Good News: Discounts, Reschedulings, and Puzzling from Your Couch!

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This week’s blog posts have had something of a theme, since both concerned activities that can be conducted from home, whether it’s for personal enjoyment or to stick it to the man, politically-speaking.

Even in a blog dedicated to the oft-delightful world of puzzles and games, it’s hard to ignore the current worldwide crisis.

But, as always, puzzlers find a way to thrive, and so today, I am overjoyed to bring you a blog post full of optimism, creativity, and community.

Firstly, I want to give a shout-out to all the companies, creators, and puzzlers that are putting their products out there at a discount or on a Pay-What-You-Want basis (and sometimes for free!) to help distract home-bound bodies from the unpleasantness and uncertainty going on around us.

The awesome team at DriveThruRPG (and the many marvelous contributors who post there) and your friendly neighborhood puzzle app makers at PuzzleNation are among those throwing the digital doors wide open.

So be sure to support them, or local businesses, or artists you love online, or any other small businesses or entrepreneurs during this trying time.

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Secondly, for a bit of hope on the horizon, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament has been rescheduled!

Yes, the Nerd Olympics have been pushed to the weekend of September 11th through the 13th, while all payments for the tournament on the original date are being refunded.

Of course, September is pretty far away, but worry not! If you’re looking for a bit of puzzly community from the comforts of your own home, intrepid puzzlers Brian Cimmet and Ryan Hecht are hosting an event this weekend.

It’s called Crossword Tournament From Your Couch, and it’s an online, live-streamed crossword solving event! Volunteer constructors have created puzzles for you to solve, and the top three finishers will compete in a virtual playoff puzzle for the enjoyment of all!

You can sign up or get more information here!

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for other acts of puzzly community, fellow PuzzleNationers, and let us know so we can help spread the word.

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Fighting Censorship in a Puzzly Way!

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[Image courtesy of Business Insider.]

One puzzly video game arena we haven’t covered much in the blog is Minecraft, save for ThinkFun’s Minecraft Magnetic Travel Puzzle. If you’ve never heard of it, Minecraft is a blocky adventure/building game where you can create virtually anything, given enough time, patience, and cleverness.

There are galleries online exploring the massive, intricate, and honestly mind-blowing structures puzzlers have built in Minecraft. You’ll see everything from meticulous recreations of famous landmarks, fictional buildings brought to life (like the castles from Lord of the Rings), and wholly original designs that demanded dozens of hours to realize.

The game has even moved beyond the digital realm, expanding into novels, LEGO sets, and more. Minecraft conquered the world through creative expression, and now, the virtual playground of Minecraft is becoming a safe haven for free speech and self-expression as well.

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[Image courtesy of the Uncensored Library.]

BlockWorks, a team of gamers, architects, and designers, teamed up with Reporters Without Borders to launch a space online for people in countries suffering from online censorship to access books and articles that are banned through the usual channels.

The loophole allows them access through the shared Minecraft servers to bypass the firewalls and other systemic tools of oppression that hamper free speech and equal freedom of information.

This collective space is known as the Uncensored Library.

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[Image courtesy of the Uncensored Library.]

According to an article about the Uncensored Library, “journalists from five different countries now have a place to make their voices heard again, despite having been banned, jailed, exiled and even killed.”

So how does it work?

Forbidden articles penned by the above journalists have been republished in books within the Minecraft world, where readers can find them censorship-free.

By adding more articles and books to the Uncensored Library, BlockWorks and RWB hope to increase access to information and encourage users around the world to “stand up for their right to information.”

It’s a remarkable idea, an incredibly clever way to use the world’s most popular video game to battle oppression, and yet more proof that there’s absolutely nothing a puzzly mind can’t accomplish.

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A bonus message from your friends at PuzzleNation

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Now is a good time to enjoy relaxing and engaging puzzle solving
– Daily POP Crosswords, Penny Dell Crosswords and Daily POP Word Search
are offering reduced-price in-app purchases.

As always, you will get new, free puzzles every day in ALL of these premiere apps.
You can also rely on the responsive customer service, family-friendly content,
and regular app updates that are the cornerstone of PuzzleNation.

Find us on Facebook! Join the PuzzleNation community online where
you will see additional sale announcements, puzzly posts and more.
https://www.facebook.com/puzzlenation/

Sincerely,
Your Friends at PuzzleNation.

Puzzling From Home!

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In the wake of puzzly public events like the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament being cancelled, as well as the shutdown of various school districts, workplaces, and businesses in order to limit exposure to the Coronavirus, it’s completely understandable that some puzzle fans may be feeling disappointed or even isolated from their fellow puzzlers.

But fear not! There are all sorts of options available to solvers looking to enjoy a puzzly experience from home, either on their own or with friends.

If you’re looking for crosswords, all you need is your computer. The New York Times, The LA Times, The Washington Post, and many other outlets offer online puzzle-solving, either by subscription or through watching ads before solving.

If you have access to a printer, you can print those puzzles out for the true pencil-and-paper solving experience.

And it’s not just newspapers. Many constructors — Brendan Emmett Quigley comes to mind — offer their own free puzzles semi-regularly (though you’re welcome to tip as a thank you). There is a world of puzzles out there on the Internet awaiting solvers.

But you don’t even have to go to a computer anymore. There are loads of terrific puzzles available right on your phone. Forgive us for tooting our own horn, but Daily POP Crosswords is a great puzzle app with a free puzzle every day and additional puzzle packets available for purchase or through our in-app coin system. (We also offer Word Seeks, Sudoku, and a marvelous story-driven puzzle mystery, Wordventures, if you’re looking for something different.)

Oh, and speaking of something different, if you’re looking to delve into more elaborate puzzles, there are some fantastic puzzle services by mail that offer all sorts of challenges.

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Wish You Were Here by the Enigma Emporium conceals an entire mystery within a handful of postcards, challenging you to mine them for every scrap of information as you uncover a series of coded messages. It’s spycraft in an envelope, very clever stuff.

The Cryptogram Puzzle Post out of the UK offers something unique, mixing puzzles and encryption with bits of mystery and supernatural narratives to create standalone chapters in an ongoing story. So you can pick one season or an entire year, depending on how deep you want to go!

And for multi-month affairs, there are outlets like Hunt a Killer and The Mysterious Package Company, which create vast, immersive puzzle experiences by mail. (Though according to friends’ recommendations, Hunt a Killer works better without the month wait between installments.)

As you can see, there’s a wide variety of ways you can puzzle from home, whether you prefer to solve online, by email, on the phone, or by mail!

That’s all well and good, you might be saying, but what about the social aspect? Well, there are options there as well, even from the comforts of your home.

Photo by Matt MacGillivray, licensed via Creative Commons

Some puzzlers actually livestream their puzzle-solving online through avenues like Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube. The New York Times periodically does this as well, often with celebrity guest solvers!

You can keep your eyes peeled on Facebook and Twitter for constructors and solvers who do so. It often adds a fun, communal element to puzzle-solving (especially if they struggle with the same tricky clues that you do). Some pub trivia outlets are also moving online to allow for participating from home!

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But if you don’t want to wait for someone to livestream their solving, you can do it yourself! Between Facetime and similar apps on smartphones and all the online avenues for audio and video-chatting (Skype, Google Hangouts, Discord, etc.), you could pair up with a friend and tag-team a crossword puzzle or other puzzly challenge!

It’s like co-working, except with puzzles. Co-solving!

In times like this, where uncertainty abounds and our comfortable routines have been upended, puzzles can offer a wonderful refuge from all the stresses of the world. And with technology on our side, we can even keep the communal joys of puzzling in our lives.

Happy puzzling, friends.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

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Crossword Competitions: Cancelled!

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fingerlakes

Originally, today’s post was going to be about the Eighth Annual Finger Lakes Crossword Competition happening this weekend.

I was going to wish the participants good luck and talk about crossword tournament protocol and advice.

But that’s all been rendered moot, as the Eighth Annual Finger Lakes Crossword Competition has been cancelled due to concerns surrounding gatherings of people during the ongoing Coronavirus situation.

And unfortunately, it’s not the only upcoming puzzly event that has been scuppered by preventative health measures.

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Alas, the 43rd edition of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament has also been cancelled for health-related reasons.

Although Will Shortz is in discussion with the hotel and event organizers regarding potentially moving the tournament to later in the year, for now, ACPT won’t be happening.

I’m disappointed, of course, but I’m not at all surprised. With schools and libraries closing their doors for the time being, not to mention sporting events potentially being held in empty arenas, all sorts of gatherings are being cancelled or rethought in order to keep folks safe.

We here at PuzzleNation hope you and your loved ones are happy, healthy, and taking steps to stay that way.

Be well, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers. (And in the meantime, now you’ve got more time to practice your puzzly skills for the tournament’s talent show.)

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

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Farewell, Keith.

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The puzzle world is a relatively small one, and sadly, it grew smaller last week, as friend of the blog Keith Yarbrough passed away.

On more than a few occasions, I’ve asked my fellow constructors and cruciverbalists for their help on blog posts, whether the topic was advice for solving crosswords, constructing puzzles, or writing dynamic clues. Keith was often the first person I would turn to for help.

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A long-time member of the Penny Dell Puzzles family, Keith specialized in crossword/variety magazines, blending a knack for charming and clever cluing with eclectic themes for the many variety puzzles he crafted and edited. His varied interests ensured that he never ran out of ideas for interesting themes or intriguing twists on worn-out crossword tropes.

Keith was equally at home in a classroom, in an orchestra, and in a crossword tournament, a true lover of both the arts and the sciences. His affection for music was well-known — many bands, including The Optics and The Gene Gnomes, can attest to his skill playing the tuba — and yet, he could unravel a deduction problem or a fiendish math puzzle as easily as he could read the notes on sheet music.

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Having worked together for more than a decade, I struggle to recall all of the topics we covered in conversation together. We talked Nobel Prize nominees and quantum physics one week, then Looney Tunes cartoons and silent comedy film shorts the next.

We would dissect the minutiae of Breaking Bad and Twin Peaks, share stories about our dogs (I prefer labs and retrievers, Keith loved his poodles), or recount entire George Carlin routines from memory. When he found out I was a wrestling fan, he laughed and told me about the time he met Mighty Igor outside a sandwich shop. (He grew up in North Carolina, a hotbed for wrestling in decades past.)

And, of course, we talked about puzzles. Keith was a pro at whipping up new clues for crosswords, and they were often as immensely clever as they were completely inappropriate for a family-friendly audience. Several of the funniest clues that I’ve featured in previous blog posts were his — and he was always striving to find new ways to clue tiresome words or to push the boundaries of humdrum constructing and “appropriate entries”. (Just last week, he had to re-edit a puzzle of one-word film titles because he tried to sneak “Caligula” past the censors. *laughs*)

One time, while trying to fix a submitted crossword, he turned to me and asked with a smile, “I know this is a long shot, but is there a non-offensive way to clue ‘witch hunt’?” (The best we could come up with was “pressing engagement.” And no, that would never ever make the cut.)

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I’ll miss his humor, his wit, and his friendship. And I know that I’m far from the only one who feels that way.

Kind words have been pouring in for days now, as people share photos and memories of Keith. The Winston-Salem Symphony dedicated a concert in his memory a few nights ago. (I pilfered several of the photos in this post from those I’ve seen shared.)

It was my privilege to work with Keith for over a decade, and I’ll miss him very much. I’ll miss the fascinating, weird, unexpected bits of trivia he’d throw my way. I’ll miss the music references he would gamely try to explain to me. I’ll miss the way he was always a half-step faster than me on brain teasers and word puzzles. I’ll miss the sly ways he pushed the creative envelope. I’ll miss him a different way every day.

Farewell, my friend. Farewell, Keith.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!