Tag: Mini

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Mini

Rice to the Occasion

Luang Prabang night market, Laos (photo taken March 2024)

Words: 16 (7×7)

Average Length:  5.38

If you want to make sure you don’t miss a puzzle, please “follow” the blog. A couple of times in the past month or so, Daily Crosswords Links didn’t include one of my puzzles. I’m not sure if the issue is on my end or theirs, but following the blog will assure you see the puzzles the day they’re posted. The two that didn’t make the DCL email were Themeless 81 (July 6) and 5-7-5×5 (June 12). Thanks!!

No rhyming clues in this one – sorry (or not, depending on what you think of poetic clues).  1 Across was the seed – or more accurately, grain – for the grid.  I was watching a cooking show, as I often do because forget about the news,  and the participants had to make that particular dish. 

online | puz | pdf | solution

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Mini Uncategorized

Filling Up On Raisins

Potential future raisins (they’re actually wine grapes), Bad Krozingen, Germany (photo taken Oct. 2019)

Words:  14

Average Length:  5.29

1 Across was the seed.  Had I been thinking, I would have tried for some grid art.  As it is, turning the puzzle upside down sort of gets the idea across.

online | puz | pdf | solution

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Mini

5-7-5×5

See 8 Across. Photo taken on Cape Cod, Sept. 2019

Words: 10 (5×5)

Average Length:  4.80

Squares of white and black/A vacant field awaiting/Solvers’ fertile minds

online | puz | pdf | solution

My poetry is/At It-Could-Be-Verse.com /Please check out the site!

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Mini

Entertaining Women

Sunrise on the Douro River, Portugal (see 8 Down)(photo taken Oct. 2022)

Words:  18

Average Length:  4.89

Originally this was going to be the first of two minis – Entertaining Women and Entertaining Men.  But when I constructed “Entertaining Men,” it morphed into a full-sized puzzle (under a different title: “Backstreet genius”).  Come back in late June (and several times before then!) to solve it.  Meanwhile, enjoy this mini, perhaps with a glass of 15 Across.

online | puz | pdf | solution

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Mini

Kvetchy Molluscs

This has nothing to do with the puzzle, but I did get a chuckle out of it while walking in the mall with my granddaughter last week. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to plug a recent post on my travel blog about (mostly inadvertently) entertaining signs I’ve seen on my travels. Here’s a link: http://puffinlesstravel.com/2024/04/28/travel-musings-1-humor-on-the-road/

Words:  18

Average Length:  5.00

Thinking about shellfish the other day – as we all do, I’m sure, though it’s common to clam up when asked about it – the answer/clue that’s now 1 Across came to mind.  (I liked the pun so much I made it the title of the puzzle.)  Alas, there are no pearls (of wisdom or otherwise) in this grid, but it should make for a tasty, bite-sized solve nonetheless.

online | puz | pdf | solution

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Mini Themed

Extra Cheese Please

See 9 Across. Photo taken near Cairns, Australia, Jan. 2024.

Words: 10

Average Length: 4.80

1 Across and 1 Down were the seeds, not surprisingly, but I also enjoyed putting 3 Down and 4 Down next to each other.  Now that would be a mind-blowing show!  7 Across is terrible fill, but I figured I’d include it after realizing that rearranging the letters as the clue suggests would fit with the trattoria theme.

online | puz | pdf | solution

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Mini

More Greek Letter Puns

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque (see 3 Down). Photo taken Jan. 2020.

Words:  10

Average Length:  4.40

Here’s a second (and probably last; I hear your sigh of relief) Greek letter pun mini. 

online | puz | pdf | solution

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Mini

Pi Upsilon Nus

Babaco (relative of 7 Across). Photo taken at Mercado La Carolina, Quito, Ecuador, Sept. 2022

Words:  16 (7×7)

Average Length:  4.88

The puns at 1 Across and 14 Across popped into my head as soon as I started to ponder this week’s mini.  Not being one to ignore inspiration, here’s the result. 

online | puz | pdf | solution

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Mini

6AD

This has nothing to do with the puzzle – just a cool scene from Wat Po in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo taken April 2024.

Words:  18 (7×7)

Average Length:  5.00

7 Across and 13 Across were the seeds for this mini – and the title, as those of you who are algebraically inclined will figure out, is the product of the seeds.

online | puz | pdf | solution

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Mini

Prisms and Primates

See 1 Down. Photo taken near Ho Chi Minh City, March 2024.

1 Across was the seed for this puzzle.  I wasn’t sure about including 12 Across because he isn’t so well-known as he should be.   As the clue indicates, this is someone who should be considered a giant of the 20th century, whether you agree with his politics or not.  (He was caught up in the persecution of artists by HUAC and had been an outspoken supporter of the Soviet Union.)  Check out his Wikipedia entry.

online | puz | pdf | solution