10.23.11 — Alea Iacta Est

A collage of the six New York Times Crosswords

 by Patrick Berry edited by Will Shortz

appearing the week of October 17 to 22, 2011.

Alea iacta est (Latin: "The die has been cast") is a Latin phrase attributed by Suetonius (as iacta alea est ['jakta 'aːlea est]) to Julius Caesar on January 10, 49 BC as he led his army across the River Rubicon in Northern Italy. With this step, he entered Italy at the head of his army in defiance and began his long civil war against Pompey and the Optimates.

Caesar Crossing the Rubicon,
from “Figures de L’Historie de la Republique Romaine”

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Monday through Saturday, October 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 2011

Puzzles by Patrick Berry / Edited by Will Shortz

All the puzzles of the above-mentioned week, from Monday to Saturday, were created by one person, Patrick Berry. The solver was asked to have the solutions handy on Saturday because that puzzle concealed a meta-challenge involving the solution grids of all six. The solver was further urged to e-mail the answer to the meta-challenge to  crossword@nytimes.com. Twenty-five correct solvers, chosen at random, whose entries were received by 6 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, Oct. 23, would receive copies of “Will Shortz Picks His Favorite Puzzles: 101 of the Top Crosswords From The New York Times.

The final crossword of the six puzzles appeared on Saturday, October 22^nd and contained the answer/clue at 23-Across, “Find contest’s meta-answer by reading THE FIRST LETTERS of these clues“, e.g., “THE CORNERS OF THIS WEEK’S GRIDS READ IN ORDER SPELL A FAMOUS LEADER AND HIS CROSSING WORDS”.

Further, at 42-Across, “Solvers must FILL EVERY CIRCLE in the grids to determine the grids’ proper order” (in this instance, a “circle” is the letter “O”, placed in the six puzzles as pips on dice). Each corner is read through the order of the six crosswords, upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right producing JULIUS CAESAR, THE DIE IS CAST.

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Click on image to enlarge

Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES Crossword Puzzles and Games.