Club 72

This is the rare puzzle that gets both the “crosswords” and “variety puzzles” category! Now, I’m not one to tell you how to do your puzzle, but the colleague to whom I gave this puzzle said, “Wow, this is definitely gonna be a pencil puzzle.” The object of this puzzle is to solve it like a regular crossword, except the corresponding entry in the grid will be the anagram of the answer to the clue. (No, I didn’t keep this one under 72 words.)

Don’t be surprised or frustrated if you find some clues more difficult than others… there is a definite reason to the degree of difficulty of particular clues as opposed to others. I’m not going to give away quite what it is, but see if you can discern what I was thinking during the cluing process.

I’ll be back with another crossword puzzle, of course, on Tuesday. The answer to Freestyle Puzzle 15 will appear there too. But I hope this will tide you over until then.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! Let me know how you did! What did you like? What could I do better? Are you waiting for something… tell me, would you wait all night? Don’t you find the word “gumption” fun to say? Would a one-way intersection indicate a wormhole in space-time?

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Crosswords

Puzzle 24: Freestyle 15. It’s all the rage.

February 17, 2015 Tim Croce 1 Comment

Last Tuesday’s Freestyle 12 solution

Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.54

As I showed you a few posts ago, I have a standard shape that I start with when I want to construct a regular stacks-in-the-corners formation. I usually end up deviating greatly from that formation because, well, that’s how the vagaries of construction go. But the formation I started with actually remained intact this time: I wanted to go with a 70-word structure for this one, and all I ended up doing was adding the two pairs of cheaters.

Obviously, the genesis for this one, the only seed I started with, is at 1-Across. I did have a couple of mini-seeds: 48-Across and 56-Down. 38-Across, I guess you could say, was also a mini-seed.

I constructed this one about a month and a half ago… so this one is antediluvian as far as independent crosswords go. The way I go with this site is that I just pick the one I feel like running to match whatever mood strikes me. (I always have several to select from.) I don’t know why this one lasted that long in the pile before making its way to the top, because I really like this one, but that’s the way it worked out.

After solving, the intrepid solver in you may have noticed that I could have easily taken out the cheater squares above 56-Down and below 10-Down and easily still had a valid fill. I noticed that too (obviously), but 56-Down was one of my mini-seeds, so I decided I’d rather have that entry with the cheaters than not have that entry and not have the cheaters.

My favorite thing I learned from this puzzle is that 57-Across came up with the idea of the “zipper” first, but his “zipping” method didn’t really work out as well as the zipper we’re familiar with today. He did OK for himself with another one of his inventions, anyway.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better? ¿Yo me frío o lo soplo? If there were a Quantum Physicists’ Club, would it only theoretically exist? What is the reason for there being a reason for everything?

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

Crosswords

Puzzle 22: Freestyle 14. En garde!

February 10, 2015 Tim Croce 1 Comment

Last Wednesday’s Freestyle 13 solution

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.31

Before I get to anything else, you might have noticed (and if you didn’t, feel free to notice now) that there’s a new independent crossworder among the ranks. Go now and check out Lena Webb, and I know you will not be disappointed! You’ll find some very interesting reads there to go along with the cruciverbal exploits.

Well, back to the “normal” schedule, I suppose. Not a normal shape to this puzzle, though. But I can explain: this was intended to be a triple-10-stack without longer vertical answers in the corners, but my seeds dictated otherwise. I was fortunate enough to have two 10-letter seeds (13-Across and 17-Across) that I discovered that I could stack, so, instead of forcing anything, I split up the stacks in the upper left and lower right and took out a pair of blocks in the other corners to be able to fit another couple of good entries there. I had to count it several times just to make sure it was at 72 words; it doesn’t really look like it is upon first glance.

Besides 13- and 17-Across, I actually had three other seeds: 44-Across and 60-Across and 10-Down. The mini-seeds at 27-Down, 55-Across, 46-Down, and 24-Across came about during construction. Also, I hope you like the clues for 25-Across and 16-Across, because I particularly liked them myself (if I can toot my own horn for a bit).

Not that I’m particularly concerned with aesthetics, but I think here’s an example of how adding a pair of “cheater” squares can actually enhance the visual look of the grid: it actually looks like a couple of swords pointing into the corners. (There’s a “cross swords”/”crosswords” pun in there somewhere.) I had to add that pair for construction reasons, of course, but that is an extra little thing that pops out to me.

My favorite thing that I learned from this puzzle is that 10-Down won a Grammy for that album: I’ve liked this musician’s work for a while now, and I didn’t know that that album, or any in this musician’s discography, won a Grammy.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better? One never knows, does one, when love comes along? Do S&M clubs appreciate the song “You Always Hurt the One You Love”? Did you hear the one about the cannibal who passed his brother in the woods?

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

Crosswords

Puzzle 20: Freestyle 13. Does something stick out to you in this puzzle?

February 4, 2015 Tim Croce 6 Comments

Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.43

Perhaps, by now, you’ve figured out why I’m posting another crossword today after the one yesterday. It’s because (spoiler alert if you haven’t done it yet; highlight to read text) I had this puzzle ready to go, but the extraordinary events of the Super Bowl and the way my beloved New England Patriots won, coupled with the realization that SUPER BOWL XLIX and MALCOLM BUTLER had the same number of letters, meant that I just had to create a puzzle to commemorate the occasion (end spoiler alert).

The unusual configuration of this puzzle owes to a couple of 12-letter seed entries that I wanted to put into this puzzle. 12-letter entries sometimes force the constructor into a multitude of 3-letter answers, which I don’t want to do; I don’t think you’ll ever see me put a 12-letter entry in the fourth row or column. But those two 12s were in a list of seed entries that I keep as a note on my phone; I couldn’t just leave them be, right?

This time, I actually had three seed entries from that aforementioned list: the two 12s at 22-Across and 47-Across, as well as 33-Down. There was a mini-seed at 10-Down; it had made its way into my word list while on a OneLook.com excursion (yes, I have some of those from time to time), but I most certainly did not expect it to work when I laid it in there. That was the last section I constructed in this puzzle, and I had already gone through several unsuccessful options in that area. 62-Across was also a mini-seed for the bottom-right corner.

This puzzle comes in at 70 words, but I had a couple of opportunities to make it 72, which you’ll see from the grid; whenever I’m at 70, though, I’m almost always unwilling to make it 72 if the addition of a pair of blocks would add 4 three-letter words to the grid. I’ll only do it when there’s no other option and the fill would get really ugly otherwise.

My favorite thing that I learned from this puzzle is the quote at 21-Across (yeah, not much in terms of trivia here, which I suppose may be a good thing)… it obviously amused me such to the point that I had to use it in the clue.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better? How come I can’t tell the free world from a living hell? Can a hipster’s car run on coconut oil? Does Mr. Peanut live a double life as a pimp and just forget to take off his costume for his day job?

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

Crosswords

Puzzle 19: Freestyle 12. Dancing sharks not included.

February 3, 2015 Tim Croce Leave a comment

Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.19

You may wonder why I use the term “freestyle” instead of “themeless” to describe my puzzles, and this is a prime example. There is a sort of a theme running through this… not strong enough to make a true themed puzzle, but strong enough that I can’t call this “themeless”. I think it more accurately describes the process of creating this kind of puzzle… “themeless” brings to mind, for me, the image of a rudderless ship out adrift.

I definitely want to mention that there will be another freestyle puzzle posted tomorrow, for reasons that you may see upon solving this puzzle; also, I have a variety offering that I want to post this Friday.

You may notice that there’s a slightly lower mean word length than what I’ve been posting lately — which means more black squares (38) than normal — and there’s a good reason for that, which you’ll find out by doing this puzzle. There was a definite need to place all of those black squares exactly where they are, instead of having a bit of freedom to move a lot of them around.

I definitely don’t have to tell you what the seeds for this puzzle were; I didn’t really have any mini-seeds in the construction process. It’s not at all that the fill was all forced into place, but I had to be just a bit less “freewheeling” with the fill than with my other offerings.

My favorite thing that I learned from this puzzle was definitely the fact in the clue at 6-Down. The natural world is so fascinating to me.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better? What do you want from me when I just want to restart? Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Do you ever get the sinking feeling that all of your friends are beginning to believe that you’re an android?

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

Crosswords

Puzzle 17: Freestyle 11. Snow time like the present!

January 27, 2015 Tim Croce 3 Comments

Last week’s Wordominoes solution

Word count: 71
Mean word length: 5.75

I’d like to express B I G thanks to Sam Ezersky for shouting out my puzzle from last Friday. I highly recommend that you do two things on this page: do his very cool freestyle puzzle, and, when you’re done with it, read his notes on the construction of that puzzle. It’s a very nice anatomy of the thought process that goes into constructing a freestyle puzzle. Well done!

As I’m writing this, there is a travel ban for all non-essential traffic in the state of Massachusetts due to a major winter storm. There is not, thank goodness, a ban on all web traffic in Massachusetts, though… so I feel safe in posting this today without being ticketed.

As you can see by the odd-numbered word count, I stretched this one to 16×15 again to fit the answer in the middle. Constructing a 16×15 while still keeping the word count under 72 is, as I’ve said before, a bit more difficult to do — more difficult than you’d think for just adding one column — so I only do it when there’s a 16 that I really really want to put in a puzzle. It was a little easier, actually, that I had two vertical 15s in this puzzle, because it enabled me to close off the corners a little more and still keep the word count down; I didn’t originally plan on having those 15s, but it worked out better with them than without.

The major seed for this puzzle, obviously, was 37-Across; I didn’t need to tell you that. Other seeds were 1-Across and 16-Across. They were going to go in the upper left stack no matter what, once I discovered that they fit well together. The 15s weren’t really mini-seeds, because they only happened to be one of a few that fit the pattern when I took out the pair of blocks to make them 15s. Same with 34-Across… it was one of only a few that fit in that particular spot as I was constructing it. Yes, 60-Across was a mini-seed… other than that, I didn’t really have any others.

My favorite thing that I learned from this puzzle was that the company in 13-Down made military trucks as well as what I knew them for.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better? Is it any wonder I’m tired? Did Dr. Watson ever say, “Wassup, Holmes”? Wouldn’t you like to hear an all-ukulele Nirvana cover band called the Grass Kurts?

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

Crosswords

Puzzle 16: Freestyle 10. Do you feel the pressure?

January 23, 2015 Tim Croce 2 Comments

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.39

I interrupt my regularly-scheduled variety puzzle to bring you this late-breaking crossword. No, seriously, I had a variety puzzle planned out for this week (you’ll see it next week), but events recent to this puzzle prompted me to make this one special. Why? Because… reasons. You’ll see upon doing the puzzle.

The seed for this puzzle was obvious. It’s the reason I broke out of my normality and did an 11-stack… it was because I had to. Heck, it’s the reason I’m posting a crossword puzzle today instead of the usual variety puzzle. This one actually wasn’t too bad to fill manually, considering it was an 11-stack… perhaps it was because I started at the bottom? I felt like the seed entry was better suited as a starting point where it was, so I started there. That actually wasn’t the only seed in this puzzle… 12-Down was as well, because I found it fascinating that those things actually exist now. The mini-seeds were 51-Across and, in turn, 28-Down. 51-Across was the reason I had to break up the stacks in the lower left and upper right; I’d originally planned them as triple 10-stacks, but I constructed the lower right first, which forced me to put that block in to break up the stack. With that kind of answer, tho, I’m happy to break a stack like that.

My favorite thing that I learned from this puzzle was a tie: as I said above, that the thing at 12-Across actually exists, and that 51-Across actually wrote a book… which was called THAT. Just the phrase “mint guy” in a book title is enough to make it hilarious. Plus, I knew the factoid at 22-Down, but I just had to include it as a clue… crazy fact, right?

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better? Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses? When you go to the eye doctor’s office, have you ever tried to pronounce the rows in the eye chart as though they were single words? Have you ever been befriended by a rogue band of five-legged squirrels?

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New freestyle, as usual, on Monday!

Crosswords

Puzzle 15: Freestyle 9. How do you stack up?

January 20, 2015 Tim Croce 1 Comment

Word count: 68 (yup, 68)
Mean word length: 5.56

Thanks very much to the inimitable Evan Birnholz for shouting out my Wordominoes puzzle! Check out Evan’s stuff… you won’t be disappointed!

Remember in my About My Puzzles page, where I said I would only “once in a great while” go to a 68 word count? Well, this is that once in a great while. Most freestyle crosswords fall under one of three configurations: those with stacks around the edges, those with stacks in the middle, and those that are some hybrid of the two. This one falls under the second category, which is a big part of the reason for that lower word count.

I’d say this is the “easiest” way to construct a lower word count grid: with the stack in the middle. The stack forced my hand into creating the cluster of threes in the upper left and lower right — I resisted going to 3’s in those corners for the longest time — but I eventually relented. I relented in part because I’m particularly careful in sections with three-letter words. Why? Well, threes are where the fill can get ugly real quick: subconsciously, we can start to think, “Oh, these are all throwaway answers, I don’t really need to spend lots of time on these,” but one INB here, one ATA there, and the ugly factor adds up fast, all of a sudden.

Owing to the central stack, I did something I don’t usually do, which is to start in the middle and work outward. The seeds were, obviously, 31-Across and 36-Across: I tried stacking them every which way until I came upon this configuration, which worked quite well and yielded an answer in the middle that I quite liked as well. The mini-seeds were at 18-Across and 51-Across, of course (where else would they be?). Also, not one day after I finished constructing and cluing this puzzle, the entry at 3-Down came up as the answer to a trivia question in a quiz show I was watching (can’t remember which one — it was probably “The Chase” — only that it wasn’t “Jeopardy!”). I felt so proud of myself for knowing.

My favorite thing that I learned from this puzzle — well, not quite from this puzzle, but I used it in this puzzle — was in the clue for 33-Down, that those creatures don’t eat at all as an adult. I saw it a little while back in some online article, and that fact stuck with me such that I had to use it in a clue when the answer came up.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better? Who wears these shoes? If animal crackers suddenly came to life and realized their purpose heretofore, how crazy would the revolt be? Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate if the Huey Lewis song “Hip to be Square” were 4 minutes 16 seconds long?

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

Crosswords

Puzzle 13: Freestyle 8. It’ll grow on you.

January 13, 2015 Tim Croce 2 Comments