Author: Jeff

Categories
Mostly Musical Mini

Mostly Musical Mini 4

Words:  18

Average Length:  5

Difficulty:  Moderato ma non troppo

1 Down is way up on my favorite bands list and Robbie Robertson is a great songwriter, but after 50 years I still can’t tell you what The Weight means.  2 Down is the first Police song I ever heard and I still enjoy it, notwithstanding the lame couplet noted in the clue.  In 6 Down, I added the reference to Fantasia because I have clear memories of seeing the movie, being a little scared by the Sorcerer’s Apprentice section, but loving the sound of the instrument in the answer.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Middle Age(s) Humor

Words:  74

Average Length:  4.89

Difficulty:  Easier than being a serf, for sure

Vaguely medieval-looking scene along the Rhine in Germany

My puzzle blog just turned one year old!  Over the past 12 months I’ve posted 71 puzzles:  28 themeless, 34 themed, 3 “set list” puzzles, 3 “mostly musical minis,” 2 “goofy themeless,” and 1 Amy Schneider tribute midi.  People from 40 countries have downloaded puzzles.  Most importantly, I’ve had a blast constructing, and I hope you’ve enjoyed solving.

Today’s puzzle, miraculously, has no terrible musical puns.  Instead, it has terrible historical puns.  I’m that flexible!

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Mostly Musical Mini

Mostly Musical Mini 3

Words:  18

Average Length:  5.00

Difficulty:  Not bad if you know your musical farms

My trusty but intonation-challenged soprano sax (always blame the equipment)

If there are any soprano sax players out there – or bandmates of soprano sax players – you know what I mean by the clue on 6 Down.  I’ve got a wonderful Yamaha soprano sax which requires embouchurial gymnastics to keep the low notes from being sharp and the high notes from being flat.  But the horn has a rich, almost oboe-like tone, so I put up with it.  Besides, every other soprano sax I’ve tried has its own intonation challenges.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Pieces of April

Words:  76

Average Length:  4.84

Difficulty:  Way easier than doing your taxes

Happy (hoppy?) Spring!

Here’s a gentle April-themed puzzle.  It’s named after a gorgeous song written by Dave Loggins and performed by Three Dog Night, which you can listen to here.

11 Across:  I’ve been to the Blarney Stone and, in pre-COVID days, kissed it.  It was an unpleasant experience, what with the rain and the need to lie on your back on hard, wet stone, scoot backwards so you’re dangling many feet above the ground (they’ve since installed guard rails) and then crunch up to reach the B.S. 

39 Down:  I was thrilled to be able to fit her into the grid – this is perhaps my all-time favorite GEICO commercial, out of so many great ones.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Mostly Musical Mini

Mostly Musical Mini 2

Words:  18 (7×7)

Average Length:  5.00

Difficulty:  Für Elise-like

Max hiding in front of our piano

I’m not sure whether these will become a regular mid-week addition, but here’s the second in a possibly extended series of musical minis.  This one is considerably easier than the one last week and features cameos from Ravel, two Bachs, the Andrews Sisters, Katy Perry, and the Grateful Dead, among others.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themeless

Themeless 28

Words:  70

Average Length:  5.43

Difficulty:  You’ll exercise some neurons.  They’ll thank you.

Dog and tree (see 55 Down). The squirrel escaped. Again.

The seed for this one was 17 Across, which I listened to a couple of months ago for the first time since it was released back in 1979.  I do not greatly regret the 43-year gap and will probably listen to Blood on the Tracks a few dozen times before I listen to 17 Across again.  But it is 15 letters long, and it does allow a cutesy pairing with 56 Across (mascot for a candy I hold in similar regard to 17 Across).

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Mini

Mostly Musical Mini

Words:  18 (7×7)

Average Length:  5.00

Difficulty:  Familiarity with Weird Al, Beethoven, and musical notation helps.  Unfamiliarity is unacceptable and virtually guarantees you won’t complete the grid.

Organ, Helsinki’s Rock Church (Temppeliaukio Church). See 8 Down (who might have gone there since the church opened in 1969 and he died in 1973).

Here’s a piquant amuse-bouche for y’all.  It’s about 2/3 music-related clues and 1/3 other stuff.  Please enjoy, and please come back Sunday for a challenging themeless.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Musicians’ Side Hustles

Words:  74 (17×13)

Average Length:  4.95

Difficulty:  Somewhere between yacht rock and pop punk

Another Antarctica picture: crabeater seal with our non-yacht ship in the background

Surely, you thought (hoped), Jeff has run out of musical puns.  Um, no. This one bears some thematic resemblance to Rock of Aging (available here), but is less focused on decrepitude and more on just plain brand extension. Enjoy, share, and come back next Sunday!

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Beware! The Ides March

Words:  78

Average:  4.78

Difficulty:  “All difficulties are easy when they are known”  (W. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure)

A bunch of 40 Across, out the window of a plane en route from Malta to Gatwick

Yesterday was 62 and sunny; now it’s 26 and snowing.  Such is mid-March in the DC area.  Mid-March on JeffsPuzzles features a climate-independent, Ides-themed puzzle, so lend me your ears, or at least your pencils/pens/phones/laptops/whatever, and let the Ides march.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

The Low Road

Words:  73

Average Length:  4.88

Difficulty:  Not quite treacherous enough for the Ninth Circle

Sund, Norway, July 2017. Not Charon’s boat and not the Styx, but bleak nonetheless.

Somehow a underworld-themed puzzle seems particularly apt these days.

puz | pdf | solution