THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
by Dan Katz
Solution: COLUMNED
As noted in one of the clues (the one which goes in the shaded squares) the grid for this puzzle is supposed to be viewed on the surface of a Klein bottle; this is accomplished by identifying the top edge with the bottom edge, and the left edge with the right edge upside down. Thus, the vertical columns loop around once and return to where they started, and the horizontal rows loop around twice and return to where they started.
Each series of clues has answers that overlap by one letter, forming a chain. That chain can be placed in one of the aforementioned horizontal or vertical loops to fill the grid. When this is done, the word COLUMNED (the puzzle answer) can be read down the main diagonal from upper-left to lower-right.
| I | A | A | R | R | P | R | R | |||||||||
| E | C | I | M | A | T | E | D | E | S | D | E | M | O | N | A | L |
| A | B | E | E | E | W | M | F | |||||||||
| T | H | W | O | R | M | A | R | G | A | R | I | T | A | R | T | W |
| O | V | P | E | B | N | N | E | |||||||||
| H | O | D | E | E | L | E | D | E | R | O | G | A | T | E | D | E |
| T | R | A | R | A | R | E | E | |||||||||
| I | S | T | R | A | R | O | U | G | H | N | E | S | S | U | B | S |
| I | E | E | M | A | A | T | U | |||||||||
| S | T | R | A | T | A | L | M | A | M | A | T | E | R | E | G | I |
| U | C | L | E | A | E | I | A | |||||||||
| E | P | T | H | O | M | E | R | I | C | Y | N | I | C | A | T | H |
| R | O | E | I | H | O | T | O | |||||||||
| W | O | R | K | L | E | I | N | B | O | T | T | L | E | A | R | T |
| S | U | R | G | V | E | S | E | |||||||||
| L | A | R | M | A | K | E | O | V | E | R | S | A | T | E | D | E |
| I | A | A | R | R | P | R | R |
CHAINS
* American blues song type, or pretentious nonsense -
HOKUM
Dance name yelled out during West Side Story -
MAMBO
Stretch too far for something - OVERREACH
* Citizen Toxie studio - TROMA
Pays to play - ANTES
Most severe in discipline - STRICTEST
* Cocktail with tequila and salt - MARGARITA
Sculpture or paintings - ARTWORK
Topological surface on which you should visualize
this puzzle's grid - KLEIN BOTTLE
Animated character voiced by David Thewlis -
EARTHWORM
* Dogg's Hamlet, ________ MacBeth -
CAHOOT'S
Ab-strengthening rep - SITUP
Not written in verse - PROSAIC
* Drawn up again, as blueprints - REDRAFTED
Eliminate programming errors in - DEBUG
Animal that might be mistaken for a croc - GATOR
* Epic, like The Iliad or The Odyssey -
HOMERIC
Opposite of an idealist - CYNIC
Battery terminal - CATHODE
Hunted congers - EELED
Caused to seem inferior - DEROGATED
Length and width complement - DEPTH
* Gushing, as a volcano - SPEWING
Increase - GREATEN
They're taken during lectures - NOTES
* Mary Callahan's position - REGISTRAR
Property of sandpaper or stormy seas - ROUGHNESS
Layers beneath the surface soil - SUBSTRATA
Official school song - ALMA MATER
* Rock percussionist - DRUMMER
Rock percussionist Starr - RINGO
Asked for in a restaurant - ORDERED
* Silent _____ (2005 rock critic fave) -
ALARM
Processes applied to faces or houses on reality TV -
MAKEOVERS
Fed sufficiently - SATED
Reduced drastically - DECIMATED
Character killed by Othello in Act V - DESDEMONA
* Timon, for one - MEERKAT
Knight of a religious military order - TEMPLAR
Kingdom or sphere - REALM
* Virile like Randy Savage - MACHO
Across the ocean, to a Brit - OVERSEA
Lincoln or Simpson - ABRAHAM