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MITMH2022
Public Access

Heavenly Bodice

Plot Device

The storied Heavenly Bodice is constructed from fabric prepared according to the following directives, passed down since time immemorial:

  1. Correctly assemble the eight intermixed, pre-patterned 5x5 fabric squares (once each) into the two 10x10 square racks (the 5x5 squares may be rotated but not flipped, and thick lines may overlap other adjacent thick lines in whole or in part, but are not required to do so -- that is, thick lines may overlap thick or thin lines, and vice versa; where two thick lines overlap, they appear as a single thick line; also, there are no stray thick lines inside of any region -- every thick line is part of a region's outer boundary);
  2. Decorate each assembled 10x10 fabric with Heavenly Stars, placing exactly 2 in each row, column, and outlined region (but no more than one per small square, and starred squares cannot touch, not even diagonally);
  3. Further decorate each assembled and starred 10x10 fabric by placing a single letter in, or blacking out, each 1x1 square such that:
    1. the rows, reading across, and columns, reading down -- in order -- answer the instructed clues when skipping over (that is, ignoring) the black squares, and
    2. the black squares do not form a 2x2 black square anywhere (but otherwise may touch or appear in any configuration).

Rack 1

rack 1; a 10x10 grid

(Exactly two of the outlined regions in Rack 1 contain the same number of squares, and exactly one of those regions touches the bottom border of the 10x10 square.)

Rack 2

rack 2; a 10x10 grid

(The largest outlined region in Rack 2 touches the top border of the 10x10 square, and is smaller than the largest outlined region in Rack 1.)



RACK 1 INSTRUCTIONS (AFTER FABRIC IS ASSEMBLED AND STARS HAVE BEEN ADDED)

Across

  1. App co-founded by Jordan Murray for use by hospitality professionals to fill vacant shifts; alternatively, an abbreviation often seen on a vitamin bottle or a volume of reported federal trial court decisions
  2. Jetsons’ dog
  3. Violent North African sandstorm
  4. Adverb meaning in a showy, pretentious, or possibly Bohemian manner
  5. One who has been canonized
  6. Overhyped garment in The Lorax
  7. Proverbial result of haste
  8. Mononymous Iranian singer (formerly for the Pahlavi Royal Family court) whose first name by birth is Abdolhassan
  9. Short, descriptive poem about pastoral matters (not its shorter variant spelling)
  10. Shaggy Tibetan beasts of burden

Down

  1. Sparkling, white, low-alcohol Italian wine (sometimes followed by Spumante)
  2. Palindromic Iranian leaders
  3. Furthest from the hole, and thus next to play, in golf
  4. Isolated single hair or thread
  5. The quality of being situated, or “whereness” (from the Latin for “where”)
  6. Slang for a full vessel of tea or coffee, by analogy to “cuppa” (and similarly extending a 3-letter word), or a village in India at the junction of major roadways 61 and 544
  7. Pea-sized gland in the brain that secretes melatonin
  8. Decomposes or decays
  9. Superficial chat, in Britspeak (Americans are more likely to replace the initial past-related adjective with the word “small”) (2 wds)
  10. Jonathan and Will’s surname on Stranger Things

RACK 2 INSTRUCTIONS (AFTER FABRIC IS ASSEMBLED AND STARS HAVE BEEN ADDED)

Across

  1. Smart or rather luminous
  2. Ladybugs, weevils, and scarabs
  3. Plot of land
  4. Retired German tennis star Anke
  5. Crossword-friendly actress Ward
  6. Put the worm back on the hook
  7. 1980’s slogan on bumper stickers and buttons by NOW and others, calling for a vote in favor of a proposed change to the Constitution for gender parity (2 wds)
  8. 1974 top 10 hit whose title in English means "You Are" (2 wds)
  9. Solvent formerly used as an anesthetic
  10. Apothecary measure equaling 1/8 of an ounce or 60 drops

Down

  1. Bingo call that might be mistaken for Niacin (2 wds or hyph)
  2. blanc (traditional seafood sauce)
  3. Move, as an airline passenger or theatergoer
  4. Macy Gray’s only Billboard Top 40 hit, for which she won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2001 (2 wds)
  5. Chattered on and on
  6. Pet’s collar attachment
  7. Cobbler or obedient dog, at times
  8. Sad in Strasbourg or Seville
  9. Prefix (meaning “down”) for comb, log, or tonic
  10. Drang counterpart