Words: 10 (5×5)
Average Length: 4.80
1 Across and 5 Down were the seeds, as well as my two favorite clues in the puzzle.
Categories
Category: Mini
Words: 18
Average Length: 4.89
1 and 7 Across were the seed entries. I spent far too long trying to configure them and fill them in a way that worked, then clued everything, then relaxed – and realized I’d violated a cardinal rule of construction: avoid duplication of entries or parts thereof. Alas, a certain 2-letter word appears three times in this mini, but what are indie puzzles for if you can’t break the rules once in a while? So I decided to embrace the iconoclasm in the title. (Also, my apology if you find 4 Down offensive. But if the sandwich fits ….)
Words: 30
Average Length: 4.67
1 Across was the seed. Originally, I planned to make a technology/mythology hybrid puzzle but I couldn’t come up with enough decent theme answers, so I just went full-on mythology.
Words: 8
Average Length: 4.00
If you’ve been following this blog for a bit, you know that I post like clockwork: a mini or midi on Wednesdays and a full-size on Sundays (unless I’m traveling in 2 Across, in which case I often screw up the publication date).
However, I’ve been holding onto 1 Across and 3 Across for a while, and while watching game shows last night – it’s generally either game shows or baking shows here – I decided it was time to foist them on y’all. Filling and cluing the grid took two segments of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.
Come back Wednesday for your regularly scheduled mid-week mini!
Words: 16 (7×7)
Average Length: 4.75
Sometimes the best thing to do while watching the Nats pretend that they left their bats at home is to construct a mini. (Both halves of that sentence are true quite often.) Here you go. If you like the puzzle, please send the Nats some offense. Thanks in advance!
Categories
Country Club
Words: 16
Average Length: 4.50
Today’s puzzle is a mini-travelogue. I spent a weekend in 9 Across a couple of years ago. What a charming place! It’s criss-crossed with narrow-gauge railways, the capital (Douglas) has stately Victorian rowhouses lining a beautiful harbor, and much of the island is blanketed in green grass and white sheep.
Any way, I hope you enjoy the puzzle!
Categories
Good Vibes
Categories
Rice to the Occasion
Words: 16 (7×7)
Average Length: 5.38
If you want to make sure you don’t miss a puzzle, please “follow” the blog. A couple of times in the past month or so, Daily Crosswords Links didn’t include one of my puzzles. I’m not sure if the issue is on my end or theirs, but following the blog will assure you see the puzzles the day they’re posted. The two that didn’t make the DCL email were Themeless 81 (July 6) and 5-7-5×5 (June 12). Thanks!!
No rhyming clues in this one – sorry (or not, depending on what you think of poetic clues). 1 Across was the seed – or more accurately, grain – for the grid. I was watching a cooking show, as I often do because forget about the news, and the participants had to make that particular dish.
Categories
How Do I Solve Thee?
Words: 14
Average Length: 5.29
In the immortal words of President Carter, today’s effort to merge poetry and crossword construction is an “incomplete success.” With recent minis touching on haiku (5-7-5×5) and couplets (Iamb Gridding), I decided to tackle a longer form, known for its 14-line structure, iambic pentameter, and specific rhyme scheme. The goals: (1) construct a grid with the poetic form at 1 Across (check!), (2) make the clues fit the relevant poetic form (check!), (3) have the clues, when read top to bottom, make sense as this particular poetic form (buzz!!!). Alas, they don’t. I spent far too long trying to come up with fill that could be clued as a cohesive verse before deciding that I had better things to do, like sleep. The result isn’t what I’d hoped for, but I think it should still be a fun solve.
Just for yuks (or more likely, yucks), here’s the complete “1 Across”:
Will Shakespeare penned one hundred fifty-four
With learned talent, showing mast’ry true.
A three-D model, making one’s a chore
A doctor who takes care of teeth for you.
It’s shouted in La Liga on TV
Consumed, devoured, scarfed, or nommed it all
A Spanish word whose meaning is to be
An org that fights abuse of alcohol.
The dog who is the butt of Garfield’s jokes
A glowing substance in a retail sign
A bag you get for funding Terry Gross
A store that sells its merchandise on-line.
They’re caps that Scottish men often display
A common one: a pitcher’s E.R.A..
Jeff's Puzzles 