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Solution to Evan Birnholz’s Feb. 18 crossword, ‘Rising From the Depths’

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February 18, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. EST
Solution to the Feb. 18 crossword, “Rising From the Depths” (Evan Birnholz for The Washington Post)

Five long Down answers contain highlighted squares that spell aquatic mammals when read upward.

  • 3D: [Performances involving partners] is BALLROOM DANCES, with the letters of SEAL spelled up.
  • 4D: [1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner] is “A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE,” with MANATEE spelled up.
  • 7D: [Deceptive pitchers?] is SNAKE OIL SALESMEN, with SEA LION spelled up.
  • 11D: [Hospital unit dedicated to psychiatric care] is MENTAL HEALTH WARD, with WHALE spelled up.
  • 14D: [Question to a potential millionaire] is “IS THAT YOUR FINAL ANSWER,” with WALRUS spelled up.

The revealer at 15D: [Emerging out of the water to breathe, as this puzzle’s aquatic mammals are preparing to do] is COMING UP FOR AIR. I didn’t think it was enough to just find phrases whose letters contain reversed marine mammals. I wanted to illustrate them coming up for air, so I made the top row of the puzzle the surface of the water by including circled letters that spell out S-U-R-F-A-C-E.

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A couple of sea mammals left out of this ocean were the DUGONG (found in phrases like THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD and DRAGGING THROUGH THE MUD), the DOLPHIN (found in the Bride album “SNAKES IN THE PLAYGROUND”), the PORPOISE (found in DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY) … and everybody’s favorite crossword sea mammal, the ORCA, which I thought perhaps I shouldn’t use since I already had a WHALE (even though orcas are members of the dolphin family). But anyway, a backward ORCA technically makes an appearance in every single crossword, just in the clue heading of Across.

I also spent some time trying to figure out whether I could include a bonus element to the theme. I wanted to add some additional black squares at the bottom of the grid and have 129A be SHARK, which might give all these mammals another very good reason to get out of the water. I didn’t love the fill options I found with it, though, and even if I did, I wasn’t sure if it would be technically accurate. Sharks do hunt seals, but manatees have no natural predators (except I guess humans), and apparently sea lions have been known to eat sharks themselves. I’ll leave the details of that to marine biologists, though. We’re swimming in safe waters here in Crossword Country.

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