Words: 68
Average Length: 5.38
The seeds for this puzzle were 19 Across (a book I found helpful in learning to write clearly), 31 Across (a concept needlessly occupying scarce mental real estate from a bio course 50 years ago), and 49 Across (a lyrical, beautiful, slim, fictional thought experiment).
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: 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: 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: 79 (16×15)
Average Length: 5.01
I’m looking forward to the movie of 19 Across, which is supposed to be released in March 2026. I mention the book “Paper Bullets” in the clue for 48 Down. It’s by Jeffrey H. Jackson, and it tells the true story of two avant garde female artists living in occupied Jersey during World War II who produce “paper bullets” – messages seeking to demoralize the Nazi troops. It’s brilliantly told and inspirational.
Words: 72
Average Length: 5.25
19 and 52 Across were the seeds, 19 because it exists and is funny, and 52 for the clue. (The 52 Across answer was going to be part of a themed puzzle with the clue as the revealer, but I couldn’t come up with enough theme entries.)
Words: 70
Average Length: 5.40
A century of themelesses! (Hopefully it doesn’t feel like it takes that long to solve them ….) The seeds for this one were 6 Down (a joke I heard an Australian comedian tell last year) and 17 Down (I don’t remember where I came across the term, but I love it!).
Words: 72
Average Length: 5.36
I couldn’t construct my 99th themeless without using 20 Across as a seed! Then came the parallel entries at 4 Down and 26 Down and at 11 Down and 33 Down. Have fun!
Words: 75 (16×15)
Average Length: 5.33
Here’s a straightforward, somewhat international (Japan, Ireland, India, Russia, Italy, Iceland, Oman, England) themeless. The seed, however – 52 Across – comes from America, where every 800 number leads to automated hell.
Jeff's Puzzles