Category: Themed

Categories
Themed

Dear Abby

Words: 82 (19×13)

Average Length: 5.02

This has nothing to do with the puzzle, but I enjoy taking photos of manhole covers when I’m traveling, and this one, from Hiroshima, is particularly photogenic. Photo taken March 2025.

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.)

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Mini Themed

Zero Is the Point

See 6 Across. Photo taken in Venice, Oct. 2024.

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.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Sole Music

See 34 Down (Photo taken December 2024)

Words: 74

Average Length: 4.95

Over the years, I’ve constructed puzzles about music and food, music and fathers, music and the rainbow, music and boys, music and women, music and plants, music and food, music and reptiles, music and transportation, music and weather, music and the letter z, musicians’ side hustles, music and aging, musicians opening restaurants (one of my favorite puzzles), music and art, music and animals, music and flowers, and  “American” music, not to mention 33 “mostly musical minis” and 5 “set list” puzzles.

What’s left?  How about music and gaits, the theme of today’s offering.   So run, walk, or whatever, and enjoy the solve!

online | puz | pdf | solution

In memoriam of the death of Pope Francis, a great and good man, here’s a link to a tongue-in-cheek puzzle I posted about the  papacy 4 years ago, which in turn was based on a puzzle I constructed in 2013 upon Pope France’s elevation.

Categories
Themed

My Constructor Went to Japan and All I Got Was This Laozi Puzzle

The “Golden Temple,” 17 Across (March 2025)

Words: 76

Average Length: 4.84

Kon Nichiwa! Or, if you’re solving this in the morning, ohayo!  There’s lots of scrumptious Japanese fill in here, kind of like a 15×15 bento box.  Chopsticks optional.  Matane (see you soon – in this case, next Wednesday for a midi puzzle entitled “Puns, Anagrams, and General Goofiness”).

If you’d like to read all about my Japan trip, please visit my travel blog, PuffinlessTravel.com. I also just posted an essay there called “Thoughts onTWA (Traveling While American)”. Please check it out if you’re interested.

online | puz | pdf | solution

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Supersized Themed

Phone Home

Mt. Fuji, March 2025

Words: 136 (21×21)

Average Length: 5.24

Here’s a super-sized, pun-filled, meaty (especially 33 Down) puzzle for your solving pleasure.

I just got back from two weeks in Japan.  I’ve got posts about Tokyo, Hakone, Takayama, Kanazawa, Kyoto, and Hiroshima on my travel blog.  Please check them out if you’re interested!

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Holiday Themed

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Castle housing 58 Across, Co. Cork, Ireland (June 2019)

Words: 78

Average Length: 4.64

Of all the overseas places I’ve visited – 99 and counting – Ireland is the friendliest.  Although I don’t have a bit of Irish blood, I’ve never felt so at home anywhere else.  The people are warm, quick to laugh, and hospitable beyond belief, and the scenery’s not too shabby either.  And then there’s the literature: on an island of barely over 7 million people, seemingly every tenth person is a prize-winning author, poet, or playwright.  (Given that books are my crack, I’ve crammed several Irish writers into this grid and clues, including several of my all-time favorites (Roddy Doyle,  Kevin Barry, Maggie O’Farrell).)

Sláinte and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Gaia Glamor Shots

Flying over the Alps, March 2019 – about as close to outer space as I’m likely to get

Words: 72

Average Length: 5.22

I could have saved this puzzle for Earth Day, assuming it’s not outlawed by the Despoiler of All Things Precious and Good, but I’ve been making my way through Cixin Liu’s brilliant “Three-Body Problem” trilogy and felt compelled to publish it a month early.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Paternal Music

See 25 Down. Photo taken in Nusfjord, Norway, June 2017.

Words: 73

Average Length: 5.15

This grid is inspired by common ground between a reggaeton star, an indie solo artist, and a nu metal band. 

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Supersized Themed

Like PB&J

See 73 Down. Photo taken in Havelock, New Zealand, Jan. 2024

Words: 94 (17×17)

Average Length: 5.11

Here’s a super-sized, tasty grid for your solving pleasure.  It can double as your menu for the next few days if you’re so inclined.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi Themed

AI Caramba!

Nothing to do with the puzzle, but you can never post too many puffin pictures. (Iceland, July 2024)

Words: 42 (11×11)

Average Length: 4.86

Constructing a puzzle using A and I as the only vowels, it turns out, is not a trivial undertaking.  This grid is my third attempt – the first two tries (a 7×7 and a 9×9) were fatally fill-compromised, to put it politely.  I bumped the grid size up to 11x, and that did the trick; there’s only one truly unfortunate entry (3 Down) and, I hope you’ll agree, lots of good stuff. 

Once I had the fill where I wanted it, the second part of the challenge – writing clues whose initial letter alternated between A and I –  proved almost as difficult.   May you find the end result amusing and informative!

online | puz | pdf | solution