Professor’s pandemic pastime featured in New York Times
As the COVID-19 pandemic held us all in place for a bit, many took up new hobbies and renewed old ones to fill the time. Wheaton Professor of Psychology Michael Berg returned to a love he developed when he was an undergraduate: crossword puzzles. Only this time, he began creating his own, drawing on skills he learned from a puzzle construction course he took—29 years ago. He has become so good at it that several of his crossword puzzles have been published in The Boston Globe and The New York Times.
We asked him to create the puzzle below using Wheaton tidbits as the inspiration for the questions and answers. Test your skills.
See the answers to the puzzle below.
Across
1. “B,” “D” or “EEE” on a shoebox
6. Touchdown, as a plane
10. Poses a question
14. Cherish, as your alma mater
15. Small matter in Introductory Physics
16. Wheaton’s “Taylor and ___” honors program
17. Wheaton performers who really “steel” the show?
19. “You’ve got to be joking!”
20. Swiss artist Paul
21. Actor Brynner
22. Pumpkin-like plant that can be made into an instrument
23. Wheaton performers whose humor can get really “cheeky”?
27. “Bravo!”
30. Star in Orion that anagrams to the offspring of a tiger and lion
31. Doughnut-shaped surface
32. Rains heavily
34. Fiscal executive: Abbr.
37. Make small talk
38. Got some Z’s
39. The “Big Easy,” in brief
40. Take more than one’s fair share
41. Separated
42. Indian spinach dish often served with paneer
43. Small bit of land in the sea
45. Birds associated with Poe
46. Wheaton group whose performers may also come together as one Trybe?
50. Culture’s beliefs and values, as you might discuss in an anthropology class
51. URL ending for many nonprofits
52. Island near Java
56. Healthy grain common in cereal and muffins
57. Wheaton performers who really click as a group?
60. Mosaic piece
61. A long time
62. 1/16 of a pound
63. “Do the Right Thing” pizzeria
64. Focal point in math or botany
65. Spring break and finals, for two
Down
1. One way to get on base (101 times for Jenna Rocha!)
2. Pastoral poem
3. Top of the old observatory, architecturally
4. Auditioned (for)
5. Farm female
6. An easy two points, in Haas
7. Coral island
8. Oui’s opposite
9. Private online chats: Abbr.
10. Cozy corner
11. Wheaton’s first president and chapel namesake
12. Brand in the soup aisle
13. Mails
18. Connecticut town associated with a tick-borne illness
22. Jobs for a band
24. Tax agency
25. Blow, like a volcano
26. Gossip, in slang
27. Participate in ART 315 (making prints using a metal plate)
28. Neighborhood in Manhattan or London
29. Residence adjacent to Emerson Dining
32. Guy in Philosophy 101 every semester
33. “___ the land of the free…”
35. Caramel pudding dessert
36. Source of acorns for Wheaton’s squirrels
38. Blueprint detail
39. Good color to sport on Welcome to Wheaton day
41. Round at Wendell’s, say
42. Container for cooking
44. Tea accompaniments
45. Pasta topping
46. Things owed
47. Sunny gathering spaces like the first floor of Balfour-Hood
48. Scooter’s kin
49. Form of most essays
53. Top-notch
54. Good fortune
55. “Beware the ___ of March”
57. Catch some rays
58. In the past
59. Help for a stranded vehicle
