02.19.09

Wormhole

Illustration depicting a wormhole

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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Puzzle by Kevin G. Der, edited by Will Shortz

There’s another world at the end of this crossword. Adding an extra letter in front of five entries constitutes today’s interrelated group of entries -- an extra E, X, T, R and A, heralded by EXTRA EXTRA (57A. Old street cry, or what’s in 18-, 23-, 34-, 42- and 51-Across). Left alone, those entries would read bay window, ray of hope, urban legend, adios amigos, and Wes Craven, but instead (with justifying clues) -- EBAY WINDOW (18A. What might have the heading “Collectibles” or “Toys & Hobbies”?); XRAY OF HOPE (23A. Optimistic scan at the dentist’s?); TURBAN LEGEND (34A. Story of Ali Baba?); RADIOS AMIGOS (42A. Transmit’s a message to Pancho and pals?); AWES CRAVEN (51A. Amazes a horror film director?). After completing the puzzle, I still had no idea what was extra -- it’s one of those!

It’s also holoalphabetic -- e.g., all the letters of the alphabet are included, not to be confused with a pangram which is a sentence of every letter of the alphabet.

If you like crosswords written by a computer that seems to slither out of a, well... wormhole, this one‘s for you! No LIE (40A. One may be caught in it)!

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For today’s cartoons, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.

For the complete post, go HERE.