Tausig’s crossword is a so-called Schrödinger puzzle, named for the physicist’s hypothetical cat that is at once both alive and dead. In a Schrödinger puzzle, select squares have more than one correct letter answer: They exist in two states at once. “Black Halloween animal,” for example, could be both BAT or CAT, yielding two different but perfectly correct puzzles. Only 10 such puzzles have now been published in Times history.
It’s the theme of Tausig’s puzzle, though, that makes it special. Four entries in Thursday’s crossword can include either an “F” or an “M.” Both are correct; neither is wrong. For example, “Part of a house” can be either ROOF or ROOM. The long “revealer” answer, tying those select entries together and spanning 11 squares smack-dab in the middle of the puzzle, is GENDER FLUID.
This puzzle, with “M”s and “F”s that aren’t fixed, is a masterful blend of subject and structure. “It potentially really evokes what gender fluidity is, which is not moving back and forth between two poles, but actually not being committed to either pole, and potentially existing in many states at different times,” Tausig said.
This is … really cool.
i never really thought of crossword puzzles as an art form, but like… this is art.
a crossword puzzle based on schrodingers’ cat??? a phYSICS CONCEPT??? sign me tf up i love everything about this
when I was 11, my (black) neighbor witnessed my house being broken into. she called the police to report the crime. I came home from school and the robber was still inside. I personally watched as a man I didnt know walked out of my home with our stuff.
the police didnt show up for 3 days.
when they did, they told us there was nothing the could do because we “staged the house”. they claimed we hid our tv’s and valuables to make it look like more was actually stolen. they never asked for a description, never visited the neighbor who saw the break-in, anf as they left, they told us that stolen property is almost never recovered and we should “buy more and get on with [our] lives”.
…
when I was 23, I was dog-sitting for a (white) friend. her neighbor called the police and said there was a strange black man in her yard.
the police showed up in 5 minutes.
6 units, 12 officers, stormed the back yard as I was running around with the dog. some came through the house and I know for a fact that the front door was locked. they damaged around $5000 worth of property, took her dog to the pound, and me to jail.
my friend had to cut her trip short and drive 4 hours back to get me from jail and explain to police in person that she knew me. because “that could be anybody on the phone”. the neighbor was with her when she came. we had met several times before. she was neither embarrassed nor apologetic.
moral of the story?
too many of us have lived this. too many of us didn’t survive.
That’s actually why I made this post. My sister was staying at her bf’s house last year and they woke up at 3am and the house was on fire. They fled immediately and by that afternoon it had burned to the ground. He lost everything in that fire. Entire neighborhoods of my hometown burned completely to the ground last year.
And it’s not even like rural land it was like the SUBURBS.
This was my hometown last year. Because of wildfires started by lazy disgusting selfish people like the ones who throw cigarette butts out their windows.
This year again there are wildfires in California and you know damn well almost all these fires start by cigarette butts dropped by some lowlife piece of shit. My aunt posted yesterday that they had to evacuate and my dad posted pictures of smoke billowing that can be seen from his house.
That is SMOKE not clouds. SMOKE.
This is Lake County California this year once again most likely because you selfish fuckwits can’t dispose of your butts properly like a half decent human being.
If you throw cigarette butts on the ground I fucking hate you and you are selfish garbage and I hope you get COPD.
Fuck you.
Dude I’m so glad you posted this because I FUCKING HATE IT when people just casually toss cigarette butts out of car windows or on the ground I have like wanted to call the fucking police on people who have thrown burning butts out of the car in front of me because it is SO FUCKING DANGEROUS but nobody else seems to care except me so i am SO GLAD to see other people as pissed off about this shit as I always am
My blood fucking BOILS when people throw cigarette butts out their car window. You have no idea. It’s so fucking disgusting and selfish. Anyone who throws cigarette butts out the window is a filthy lowlife loser.
i just saw someone completely seriously, without a hint of irony, refer to it as “Q-slur Eye” and my intestines started melting like so many Salvador Dalí clocks
QueerGalaxies 