number of letters per word is given. The grid also follows the rules of a regular crossword puzzle, where every letter appears in two crossing entries. These two assists are critical, at least for me; I think I’d be mystified without either of them.

For example, take 1-Across, “Help for a homeowner who’s away on vacation” (5, 6). The answer is HOUSE SITTER, which jibes with the (5, 6), but the entry is only six letters in length: Write in HSSTTR, representing H(ou)S(e) S(i)TT(e)R.

On to 7-Across, “Doomsayer’s warning” (3, 3, 2, 4). This instantly made me think of an old joke, and I knew the gist of the answer, although I needed a crossing letter at the very end: Is the end “nigh” or “near?” The answer is THNDSNR, or in its complete form, TH(e) (e)ND (i)S N(ea)R. (The “R” in N(ea)R came to me courtesy of 13-Down, “Prime spot for spectators at a boxing match,” or R(i)NGS(i)D(e) S(ea)T.

I found a few areas of resistance, where I either drew a blank or couldn’t decide between two answers. Or both. For example, 43D: “Producer’s opposite,” where my mind got stuck on the producer of a play or movie, rather than on, well, a product. Then, I vacillated between a “customer” and a CONSUMER, or CNSMR. This is where those crossing letters saved me.

There is one crossing, though, that I found especially difficult. It’s in the northwest corner: 14-Across, “Some kitchen implements,” left me overwhelmed with choices; POTATO PEELERS, or PTTPLRS, was pretty far down on the list. Then, I had no idea what 5-Down, “Improper and inexcusable,” could be; the full word runs ten letters in length, but shrinks to just four consonants. This solves to OUTRAGEOUS, or TRGS, a word I’ve used as high praise instead of excoriation for decades; I know its root, but it’s still my habit.

This grid has two 13-letter entries, marvels of engineering and the longest entries so far in Evan Kalish’s vowel-less puzzles. They solve to much longer expressions, and both present challenges. 30-Across, “‘Seems accurate to me’,” is THAT SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT, or THTSNDSBTRGHT. 34-Across, “Daily issuances on a school’s P.A. system,” stumped me for quite a while; it solves to MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS, or MRNNGNNNCMENTS, which has almost too many N’s to keep track of. I loved deducing these two entries as the consonants gradually piled up.

A couple of other favorites in this grid include 39-Across, “‘Yada yada’”; its solution in the grid is NDSNNDSN, which took me a couple of beats before I could expand it to AND SO ON AND SO ON. Also, 55-Across, “Something super-awesome, quaintly,” is endearing. I liked THBSKNS, or “the bee’s knees,” but it’s actually THCTSMW, or THE CATS MEOW. Indeed!

See:

https://www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs?author=Evan+Kalish