Title: “Rise and Fall”
Prompt: A couple of trick-or-treaters are going around the neighborhood tonight, but they need a map to navigate the shortcuts and pitfalls of their quest. Who is this pair?
Answer: JACK AND JILL
Correct entries: 192

Most contest crosswords are short stories, but last week’s masterful guest meta from Chris King was a novella. And so complicated that explaining it is going to feel like writing a novella. Here we go…

Many hints to notice in the clues, but an obvious first one was at 93-A: [Number of even rows and even columns in this grid] = TEN.

That’s an unusual thing to point out, and true of every 21×21 grid, so let’s highlight those ten even-numbered rows and columns and see what happens:

Notice anything interesting? All 100 of the squares on both an even row and column are white squares. I often use the phrase “That can’t be a coincidence” when describing a point where you’re sure you’re on the right path, but this must be the most sure anyone has ever been (a math friend estimates the odds of this happening randomly at about 1 in 83 million).

So we’ve got these 100 squares, laid out in a 10×10 pattern. But now what? Well, there are a few more hints in clues in the grid, plus a circle in the upper-left and lower-left yet to be explained. So let’s look further…

…aha, here’s something. 1-Across is PARA clued as [Chute lead-in], and 121-Across is (Ladder lead-in) for STEP. And both of these clues are near the two circled squares in the grid…Hold on…chute? ladder? could we be playing the children’s board game Chutes & Ladders? Is it played on a 10×10 board? Yes and Yes!

Next step: plot the 100 extracted letters onto the classic Chutes and Ladders board (which is yellow-and-white, as hinted at by symmetric YELLOW BILE and WHITESNAKE), and you get this:

Adrenaline flowing! Which letters to take from these 100, and in what order? Well, let’s start with the ladder in the 1-square, and take all the starting and ending points of the ladders. So the letter in the 1-square is an L, and the letter in the 38 square, where that ladder ends is an N. The next ladder is in square 4, yielding an A, and ends in square 14, yielding an I. In full, those ladders are:

1-38 L N
4-14 A I
9-31 K C
21-42 E H
28-84 R O
36-44 S L
51-67 F S
71-91 A O
80-100 N N

So that’s LAKERS FAN NICHOLSON, which yields JACK, since actor Jack Nicholson is famously a Lakers fan. Now let’s do the same for the chutes:

16-6 D O
47-26 O F
49-11 C J
56-53 T O
62-19 O E
64-60 R B
87-24 W I
93-73 I D
95-75 F E
98-78 E N

And that’s DOCTOR WIFE OF JOE BIDEN, which yileds JILL, forming our contest answer JACK and JILL, who certainly had a “Rise and Fall” of their own on that darned hill.

This is one of the greatest metas I’ve ever seen. The first thing that came to mind when I solved this was: how long did it take to write? Chris mentioned in an e-mail: “I started it in 2019…”

jagoandlitefoot says:

bravo, chris! excellent meta with several aha moments. can’t have been easy to construct.

Andrew Bradburn writes:

Wow, what a concept and execution. Well done!

tshingler says:

So many aha moments! Loved it.

And finally, touchdown writes:

This meta was “As Good as it Gets”

Agreed! Incredible work, Chris. Bravo.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a 10-letter phrase.