Solution: Splitting at the Seams
Answer: ROUGHPATCH
Written by Dawson Do
This puzzle appears to be a standard American crossword, but as solvers start filling in the entries, they will begin to realize that some of the entries are entered backwards. Two clues reference this. 1A refers to the lyric “Trying to solve a crossword and realizing there’s no right answer” from Taylor Swift’s song, Red. Indeed, clue 28D would read “The moment when you realize there are [no right] answers, since all [the right] answers [go left].” The forward reading entries and backward reading entries form two halves of the grid.
As clue 3D hints, you must stitch together the two split halves of the grid in order to reveal ten more words. These words are clued by the ten words at the bottom of the page.
The grid can be pushed back together closing single gap that separates the two halves. This reveals ten instances of a curtailment1.
Extracting these ten letters from the top to the bottom of the grid gives the answer: ROUGH PATCH
| Curtailment | Word | Clue | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOLA | MOLAR | Tooth | R |
| STERE | STEREO | Device | O |
| HIND | HINDU | Religion | U |
| BAN | BANG | Sound | G |
| HEART | HEARTH | Heater | H |
| POLY | POLYP | Growth | P |
| ORC | ORCA | Creature | A |
| CARA | CARAT | Unit | T |
| ANTI | ANTIC | Joke | C |
| MARS | MARSH | Biome | H |
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Although not essential to solving, a small detail is that these words alternate between going forwards and backwards. ↩
Author’s Notes
I wrote this puzzle all the way back in early August, but if I were to write it more recently, the theme probably would have been Kpop related or something. Next time.