Tag: Midi

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Midi Themed

A PC Puzzle

Not 6 Down: frigate birds, Galapagos Islands, Sept. 2022

Words: 28 (9×9)

Average Length: 5.07

Almost every night, Sandy and I eat some 10 Down and watch Jeopardy! followed by a baking show/The Voice/AGT/baseball, depending on the season.  Often, once Jeopardy! is over – for the show is sacrosanct – I’ll multitask, crafting/cluing/cogitating about a puzzle while absurdly talented kids/singers/acrobats/athletes are strutting their stuff.  So, while casting about for an idea for this week’s midi, I looked at the 10 Down-filled bowl in front of me and inspiration struck. 

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi Themed

There’s the Rub

See 29 Down

Words: 42 (11×11)

Average Length: 4.71

This is my entry for Crosshare’s monthly midi contest, the theme of which this month is “Spice.”  Four of the clues – those ending with exclamation points – are cryptic in nature.  Each of these asks for an anagram of either “spice” or “spices” that answers the rest of the clue.  I hope you find this savory and satisfying!

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi Themed

Resolution – Fiat Pax!

Sagano Bamboo Grove, Kyoto – a place of exquisite peace (Mar. 2025)

Words: 55 (11×14)

Average Length: 4.45

After a year of strife, here’s a peace-focused puzzle.

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My puzzle-making colleague, Jeanne Breen, published a terrific acrostic puzzle yesterday based on a passage chosen by the incomparable Frank Bruni as one of his favorite bits of prose from 2025. You can solve it here, and you should, unless (as she put it) “you’re a proud supporter of POTUS 45/47.”

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi Themed Travel Midi

Solve Like an Egyptian

Illustration in a tomb at Deir el-Medina near the Valley of the Kings, Luxor (Nov. 2025)

Words: 42

Average Length: 4.71

I’m nearing the end of two phenomenal weeks in Egypt, during which I’ve gotten to see the pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, the new Grand Egyptian Museum, Abu Simbel, and the temples and tombs of Luxor.  The sights have been spectacular and the Egyptian people warm and welcoming.  Here’s a puzzle celebrating this wonderful country. 

I’ve been blogging about the trip on my PuffinlessTravel blog – please stop by to see photos and read all about it.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi

To My New Grandson

Words: 30

Average Length: 4.73

At 10:36 this morning, my wife Sandy and I welcomed our second grandchild, Noah, into the world.  Noah is 20 inches and 8.2 pounds, and he and his parents (Andrea and Eli) are doing great.  I had to mark the occasion with a puzzle, of course!

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi Themed

It’s Autumnatic!

Staffen im Breisbau, Germany (Oct. 2019)

Words: 42 (11×11)

Average Length: 4.71

This is my entry into Crosshare’s Monthly Midi Crossword Contest.  The theme for the contest is “Fall,” but not strictly in the seasonal sense.  Taking up the challenge, 11 of the 42 entries relate to some meaning of fall.

I learn things from crosswords almost every day, but in cluing this one, I learned something that truly surprised me – check the clue for 5 Down. 

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi

G’Day Mates 2

I tried it so you don’t have to. Don’t.

Words: 11

Average Length: 5.09

Around a month ago, I posted G’Day Mates 1, a puzzle celebrating the wonderful Aussies I’ve met on my travels.  That puzzle actually was the second “G’Day Mates” grid I constructed; the first one misspelled the seed entry.  (I had been misinformed as to the spelling and, fortunately, checked it before hitting “Publish.”)

So here’s G’Day Mates 2, misspelling and all.  Turns out, if the Aussies in question have tsuris, the misspelling works just fine.  (“Tsuris” means “woes” in Yiddish.)

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi

Bird, Diz, and LBFF

Mia after a nap spent chasing chipmunks in her dreams

Words: 28 (9×9)

Average Length: 5.29

3 Down and 21 Across were today’s seeds, though I’m kind of taken with the clue for 15 Across.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi

Go With the Flow

Here’s an additional clue for 16 Down. Photo taken in Cologne, Oct. 2019.

Words: 28 (9×9)

Average Length: 4.93

The seeds for this puzzle, not surprisingly, were 4 and 24 Across, which make use of the title in different ways.  14 Across also was a seed, just because I like the logic of it.  Fitting  4 Down in was serendipitous – or therendipetouth, as Sylvester would say. 

online | puz | pdf | solution

Categories
Midi

What Are They Worth?

Parrots seen last Tuesday at an aviary near the Port of Cartagena.

Words: 24 (9×9)

Average Length: 4.67

I’ve been wondering about the difference in valuation between 10A and 4D.  Is it because we value our own thoughts more highly than others value them?  (Anything to avoid thinking about the state of the world!)

online | puz | pdf | solution

I just returned from a cruise that took me from San Diego to Miami. If anyone is interested, I’ve been blogging about it on my PuffinlessTravel site. Here are links to the posts:

Aboard the Oceania Insignia

Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo

Zihuatanejo

Guatemala – The Tour That Didn’t Happen

Costa Rica – Pura Vida!

Transiting the Panama Canal – Bay Gulls and Locks

Cartagena, Colombia

Grand Cayman

Sailing the Oceania Insignia from San Diego to Miami