Christina Iverson and Jeff Chen manage to cut a puzzle into 1,000 intricate pieces so we can put them all together again.
SUNDAY PUZZLE — Christina Iverson and Jeff Chen team up this week for a feat of grid architecture worthy of a nomination for the Pritzker Prize. You’ll see their grid has a sort of loaf-shape of white squares sitting at bottom center, completely walled off from the rest of the puzzle. That’s intentional. Another sign you might be in for an adventure? The instructions at the top.
When this puzzle is done, insert the five shaded jigsaw pieces into the box at the bottom to get a three-word phrase, reading across, for what jigsaw puzzles provide.
The shaded jigsaw pieces are scattered around the grid, and you are meant to fit them together, ultimately, to fill that little platform at the bottom. But first you have to solve the puzzle.
Tricky Clues
The clues here can be bewildering, frustrating or downright corny. In short, a blast. Try the bedeviling clue at 72A, “More like a dive bar or certain bread?”
This isn’t unexpected for a puzzle whose first answer is CRUST, but I had trouble reconciling the idea of bread with the concept of a hole in the wall. I flipped through my phone to consult a recent group text I’d had with my sisters about the bars we used to haunt during our respective college tours in Bloomington, Ind. Surely reviewing those dives would help. The chat had migrated from watering holes to the now-long-gone Rudi’s bakery and its addictive poppy seed cake. And therein was the answer I needed to 72A, SEEDIER, which describes both bars and bread, and a recipe to boot.
By contrast, 21A was “Axe target,” a seemingly simple clue. So, trees, right? Oaks? Not oaks. And not that kind of axe. The target of Axe, the brand name for a suite of overpowering men’s fragrance products, is ODOR. I didn’t realize that this line was still in existence. I remember keenly when my nephews discovered the cologne in adolescence and moved through a room like a pair of dueling weather fronts.
One clue to savor was 10D, “St. ___ University (Philadelphia school).” That would be St. Joseph’s, a place I’ve driven past many times. St. Joseph, in the Bible the human father of Jesus, is considered a patron saint of many causes — most amusingly, that of real estate transactions. It has been a belief (superstition?) that burying a St. Joseph figurine (some accounts advise planting it upside-down) in the yard of a home for sale will aid in the effort. This model, advertised as Earth-friendly and dubbed Ecojoe, comes in a kit. Often disclaimers are included indicating home sales are not guaranteed with purchase.
In the corny department is 79A, “Good name for an investor?” That would be IRA. Har-har.
And ample examples exist of playful interaction between clues that employ homonyms, such as 97D, “Apps made with jalapeños and cheese,” (POPPERS), not to be confused with 45A, “College app component,” (REC), for recommendation.
A tribute clue brings up the “Singer whom M.L.K. Jr. called the ‘queen of American folk music,’” ODETTA.
I loitered for quite a while at the corner of 56D and 74A, a treacherous address, asking passers-by for a four-letter word for “Steady” and a five-letter word for “Beehives, but not hornets’ nests.” The end of the four-letter-long down answer was the beginning of the answer running five letters across. I started with “combs” for beehives and my entries devolved from there into nonsensical combinations of letters. Because, for instance, 56D ends in a “U,” finding sensible words to attach to it was rough. At last, by trial and error, the empty squares resolved themselves into BEAU and UPDOS. Whew!
And last but not least, despite this crossword’s title and theme, as far as I know, Ms. Iverson and Mr. Chen wisely resisted the urge to clue anything as “gettin’ jiggy.”
Today’s Theme
In its broadest sense, this theme is clear from the title, but the devil lies in the execution, a great deal of thought and experimentation must have gone into this puzzle to get from the concept to the final product.
In the classic sense, the theme isn’t conventional, either. The theme clues march right down the center of the grid and take the form of a whimsical recipe for assembling the jigsaw puzzle.
27A advises: “First, you’re going to want to dump out the box and ___.” To get you started, I’ll give you this one — PICK UP THE PIECES. Let’s see how you do on the rest. I’ll give you an opening letter as a hint for each one.
40A suggests: “What’s most useful next is to ___.” (Starts with a G.)
57A instructs you to do something that’s borderline risky, especially with all of those cardboard pieces around: “To connect things up you’ll have to ___.” (Starts with a P.)
83A is a reminder that you are not powerless, even though there is only one of you vs. 1,000 puzzle pieces: “As you go, make sure you exercise your ___.” (Starts with an F.)
93A provides some reassurance: “With patience and perseverance you’re sure to ___.” (Starts with a G.)
Once you have come this far, you face another challenge. You must find the interlocking shaded shapes, or puzzle pieces and fit them into the isolated island at the bottom to eventually spell the three words that explain, somewhat unrealistically, what jigsaw puzzles give us. You will be using combinations that don’t look like much: MOER, for one. Just trust that you’re doing the right thing and check it twice.
In the end, you should have a stack of three words that read across but not down: PICTURE PERFECT MOMENTS. Wow! You did it.
Constructor Notes
CHRISTINA: This puzzle came very far from my initial idea! I wanted to make a domino-themed puzzle for my domino-obsessed son, with pieces that toppled over in the grid. I asked Jeff to work on the idea with me because he is so good at tricky concepts like this. We threw around all sorts of ideas. Sometimes an idea would seem great in writing, but when we’d try implementing it on a grid, it would be total chaos. We tried other moving parts ideas, like magnets, and eventually settled on this.
Initially, we had the puzzle in the middle with puzzle-related phrases around it, but once we settled on the idea of silly phrases describing putting a puzzle together, it made more sense to put them from top to bottom. I like the idea of someone yelling, “Come on, man, get it together!” at someone solving a jigsaw puzzle.
One entry that didn’t end up working because of mirror symmetry was “some assembly required,” which is a shame!
Our original grid didn’t have the puzzle piece outlines shown in the bottom, but it’s probably a good addition from the editors. We thought it was funny to imagine people getting out tiny scissors and trying to put the puzzle pieces together.
JEFF: Christina is being kind — some of my early concepts were worse than “total chaos.” Think John Nash in “A Beautiful Mind.” The pieces … didn’t all fit.
Want to Submit Crosswords to The New York Times?
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For tips on how to get started, read our series, “How to Make a Crossword Puzzle.”
Missing a Few Pieces?
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