Category: Themed

Categories
Themed

Out of Africa

Photo taken Aug. 2026

Words: 66

Average Length: 5.73

I’m big into Connections.  Not the New York Times game, which often irks me.  The real thing – the connections between all 8.3 billion of us, all cousins of one degree or another  That’s today’s theme.

I’m particularly taken by 43 Across, a bland answer with enormous significance:  As the clue says, nearly everyone living outside Africa today can trace a large portion of their DNA to a group of 1000-2500 breeding-age individuals who left Africa only 50,000 years ago. 

And if you go back another 100,000 years or so, then all of us – regardless of where we live – can trace our lineage back to a single woman, “Mitochondrial Eve”, who lived in East Africa (33 Across, to be exact) around 6,000 generations ago.* 

In other words, we’re all related (17 Down), and we’re all in this together (20 Across)!  

OK, lesson’s over.  Time to solve, cousins!

online | puz | pdf | solution

*Mitochondrial Eve wasn’t the only woman alive at the time, but she was the only one whose progeny survive today.  (The male most recent common ancestor, “Y-Chromosome Adam,” likely lived more than 200,000 years ago – he and Mt-Eve weren’t a couple.)

Categories
Midi Themed

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Galapagos finch, apparently having evolved to specialize in eating croissant crumbs. Photo taken in the Galapagos, Sept. 2022.

Words: 28 (9×9)

Average Length: 4.93

Today’s midi came together fortuitously.  My three original seeds proved difficult to fill around, no matter how I placed them.  But in the course of trying, I came up with the answer/clue at 5 Down and decided to use that as a seed instead.  Then came 4 Down, and voila – the rest of the fill came smoothly.

online | puz | pdf | solution

If anyone’s interested, I posted a poem a couple of days ago – A Literal Lyric Poem – where each of the 26 lines is an excerpt from a song lyric. For line 1, the artist begins with A, for line 2 with B, and so on until for line 26, the artists starts with Z. After the poem, there’s a list of the artists and songs, but you may want to try annotating the poem to see how many of the songs/artists you can get without looking at the list.

Categories
Themed

More Anagrams on the Side

Mother and baby elephant, Amboseli National Park, Kenya (photo taken Aug. 2026) Nothing to do with the puzzle; everything to do with an amazing safari I just took – see the last part of this post.

Words: 62 (17×11)

Average Length: 5.03

After I posted “I’ll Have Anagrams on the Side” a few weeks ago, I began wondering how many anagrams of a single word I could reasonably include in  a similar puzzle.  The answer, it turns out, is five. 

In today’s puzzle, the five edge answers in the top half of the puzzle are anagrams of one another.  Likewise, the five edge answers in the bottom half of the puzzle are anagrams of one another.  The clues for the five edge answers in the top half are presented in random order at 1 Across; likewise, the clues for the five edge answers in the bottom half are presented in random order at 33 Down.  Solvers must determine which version of the anagram goes in which answer.

online | puz | pdf | solution

*** *** ***

I just returned from a terrific trip through East Africa.  I’m including links below to my blog posts about the trip, which are filled with pictures and hopefully interesting commentary.  Please check them out if you’re interested!

Addis Ababa

Nairobi

Amboseli, Part 1

Amboseli, Part 2

Lake Manyara, Tanzania

Ngorongoro Crater

Serengeti, Part 1

Serengeti – Masai Mara

Masai Mara, Part 1

Masai Mara, Part 2

East Africa Trip Wrap-up

Categories
Themed

I’ll Have Anagrams on the Side

Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires (see 19 Across). Photo taken February 2026.

Words: 78

Average Length: 4.79

Word nerd that I am, I love anagrams.  So much so, in fact, that I decided that each edge of this puzzle should be populated by three anagrams.  The first answer of each triplet has three clues; the solver has to determine which clue applies to which member of the triplet.  (I think it’s actually easier to do than to explain, but just in case it’s not, I toned down the difficulty level for the rest of the fill.)

Many thanks to Jeanne Breen (find her wonderful word puzzles on her blog, In Pursuit of Puzzles) for taking a look at an earlier draft and assuring me the concept is not too annoying!

I leave tomorrow for 17 days in Africa:  two days in Addis Ababa followed by a two week safari with Odysseys Unlimited through the major nature preserves in Kenya and Tanzania.  I’m going to take a break from posting puzzles until I return, but in the meantime, please follow my adventures on my travel blog, www.PuffinlessTravel.com.  I promise there will be lots of photos of charismatic megafauna!

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi Music Themed

Crickets

The title insects – and also the name of 10 Down / 27 Down’s band – for sale by the seasoned scoop at Wat Chai Thararam, Phuket, Thailand. Photo taken Jan. 2020. (I opted for ice cream instead on a 98 degree day. Of course, I would have done so on an 8 degree day as well.)

Words: 43 (11×11)

Average Length: 4.79

The idea for this puzzle came from a book I just finished, Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead, by Dennis McNally.  There’s a particular song (8 Down) that the Dead covered in live performances more than 500 times, and I thought the title of the song lent itself to a midi grid.

Alas, the only way I could make the concept work was for the first seed entry (1 Across) to be an obscure French artist.  I’d never heard of him, and I’d guess that very few of you have either.   But the crosses should help with 1 Across, and once the concept becomes apparent, the answer should fall into place easily.  (To help the concept become apparent, the online version includes some shaded cells, but the circles should work just as well, if less colorfully.)

There’s an additional hint in the solving note, which references my original entry at 1 Across – a very similar word that’s a bit more widely known but spoiled the purity of the concept.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Trainspotting

Photo taken on the Isle of Man, July 2022

Words: 75

Average Length: 4.85

Today’s puzzle is straightforward, so I’ll devote the write-up to two musical links.  The first, “Girlfriend Is Better” (see 17 Across) is from the Talking Heads. I saw the movie in 17 Across half a dozen times after it came out.  The second, Chick Corea’s brilliant “Spain,” features Bill Watrous on 3 Down, along with Hubert Laws on flute, George Benson on guitar, Stanley Clarke on bass, Lenny White on drums, and Corea on keyboards.  Please listen to the whole thing – if you’re like me, it’ll energize you face for hours – but definitely check out Watrous’s solo (its starts at 2:42) if you want to be amazed at what can be done with a 3 Down.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed Midi

You Butter Believe

See 5D. Photo taken in Dijon, France, Oct. 2025.

Words: 30 (9×9)

Average Length: 4.60

Once 14A popped into my head, I knew I had to build a puzzle around it.  And since butter makes almost everything better – spread the word – a theme was born.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Asymmetrical Themed

P(f)un With Food

See 1 Across. The Lagavullin 16 is a wonderful, smoky Scotch. When I want to forego the smoke, I go for the Balvenie Doublewood. (I love how Scotch brands take a definite article.)

Words: 77 (13×17)

Average Length: 5.06

This is my 500th puzzle since starting this blog in April 2021!  Two hundred eighty-four of those have been full-sized (15×15 or larger): 132 themeless and 152 themed.  One hundred forty-two have been minis (including 34 Mostly Musical Minis and 4 Cryptics), and the remaining 74 have been midis.  I’ve had 31,000 visitors (72,000 views) from over 100 countries.  My heartfelt thanks to all of you!

This is my first full-sized puzzle that isn’t symmetrical – I figure once every 500 puzzles or so that’s OK, so don’t rat me out to the crossword cops!  As with many of my themed puzzles, this one is food-focused (my second-most fertile source of inspiration after music).  The four seeds, 36A, 54A, 13D, and 32D, are all inspired/ridiculous food-related puns, and it a lot of the fill concerns food as well.  I must have been feeling a bit peckish while constructing, not to mention puckish while cluing!

Again, thanks so much for solving!  I have many more visitors each week than I do subscribers, so if you like my puzzles please follow my site – my understanding is that having more followers enhances search visibility, but as far as I know, SEO could stand for Sorcerers, Enchantments, and Oracles.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Mini Themed

Statistically Speaking

11th century mosque built on the walls of the Temple of Luxor (see 4 Down). Photo taken November 2025.

Words: 18 (7×7)

Average Length: 5.00

1A was the seed for today’s mini; along with 3D it’s the reason for the title.  I had fun with some of the clues, so watch out!

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Feed the Zombies

Statues in Heroes’ Square, see 59 Across. Photo taken July 2023.

Words: 72

Average Length: 5.14

This is a thoroughly reworked version of the themed puzzle I decided not to post last week.  How reworked?  I kept the four theme answers, chose a new revealer and title, and scrapped everything else.  Enjoy!

online | puz | pdf | solution