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!
I’m not sure whether these will become a regular mid-week addition, but here’s the second in a possibly extended series of musical minis. This one is considerably easier than the one last week and features cameos from Ravel, two Bachs, the Andrews Sisters, Katy Perry, and the Grateful Dead, among others.
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!
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.
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.
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.
There’s been a lot of news recently about musicians selling their catalogs for hundreds of millions of dollars. But there’s another way for chronologically advanced rockers to monetize their hits – adapt them to tout cures for various afflictions of the aging. Such as, you may ask? Solve and find out!
Difficulty: Like deciding what to wear to a dinner with friends who always get spiffed up when they go out, even though you prefer jeans and a sweatshirt
My Mia (28 Across). By the way, if you’re a baseball fan (Mia obviously isn’t) I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
Disclaimer 1: I had never heard of 17 Across until I saw a news story about his passing, yet he was someone whom style mavens consider a giant in the field. I’d been mulling over possible theme entries for a puzzle with 57 Across as a revealer but tabled the idea because I couldn’t come up with a decent grid-spanner to place symmetrically to the revealer. I watched the news story with interest and then realized that not only is the subject’s full name 15 letters long, but he was a towering 6’6” tall. Problem solved, puzzle created!
Disclaimer 2: I have no business constructing a crossword about style. Buried deep in my files, securely under lock and key, is a photo of me in 1976 conducting our high school wind ensemble. I had near-shoulder length bushy hair and was wearing a very loud plaid sports jacket, a tie that must have been 5 inches wide, and orangy-reddish platform shoes. Yes, it was the ‘70s, but still ….
Coming up next (Jan. 29), a moderately challenging themeless.
Jeff's Puzzles 