I'm not really even a crossword person

but I *am* easily galvanized into an obsessive weekend activity

!!! Here is a crossword puzzle I created ⬆

I spent many hours this week doing this, even though I’m really not that into crosswords. So allow me to explain:

I am around the NYT crossword very peripherally and my general impression is that they appear to be testing a very specific set of knowledge, using a bank of common crossword clues that an avid puzzler can begin memorizing after enough exposure. These clues seem to be picked from an arbitrary canon set by a small, homogenous group of people. Like anything created by a human, crossword puzzles come with the prejudices, blind spots, and preferences of the person who crafted them. (A quick Google Search yielded an Atlantic article on this very topic.) And this week, I saw an ignorant clue in a NYT crossword related to Chinese food, and let’s just say that was all the inspiration I needed…

So I fell into a several-hour trance and crafted my own crossword off of my own hyper-specific universe of knowledge, interests, and perspective. I didn’t look up the rules or conventions, I kind of just went with what seemed right. (I was later informed that crossword puzzles don’t generally allow for 2-letter words, letters that are only attached to one word, or an even-number grid like my 12x12 but rules are for breaking? slash I made this puzzle already and I’m not starting over!!). A-NY-WAY this was my first draft:

and mrcoles created a Figma template for me to fiddle with so that I could make the thing pretty and fun to fill out.

😈 **SPOILER ALERT: ANSWERS BELOW** 😈

😈 **SPOILER ALERT: ANSWERS BELOW** 😈

😈 **SPOILER ALERT: ANSWERS BELOW** 😈

😈 **S

P

O

I

L

E

R

A

L

E

R

T:

A

N

S

W

E

R

S

B

E

L

O

W**

😈

funny that I didn’t even really put much reference to Chinese food in the end, but oh well next time: