Tao Platt author page
1 puzzle by Tao Platt
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 4 answer words debuted by Tao Platt.
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| E | R | S | E | R | O | B | E | R | T | M | I | A | ||
| S | C | A | N | D | I | N | A | V | I | A | I | N | N | |
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| L | O | W | N | E | S | S | F | I | N | L | A | N | D | |
| O | D | E | D | E | T | E | R | G | O | L | O | W | ||
| P | O | D | S | C | O | M | E | T | O | G | R | E | ||
| E | P | E | E | S | C | U | R | I | E | O | W | L | ||
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| A | X | E | N | O | R | D | I | C | C | R | O | S | S | |
| L | I | L | G | R | E | E | N | E | A | R | I | A | ||
| S | T | Y | S | T | E | W | E | D | H | A | M | M |
After decades of staring at country flags for various puzzlehunt puzzles, I'm embarrassed to have never realized that NORWAY, SWEDEN, FINLAND, and DENMARK's flags have something in common: the NORDIC CROSS. Fascinating to read up on the history behind it. I had no idea how many countries used it, either.
I'm still unclear why the NORDIC is a cross turned on its side, though. Don't our SCANDINAVIAn friends know about crossword rules? You can't make a sideways cross in black square grid art using regular symmetry unless you also include a reversed image (we've colorized the crosses below). The reversed cross is how 50% of flags appear, but it does look ... reversed.
Mirror symmetry (left-right) won't work, either.
Up-down symmetry would allow for a perfect NORDIC CROSS flag image, but Will Shortz does not care for up-down, saying it "just looks weird." To that, I say, turn your head 90 degrees, squint, get your eye drops, hop on one foot …
Okay, it is a bit weird.
However, I would have loved an exception today. Featuring a single middle NORDIC CROSS to mimic the flags would have been incredible.
FINLAND / NORWAY and DENMARK / SWEDEN interlock almost symmetrically. Not quite, though, so I wasn't enthralled by the prices to pay, notably ENTHRAL in an early-week puzzle (where there's already some oddballs like LOWNESS and EGGIEST).
I appreciate being gently nudged to learn more about the NORDIC CROSS. Cool idea, and with a central cross of black squares, this would easily have been this grid art fanatic's POW!