Words: 76
Average Length: 4.87
I’m posting this just before setting out for the “Big W” – that’s Wantagh, NY for those of you not in the know (i.e., everyone except a Wantaghite) – for my 50th high school reunion. On the one hand, I’m really excited to reconnect with some terrific folks from my past. On the other hand, that past is way longer than seems possible!
Anyway, to mark the occasion, today’s puzzle crams in lots of stuff from the year I graduated, 1976.
Words: 11
Average Length: 4.91
The seed for today’s mini was 1 Across, which randomly popped into my head yesterday while watching the Nats “earn” their 42nd blown save of the season (the previous MLB record was 37). Perhaps it was a subconscious realization that the only hope for our bullpen is divine intervention.
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.
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.
Words: 72 (21×11)
Average Length: 5.25
While mulling over ideas for a Labor Day puzzle, I found the quote that’s the focus of this puzzle and knew I had to use it. The title refers to the ratio of Fortune 500 CEO pay to the pay of an average worker in those companies. I believe it answers the question in the quote.
Words: 72
Average Length: 5.14
Like many crossword constructors and solvers, I’m a religious “Jeopardy!” watcher. If you are, too, then you’ll know the title of this puzzle is a frequent category on the show. I thought I’d try my hand at a grid built around four triple rhyme time clues. No need to phrase your answers in the form of a question!
Words: 14 (7×7)
Average Length: 5.29
2 Down was the seed for this puzzle. When I filled the rest of the grid, I put in 4 Across and immediately thought of the song in the clue – a couple of hours before the news broke of Tim Curry’s death. Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo (that’s Twilight Zone music).
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.
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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!
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!
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.
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