jump to: today’s subject | difficult evidence | Solution advice
Monday’s Mystery – No, there’s nothing wrong with your eyes. We’ve all seen it too: crossword puzzles look a little weird today, right?
Here’s why: Most grids in the American-style crossword tradition—a phrase I like to say with the tip of my bowler hat and a roll of sticks—are square, to facilitate their rotational symmetry. But this puzzle, built by David Leben Noel, is a rectangle. (When I opened it up, my first thought was that it looked like it had been through a pasta press. I don’t own a pasta press, but I’m sure that’s the right measurement.)
Aside from its unusual height, this is standard fare for a Monday puzzle. It’s simply stretched to mimic the shape of its subject—which happens to celebrate one of my favorite foods. Want to know what it is? Read all about it in a note from one of our puzzle editors below.
“Often, the creator will send us a grid of a particularly odd shape to accommodate the subject of the puzzle,” writes Sam Ezersky. “Though we wouldn’t normally allow it, the shape here adds visual appeal: The entire 12-character answers stretch out and pile on top of each other to make a peanut butter sandwich. It’s a thoughtful touch that adds to an already well-thought-out original topic idea.”
today’s subject
How do you take your subject? Roasted or not roasted? On whole or white wheat? Diagonally, with the crusts cut off or whole?
These are all acceptable ways to enjoy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, meticulously created from theme entries stacked in Mr. Both 16-Across and 57-Across are slices of bread—also known as “sandwich top” and “sandwich pot.”
Between those two entries, we get the filling: the “fruit sandwich ingredient” (31a), which is raspberry jam, and the “savoury sandwich ingredient” (45a), which is peanut butter.
When I had this sandwich for breakfast every day before school, my tradition included white bread with chopped crusts and strawberry jam (picks!). Now I take peanut butter with blueberry jam and sandwich it on the crunchiest sourdough I can find—that’s how I know I’m an adult.
difficult evidence
14a. Raise your hand if you put the H in the wrong place in the word PIRANHA. (You can’t see my hand, but it’s up.)
55 a. We all have a pet conspiracy theory to go out at parties. It is my point of view that the AUK, which is similar to a penguin that lives in the sea, was invented only for its convenience Also fill in the crossword puzzle.
Three-dimensional. The word AERIALIST is as dazzling on paper as the exploits of a ‘trapeze artist’. I mean, just look at those whole vowels.
6 d. The phrase “Ocean voyager” can refer to a waterborne ship or to its occupant. Here, he’s the passenger, known fictionally as the SEAFARER.
8 d. It may be strange to say the past tense of WOVE – it does for me, anyway – but it is preferred format In the course of the work looms. (A verb that describes physical movement, as in weaving in and out of traffic, is a verb Different word origins! This is why its past-tense form is ‘woven’).
17 d. Am I the only one who accidentally had an A instead of an E here? While BRIER seems to be more associated with etymological roots From “a thorn in a forest,” I often see it spelled “briar” in place names, as in Briarcliff Manor, New York
47 d. Etymologists I don’t quite know How the word TOP-NOTCH came to mean “best of the best,” but the popular etymologies surrounding it are fascinating, including one suggests it Parents used to indicate their consent to betroth their daughters by raising a candle to the “first class” so that it would burn longer while the couple met.
Solution advice
Verb or adjective?
When the clue appears to be using a verb in the past tense, tread carefully: the correct answer may depend on whether that verb is actually a participle, which is formed from a verb but functions as an adjective. Some examples from previous puzzles:
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In the May 29 crossword puzzle, at 35-Across, we saw the clue “Equally Divided”, which was solved in half. “Bisected” is used as an adjective. If “Bisected” functions as a past tense verb, this clue’s answer might instead be “Half.”
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Some verbs sound the same across sounds and tenses. For example, the clue phrase “put it away” could refer to an adjective describing someone who was put away, or imprisoned. It can function as a verb in the past tense, as in “put us away” or ATE, pizza. Or it could be a present tense verb that refers to putting something away or storing something. Search for the directory phrase On XWord Info It just goes to show how many ways it can be interpreted, so look at life.
Creator Notes
The crux of the matter hit me early in 2022. After spending many hours perusing lists of the world’s greatest sandwiches, I got down to what might be the most classic sandwich of them all, after seeing the effect of the very funky 12″ x 12″ grid shape. 19 can be produced. (I spent a very has long grappled with the fiercely contentious question of whether it should go beyond PB or go down to J.)
Maybe it’s because I’m a rule-follower the rest of my life, but I’m always a little more excited about puzzle ideas that break one of the standard crossword puzzle rules. (It takes a bit of surprising generosity to describe “repeating an entry in a puzzle” as an act of rebellion, but here we go.)
And I’m glad I finally got out on Monday; I’ve been trying for years to write good start-of-the-week mysteries, but I’ve always struggled with coming up with interesting and approachable topics. I have a huge pile of disapprovals to show for those efforts, and an even bigger pile of respect for the Week 1 creators who made it look so easy.
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