There are plenty of clever clues in this puzzle, but never discount the importance and power of timeliness. Terrible things are happening in the world right now, and this well-reparsed take on “exception to the rule” (which could be REBELLION) rightly calls out TYRANNY. It’s a shame that the so-called Fictional device in which to convey secret information only exists on the parodic Get Smart; given WIRED’s recent article on Telegram, those struggling under oppression need a better, realer way to organize. On a lighter note, Wrap order? deviates from its foodie roots (or perhaps its Christmas-shopping ones) to colloquially get at a theater’s AND SCENE while Needle exchange? is an outstanding question-mark clue, referring in this case to the way in which pals can “needle” one another with FRIENDLY BANTER. There’s room for both the political and the pleasurable in a puzzle.
- Nam Jin Yoon, The New York Times, 3/5/22
The Crossword Scholar 