Thursday, March 28, 2024

Solution to Evan Birnholz’s Dec. 25 crossword, “Santa’s Workshop”



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On Nov. 7, friends-of-the-show Grace Topinka and Chelsea Rowan had been discussing, on their podcast “Two Girls One Crossword,” some puzzles they’d solved round Halloween they usually introduced up my “Haunted House” meta suite from 2021. Grace had talked about that there was no requirement that I write one yearly, however nonetheless she hoped she would have one other probability to resolve a multi-puzzle suite of that kind. That’s about once I obtained to work planning “Santa’s Workshop.” Christmas would fall on a Sunday this 12 months, as Halloween did final 12 months, so it felt like the precise time for a particular selection puzzle.

Just a few weeks later, on Nov. 30, I used to be about 70 p.c completed with the suite once I obtained a telephone name from my editor Mitch Rubin. He gave me the beautiful news that the Dec. 25 problem of The Washington Post Magazine could be the ultimate one. I had no concept how to proceed on this puzzle, or any puzzle for that matter, after listening to that. For a couple of hours I even thought of shelving “Santa’s Workshop” till subsequent 12 months for a few causes. I wasn’t in a position to get a two-page unfold in The Magazine like I’d initially hoped, which meant I’d have to condense a complete suite of puzzles onto one web page, and that was powerful sufficient. Just as importantly, I didn’t know if my copy editor would nonetheless be checking it.

Ultimately, I made a decision to end the suite and submit it now. There would by no means be one other ultimate problem of The Washington Post Magazine, so this was the time to do it.

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If you haven’t gotten an opportunity to resolve “Santa’s Workshop” but, you could find it right here.

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The directions on the high learn:

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The elves on the North Pole have misplaced a number of letters written to Santa. Your job is to assist them discover these lacking letters to allow them to end their work for the vacations. The first three puzzles will every yield a six- or seven-letter secret present, and this can turn out to be useful for the ultimate puzzle.

So, identical to with “The Haunted House,” you’ll want to full every puzzle and discover the key meta solutions for the primary three puzzles. The distinction with “Santa’s Workshop” is that not one of the puzzles are commonplace crosswords. These are selection puzzles, a number of of which you could find in such shops because the Wall Street Journal and Games World of Puzzles, however the ones on this suite have their very own twist.

Marching Bands is a sort of selection puzzle invented by Mike Shenk, editor of the Wall Street Journal crossword. The puzzle is split into Rows and Bands, with two solutions in every Row positioned aspect by aspect, whereas the Bands solutions are entered one after one other, beginning in a lettered sq. (A, B, C, or D), winding across the Band, clockwise, and ending on the sq. proper beneath the lettered sq.. You can discover one other instance of a Marching Bands that Mike wrote for the WSJ here.

A standard technique in fixing a Marching Bands is to begin with simple Rows clues and use them to cause out the place to enter the Bands solutions. The second clue of Row 3 is [Reduce, ___, Recycle], a reasonably fundamental clue for REUSE, and that leaves you with a four-letter reply that precedes it with the clue [Border]. guess for that’s EDGE. Entering these two solutions in Row 3 will present you the reply to the primary clue of Band C [Actor Richard] is GERE.

You have to watch out on this Marching Bands, although. The second clue of Band C is [Small issue to “pick”] which must be NIT, however the letters from EDGE and REUSE in Row 3 provide you with GERE after which a phrase by some means starting with U in Band C. Something seems to be flawed.

This is the place the introductory notice to the suite would possibly provide you with an aha second. You understand how your activity is to discover the lacking letters that the elves misplaced? You’ll discover a number of of them on this puzzle. The Rows solutions are all regular, however seven letters within the Bands have to be ignored for his or her clues to make sense.

  • Band A, 2nd clue: [Go through a novel] is READ, skipping over a T, which makes the reply seem like TREAD.
  • Band A, sixth clue: [Actress Blanchett] is CATE, stopping earlier than an R, which makes the obvious reply CATER.
  • Band C, 2nd clue: [Small issue to “pick”] is NIT, skipping over a U, which makes the obvious reply UNIT.
  • Band C, 4th clue: [Former amateur] is PRO, stopping earlier than an M, which makes the obvious reply PROM.
  • Band B, 2nd clue: [Hive insect] is BEE, stopping earlier than a P, which makes the obvious reply BEEP.
  • Band B, third clue: [Fit for a king or queen] is REGAL, stopping earlier than an E, which makes the obvious reply REGALE.
  • Band A, 4th clue: [Tug of war need] is ROPE, skipping over a T, which makes the obvious reply TROPE.

The skipped letters from the Bands, from high to backside, spell out TRUMPET. That’s a present you would possibly count on in the event you’re concerned in marching bands, and it’s the primary secret reply.

Checkered Flag is a range puzzle type that I invented seven years in the past, although till now I’d solely written two puzzles of this kind. One of them appeared on my previous Devil Cross web site here, and the opposite was a part of a meta suite for the primary Indie 500 Crossword Tournament in 2015.

Where regular crosswords function phrases that cross at one letter every, the solutions in a Checkered Flag cross at two letters every. The solutions are entered in a zigzag formation; Rows solutions run throughout and take up two strains of horizontal squares, and Columns solutions run down and take up two strains of vertical squares. (Side notice: Back in 2015, I’d used the clue headings Zigs and Zags since that felt like a whimsical manner of describing the solutions, however I made a decision to simplify issues this time round with Rows and Columns as an alternative.)

Just like with the Marching Bands puzzle, the Rows and Columns solutions must be entered one after the opposite. In Row 1, the primary clue is [Visibly sad (2 wds.)] which is IN TEARS, and the second clue in the identical Row is [Living spaces] is HOMES. So you’d enter IN TEARS within the squares (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) and HOMES in squares (8, 9, 10, 11, 12) in zigzagging style. From there, you possibly can see that the primary reply in Column 1 has the clue [Member of a 16th-century Peruvian empire] begins with IN-, which might permit you to enter INCA in squares (1, 2, 13, 14) zigzagging down.

Similarly, as with the Marching Bands puzzle, there are some trick letters (all within the Columns) which might be lacking:

  • Column 2, clue 1: [Conclusions] is ENDS, ignoring a beginning T, so it seems within the grid as TENDS.
  • Column 5, clue 1: [___-pedi] is MANI, ignoring a beginning O, so it seems within the grid as OMANI.
  • Column 1, clue 2: [Ahead of schedule] is EARLY, ignoring a beginning Y, so it seems within the grid as YEARLY.
  • Column 2, clue 2: [Poetic tributes] is ODES, ignoring a beginning C, so it seems within the grid as CODES.
  • Column 3, clue 3: [Martial arts star Bruce] is LEE, ignoring a beginning A, so it seems within the grid as ALEE.
  • Column 5, clue 2: [Spanish word for “hand”] is MANO, ignoring an ending R, so it seems within the grid as MANOR.

These lacking letters in top-to-bottom order spell out the second secret present, TOY CAR. While I’m not a NASCAR or Formula One fan, I think about many followers of each performed with toy automobiles once they had been youngsters.

It’s price a notice right here that I’m more than happy that Amuse Labs might assist me develop a handy on-line fixing possibility for the Checkered Flag.

The third puzzle within the suite is one other selection crossword invented by Mike Shenk: a Labyrinth puzzle. Here, the solutions proceed in Rows and alongside winding Paths. Labyrinth puzzles have a tendency to begin within the upper-left nook and wind all the way in which round, ending within the house beneath that upper-left sq., however I made a decision to start at sq. 1 in that upper-left nook and finish within the lower-right nook at sq. 99. Once once more, you could find an instance of a separate Labyrinth puzzle from the Wall Street Journal here in the event you’d like to strive it.

The puzzles on this suite all function equally in that you’ve Rows solutions positioned aspect by aspect and also you want to use them to assist you determine the place the crossing solutions go. It’s no totally different within the Labyrinth. Row 3, clue 2: [Singer Morissette] is ALANIS, which suggests the primary reply in that row has 5 letters. With the clue [Tale told at bedtime], that’s a reasonably simple clue for STORY. If you possibly can determine that Row 2, clue 1: [Vibrations in the ground] is TREMORS, that may go a great distance to figuring out the primary reply within the Path: [1991 military code name (2 wds.)] is DESERT STORM.

Just like the primary two puzzles, you’ve to be careful for lacking letters, and this time they’re all within the Paths:

  • Path clue 2: [Bones in a cage] is RIBS, ignoring a beginning C, so it seems within the grid as CRIBS.
  • Path clue 4: [Arrived] is CAME, ignoring an ending O, so it seems within the grid as CAMEO.
  • Path clue 9: [Photo ___ (PR events)] is OPS, ignoring a beginning M, so it seems within the grid as MOPS.
  • Path clue 11: [Highest poker card] is ACE, ignoring a beginning P, so it seems within the grid as PACE.
  • Path clue 14: [Like adorable animals] is CUTE, ignoring a beginning A, so it seems within the grid as ACUTE.
  • Path clue 15: [Chat] is TALK, ignoring a beginning S, so it seems within the grid as STALK.
  • Path clue 17: [Odds’ opposite in math] is EVENS, ignoring a beginning S, so it seems within the grid as SEVENS.

The lacking letters from high to backside spell COMPASS, a present which may turn out to be useful in the event you had been misplaced in a labyrinth or a maze of some type. (And sure, I do know there’s a difference between a labyrinth and a maze — a labyrinth has one steady path and a maze has a number of branching paths that may lead to lifeless ends.)

The final puzzle is a sort of puzzle that’s usually named Packing Crates, which was invented by Patrick Berry. This time it makes use of the identical concept, however with the holiday-appropriate title “Gift Boxes.” The solutions on this selection crossword proceed in Rows and Boxes. Instead of a winding sample like in a Marching Bands or a Labyrinth, the Box solutions are entered left-to-right, top-to-bottom in rectangular- and square-shaped packing containers.

If you solved this puzzle in print, the difficult component is that you’ve to decide the place every Box goes utilizing restricted information. The Box clues are ordered alphabetically by reply and the reply lengths are given, however in any other case you’ve to use the Rows solutions to assist you determine the precise location of every Box. If you solved this puzzle on-line, part of the problem was eliminated: It reveals you the positions of the totally different Boxes from the beginning, though you don’t know precisely which Box reply goes the place. In any occasion, Gift Boxes can nonetheless be solved utilizing a synergy of the Rows solutions, logic, persistence and time.

It additionally comes with some extra detailed directions which might be related to the general meta reply to the suite:

When the puzzle is full, eight unboxed letters will provide you with a touch to discovering the three secret items on this grid. The squares of every of those items will inform you the place you could find Santa’s four-word message within the first three puzzles.

So, in the event you’ve crammed within the grid accurately, it ought to seem like this:

You’ll discover that eight unboxed (and unclued) letters spell out the phrase DIAGONAL. This is a touch to discovering the three secret items on this puzzle Can you notice TRUMPET, TOY CAR and COMPASS hiding within the grid diagonally? They’re proper right here:

We’re supposed to use these hidden diagonal phrases to discover Santa’s four-word phrase hidden within the first three puzzles, so what will we do with this information?

You’ve most likely seen that each sq. on this selection suite has its personal quantity — that is an uncommon function even for the range puzzles that you simply see right here. The numbers within the squares of the diagonal TRUMPET, TOY CAR and COMPASS are the keys to discovering the general meta reply. Look on the identical numbers for every of those solutions of their respective puzzles:

  • The diagonal TRUMPET within the ultimate puzzle has the numbers (4, 15, 26, 37, 48, 59, 70). Take the squares with the identical numbers in Puzzle 1: Marching Bands.
  • The diagonal TOY CAR within the ultimate puzzle has the numbers (1, 12, 23, 34, 45, 56). Take the squares with the identical numbers in Puzzle 2: Checkered Flag.
  • The diagonal COMPASS within the ultimate puzzle has the numbers (31, 42, 53, 64, 75, 86, 97). Take the squares with the identical numbers in Puzzle 3: Labyrinth.

The corresponding squares, from Puzzle 1 by Puzzle 3, spell out Santa’s four-word message to you: IT’S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.

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Before I wrap issues up, I’ve a number of folks to thank for his or her help. I had an enormous variety of test-solvers since one can’t be too cautious with a range meta suite. In alphabetical order: Richard Allen, Patrick Blindauer, Neville Fogarty, Amy Goldstein, Giovanni P., Paolo Pasco, Karen Spencer, and Quiara Vasquez. (Quiara, by the way in which, is among the two editors, together with Gavin Byrnes, who will likely be working the modern puzzle subscription service Crucinova starting in January, 2023. Check that out in the event you like fixing some uncommon crosswords that you simply gained’t usually see in a newspaper.) Alex Boisvert helped me develop a digital puzzle file for the Checkered Flag crossword, and Srishti Agarwal and the workforce at Amuse Labs labored arduous to adapt the suite for fixing on The Post’s web site.

There’s yet one more particular person I want to acknowledge. Remember how I stated that I thought of shelving this suite till subsequent 12 months as a result of I didn’t know if my copy editor could be accessible to examine it? That’s Jenny Abella. She has been my copy editor since I began writing puzzles for The Washington Post seven years in the past. When the news got here that The Post Magazine could be ending, it meant that Jenny was dropping her job at The Post. I’ve seldom labored with anybody who has the extent of persistence and professionalism that Jenny does. She saved me each time I had typos or factually incorrect clues, and I made loads of them over time. She helped make my puzzles higher by forcing me to rethink and tighten clues that didn’t fairly work. Despite studying the arduous news from Nov. 30, she nonetheless reviewed and checked “Santa’s Workshop” identical to she had each different Post puzzle of mine since 2015.

Even after ending the suite, the ultimate meta reply IT’S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE appeared like a bittersweet conclusion, virtually prefer it had been a message that The Magazine would proceed on in spite of everything, or that there could be higher news for the employees of The Magazine and, in my case, Jenny particularly. My personal message of hope is that she and everybody from The Magazine who’re on the lookout for work will land someplace on their toes. Any news group could be fortunate to have them.

Thanks for studying. I’ll see you in 2023 with new puzzles.



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