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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 feel like giving this up, don’t, there’s a nice surprise when you’re full 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’re served a large pizza with some delicious toppings, but that doesn’t explain why there are puzzle entries along the perimeter of the grid. This is hinted at in a second revelation, at 41A, which reads [Feature of a deluxe pie … and of this puzzle?]. This luxury feature is a stuffed veneer, indicated by the multiple letters filling the shaded squares.
I hope you finish the pizza – sorry, I mean the puzzle – because when I entered the last letter, the grid came alive in a way that left me hungry for more.
Difficult evidence
1a. My first guess is… [Château : France :: ___ : Spain]Before I knew about the rejection, it was Casa, but clearly I wasn’t thinking big enough. The answer is Castillo.
50 a. when [Rough houses?] It is one word that means to wrestle or play physically. As a two-word clue, it refers to rough houses in the literal sense of the word, 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’s Fighting ILLINI, and the missing letters are O and S.
17 D. Do 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. that [Artist whose work has a wide reach?] He is a muralist, because many of his murals are large in size.
59 D. Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer…that’s what I’d really like 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 Bernholz’s bookFalse starts“She does once every week or so.”
2. I wonder if there are other ways you can have a crossword puzzle where each overall 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. Realize that this makes a good idea. Moving forward with cooperation.
