Art Heist! My Sun crossword in the NYT (12/15)
What went into creating this caper!
In this newsletter:
Art Heist! The Paintings Have Been Stolen!
Puzzle & Magic Gifts
New show! Mentalist vs. the Machine trailer
[Spoiler] - The Making of Art Heist
The Paintings Have Been Stolen!
Dearest Conjurors and Cruciverbalists,
I am excited to share a Sunday puzzle with you all. A master thief has pulled off an art heist! It’s in print in the New York Times magazine and in your app now. Or click here to solve it in the browser. And this just in: the Times provided a free PDF of the puzzle as well.
The last section of this newsletter contains a very fun peek into how this puzzle came together. I’ve placed it at the end so as not to spoil.
Puzzle & Magic Gifts
Tis the season for puzzley fun!
An exclusive offer for my Enigmatology readers: I’d be happy to autograph copies of How to Fool Your Parents for you! Either Amazon them to me and I’ll ship it back to you, or buy it from me outright. Send me an email at info@misdirectorsguild.com to arrange. I’m happy to report that How to Fool Your Parents is now in its fourth printing!
Enigmas: Puzzle Hunt Playing Cards. Included within this unique deck are four very special puzzle cards. Solve them all to unlock an online Puzzle Hunt! Available here or send me an email.
Custom New York Times-style crosswords. Lately I’ve been designing crosswords for weddings, birthdays and other occasions. If you’d like a special crossword for the word nerd in your life, please email me to inquire: info@misdirectorsguild.com
Mentalist vs. The Machine
I’m thrilled to share with you the trailer for my brand new show and talk Mentalist vs. The Machine, which explores the Magic of AI.
“Mentalist vs. The Machine” pits my magic and mentalism against the latest technology. I also draw on my TED Talks about the meaning of wonder in the age of AI, and ultimately how our human potential is at the center of all technology. 💫
I hope to perform it for you or your company soon! Enjoy — there are a few fun tricks in this video!
[Spoiler] The Making of Art Heist
I’m glad you came down to the end of this newsletter to find out more. Welcome! Here’s a little bit on how I constructed the Art Heist.
First, here are the answers. Again, avert your eyes if you want to solve! The hidden paintings/artists are rebuses that go across e.g. MARYHA(DALI)TTLELAMB. And in those same squares, going down, are ten pieces of evidence that the thief left behind — the letters of I WAS FRAMED. 😊 Here is the grid from xwordinfo.com:
The rebuses are as follows:
EAST(ERN ST)ANDARD TIME (21A: Winter setting in New England)
"(GO, YA)NKEES!" (33A: Bronx cheer)
BUENOS AIRE(S, ARGENT)INA (35A: Capital on the Rio de la Plata)
BO(DEGAS) (53A: Neighborhood grocery stores)
HOO(KAH LO)UNGE (64A: Bar with hashish pipes)
FRO(M ONE T)O TEN (71A: Common scale range)
SM(OKE EFFE)CTS (77A: Fog and haze generated for a theatrical production)
REGISTERED DIE(TITIAN) (101A: Health professional focused on nutrition)
STEA(M IRO)N (105A: Household appliance that makes a hissing sound)
"MARY HA(D A LI)TTLE LAMB" (118A: Classic nursery rhyme)
You can see this is an unusual “one-way” rebus, so to speak — the hidden artists’ names go only across and not down. I could have made a traditional rebus puzzle with DALI, MONET, DEGAS, etc., but I wanted to include KAHLO and O’KEEFFE for two reasons: 1) I wanted to add some diversity into the puzzle and 2) Those two names are hidden in the coolest ways — HOOKAH LOUNGE(!) and SMOKE EFFECTS(!!).
I was eager to make those two phrases work. So I used the down entries as a bit of “evidence” that the thief left behind, which was puzzle genius Mark Halpin’s idea. I came up with the 10-letter phrase I WAS FRAMED as a final, punny revealer, so I set out to squeeze 10 artists into the grid.
But a one-way rebus is hard to solve, so I decided to have the artists’ names scattered throughout the grid as their own entries. This way the solver would know what rebus to look for elsewhere in the puzzle. You might be interested to know that my original submission did not reference which Across answer contained the painting’s name (e.g., [Painting stolen from 118-Across]).
I really wanted to get Basquiat, Hokusai, Chagall and a host of other legendary artists in the puzzle, but there just weren't any phrases that contained those names. My wife, who went to the University of Michigan, is convinced that everyone should know who Bo Schembechler is (Go Blue!). But alas, Bosch didn't make it in the puzzle either.
Here is a spreadsheet of all the artists I was working with and various answers that didn't make the canvas.
Last, I have to point out that this is an “ARP-less” puzzle. That would have been too easy.
Events
Interested in booking me for your next event? More info here on private parties, corporate speaking & performances and team-building puzzle hunts.
Enjoyed the puzzle very much as I could use the artist name and the associated clue to move around. The final 10 allowed me to clean up the solution for the few spaces left. Went to The Enigmatist in NYC several years ago which was also great. Looking forward to your next show/puzzle
If the NYT Crossword app had just highlighted the “stolen” across answers with the related “painting” (also, using “painter” would have been clearer, but I get why it was done this way), it would have been a much more fun solve. Still enjoyed it!