Category Archives: Puzzles

Meet Parseword: Making Cryptic Crosswords Less Cryptic!

Posted on by
1

You might not know Josh Wardle by name, but you certainly know his viral creation, Wordle, and you’ve no doubt seen friends and family members sharing their solving results daily.

A few days ago, Josh launched a new puzzly endeavor called Parseword.

It’s a definite step up in complexity from Wordle, but you can still see some of Wordle’s foundation in Parseword. After all, Wordle is all about deduction, playing with the pieces in front of you, and slowly (or quickly) applying what you’ve learned to discover the day’s word.

Parseword works in a similar fashion, but instead of using the letters in front of you to uncover the word, you’re using a Cryptic Crossword-style clue to unravel the answer word.

Image courtesy of New Scientist.

The clues in Cryptic Crosswords, also known as British-style crosswords, are longer, incorporating all sorts of wordplay, while concealing the definition within the clue as well. Each clue is a puzzle unto itself.

Here’s an example of cryptic-style cluing: “Quoted from edict wrongly (5)”

The definition part of the clue consists of the first two words, “quoted from.”

“Wrongly” indicates that part of the clue needs to be changed. This hints that the other word, “edict,” is not what it seems. EDICT, when anagrammed, becomes CITED. “Quoted from” defines CITED. Two ways to get the answer, one straightforward, one more challenging.

There you go. And that’s only one trick in the Cryptic Crossword cluing arsenal.

Cryptic clues can hide the answer between words, as in “Scottish snack offered in disco
nearby (5),” where “diSCO NEarby” conceals SCONE, the “Scottish snack.” They can offer two different definitions, as in “Desire for Japanese money (3)” for YEN.

Answer words could read backwards, or hide as initialisms or acronyms in the clue words. There could be soundalike words, or rebus-style assembly of the answer word. There’s loads of trickery and camouflage, especially in the hands of clever setters or constructors.

Parsewords is an interactive way to learn how to unravel Cryptic-style cluing.

Josh recently did an interview with The New Yorker, sharing his inspiration for the new puzzle game:

Wardle had tried cryptic crosswords when he was younger, but found them to be impenetrable. “I didn’t know how to begin,” he told me. The rules could seem arcane, almost impossible to deduce.

By treating the clue like a formula to be simplified, a linguistic version of P-E-M-D-A-S, the formerly impenetrable word salad of a clue starts to transform into something more recognizable. It’s a little bit like Ben Gross’s Bracket City puzzles.

Here, let’s take a look at yesterday’s puzzle and I can show you what I mean.

So the puzzle starts you off by highlighting the definition part of the clue: “Plan of action.”

We must now unravel how we get an 8-letter answer from what remains: “Get back in errant.”

Thankfully, the puzzle also prompts you with which particular forms of cluing manipulation you’ll need to use: a replacement, a reverse, and a container.

I found the reverse quickly. GET BACK told me literally what I needed to do, so I highlighted the entire phrase, which gave me the options to replace the phrase with a synonym like RECLAIM or RETAKE, or to literally turn “get” back, reversing it to read TEG.

“In” tells me the container aspect of the puzzle. TEG would be placed inside of something. But I couldn’t think of any way to play with the word ERRANT that would get me to a synonym of “plan.”

I clicked on ERRANT and the program gave me several replacement options: Wrong, Stray, and Guilty.

I clicked on STRAY, which replaced ERRANT in the clue.

Finally, I highlighted all three, allowing me to place TEG in STRAY, giving me the answer word for “plan of action”, STRATEGY.

It’s a really playful, visual way to describe how Cryptic Crossword cluing works, giving solvers chances to try replacements and anagrams, then reset when they’ve gone astray.

I don’t exactly expect it to take the world by storm the way Wordle did, but there’s something wonderful about a puzzle that trains you to be better at another kind of puzzle. It’s puzzly community and encouragement, which is one of the best things about being a solver.

I haven’t checked out today’s Parseword yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

What do you think of Parseword, fellow solver? Are you a Cryptic Crossword fan? A Parseword enthusiast? If not, will this get you to try the British sibling to our beloved American crosswords? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

[Thank you to our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles for the examples of Cryptic Crossword cluing. Check out their marvelous How to Solve Cryptic Crosswords guide here!]

A Hidden Message Word Search, with Musical Accompaniment by im sad alex!

Posted on by
Reply

Who doesn’t love stumbling upon a puzzle where you didn’t expect one?

I’m sure many of us do. I certainly do!

So when musician and YouTuber im sad alex dropped a new song that included a word search in the video, you know I had to jump on that!

Alex claims all of their exes’ names are concealed in this grid, and if you find all of them, you’ll get a secret message.

Here’s a screenshot of the grid so you can take a crack at it yourself:

I wasn’t able to complete a perfect solve, but I found the following names: Patrick, David, Mark, Robert, Kyle, Chris, Sam, Greg, Joe, Eva, Leo, Chet, Pearl, Rasmus, and Cale.

It took a few tries, because there are other options like Jay, Earl, Abe, etc., but I got pretty close by solving as I tried to assemble the message hidden in the remaining letters.

The message I found read: It did not work out and I married a tall boy who loves me very very much and I love him very much too.

The only part I couldn’t resolve was the double E in the very last “VERY”.

But it was a fun challenge!

I highly recommend checking out Alex’s songs. They’re an entertaining mix of sweet and funny, and her voice is absolutely gorgeous.

I’ll conclude today’s post with my favorite imsadalex song, which is her duet with the very meme-able Dirt Man song:

Have you encountered any puzzles in unexpected places lately, fellow solvers? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.

Valentine’s Framework For You to Solve!

Posted on by
Reply

Hello fellow puzzlers! Happy Valentine’s Day! Or Happy Day After Friday the 13th! Or Happy whatever else you might be celebrating today!

To commemorate the day, I’ve constructed a little romance-tinged puzzly treat for you to solve.

It’s a heart-shaped Framework puzzle with a themed word list loaded with all sorts of shmoopy- and otherwise holiday-appropriate vocabulary!

[Click this link to download a PDF of this puzzle.]

Happy puzzling, friends!

Puzzly Suggestions for Valentine’s Day!

Posted on by
Reply
puzzlelove

Valentine’s Day is only a few days away, but there’s still plenty of time to whip up a puzzly treat for the special someone in your life!

And naturally we’ve got a few suggestions…

puzzle-pin-valentines-day-craft-photo-420-ff0299vala16

Jigsaw puzzles are the perfect metaphor for relationships, as they require separate pieces working together to complete the picture.

There are do-it-yourself jigsaw patterns you can utilize at most every art store or hobby shop. You could depict anything from a favorite photo to a specific Valentine’s message in the completed image.

4903-13710

If jigsaws aren’t their style, you can always start with something simple, like a subscription to a puzzle service like The American Values Club Crossword. New puzzles every week or every month are a great gift.

If they’re more into mechanical puzzles, our friends at Tavern Puzzles offer several brain teasers that incorporate a heart shape.

heartpuzzle

But if you’re looking for something more personalized, why not make a crossword for them yourself?

(Yes, you can also commission a top puzzler to do one for you, but you’d usually want to get the ball rolling on something like that well before Valentine’s Day.)

For example, Reddit user peregrinate shared a crossword they constructed for their boyfriend, including the lovely artistic way they rendered their gift!

Now, to be fair, crosswords can be tough and time-intensive to make, so if that feels a little daunting, why not try a Framework puzzle or a crisscross instead? They incorporate the same crossing style, but don’t require you to use every letter.

valentine-s-day-love-wedding-criss-cross-word-game-romance-themed-puzzle-also-known-as-fill-blanks-crossword-puzzle-36632791

It allows you to maintain a terrific word list all about you and your significant other without all the effort of filling in every square crossword-style.

Or you could write the object of your affection a coded love letter! All throughout history, people have employed different tricks and techniques to keep their private messages away from prying eyes, and you could do the same!

Whether it’s a simple letter-shifting cipher or something more complex, make sure your message is worth reading. =)

butterflylock
Image courtesy of ibookbinding.com

Plus you could learn a bit of letterlocking to add some flair, and a sense of puzzly secrecy and personalization, to your message. It involves a mix of precise folds, interlocking pieces of paper, and sealing wax in order to create a distinctive design or pattern.

Even if you don’t go the encryption route, the unique presentation of a letter-locked message makes a simple card or a heartfelt note feel more precious.

Have you considered a puzzle bouquet? You could grab some newspaper crosswords and origami them into flower shapes for a fun puzzle-fueled spin on a holiday classic.

puzzleflowers

Or you could gather flower-themed puzzles and spell out messages in the grids.

Rows Garden immediately comes to mind, as do Daisy and Flower Power, which you can find in Penny Press magazines!

img_8721

Or you could hide jigsaw pieces around the house that, when put together, spell out a Valentine’s message or a picture of the two of you.

Put your own spin on the idea. A little bit of effort can go a long way, plus it doesn’t cost anything.

With a little more effort, you could whip up a scavenger hunt! You could leave clues around leading to a gift, or a romantic dinner, or some other grand finale. Maybe offer a rose with each clue. (You can do this without leaving the house, like a reverse escape room!)

Show off how much you know about him or her. You could make each clue (or destination, safety allowing) about your relationship or about your partner, allowing you to show off how well you know them… where you first met, favorite meals, favorite movie…

If you don’t want to leave things around where anyone could nab them, keep a few small tokens on you, giving one for each destination reached or clue solved. Heck, you could enlist a friend to text clues to your special someone once they’ve reached a particular destination!

Or for something less formal, you could make a game of your romantic wanderings and play Valentine’s Day Bingo.

valentines-bingo-stripes-blank-blog
I found this blank template on Makoodle.com

Maybe go for a walk or take a drive with your loved one, and see if they can get bingo by observing different things. A couple holding hands as they walk, a Valentine’s Day proposal, outrageously priced flowers…

You could even channel-surf and see if you can get bingo from all the Valentine’s Day programming.

The possibilities are endless when you put your mind to it.

Image courtesy of Escape the Room.

What about a couples’ escape room date?

While many escape rooms are geared toward larger groups, you can absolutely find ones tailored to couples or pairs, giving you a more private opportunity to flex your puzzly skills with your significant other!

(Although I wouldn’t recommend surprising someone with an escape room date unless you’re VERY sure they’d like it!)

Or don’t go out, and solve a mystery from home, like the ones offered by our friends at Scarlet Envelope!

Unravel a murder or solve a crime from the comfort of your own space. Set the mood, get the food, and partner up to outwit a devious criminal!

There are any number of ways to add a personalized and puzzly twist to the holiday. Do you have any suggestions, fellow puzzler? Let us know in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you.

A Rubik Kerfuffle on World Logic Day?

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday was World Logic Day, a holiday that I must confess I didn’t realize was a holiday until yesterday.

It was started by UNESCO in 2019 as a way to get people invested in logical concepts and their practical applications to the world at large, celebrating humanity’s great successes through reason, knowledge, and logic.

Of course, as a puzzle guy, I’m all for a celebration of logic. I could’ve marked the day with a discussion of different logic puzzles, highlighting the marvelous human ability to make deductions from limited information and snatch unexpected revelations from a few simple clues or facts.

And maybe I will do that in the future.

But today, instead, I have a minor grievance to share.

The built-in search bar for Microsoft had this little logo there for days. I didn’t notice because, honestly, I never use that search bar. But I happened to spot the Rubik’s cube yesterday and I was very confused.

Green, orange, white, yellow, dark pink, light pink, dark blue, light blue…

This cube has too many colors!

So naturally, I went onto Reddit to see if I was the only one with the same complaint, and I wasn’t. There was a lively discussion about the viability of this Rubik’s cube.

Many commenters pointed out that the colors are probably the result of shading to create the three-dimensional effect. Several even proved the pattern was legitimate by posting their own Rubik’s Cubes to match. (Although at least one was a tongue-in-cheek posting of a cube with the stickers moved and reattached.)

The cube appears to be modeled on the World Logic Day logo from 2024, based on the color choices, but the shadow effect really makes it look like a child had a coloring book page with a blank cube and just scribbled in it willy-nilly.

So maybe, in the future, on World Logic Day of all days, we could avoid making one of the most recognizable puzzles on the planet look weird?

UNLESS.

gasp

Unless it was intentional.

Unless this was all a master plan to raise awareness of World Logic Day by provoking neurodivergent thinkers with an image practically guaranteed to annoy them, thereby causing them to click on the image, driving more attention to World Logic Day!

DIABOLICAL.

I fell right into their trap.

And now, you have too.

Happy Belated World Logic Day, fellow puzzlers!

A Look at Ambigrams in Honor of John Langdon

Posted on by
Reply

Symmetry is nothing new to puzzle enthusiasts.

After all, diagonal symmetry is one of the fundamental rules of crossword grid design. (Along with the occasional example of vertical symmetry.)

Puzzlers are used to linguistic symmetry as well. A well-constructed palindrome, the same message reading forward and backward, has delighted and challenged many a puzzly mind. Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog.

Ambigrams scratch the same itch, combining artistic flourish with clever letter placement to create a message with rotational symmetry, allowing you to rotate the image 180 degrees and see the same message.

The curious thing about ambigrams that they feel ancient, like an artistic work steeped in history from centuries past, but in reality, they’ve only been around since the 1970s! (The term itself was coined by Douglas Hofstadter in 1984.)

The four elements as a single ambigram.

The creation of Philadelphia painter, writer, professor, and graphic designer John Langdon, he always envisioned his ambigrams as a visual presentation of words intended to present a familiar concept in an unfamiliar way.

In an interview in 2006 with Newswise.com, he said, “In the early ’70s, I tried to do with words what Dali and Escher did with images.”

Most famously, he created several ambigrams for Dan Brown’s book Angels & Demons, adding a mystical aura to Robert Langdon’s adventures involving the church and the Illuminati.

Oh, yeah, you noticed that, did you? Yes, the protagonist of The Da Vinci Code and several other bestselling works is named after John Langdon.

In an interview, Brown shared the story of his father, a math teacher, showing him Langdon’s book Wordplay, and he was instantly hooked. “John’s art changed the way I think about symmetry, symbols, and art.”

We sadly lost John earlier this year at the age of 79, but his lasting influence in the world of wordplay is alive and well, not only with his literary legacy and namesake, but in the work of other ambigram artists.

The YouTube channel Write Words – Make Magic has gone viral over the last few years by creating ambigrams for viewers’ names, as well as other cultural touchstones, and it’s absolutely worth a watch. They happily show off their techniques for creating ambigrams, and it’s a true delight.

Ambigrams, and Langdon’s art in general, are all about revisiting one’s perspective. “Ambiguity makes people uncomfortable. But the lesson of Taoism is that if you have only one vantage point, you’re not seeing the truth.”

Puzzles are often about viewing things from another angle. Wordplay, punnery, manipulating language to surprise and playfully mislead… these are hallmarks of crosswords and crossword cluing.

A “very strong sense of legibility but also a marvelous sense of esthetics, flow, and elegance.” This could easily describe a great crossword puzzle, but it’s actually Douglas Hofstadter’s description of John Langdon and his work.

I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. Insight and wordplay, lurking within the symmetry.

If you just know how to look for it.

Do you have any favorite palindromes, ambigrams, or examples of symmetrical puzzling, fellow reader? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

Happy puzzling!