Category Archives: Crosswords

Crosswords

Puzzle 459: Freestyle 413. I’m in it for the long haul.

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Last Friday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.40

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

It’s no secret that I’m a big baseball fan. Perhaps, also, I’m a bit bitter due to the way the Red Sox are starting out this season, because the seed for this grid, 8-Down, is a direct inspiration from the parade of baserunners they’ve been giving up so far. It is not a phrase that I’ve heard seldom this year watching their games.

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Tuesday!

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Crosswords

Puzzle 458: Freestyle 412. Help me out a little.

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.33

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

There are some times where you just get lucky as a constructor. One of the longer answers I was working with was the name of a popular older band that looked like it was going to work. It didn’t quite work and I was getting frustrated… it looked like I had to tear out that stack. But I discovered that I could change two letters and make a completely different entry, which totally worked out. Can you figure out which entry and band that I’m talking about?

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Friday!

Crosswords

Puzzle 457: Freestyle 411. I’ve got you under my skin.

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Last Friday’s freestyle solution

Get the PDF here!

Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 68
Mean word length: 5.38

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

My art gallery-managing mother would be proud of me for dropping this art reference, but my grid today looks like something straight out of a Piet Mondrian work. I wanted a grid-spanning triple stack with at least two entries from my seed list, and darn it if I wasn’t going to make it work by any means necessary… including making the blocks look like a modernist art piece straight out of MoMA.

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Tuesday!

Crosswords

Puzzle 456: Freestyle 410. What are you driving at?

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

Get the PDF here!

Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.25

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

This is an unusual layout for me. If I’m going to have two grid spanners, usually I space them as much as possible (unless I’m stacking them one on top of the other. Having them one above and one below the center row presented an interesting constructing challenge, especially in that it led to needing a couple of 5×5 chunks of white squares that are pretty darn tough to fill by hand.

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Friday!

Crosswords

Puzzle 455: Freestyle 409. I’m innocent, I tell you.

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Last Friday’s freestyle solution

Get the PDF here!

Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.22

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

See, this is what test solvers are for. My bottom right corner, when I originally constructed this, looked ok in my eyes, but it really wasn’t. Remember that “lexical chunk” thing from last post? There was an entry in there that I thought was, but my test solvers reined me in… they were right, it really wasn’t. Plus there was a potential impossible square for some solvers, so I had to let it go. It looks innocent enough to fill, but that little section was a pain in my neck, as well as in some of my other body parts, to complete.

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Tuesday!

Crosswords

Puzzle 454: Freestyle 408. It’s a real handful.

2 Comments

Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

Get the PDF here!

Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.40

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

I think that, if I ever form a band at an advanced age, I would call it the Lexical Chunks. I’m constantly debating with myself (and, somehow, occasionally losing) about whether a certain phrase is significant enough — is it an actual “lexical chunk” or, its opposite, too “green paint”-ish, to put into a grid. (Don’tcha love cruciverbal patois?) The seed entry for this grid is a result of one of these odd argumentative exercises that I ended up winning against myself. I end up putting everything I think might be good for a grid into my seed list, and then eventually deciding for or against it when it comes time that one of those phrases actually fits in a grid I’m constructing.

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Friday!

Crosswords

Puzzle 453: Freestyle 407. It’s a banner year.

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Last Friday’s Anagram Crossword solution

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Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.43

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

I’ve been trying to work some variety puzzles back into the fold, because I’ve been getting some positive comments about them, but today you’ve got the trusty old freestyle. People make a big deal about word count in a puzzle (I do too, of course, to a point… just look at the title of this blog), but I think that much more of a determining variable in difficulty of construction is mean word length. This did not seem like a 70-word construction (there’s often quite a difference between 70 and 72 difficulty-wise with constructing), but that’s because there were a few more black squares. I could say that I made a 50-word 15×15 grid and set some records, but if there are 80 black squares in it, it becomes rather easier, doesn’t it?

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Tuesday!