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Note to readers: In the past, Wordplay marked crossword clues with quotation marks. However, in creating and editing crosswords, clues are usually indicated in parentheses, a practice that Wordplay now follows.
Thursday Puzzle – I’m hungry. are you hungry?
Let’s sink our teeth into this crossword puzzle by Paolo Pasco and Sarah Sinclair. This should alleviate our craving for fun puzzles. If you are doing the solution online, try not to get any pixels stuck in your teeth; I got out of the thread of the net.
And if for some reason you’re tempted to give up, don’t do it – there’s a nice surprise when you’ve had enough.
today’s subject
At first, I thought that Mr. Pascoe and Ms. Sinclair’s round grid represented a cell, with all the parts rotating inside, and that the detector would be something like “mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell.”
I was freed from that idea when I got to the actual detector, at 26A, that reads [Pepperoni, mushroom or green pepper … or what each cluster of black squares represents in this puzzle]. The answer is PIZZA TOPPING, but I ran into a problem: the answer, like many of the entries for this puzzle, didn’t fit into place.
We all know what that means. This means I spent too much time solving the puzzle and not filling in the answers, which is the cue I use to realize that the grid is full of rebus squares. These squares, located along the perimeter of the grid, are shaded for greater visibility.
We were served a large pizza with some delicious toppings, but that doesn’t explain why there are rebus inserts along the perimeter of the grille. This is hinted at in the second detector, at 41A, which reads [Feature of a deluxe pie … and of this puzzle?]This deluxe feature is a stuffed shell, illustrated by multiple letters filling the shaded squares.
I hope you finish the pizza – sorry, I meant the puzzle – because when I entered that last message, the grid sprang to life in a way that left me hungry for more.
Difficult evidence
1 a. My first guess is [Château : France :: ___ : Spain]Before I knew about the rejection, it was “Casa”, but clearly I didn’t think big enough. The answer is Castillo.
50a. when [Rough houses?] It is one word that means to wrestle or play physically. As a two-word clue, he points to houses that are literally rough, and the answer is stucco.
66 A. this [Vixen, e.g.] Not the old term for a lusty woman. It’s one of Santa’s reindeer.
3D. the [College team whose name is its home state minus two letters] It is Fighting ILINI, and the missing letters are O and S.
17 d. Did you think the designers were talking about musical instruments in the manual? [One of two heard in “This Kiss”]? Not this time. But there are two short words in this phrase.
24 d. When a crossword clue is bracketed in the puzzle itself, it prompts the solver to think of a non-verbal synonym. What would you do if you were wondering? [[Is this still good?]]? You can smell the item in question.
36 D. a [Artist whose work has a wide reach?] He is a muralist, because many of the murals are large in scale.
59 D. Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Mayer fan…that’s what I really want to be…
Creator Notes
I’ve read a lot of creator notes in my time, but this is one of my favorites.
How to make pizza:
1. Think of Evan BernholzFalse starts“She does once every week or so.”
2. I wonder if there are other ways you can get a crossword puzzle where each cross answer has a fun/difficult property.
3. You have an idea for a puzzle where each answer begins with a two-letter rebus, with a shrunken head detector.
4. Shrunken heads may not be the best thing to test for breakfast. Maybe a pivot.
5. Modify the idea to “STUFFED CRUST”, with two-letter repetitions at the beginning and end of each entry.
6. Sarah implemented the idea, which suggests a pizza-shaped grid, with a two-letter paraphrase around the “crust.”
7. I realize this makes a good idea. Go ahead with the collaboration.
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