Meet Jeffrey Martinovic: The Young Puzzle Maker

Have you ever stayed up late, tossing and turning, until an idea struck you? That's exactly what happened to Jeffrey Martinovic, a mechanical engineering student from Western University in London, Ontario. Jeffrey found his love for crosswords at a young age, helping his mom solve the daily puzzles. He was captivated by how the answers could interlock perfectly, and this fascination led him to create his own puzzles in high school. Recently, Jeffrey made his debut with his first solo Sunday puzzle for The New York Times. He had previously collaborated with Jeff Chen last year, but this time, it was all his own work. What's so special about Jeffrey's latest puzzle? Well, it has a clever trick that might make you scratch your head. The puzzle's theme revolves around three sets of intersecting entries, each creating a cross pattern with circled squares. These crosses appear in entries like 9-Down and 45-Across, 44-Down and 104-Across, and 48-Down and 92-Across. To give you a hint, there are also verbal clues at 3-Down, 15-Down, and 94-Across. Let's dive into one of these intersections. For instance, if you come across 48-Down, which is a title given out annually in New Orleans, you might think of the Mardi Gras reference QUEEN OF CARNIVAL. This answer uses circled squares with the letters C-A-R-N. It intersects with 92-Across, which describes many video game characters as PLAYABLE. Here, the letters Y-A-B-L-E are circled. At first, you might not see the connection between these letters. But once you spot the pattern, it becomes clear.