What Do These Crossword Puzzle Answers Mean?

The Game Room
1

Can anyone figure out what these crossword puzzle answers mean? I’m just not seeing it. The only thing that I notice in them is that DENNISEXERTSFORCE contains the letters for Desert Force in the right order. It was from a Premier Crossword Puzzle from July 24, and had no title which might have clued me in. It might have had a title originally, but a title didn’t make it into the downloaded puzzle from my phone app.

Answer Clue
SAMUELTAPSUSHER…Alito gets an arena worker’s attention?
MARYNURSESOFFSPRING…Astor feeds her infant?
YULZONESAREA…Brynner divides a site into districts?
JIMKISSESLASSES…Carrey is amorous with gals?
ANNBAKESCAKE…Curry does a patisserie job?
VICWORKSXYLOPHONE…Damone plays a percussion instrument?
DENNISEXERTSFORCE …Hopper lifts weights?
PAMQUITSRANTING …Shriver gets off her soapbox?
GENEHOLDSINSECT …Wilder picks up a bug?

2

Samuel (Alito) taps usher
Mary (Astor) nurses infant
Yul (Brynner) zones area
Jim (Carrey) kisses lasses
Ann (Curry) bakes cake
Vic (Damone) works xylophone
Dennis (Hopper) exerts force
Pam (Shriver) quits ranting
Gene (Wilder) holds insect

Get it?

3

Initial letters are alphabetical triplets, at least:

STU
MNO
YZA
JKL
ABC
VWX
DEF
PQR
GHI

String them together and you get

ANNBAKESCAKEDENNISEXERTSFORCEGENEHOLDSINSECTJIMKISSESLASSESMARYNURSESOFFSPRINGPAMQUITSRANTINGSAMUELTAPSUSHERVICWORKSXYLOPHONEYULZONESAREA

Not sure if there’s anything there?

4

Well, yes, I got the words, but what is the gimmick? What do they mean?

5

Hmm, interesting, and the entire alphabet is included. There are two A’s.

6

Ah, I see that the answers as entered in the grid are in alphabetical order, from top to bottom.

7

I don’t think there is any hidden meaning. Its all pretty straightforward. The first name + a description of the action. I don’t know why you are looking for depth here.

8

Because there is no meaning as it stands. Why choose “Yul Zones Area”? It’s nonsensical. That’s not how crossword puzzles work. I can understand if it is alphabetical phrases, but even that’s a bit lame as the words are completely random other than the letter the words begin with. There’s usually more to it.

9

Not in my experience. And I’ve been doing the NYT sunday puzzle for decades. I’ve seen them use similar alphabetic ploys on a number of past occasions.

10

They’re not completely random. They’re all subject - simple tense - object. Perhaps the title of the original puzzle alluded to that in some way. Nonetheless, I agree that if that is all there is to it, it’s not a particularly satisfying puzzle.

11

Moved Cafe Society --> the Game Room.

12

Considering that there are ‘alphabetical triplets’ as Ximenean pointed out, but there is no consistancy there, ie ‘Mary nurses infant’ breaks the pattern, I would have to consider that it just isn’t the best crossword puzzle.

13

Mary nurses “offspring”, not “infant”.

As for what it all means, no idea. Maybe the Russians are about to attack?

14

Oops, my bad! :smack:

15

Yes, I was thinking that the original puzzle probably had a title like "alphabetical triplets. So if you knew that the first letter was, say, an “M,” you’d know that the answer would also contain an “N” and an “O.”