While other theme entries fell into place along the Taj’s shape, we both worked hard to get the right placement of TOMB. He was convinced from Day 1 that this was a winner! We put our constructing caps on and started designing the shape of the Taj. I approached Brendan with the theme idea. What better way to do so than by making a crossword that celebrated India? And what’s a more fitting icon than the Taj Mahal? That’s how the idea of this puzzle was born. Mangesh: When I immigrated from Mumbai to the United States last December, I was itching to remain connected to both my loves - crosswords and India.
It’s no easy task untangling the misdirection in its clue: “Golf alternative, in brief” refers not to the sport but to the car. This entry, which opens with three unusual consonants, is making its debut in the New York Times Crossword. “Fusilli shape”: Since this noodle is perhaps best known as the stuff Jerry Seinfeld is made of, we shouldn’t be surprised that its shape mimics that of the human genome: a HELIX.ģ0D. (Publishers of academic textbooks should really thank constructors for burnishing their industry with a popular crossword entry. publishing division” refers to textbooks that cover the elementary through high school years, known among educators as ELHI. Another way to refer to a “Knockout punch” in a fight might be to call it a LETHAL BLOW, though this strikes me (get it?) as a bit of word salad I’d use “fatal blow.”ĥ1A. For anyone feeling similarly shut out: An EXACTA involves betting on two horses to place in a specific (or exact) order.ģ1A. I’m no sports gambler, so this “Certain racetrack bet” - specifically the EXACTA, in horse racing - was lost on me. A happy Indian Independence Day, indeed! Tricky CluesĢ7A. The constructors even manage to honor its builder, the Mughal emperor SHAH JAHAN (38D). It’s an utterly brilliant reveal worthy of the architectural colossus, including the central gray-shaded structure flanked by FOUR (58D) of 69A’s “Architectural features depicted by this puzzle’s vertical circled letters,” known as MINARETS, and the neat achievement of a TOMB (75A) at the structure’s foundation.
(Initially, I mistakenly assumed it was the Empire State Building.)īoth 3-Down and 67-Down narrow the location of the tower in question with identical clues that read “Home to the monument depicted in this puzzle.” The first is INDIA and the second is AGRA, which together lead us to a likely conclusion affirmed by the arching circled letters around the ONION DOME (41D): We are looking at the TAJ MAHAL. By cracking a few easy ones, however, everything else comes into focus, and there are a lot of details to take in.Īt 12-Down, “Architectural feature depicted between 7- and 8- Down” points us to a slightly thickened border between squares that looks a lot like the SPIRE of some kind of grand structure. Clues are peppered throughout the grid and many are dependent on one another. The sheer density of today’s theme deserves an award. Let’s connect the dots together, shall we? Today’s Theme It also makes for a doozy of a Wednesday.
While this puzzle is not the first to showcase a shape or an image in its grid, the detail with which these constructors have embedded the features of their theme among the squares and circled letters is a feat to behold. Today’s crossword, constructed by Mangesh Ghogre and Brendan Emmett Quigley, brings this whimsical art form to mind. These are typographical poems that when seen at a distance resemble the images they describe in their verses. WEDNESDAY PUZZLE - Every so often in a book of poetry, you may happen across what’s known as a calligram.
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