One day in late November, Alice was talking to her adorable black kitten.
She began, "Let’s pretend—” (and here I wish I could tell you half the things Alice used to say, beginning with her favorite phrase "Let’s pretend") "—Let's pretend that we're Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day. We'll do so by writing a Thanksgiving Day crossword puzzle!"
The kitten purred, but Alice knew that it was only laying it on for her, trying to get out of trouble for unraveling the ball of worsted that Alice had been charged with winding up.
"And why not, Kitty?" she admonished. "I could so effortlessly make a crossword puzzle!" This was as portentous a statement as ever there was.
So she set about her challenge, aimlessly pacing back and forth in her drawing-room, winding yarn, and devising devious clues. She was so intent on her task that she didn't even notice that she had been carelessly wandering into and out of the full-length mirror set against one wall.
"Just as many times out as in," the kitten thought.
When she was finished she looked over her new puzzle and sat down in a lump, crying. The kitten spied about for safe harbour from the imminent flood. "It's hopelessly ruined, you naughty black kitty!" she told it, and she was certain of only one thing: it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.
Left-wise, Right-wise, TweedleDee-wise
3. I'll give you $100 if you guess this answer
7. This gets loose during after-dinner relaxation time
8. A brand name of Salad Dressing that is also Thanksgiving magic
10. A sport where getting "the bird" three times in a row is *great!*
12. Baring your bottom at Thanksgiving dinner is this type of moon
Up-wise, Down-wise, TweedleDum-wise
1. On the day after Thanksgiving, items are purchased for doing this to socks
2. Tom is boxing in this division
4. A giant eyedropper is used to do this
5. A person who wears a belt buckle on their hat and makes it work!
6. Tom is to Turkey as *what* is to Chicken (sort of)
9. The ugly, fleshy, hangy thing on a turkey's beak
11. This has nothing to do with how a duck walks, but has something to do with 9UD
A correct solution will offer a completed puzzle and a single, hidden, and terribly obvious word.
Shamelessly plagiaristic of Lewis Carrol's legendary work, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.
Original illustration (1865) by John Tenniel
