New York Minute

August 2022 : Solution

The puzzle master’s to-do list is a word search with a punny twist! Famous NYC locations / experiences / etc. are scattered about the grid with substitutions to some of the letters. Diligent solvers found these substitutions to be consistent across the answers, they were

d -> c

c -> m

m -> μ

μ -> n

n -> p

p -> f

f -> a

a -> z

z -> y

The strange μ in there, and the references to small – or “minute”, in the maɪˈnjuːt sense – things throughout the text, clued that this substitution was generated by moving one rung down the metric prefixes ladder: these are the symbols for deci, centi, milli, micro, nano, pico, femto, atto, zepto, and yocto. With that guide in hand, one can undo the substitutions and arrive at the grid above. (Changed letters are in green.)

The 23 tasks that now appear in the grid are:

Bronx Zoo
Brooklyn Bridge
Central Park
Chinatown
Cloisters
Coney Island
Duane Reade
Grand Central
High Line
Holland Tunnel
Koreatown
La Guardia
Lincoln Center
Madison Square
New Museum (newµseum :-)
Radio City
Statue of Liberty
Stone Street
subway
taxi
Wall Street
Yankee Stadium
Zabars

The unused letters (boldfaced and underlined) spell Little Italy. Seems apt, don’t it?

Congrats to this month’s solvers!