New puzzle sets for the Penny Dell Crosswords App!

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Hello puzzlers and PuzzleNationers!

Yes, I know, we already bombarded you with terrific puzzle content today, but the puzzle goodness just won’t stop! We’ve got two new puzzle sets for your enjoyment!

That’s right! Just in time for the long Labor Day weekend we’ve got our September 2016 Deluxe Set! You get 30 easy, medium, and hard puzzles, plus 5 themed bonus puzzles!

And it’s available for both Android and iOS solvers! Puzzles for everyone! More than enough to keep you puzzling all weekend long!

But that’s not all!

New to both iOS and Android, Deluxe Fun Set 7 is loaded with 30 easy, medium, and hard puzzles, plus 5 bonus puzzles! It’s the perfect puzzly end to a great summer!

We’re proud to present two terrific additions to our ever-expanding lineup of puzzles, guaranteed to match the high standards of quality, solvability, and fun that typify the PuzzleNation brand!

All this, plus a new edition of the PuzzleNation Newsletter just went out, so check your inboxes! How can you go wrong?

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today!

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It’s Follow-Up Friday: Lollapuzzoola Puzzles edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

August 13 marked the ninth annual Lollapuzzoola event, hosted in New York City by Brian Cimmet and Patrick Blindauer, and subtitled “It’s Hip to be Squared.”

While I couldn’t attend the tournament, I did download the tournament set and tackle the six puzzles prepared for the event. And today, after waiting a few weeks out of respect for the constructors and solvers-from-home to avoid spoilers, I thought I’d offer my thoughts on those puzzles, for any interested PuzzleNationers who might be considering participating in the future.

WARM-UP: Twinlets by Brian Cimmet

Before the tournament proper started, solvers tackled a pair of identical 9×9 grids, having to figure out which of the two clues given for each Across and Down coordinate applied to which grid. Intended as a tribute to the tournament’s ninth year, this was a strong, fun opener that used the dual grids to the fullest.

Several clues were repeated, allowing for some clever wordplay. For instance, both 5 Down clues were “Sweet”, cluing DELICIOUS and SCHMALTZY respectively.

Interesting grid entries included ZZ TOP, KANYE, and USER ID, and my favorite clue was either “Catcher behind a plate?” for BIB or “You’ve got two on your head and four in your head” for LOBES.

[Image courtesy of The King of Babylon on Tumblr.]

Puzzle 1: Celebrity Chefs by Mike Nothnagel

The tournament kicked off with this enjoyable 15×15 grid where food phrases that featured a last name used the first name instead (so you had CHICKEN A LA LARRY instead of CHICKEN A LA KING, for instance).

Nothnagel’s cluing was topnotch — I circled more favorite clues on this puzzle than any other in the tournament — reinvigorating some tired old standard entries with unexpected spins.

Interesting grid entries included THINKPAD, DRY EYE, TB TEST, and X-AXES, and my favorite clues (I’m limiting myself to two) were “Hefty alternative” for GLAD and “House-monitoring network?” for C-SPAN.

[Tournament directors and constructors
Brian Cimmet and Patrick Blindauer]

Puzzle 2: Flipping Out by Patrick Blindauer

The next puzzle split a 16×15 grid down the middle into two 8×15 grids, each on its own page. The curious construction definitely slowed me down, even if the cluing and grid entries (including four different entries clued “FLIP OUT”) weren’t all that difficult.

This was easily the weirdest solve of the tournament. Amazing how one little change in presentation can throw you off.

Interesting grid entries included GI JOE, NO SIR, AMADEUS, and NADAL, and my favorite clues were “Writer Rice whose characters suck” for ANNE and the surprisingly intimate “Irish singer who my wife can’t stand” for ENYA.

[Image courtesy of The Odyssey Online.]

Puzzle 3: What Happened? by Doug Peterson

The difficulty of each puzzle’s theme began to ramp up here, as we had common words or phrases where the letter H had been replaced with either a T or a Y, and this was revealed with the highlighted entry HISTORY (literally spelling out “H IS T OR Y”).

Doug is a cleverboots, to be sure, and this 21×21 grid was a great test of wordplay and puzzly knowhow.

Interesting grid entries included HOLY GRAIL, ASIAGO, YUGI-OH, and ADORBS, and my favorite clues were “Leader of Ancient Troy?” for TAU and “Co. for surfers” for ISP.

[Image courtesy of Domestiphobia.net.]

Puzzle 4: Down in Front! by Evan Birnholz

We’re halfway through the tournament puzzles now, and the toughest puzzle in the set shows up, completing a one-two punch of really solid construction and crafty cluing. Six entries in this puzzle were missing letters, creating real words that were shorter than the actual words clued. (For instance, the clue “Person conjuring up spirits?” points to BARTENDER, but BENDER is all that fits into the grid. So each entry lost two or three letters after the first letter.)

This one had me skunked for a bit, I must admit, so it was immensely satisfying to crack the theme and complete the puzzle. Nicely done, Evan.

Interesting grid entries included HOBART, CARPS AT, ECOCAR, and CASSIO, and my favorite clues were “Places to see plays?” for ARENAS and “Delivery recipients” for PARENTS.

Puzzle 5: Quote Boxes by Francis Heaney

Heaney has five 2×2 boxes shaded with different shapes, and each of the four cells in those 2×2 boxes contains a word from a famous four-word movie quote.

For instance, in the upper left corner, there’s a shaded circle filling in a 2×2 box, and each of those four cells contains one of the words “snap,” “out,” “of,” and “it,’ which are incorporated into the across and down entries intersecting those individual boxes. (SNAP is part of OH SNAP and UNSNAP, OUT is part of STOUT and OUTRO, OF is part of POOF and OFFER, and IT is part of IT’S PAT and iTUNES. And SNAP OUT OF IT reads out on the line beside a shaded circle at the bottom of the page.)

This was a super-impressive grid that jammed a lot of entries into an 18×18 grid but never felt oversaturated, and it all flows nicely. This was the puzzle of the night for me.

Interesting grid entries included DELANO, ROBERT E LEE, HERE’S HOW, and HAVE-NOT, and my favorite clues were “Hillary’s claim to fame” for EVEREST and “Ball girl?” for DEB. (Though I must mention one more, simply for the confidence it betrays: “Garment a well-dressed man always wears and slovenly cretins do not (I may be biased here)” for TIE.)

[Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org.]

Puzzle 6: Finals by Samuel A. Donaldson

This was the capper to a strong night of solving, and after Puzzle 5, it had a tough act to follow. There were two sets of clues: the Local for newcomers and the Express for established tournament puzzlers, and both had their stumbling blocks. Tight grid construction and some unexpected entries made for a pretty tough wrap-up puzzle, but one that challenged the solver rather than frustrating.

Interesting grid entries included MANSPLAIN, PUSS N BOOTS, SCAR-JO, TOOTSIES, and TESSERA, and my favorite clues from the Local set were “It covers all the bases” for TARP and “Present day visitor in France?” for PERE NOEL. My favorite clues from the Express set were “Sporty colleague” for POSH and “It can come between two friends” for OF A.

Overall, I thought this year’s Lollapuzzoola puzzles were very clever, and although some of the themes were tough to suss out, they provided a worthy challenge to solvers and plenty of outside-the-box thinking in both themes and cluing to keep your mind engaged.

There were so many great clues and all the personality and panache I’ve come to expect from the event and its constructors. Nine years in, and they’re only getting better.

I look forward to its return, and hopefully some of you will join me in accepting the Lollapuzzoola challenge. (Also, I really hope I can attend next year, or Patti might kill me for missing the tournament AGAIN. *laughs*)

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Herbaceous: A Card Game That Grows on You!

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I’m always on the lookout for new board games or card games that I think will interest the PuzzleNation readership, and today, I think I’ve got something special.

Many games center around combat, territory acquisition, player elimination, and other aggressive forms of gameplay that can alienate younger players and families alike. But what if there was a game where the toughest decision is what to plant in your garden?

Fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers, I give you…Herbaceous.

You have herb cards and container cards, and your goal is to collect the best combination of herbs to pot in your private garden. You do this by drawing herb cards and either planting them in your private garden or placing them in the community garden, where they might be snatched up by other players hoping to bolster their own private gardens.

It’s a simple, accessible game mechanic that makes it perfect for players of all ages, quick to learn but offering enough variety and strategy to give it plenty of replay value.

I reached out to Eduardo Baraf, who is part of the creative team and managing the Kickstarter, to discuss this intriguing family-friendly game.

What separates Herbaceous from other games?

Herbaceous stands out because it has accessible, welcoming gameplay that provides great player moments and dynamics. Certainly the art and subject matter of Herbaceous also grabs people’s attention.

As both a game designer and a game enthusiast, what aspect of the game most appeals to you?

The ease with which I can play it with anyone in my family and extended family. Cousins, Aunts, Grandparents, etc.

Ed backs up his claims of inviting all-ages gameplay by having his mother explain how to play the game:

And best of all, the game is already funded! So if you donate, you’ll be contributing to a game with stretch goals already in mind and plenty of support. Also, given Ed’s successful track record with crowdfunded campaigns, I have great confidence in this game reaching many satisfied supporters and customers.

[Brief Kickstarter explanation for the uninitiated: Although there are no guarantees when it comes to Kickstarter or other crowdfunding platforms, donating to already-funded projects gives you a much-higher chance of receiving the finished product in a timely fashion, since you’ve already crossed one of the major thresholds — securing the minimum funding to make the game — eliminating the chance for disappointment that the project might be cancelled because it didn’t make its minimum funding goal.]

So if you’re looking for a fun, non-combative game to play with family and friends, Herbaceous just might be what you’re looking for.

Click here for all of the details on the game and the Kickstarter campaign!

Thank you to Ed for taking the time out to answer our questions! Best of luck with the game!

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Bringing Home an Ancient Mystery: The Voynich Manuscript

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[Image courtesy of BBC.com.]

If you scour the Internet for great unsolved mysteries of this or any era, the Voynich Manuscript is always one of the top results, and with good reason.

A small hand-written volume, the Voynich Manuscript is believed to have originated in the 15th century (thanks to carbon-dating), and it’s written in an as-yet-undeciphered language.

Both amateur and professional cryptographers have attempted to unravel the mysteries of the unknown language, but all have thus far failed. (Oh sure, some people have claimed in the past that they’ve cracked the code, but none of these efforts have held up to scrutiny.)

Some theorize that instead of an encryption, it’s an invented language or a previously unseen invented written form for an established language.

vmsample

[Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org.]

A few cryptographers have gone so far as to call it unsolvable, while others believe it to be an elaborate hoax or the work of someone afflicted with glossolalia, a written equivalent of speaking in tongues.

And ever since the only known copy was donated to Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, aspiring solvers have had to rely on online scans of the manuscript in their attempts to crack it.

Until recently, that is.

voynich_manuscript_158

[One of several fold-out pages in the manuscript.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org.]

A Spanish publishing house is currently working on a limited run of exacting replicas of the Voynich Manuscript, purportedly including “every stain, hole, [and] sewn-up tear in the parchment.”

Of course, such meticulous work is reflected in the price of each book, which runs roughly $8000 to $9000 a copy. A third of the 898 copies being offered for sale have already been snatched up in pre-orders.

If you’re still hoping for a chance to tackle the mystery but you’re not looking to break the bank, thankfully Yale University Press is offering a $50 trade hardcover edition of the manuscript for sale later this year.

Whether this finally leads to a solution or simply adds new members to the ever-growing list of disappointed or frustrated aspiring solvers, I can’t say. But it’s exciting to see the mystery is alive and well.

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It’s Follow-Up Friday: Importmanteau edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And today, I’d like to return to the subject of portmanteaus.

[Image courtesy of upenn.edu.]

For the uninitiated, a portmanteau is a word that combines two words and represents aspects of both of them. Smog is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Spork, avionics, brunch, labradoodle, cyborg, Pinterest, webinar, glitterati, Reaganomics, sharknado…these are all portmanteau words.

It can be a handy way to coin a term for a situation that doesn’t already have a word to describe it. For instance, I like to think of that unpleasant sensation that you’re going to drop your car keys down a storm drain as “sedanxiety.” A disastrous kiss? “Liplockalypse.”

And clearly I’m not the only one who enjoys crafting new portmanteaus.

Tom Murphy, not to be confused with Tom Swifty (another big name in wordplay), set himself a seemingly impossible challenge: create a portmanteau that includes every word in the English language. A lofty goal, considering there are around 100,000 words in our dictionary.

Utilizing a keen knowledge of French grammar, he coins this project a portmantout, using the French word for “all.”

And not only does he coin a few choice portmanteaus along the way, but he succeeds in creating a single portmanteau that contains every word in the English language:

Granted, that word is 611,000 letters long, but hey, it’s still a pretty impressive bit of coding and wordsmithing.

I look forward to a future video where he says the word out loud.

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PuzzleNation Product Review: LEGO Maze

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For years, one of the most marketable things about LEGO sets has been that you can use their pieces in your own ingenious creations. They’ve taken it a step further over the last few years, and now fan creations have the chance to become actual sets!

The Ecto-1 from GhostBusters, the set of The Big Bang Theory, a collection of noteworthy female scientists… these are some of the awesome sets that were designed by amateur builders, voted on by LEGO fans, and approved to become marketed LEGO sets.

And the latest edition to that fan-created line of specialty sets is one of the puzzliest products they’ve ever sold: the LEGO Maze.

Jason Allemann of JK Brickworks created the original design, which was voted on by fans, approved by LEGO, and then improved upon by professional LEGO model designer Steen Sig Andersen.

It’s based on classic wooden marble mazes; the goal is to tilt the board with the two dials on the sides of the maze in order to navigate your marble from one end of the maze to the other without dropping the marble through one of the many treacherously placed holes.

In the LEGO maze, those holes are replaced by black depressions in the maze that trap your marble without dropping it out of sight. (Though I’m sure amateur builders are already designing their own maze layouts that incorporate actual holes just to up the challenge factor.)

[The medieval layout included in the instructions.]

Oh yes, there’s not just one layout. As you can see, the set includes all sorts of pieces with which to create numerous possible layouts from basic ones to advanced. (I’m currently working on one of my own design. Maybe it’ll pop up on Instagram soon!)

The adaptability of the maze layout is one of the highlights of this set, encouraging the same entrepreneurial building spirit that inspired the set in the first place.

And speaking of the set, the design is pretty impressive. It cleverly allows you to lock the tilting maze in place by using the storage box for the marbles as a stabilizer, and you can remove it just as easily. (Remove one piece — and the travel lock under the opposite corner, and you’re ready to play!)

Replicating the full range of motion cannot have been an easy task for either Allemann or Andersen, and that leads to the only negative aspect of the set. I was a little underwhelmed by the control offered by the two dials. Each tilts more toward one direction than the other, so you don’t have the full range of traditional marble mazes. (I suspect this could be remedied by a slightly shorter rod connecting each dial to the two frames allowing you to tilt the maze more in the opposite direction.)

That being said, it’s a minor quibble. On a perfectly flat surface, a steady hand will lead you to victory, if you’re patient enough.

[The build in progress…]

As a long-time fan and builder, I enjoyed both the simple and complex aspects of the building process, and I was surprised that they didn’t number each bag of pieces, as they’ve recently started to do with their higher-end, more complicated sets. That might put off a casual builder, but as someone who enjoys the additional challenge of digging through a pile of pieces looking for that one particular piece, I didn’t mind at all.

LEGO has really been pushing the boundaries of what you can accomplish with these classic interlocking bricks, and the LEGO Maze is one of the most inventive and impressive designs I’ve ever seen.

[The LEGO Maze is available from LEGO.com for $69.99.]

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