Words: 75 (17×13)
Average Length: 5.17
I’d been playing around with this theme idea for a while and decided it was time to quit dilly-dallying. The grid’s not real pretty and placement of one theme answer breaks with symmetry, but hopefully all is forgiven for the sake of entertainment.
Words: 77 (16×15)
Average Length: 5.25
The seeds for this grid were 21, 41, and 57 Across – the first book in my favorite crime fiction series, an extremely rare baseball feat, and a brilliant music mockumentary, respectively. Throw in a bit of T.S. Eliot and some more terrific books (“All the Light We Cannot See,” “Nickel Boys,” “Tremor”) and a couple other baseball-related clues, and you have a fair idea how I spend my free time.
Words: 53 (13×13)
Average Length: 5.03
This was going to be a regular-sized (15×15) puzzle, but I only came up with three theme answers, so I downsized a bit. If you’re not familiar with the poem cited in 32 Across, here’s a link. I think it’s simply beautiful.
Words: 70
Average Length: 5.17
The revealer (50 Across) was the seed for this one, then it was just a matter of finding suitable theme answers. Three of them popped into mind almost immediately; the fourth required a bit of searching for something suitable. Enjoy!
Words: 74
Average Length: 5.16
This is a “Shrödinger” puzzle: there are two possible, equally valid answers to 37 Across, each of which works with the clues for the crossing answers. It’s best solved online because the puz and pdf files won’t show an alternative answer. If you don’t solve online, take a look back at 37 Across when you’re done and imagine a different beginning.
Words: 72
Average Length: 5.19
The two seeds for this puzzle were the German loanwords at 14 and 23 Across, supplemented by 8 Down, which fortuitously appeared when I was playing around with another possible entry. Only as I took one last look through the entries did I realize that I have a partial duplicate (4 Down and 34 Down); please don’t report me to the crossword police!
Words: 24 (9×9)
Average Length: 5.33
If you’re a fan of the Dan or the Doobies, check out the documentary referenced in the clue for 17 Across. It’s fun, interesting, and chock full of good tunes and “inside baseball” about the surrounding cultural and musical scene.
Words: 82 (19×13)
Average Length: 5.02
This puzzle’s seed – the inscription at 20, 28, and 49 Across – comes from a wonderful joint biography of our second President and his wife by Joseph J. Ellis, First Family: Abigail and [64 Across]. The hope expressed in the inscription has been realized rather less often than its author anticipated, and it’s been utterly dashed by the current incumbent, but it’s still an aspiration worth striving for. (Finding a grid design that would accommodate the quote in a symmetrical way was challenging, which accounts for the unusual dimensions of today’s puzzle.)
Words: 12 (6×6)
Average Length: 4.67
This was a mind-wandering-before-falling-asleep puzzle, when the idea for 1, 2, and 3 Down popped into my head. Over breakfast the next morning – after my normal routine of Wordle, Connections, the Atlantic puzzle, the NYT puzzle, and Simply Daily’s Easy Cryptic Crossword – I filled the grid. Since the seed answers may be hard to get, at least at first, I clued this puzzle to play easier than my usual.
Jeff's Puzzles