Making a Fast Buck

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SUNDAY PUZZLE — Everyone should be so lucky as to have a next-level gift giver in their lives, the kind of person who takes genuine pleasure in thinking months ahead and obsessing over every detail about each present for each person in your family or social circle. The kind of person that ices homemade gingerbread cookies to look like every neighborhood dog for their dogwalker, or proudly tells you that they’ve found you the perfect Christmas present — in February.

This person, essentially, lets everyone else off the hook. You know that each package will be washi-taped and bedazzled, and its contents compulsive. (“You know that sweater you liked so much on that store we saw on that trip, but you wished it came in green? I made you one in green.”) You know that your efforts will fall short in comparison, so you might as well just wrap that book you’re regifting in some random tissue paper, toss it in a bag and move on with life.

This grid is one of those multidimensional gifts. Mary Lou Guizzo, one of its constructors, has a bent for “puzzle art” (she is the creator of an old favorite of mine, pegged to a similarly commercial holiday), and she’s been working on this for you for over a year. Jeff Chen, her worthy accomplice, seems to cheerfully provide logistical assistance in these cases with the knowledge that stress, while shortening one’s life, often makes it more interesting.

Today’s Theme

Break out the glitter pens! There’s a single rebus square that calls for a spot of color, at 22A (and referred to at 45D). There are also 26 (hint) circled squares that get connected for an overlay effect on a grid that itself is riddled with seasonally appropriate entries, as well as specific theme clues.

22A is one of those cryptic-ish clues with a reversed word in it. The “plot device in ‘The Shining’” is creepy little possessed Danny. Here’s the perfect little video to watch before bed, especially if your house is full of visiting children:

You’ll see that REDRUM doesn’t fit in four squares, uh oh! Fortunately, 45D, SHINY NOSE, is there to point you in the right direction; you’ll see that RED goes into the first square, in whatever form you choose (online, R or RED should fit; on paper you could use a sequin, or you could hang this puzzle on the tree off a red bulb, you do you).

There are also 26 (hint) circled squares that get connected for an overlay effect on a grid that itself is riddled with seasonally appropriate entries, as well as specific theme clues.

At 123A, you’re asked to enter the subject of the theme, RUDOLPH. You also get your connect-the-dots orders, which took me a moment to comprehend (until I grokked that the bubbles contained each letter in the alphabet, in sequence, to form an outline that’s a little artisanal, but definitely cervine — quite a trick on its own, I think.) The A that starts the sequence is a diagonal neighbor of the RED square at 22A.

44D is a reference to a Christmas standard from 1949, about the “buck” in question, by GENE AUTRY. It pairs with SHINY NOSE at 45D and its lyrics include the next two theme entries …

… 51D and 53D, “123A, in song”, which make a symmetrical pair: THE MOST FAMOUS / REINDEER OF ALL.

Once you’ve finished the grid completely, and connected those dots from A to Z, you could always find a few buff and brown colored pencils in your art stash to shade in the soaring, leaping lead reindeer you’ve already punctuated with a jaunty red nose. The finished product is fridge-worthy!

Tricky Clues

This grid included a generous pile of Christmas-y entries, including TREE, JINGLES, SAINT Nicholas, NORTH POLE, and SANTA. There may be more that — this puzzle put me in a pleasant holiday coma.

There weren’t too many killers otherwise, that would have been almost unfair, but a few things gave me pause:

57A: “Branded baby carriers”, to most who know what a baby carrier even is, can only mean SNUGLIS, so answering this clue wasn’t too difficult despite the entry not remotely looking like an English word (more like a Scandinavian term that sounds sweet but really means something like “square white bricks that are arranged on a birch shelf in one’s foyer and never touched”). First of all, this is a debut term, so I made a note of that; second of all, I wonder if SNUGLI isn’t a “genericized trademark” at this point like Dumpster or Velcro.

114A: “Actress Audrey from Amélie” had a funny perverse effect on my brain; I was enchanted by this movie when it came out (in 2001 — ouch), and I was sure I had seen this clue many times and the answer was “Tatou”. Well: apparently this winsome actress and photographer hereby makes her first appearance in the Times puzzle, and her last name is actually TAUTOU. “Tatou” has been an entry in the puzzle before, by the way, but as a colloquial term for a giant armadillo. Did you know there is also a screaming hairy armadillo? Wherever does the time go.

15D: “Notably nonunionized workers”. I realize that this clue — ELVES — probably belongs up in the semi-theme answer list, but as a union member I don’t get this clue. Do Ms. Guizzo and Mr. Chen think being in a union means that you just sit back and watch your boss make all the toys, harness up the fleet and schlep hither and yon? Or should I know that elves have terrible health insurance and 22-hour shifts?

21D: I thought this clue, “One of a dozen good things?”, must be one of the twelve days of Christmas from the song. It’s a cutie for any season, though, a GRADE A EGG.

48D: “Like Van Gogh, later in life” was a morbid touch to this festive grid; I got it from the crosses but it didn’t occur to me that we’d go there with ONE EARED.

96D: I realize that not everyone knows about the VICUNA, an adorable dog-sized “cousin of an alpaca”. I have had one on my Christmas list for many years, coincidentally.

Constructor Notes

MARY LOU: I originally contacted Jeff in November of last year about a reindeer themed Christmas puzzle with a dot to dot picture. We kicked many ideas back and forth. I mentioned the original eight reindeer as theme possibilities and Jeff suggested RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER which breaks into 13/13. He went off in one direction with the eight reindeer and I came up with the attached grid. We submitted both ideas to Will and heard back favorably from Joel on both grids but the picture grid having the edge. We were given the go-ahead to proceed with the fill and cluing.

Jeff did the grid reconstruction. It was quite a challenge, given the 26 fixed points of the picture (Joel mentioned that it felt incomplete without the Z) as well as the theme entries, to work clean fill around. About two months and numerous emails later we got word that the puzzle was in the queue.

I’m very excited to have another Christmas puzzle as well as a Sunday grid in the New York Times. Many thanks to Jeff, Will, Joel and Sam for assistance in bringing this puzzle to press. I hope you enjoyed your solving experience.

To Jeff: Looking at the other dot to dot puzzles, not too many had A->Z. One that did was an oversized grid giving it more room to breathe. You really should award yourself a POW for this one. ;-) I’m in awe of how many themers you got in there and still kept the fill clean.

JEFF: Given how much frustration and sleeplessness this grid caused me — I’ve never come closer to giving up on a puzzle — I doubt I’ll ever make another dot-to-dot. (Unless it just has two dots. Anyone have ideas for a LINE theme?)

Happy holidays!

What did you think?