by Matto Mildenberger
Answer: THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA
Problem: Thanksgiving Town/​New Year’s Town

The puzzle shell consists of 14 crossword clues and 14 jigsaw pieces.

CROSSWORD CLUES

As hinted by the flavortext, one element of each crossword clue has been shifted “south” In order for the clues to make any sense, solvers need shift this element “north” For instance, going north from Maryland, you reach Pennsylvania. Therefore, the first clue should actually read: “Document represented by a mostly-white card in a game with a Pennsylvania Railroad” (4)

This mechanic is also clued by the puzzle title. “We see thee rise” is a quote from the Canadian national anthem. In that anthem, the phrase is followed by the lyrics: “the true north.”

Clue “Gone South” element Answer Explanation
Document represented by a mostly-white card in a game with a Maryland Railroad (4) Maryland DEED The game of Monopoly features the Pennsylvania Railroad. Maryland is located just south of Pennsylvania.
First name of the first European to settle Corvo Island (4) Corvo Island ERIK Greenland is the first landmass you reach going north from Corvo Island in the Portuguese Azores.
Full name of a female senator who represented the New Jersey legislative district where you’d currently find Woodbury Heights (4 4) Woodbury Heights DANA REDD Woodbury Heights is located in New Jersey’s 3rd legislative district. Going north a few miles from Woodbury Heights, you reach Woodbury. Woodbury is located in New Jersey’s 5th legislative district. Dana Redd was the Senator for NJ’s 5th legislative district between 2008 and 2010.
Game card that is known as Ordine Gemello in the game’s Tunisian edition (4 5) Tunisian TWIN ORDER Twin Order is a Cardfight!! Vanguard game card. In the Italian edition, it is named Ordine Gemello.
Irish nationalists’ name for second-largest city in Ireland (5) Ireland DERRY Derry is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland. Derry is the Irish Nationalist name for the city (as opposed to the Unionist Londonderry).
Messaging app founded by students at the University of Kitchener (3) Kitchener KIK Kik was founded by students at the University of Waterloo, which is a city just north of Kitchener in Canada’s Kitchener-Waterloo region.
Oilfield discovered off the coast of Bolivia in October 1996 (8) Bolivia RONCADOR The Roncador oilfield was discovered off the coast of Brazil in October 1966. Brazil is immediately north of Bolivia.
Only word preceding the colon in the title of a tell-all book written by a World Series winner from Jamaica (6) Jamaica JUICED Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big was a tell-all book by baseball player Jose Canseco. Canseco was born in Cuba, which is due north of Jamaica.
Surname of a controversial cabinet nominee linked to a Thompson’s Station company (6) Thompson’s Station PUZDER Trump Labor secretary nominee Andy Puzder is the CEO of Carl’s Jr., which is located in Franklin, TN, just north of Thompson’s Station, TN.
Surname of a fictional New Jersey senator killed by an exploding Watchdog (6) New Jersey NADEER Ellen Nadeer was a New York senator in Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D. Nadeer was killed when her Watchdog ally Tucker Shockley exploded while undergoing Terrigenesis.
Surname of the first European to cross the river whose headwaters are located in Two Inlets State Forest (2 4) Two Inlets State Forest DE SOTO Two Inlets State Forest is located just south of Itasca State Park, which is where the headwaters of the Mississippi are located. Hernando de Soto was the first European to cross the Mississippi.
Surname of the older of two producers of the 1938 film My Old Tennessee Home (4) Tennessee DERR E.B. Derr was the older of two producers for the 1938 film “My Old Kentucky Home.”
Surname of the person who served as mayor of the city of Sainte-Catherine, Quebec until 2017 (7) Sainte-Catherine CODERRE Denis Coderre served as mayor of Montreal until 2017. Sainte-Catherine, QC is located just south of Montreal.
Villain whose first name is also the station you’d get to by traveling three stops southward from Tsubogawa on the Naha monorail (8) Tsubogawa SHREDDER Going north one station from Tsubogawa on the Naha monorail you get to Asahibashi station. This is your correct starting point. Going south three stations south from Asahibashi, you get to Oroku station. Shredder (from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Universe) is named Oroku Saki.

JIGSAW

The jigsaw pieces can be arranged into exactly one 12 by 7 rectangular grid. Solvers are given the dimensions of this grid as a solving aid and a message to avoid rotations (although this instruction is not necessary to find the unique puzzle solution). In turn, answers can be entered into these jigsaw pieces to create columns of RED as the first three and last three letters of each row. There is only one way the words can be entered into the jigsaw to create contiguous columns of RED.

Solvers are given some letters on each piece, but these are insufficient to disambiguate which words go on which pieces, and in which order letters should be entered onto each piece. Solvers must deduce this placement based on their realization that the overall grid should include columns of RED. There is only one way to accomplish this.

The completed jigsaw looks like this:

Solvers should color the RED columns red. They will now realize that the grid resembles the Canadian flag. Something is missing from the flag though: a maple leaf. If solvers overlay an image of the Canadian flag over their grid, they get the following:

The puzzle’s connection to the Canadian flag is also clued by the puzzle title (which is an excerpt from the national anthem). Moreover, Canadian Thanksgiving is its own holiday, celebrated by the country immediately north of the USA. The word “leaf” is also used to confirm the importance of the Canadian flag for the extract.

In the completed puzzle, the cell that is located at position (5, 5) has an upward-facing arrow. (This arrow is present on one of the jigsaw pieces). This arrow clues the extraction starting point and direction.

Solvers can trace around the edge of the maple leaf in the direction indicated by this arrow (clockwise). Reading the letters touched by this tracing in order, they get the extract: JONES WIN ACTOR SKIKDA PIC. This extract is enumerated in the puzzle as 5 3 5 6 3.

Skikda is a town in Algeria that is due south of Cannes. It is the first populated place you reach when travelling south from Cannes. In this way, the extract clue phrase has been modified by the same mechanic as the original clues.

The answer, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA, is the film for which Tommy Lee Jones won an acting award in Cannes in 2005.