Tag: Medium Difficulty

Categories
Themeless

Themeless 30

Words:  70

Average Length:  5.57

Difficulty:  Even though I’m posting this on 5/1, there’s no need to shout “Mayday”

“___ hundred flowers blossom” (Clue for 22 Across) (photo taken at the phenomenal Akureyri Botanical Gardens in Akureyri, Iceland)

1 Across was the seed, and it’s an interesting story:  Prince Esterhazy, Haydn’s patron, brought the composer and his orchestra to his summer palace and stayed longer than the musicians expected.  Being separated from their families back in Eisenstadt, where the Prince’s main palace was located, the musicians asked Haydn to seek the Prince’s permission to return.  Rather than confront the Prince directly, Haydn composed this symphony; at the end, after all the other musicians had snuffed out their candles and left the stage, only Haydn and the concertmaster remained.  The Prince got the message; the next day the court returned to Eisenstadt.  The Wikipedia article is here.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Don’t Wine, They’re Only Puns

Words:  96 (17×17, a generous pour)

Average Length:  5.06

Difficulty:  Quite drinkable, though it may leave a punny aftertaste

Turns out I can enjoy wine even without doing very well in identifying different types

If, as Robert Louis Stevenson said, “wine is bottled poetry,” get ready for a big ol’ bucketful of doggerel.  Enjoy it in moderation or even to excess – just enjoy it!

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi Themed

Musical Midi: Naima That Tune

Words:  34 (8×14)

Average Length:  4.94

Difficulty:  If you know a bit about jazz, it’s like soloing on All Blues.  If not, it’s like soloing on the tune spelled out by the circled letters.

A further hint to the album in question. This is a famous spot in Northern Ireland

I played in a jazz trio for years, and even though I mostly listen to rock these days, I still put on a jazz classic every so often.  Last week I listened to the album that’s the subject of this puzzle for the first time in ages.  I’d forgotten how amazing and revolutionary it is.

I’d also forgotten how difficult the title track on the album is to play, let alone blow a coherent solo over.  I managed that feat once in my life:  one year in college, the great Mary Lou Williams was an artist-in-residence.  After our jazz band rehearsals, she’d hang around and play piano while some of us would take a crack at improving our improvisation.  (I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t realize at the time what a precious and rare opportunity this was.)

One night, she had us play and solo over the song in question.  I don’t remember how she did it, but she managed to get me out of my head (where I was frantically trying to anticipate the chord changes) and into the flow of the music.  It hasn’t happened again.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Mostly Musical Mini

Mostly Musical Mini 4

Words:  18

Average Length:  5

Difficulty:  Moderato ma non troppo

1 Down is way up on my favorite bands list and Robbie Robertson is a great songwriter, but after 50 years I still can’t tell you what The Weight means.  2 Down is the first Police song I ever heard and I still enjoy it, notwithstanding the lame couplet noted in the clue.  In 6 Down, I added the reference to Fantasia because I have clear memories of seeing the movie, being a little scared by the Sorcerer’s Apprentice section, but loving the sound of the instrument in the answer.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Middle Age(s) Humor

Words:  74

Average Length:  4.89

Difficulty:  Easier than being a serf, for sure

Vaguely medieval-looking scene along the Rhine in Germany

My puzzle blog just turned one year old!  Over the past 12 months I’ve posted 71 puzzles:  28 themeless, 34 themed, 3 “set list” puzzles, 3 “mostly musical minis,” 2 “goofy themeless,” and 1 Amy Schneider tribute midi.  People from 40 countries have downloaded puzzles.  Most importantly, I’ve had a blast constructing, and I hope you’ve enjoyed solving.

Today’s puzzle, miraculously, has no terrible musical puns.  Instead, it has terrible historical puns.  I’m that flexible!

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Pieces of April

Words:  76

Average Length:  4.84

Difficulty:  Way easier than doing your taxes

Happy (hoppy?) Spring!

Here’s a gentle April-themed puzzle.  It’s named after a gorgeous song written by Dave Loggins and performed by Three Dog Night, which you can listen to here.

11 Across:  I’ve been to the Blarney Stone and, in pre-COVID days, kissed it.  It was an unpleasant experience, what with the rain and the need to lie on your back on hard, wet stone, scoot backwards so you’re dangling many feet above the ground (they’ve since installed guard rails) and then crunch up to reach the B.S. 

39 Down:  I was thrilled to be able to fit her into the grid – this is perhaps my all-time favorite GEICO commercial, out of so many great ones.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Musicians’ Side Hustles

Words:  74 (17×13)

Average Length:  4.95

Difficulty:  Somewhere between yacht rock and pop punk

Another Antarctica picture: crabeater seal with our non-yacht ship in the background

Surely, you thought (hoped), Jeff has run out of musical puns.  Um, no. This one bears some thematic resemblance to Rock of Aging (available here), but is less focused on decrepitude and more on just plain brand extension. Enjoy, share, and come back next Sunday!

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

Beware! The Ides March

Words:  78

Average:  4.78

Difficulty:  “All difficulties are easy when they are known”  (W. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure)

A bunch of 40 Across, out the window of a plane en route from Malta to Gatwick

Yesterday was 62 and sunny; now it’s 26 and snowing.  Such is mid-March in the DC area.  Mid-March on JeffsPuzzles features a climate-independent, Ides-themed puzzle, so lend me your ears, or at least your pencils/pens/phones/laptops/whatever, and let the Ides march.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

The Low Road

Words:  73

Average Length:  4.88

Difficulty:  Not quite treacherous enough for the Ninth Circle

Sund, Norway, July 2017. Not Charon’s boat and not the Styx, but bleak nonetheless.

Somehow a underworld-themed puzzle seems particularly apt these days.

puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Themed

A Profusion of Penguins

Words: 78

Average Length: 4.79

Difficulty: For those with naturally gray/silver/white/nonexistent hair, like sliding down a snowy hill. For those without such badges of maturity, like trying to escape a leopard seal.

Adelie Penguin, Pleneau Island, Antarctica

Having just returned from Antarctica, I am compelled to post a penguin-related puzzle. This one definitely and unapologetically skews (Skuas?) old, but I come by that naturally. Antarctica was spectacular, at least until I and around 30 other passengers and crew on our expedition ship tested positive for COVID and spent a week quarantined in remotest Tierra Del Fuego. I’m happy to say I’m now home and healthy.

puz | pdf | solution

Apologies for the technical glitch with last Sunday’s puzzle (“Cupid Is As Cupid Does”) – there was only the most tenuous Internet service in the Drake Passage, and apparently the Dropbox links didn’t copy, which is why I reposted it from dry land on Tuesday.