Words: 70
Average Length: 5.54
Difficulty: Quartzish on the Mohs scale?
I hope you all had a wonderful time last week with friends and family. The seed for this grid was 14 Across, where my brother and I will be going in February! (Oh, the difficulty rating thing: numbers are falsely precise, I think. Henceforth I will come up with other ways of estimating the sweat of your collective brows.) Please enjoy, pass along a link to the puzzle or my site, and be well!
Words: 76
Average Length: 4.82
Difficulty: 2.5 out of 5
Here’s a gentle, Thanksgiving-themed puzzle. Best wishes for a scrumptious, safe, and stress-resistant holiday. Enjoy!
Two solving notes: (1) the song at 9/25 Down is from the 1969 movie of the same name. The movie has aged poorly, but I still love the song – all 18 minutes of it.
(2) In researching a clue for 61 Across – I ended up going with the obvious – I came across some fascinating background: In 1939, Federated Department Stores (61A’s parent) prevailed on FDR to move Thanksgiving up a week so there’d be more time after the holiday for Christmas shopping. The Republicans objected (shocking!), and for a couple of years there was basically a Democratic Thanksgiving and a Republican Thanksgiving. In 1941 Congress passed a law fixing Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November.
Words: 68
Average Length: 5.53
Difficulty: 5 out of 5
This one’s pretty tough, particularly the 1A/6&7D combination. If you’ve never had 1A, you owe it to yourself to try some, preferably washed down with a Medalla. I first ran across 7D while learning to play Rhapsody in Blue way back in high school. There’s a nasty 7D that I never quite got.
If you finish the puzzle, reward yourself with a 1 Down, 16 Down, or 45 Across. If you don’t finish it, console yourself with the same.
Please share this puzzle throughout the metaverse, link to this site, and otherwise give me some free publicity. Next up (11/21) will be a medium-difficulty, Thanksgiving-themed puzzle. Thanks, and enjoy!
Words: 77 (16×15 grid)
Average Length: 5.14
Difficulty: 2-4 out of 5
The difficulty range depends on whether certain mathematical/physical symbols are all Greek to you. Helpful hints/spoilers for the theme answers are below the photo. I hope you enjoy the puzzle. Next week (11/14) brings a challenging Themeless.
HINTS/SPOILERS:
19A: Psi is the symbol for the wave function.
26A: Lambda is the symbol for wavelength
57A: Rho is the symbol for density
60A: Nu is the symbol for degrees of freedom
Words: 70
Average Length: 5.57
Difficulty: 5
After last week’s frivolity, here is a straightforward themeless with nary a neologism. The seed was 3 Down, which I’d never heard of before an unfortunate collision between my foot and the corner of a night table. Please enjoy and share. Next up (10/31) will be a suitably sweet puzzle for All Hallow’s Eve.
Words: 68
Average Length: 5.74
Difficulty: You bet!
Back by popular, um, indifference? dismay? … a themeless where, to paraphrase Whose Line Is It Anyway, almost everything is made up and your time doesn’t matter. The rules are simple:
– All 3- and 4- letter words are defined straightforwardly
– Longer words may be:
(1) Normal words clued with little or no regard to their usual meaning. For example, in my first Goofy Themeless (posted 6/21/21), the answer to the clue “’It’s a boy; I can ___,’ said the geneticist with the supersensitive nose,” was SMELLY; or
(2) Made-up words or phrases. For example, in my first Goofy Themeless, the answer to the clue “self-referential, laxative cereal” was METAMUESLI.
If you like this puzzle and didn’t solve the first one, now you’ve got a head start!
Please enjoy and share. Next up (10/24) will be a “normal” themeless.
Words: 76
Average Length: 4.92
Difficulty: 2.5 out of 5 (easy fill and challenging theme answers)
This puzzle dares to answer the question, “What happens when great painters hear great songs?” Please enjoy and share. Next up (10/17) will be a Goofy Themeless.
Word Count: 70
Average Length: 5.40
Difficulty: 4 out of 5
After a sojourn in Scandinavia last week, today’s straightforward themeless makes a few stops in Asia. I’ll use it as an excuse to showcase a couple of photos taken in the Indian state of Kerala, where 21 Across is an official language.
Just one other comment: Our first dog was a [24 Down]-an Terrier named Harry, who was adorable, athletic, stubborn, soulful, and frustratingly aloof. RIP Harry. Here’s a picture.
Til next week, enjoy, share, and be well. Coming up next will be a themed puzzle where artists of the canvas and the recording studio collide.
Words: 77 (16×15 grid)
Average Length: 5.14
Difficulty: 3 out of 5
Here’s a puzzle with some punny Scandinavian humor for y’all. Want some more? Why do Norwegians put bar codes on their military ships? So they can Scan-de-navy-in!
Please solve, enjoy, and share. Next up will be a challenging themeless. Stay tuned!
20A: The country in this answer is sort of Scandinavian, at least according to Wikipedia.
66A: Ok, the language isn’t Scandinavian, but the composer is, and I wanted 5 theme answers, so there.
13D: Sorry for the obscure answer. As an avid reader of Scottish crime fiction (especially Ian Rankin) and an equally avid consumer of Scotch whisky (especially Balvenie), the quote has been rattling around in my brain for a while.
53D: This is the end of Donne’s famous “No man is an island” poem.
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