Words: 70 (17×13)
Average Length: 5.46
38A (repurposed from a themed puzzle that wouldn’t come together) and 10D were the seeds for today’s puzzle. Sorry for a couple of brand names infiltrating the grid – I hope they’re well-known enough not to be stumbling blocks.
Words: 70
Average Length: 5.34
4D and 24D were the seeds for this puzzle. As always, I had a lot of fun with the cluing and, as I always hope, learned something along the way (see 42D).
Words: 14 (7×7)
Average Length: 5.29
2 Down and 8 Across were the seeds. Apologies that 6 Across will leave you with an earworm, assuming you know the commercials (consider yourself fortunate if you don’t).
Words: 68
Average Length: 5.50
There were 4 seeds for today’s themeless: 8 Down (a factoid from a shipboard trivia game), 21 Across (I can still name the starting line-up, subs, and pitchers; they were my boyhood team), 27 Across (no thanks), and 33 Across (a refugee from a themed puzzle that wouldn’t come together).
Words: 12 (6×6)
Average Length: 5.33
This was a weird puzzle to construct. I had two seed entries, neither of which survived the filling and editing process. Then I spent far too long trying to come up with a clever title before deciding just to literally bestow a title upon the puzzle.
Words: 68
Average Length: 5.62
The three grid-spanners were the seeds for today’s themeless. Actually, I’m not sure how “themeless” the puzzle is, given that all three grid-spanners are temporal in nature, but, to quote the great Kurt Vonnegut, “so it goes.”
Words: 72
Average Length: 5.42
The seeds for this themeless were 20 Across and 50 Across. I’ve lived by 20 Across plenty of times, and taken 50 Across in many places around the world. The advice in 18 Across comes from a jazz band director I had in college; unfortunately, I’ve used it plenty of times as well.
I got back last night from two phenomenal weeks in Egypt on a trip booked through Smithsonian Journeys. If you’d like to read about it and see lots of photos of pyramids, temples, and colorful royal tombs from 4000 years ago, please check out my Puffinless Travel blog.
Words: 70
Average Length: 5.34
The seeds for today’s puzzle were 33 Across (snarky clue included) and 8 Down (a “wrong” answer in a trivia game a few months ago, the same game that gave me the clue/answer to 42 Down).
By the way, Flossie and Freddie in 16 Across come from the “Bobbsey Twins” series of children’s books, which were all the rage around 60 years ago. (Their older twin siblings were Bert and Nan.)
Words: 68
Average Length: 5.74
35 Across and 5 Down were the seeds for today’s puzzle; they came from two terrific books I’d recently read, Rick Steve’s account of his decision to become a travel writer and Catherine Nixey’s Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God.
Apologies – it was just brought to my attention that 5D in the originally posted puzzle was misspelled. I’ve fixed it in the puz and pdf version but haven’t been able to do so yet in the online version.
Jeff's Puzzles