Words: 19
Average Length: 4.63
Difficulty: Medium-ish
This one has a bit more music theory than usual, but there should be enough gimmes to let any musical neophytes solve without too much resistance. Enjoy!
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Author: Jeff
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Book a Vacation
Words: 76
Average Length: 5.03
Difficulty: Like summer reading (not the school variety)
Here’s a gentle grid to usher in August, prime time for lazing in the sun with a book, listening to the waves lap against the shore, and looking up an hour later to realize you haven’t read a page but instead fell asleep and are now approaching lobsterhood. Stay sunscreened, my friends!
If you like my puzzles, it’d be great if you would “subscribe” to my site. You’ll be informed whenever I drop a new puzzle, and I’ll possibly show up a little higher in search results. Win Win.
Last self-promotion: If you like to travel please check out (and follow if you like) my newly resurrected travel blog, Puffinless Travel, here. I’ve recently added write-ups of a trip to Antarctica in Feb. 2022 and a hiking trip in Wales in July 2022.
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Mostly Musical Mini 16
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Desmond-Induced Deflation
Words: 70
Average Length: 5.20
Difficulty: Like swinging convincingly in 5/4 time
On my best days playing alto sax, my tone was a pale imitation of Paul Desmond’s crystal, liquid, heavenly sound. Desmond was a marvel – a soloist whose intelligence and grace made his lines seem inevitable, and a composer of one of the very greatest jazz classics (see 60 Across), track three on the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s hugely influential Time Out album (one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time). If you know the tune, the puzzle should be medium difficulty; if you don’t, it’ll be tougher. Check out this live performance. Desmond’s sinuous solo builds tension and release over a hypnotic, two-chord drone (Eb minor-Bb minor). Brubeck follows with a brief, mysterious piano solo far removed from his usual crashing chords. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the puzzle – and I really hope you enjoy the tune and give Desmond and the Dave Brubeck Quartet a listen.
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Mostly Musical Mini 15
Words: 24
Average Length: 4.67
Difficulty: Maybe a tad tougher than usual. Or maybe not. I don’t know.
This week’s MMM features a brilliant musician who is also very funny (whom you all know), another brilliant musician who is also very funny (whom you probably don’t know but should), a major earworm, and a smattering of rock, K-Pop, standards, and rap. Enjoy!
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Themeless 34
Words: 72
Average Length: 5.28
Difficulty: You’d better believe it
This one started with the 14D/24A pair because, word nerd that I am, I like how two such similar-looking words can mean basically the exact opposite thing. Another seed was 51A, which I hadn’t heard of before reading Brad Leithauser’s fantastic book subtitled “The Architecture of Poetry.” (I can’t give you the title because it contains one of the words in the answer.) Other than that, I ramped up the cluing difficulty on this one, so beware! If you like the puzzle, please share it. Come back Wednesday for another Mostly Musical Mini.
I’m back from a wonderful trip hiking in Wales and riding trains in the Isle of Man (including the railway that inspired Thomas the Tank Engine!). I’m posting this early because I cracked my computer screen and I’m not sure how long it’ll take to repair it. Stay tuned for a challenging Themeless on Sunday, assuming I have my computer back.
Words: 74
Average Length: 5.11
Difficulty: More moderate than the temperature outside, that’s for sure
July 4 was a big deal to some of our Founding Fathers, just not in the way you think. Solve and find out what I mean.
I’m taking a short break from posting while I spend a few days hiking in Wales and then exploring the Isle of Man. I’ll have a new puzzle up on July 13. Stay cool!
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Mostly Musical Mini 13
Words: 16
Average Length: 5.25
Difficulty: A smidge tougher than average maybe?
Mix one cup of rock, a couple of tablespoons of pop, indie, and rap, and a dash of other music stuff, pour the mixture over 7 artfully arranged squares of very dark chocolate, marinate for a few weeks in your “Upcoming Puzzles” folder, and voila – Mostly Musical Mini 13, where, fittingly, 13 of the 16 clues are legitimately music-related. I hope you find it tasty!
Words: 46 (12×12 grid)
Average Length: 5.30
Difficulty: Somewhere north of medium
I had lots of fun constructing this one; I hope you have as much solving it. The seeds were 1 and 7 Across, which I’d been saving while looking for a happy home. 24 Down and 30 Down had been chilling in my word/clue list for a while as well. 1 Down is a terrific song from my youth (e.g., a moldy oldie). You can listen to it here.
Jeff's Puzzles 