[.puz][PDF][Solution] 🚪🚪🚪

A couple years ago, Matt Jones started the Twitter hashtag #notacrossword to tag puzzles that show up in media or on products that don’t abide “standard” crossword conventions. (There are so many examples that Rachel Fabi took up the cause and started a whole @Not_a_Crossword account.)

Generally, the offending grids have unchecked squares, two letter words, or don’t present with any kind of symmetry.

So, this week’s puzzle asks the question directly. Is it a crossword, or is it #notacrossword? WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?!

*SPOILER ALERT*

Today’s puzzle bears a strong resemblance to this lovely grid by Timothy Polin, which also fails the standard crossword test in that it is similarly bisected by black squares. (I think the raisons d’être of the two puzzles are different enough, so hopefully there’s enjoyment enough to glean from both.)

This is a unique grid for me in that the revealer itself also as a themer. THE DOORS are how you move from one side to the other, with the other two doors hidden in TAN[DOORI] and IT’S [DO OR] DIE.

So… crossword? Or #notacrossword?