7 Up

Welcome to the first jackofallsquares puzzle! I hope you enjoy. :) Huge thanks to Chris Piuma, who test-solved this live on his Twitch stream like two months ago before this blog existed. Oh god, it's been so long that even the VOD is gone.

Recommended solving experience: Ignore the title and solve it like it doesn't have one, then enjoy it as a subtle extra layer when you're done.

If this is your first time visiting my blog, I recommend checking out the About tab.

Spoilers underneath the puzzle...

7-Up.pdf

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-SPOILERS-

I've always loved puzzles that play around with the physical shapes that letters take up in a grid. This is definitely an idea that I would be shocked if I was the first to think of, so if anyone can point be in direction of another puzzle with this exact premise, I'd be very interested.

EDIT on 4/29/22: Yesterday, the New York Times ran this puzzle by Pao Roy with this exact theme. No theme entries were alike, and his version uses only one I in the "arrows" instead of two, but it's the same idea. Of course I'm not accusing anyone of theme thievery (themevery?), I bring it up only to say that had I submitted this puzzle instead of rushing to immediately post it on this blog, who knows, maybe I'd have a byline in the Times by now! But I can still feel proud that I had a theme idea worthy of publication, even if I didn't realize it.