Tag Archives: Chicago

Delving into the 2025 Midwest Crossword Tournament Puzzles!

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I’ve solved puzzles from ACPT, Boswords, Westwords, Lollapuzzoola, and other tournaments throughout the years, but I’ve never solved puzzles from the Midwest Crossword Tournament before!

So when I had the chance to solve last year’s tournament puzzles, I was stoked for the opportunity to test my puzzly skill in a new arena.

Let’s put these puzzles under the PuzzCulture microscope and see what MWXWT had in store for solvers in 2025!

Puzzle #1: Where My Queens At? by Taylor Johnson

Johnson constructed a nice opener to welcome people to the day’s proceedings where the theme entries were all places you can find queens (BEEHIVE, ROYALFLUSH, HOMECOMING, etc).

The fill was smooth (especially those pairs of 10-letter down entries on each side), and the smiley face built into the grid was a nice touch.

Interesting grid entries included OPEN SOURCE, GOLF PRO, ONE LOVE, and RUNYON, and my favorite clues were “Iconic part of David Bowie and Queen’s ‘Under Pressure'” for BASELINE and “The longest distance between two places, per ‘The Glass Menagerie'” for TIME.

Puzzle #2: The Windy City by Hemant Mehta

The ten-letter stacks continued in this well-constructed themeless, where we had 3 10-letter entries in two of the corners, intersecting some longer entries and loads of great vocabulary.

Factor in all the Chicago-centric cluing and fill, and you’ve got a solve as breezy as promised.

Interesting grid entries included HARPY, DOUBLE DOINK, THIRSTILY, and REKT, and my favorite clues were “They might grab a meal” for TALONS and “One taking cover?” for BLANKET HOG.

Puzzle #3: Creature Features by Evan Birnholz

Oh man, I love a movie title pun, so I was all about this 21x wordplay-fest from Birnholz. (I got the first one immediately — Apocalypse Cow — because it was also the name of a villain in the live-action version of The Tick.)

With seven pun entries in the grid — several spanning most of the grid — and loads of great fill entries to flesh out the grid, this puzzle was a blast.

Interesting grid entries included ARTS DEGREE, ACKROYD, IDEA MAP, and ROTINI (my favorite pasta shape), and my favorite clues were “Crossword-solving Simpson” for LISA and “Large winged creature in a Sinbad story” for ROC.

Puzzle #4: Substitute Teaching by Lydia Roth and Christina Bodensiek

This 13×17 stormer was the hardest puzzle of the tournament so far, and I confess, the substitution game had me baffled for a bit before I realized what I was overlooking.

The cluing was straightforward, but several entries didn’t match their clues, while others that neighbored those entries in the same row included the note “(apply to 29-Across),” for instance. I thought I had to place the letters of the neighboring word INTO the larger entry, but it turned out the neighboring word WAS the instruction for that word. KISS wasn’t inserted into SINGSONG, K IS S explains how KINGKONG (which fits what was clued) becomes SINGSONG in the grid.

Diabolical!

I was a little thrown-off by the last “rule” only applying to one letter in the answer, not two, but otherwise, this was fiendishly fun to unravel.

Interesting grid entries included AR HEADSET, NABISCO, AFL-CIO, and HALIBUT, and my favorite clues were “Tiniest sound” for PEEP and “Tower of __ (classic math puzzle)” for HANOI (which I’ve written about in the past).

Puzzle #5: I Need Space by Kyle Dolan

Another thinker, here! What a one-two punch puzzles 4 and 5 were.

Dolan’s puzzle centered around common or familiar phrases that become a new phrase when a state abbreviation at the start of the phrase is removed. For instance, WIRED MAGAZINE becomes RED MAGAZINE.

For some reason, it took me FOREVER to figure out the gimmick here, and I’m sure many solvers would’ve wrapped this puzzle up faster than me at the tournament.

The clean fill and smart layout of the grid made this puzzle the perfect solve before the finals. Really great construction overall.

Interesting grid entries included GOOD VIBES, RITE AID, LA SPARKS, and CANTO, and my favorite clues were “Rinky-dink” for TWO-BIT and “Female in a song from ‘The Sound of Music'” for DOE.

Puzzle #6: Final Course by Katie Hoody

The final puzzle of the day was this 15x themeless and it did not disappoint. Strong grid construction built around the grid-spanning HOT DISH ON A STICK (crossing NINE 9- and 10-letter entries) really impressed.

There were two sets of clues available for the championship themeless, MINNESOTA NICE and CHICAGO FIRE, depending on your preference, and the cluing for each was on point.

All in all, this was a dynamite capper to a day of enjoyable challenges.

Interesting grid entries included BARITONE SAX, RINK RAT, BITE-SIZE, and GO VIRAL.

As for favorite clues, here’s a list:

  • MN NICE: “Flying creature whose babies are called pups” for BAT
  • MN NICE: “Apt epithet hidden inside ‘”I’ve had it with you!'” for TWIT
  • MN NICE: “Children’s theater character that speaks from the sole?” for SOCK PUPPET
  • MN NICE: “Bakery treat that becomes an ice cream treat when its first letter is removed” for SCONE
  • CHI FIRE: “Plays on a raised surface” for STAGE SHOWS
  • CHI FIRE: “Brings some cheeky energy to the dance floor” for TWERKS
  • CHI FIRE: “Simple retirement option” for COT
  • CHI FIRE: “Word that retains its meaning when preceded by ‘ni'” for TWIT
  • CHI FIRE: “Superfamily whose extinct species include Gigantopithecus and Oreopithecus” for APES
120718_crossword_L

Overall, I quite enjoyed my first time tangling with MWXWT.

The difficulty spike with Puzzle #4 was a welcome challenge (though I suspect others didn’t struggle with 4 and 5 like I did), and the construction across the tournament was strong. There were no unfair crossings or dubious bits of cluing. It was topnotch from start to finish.

Registration for this year’s tournament is open now! The event is on Saturday, October 3rd at the University of Illinois Chicago Student Center East.

I’m excited to see what they have in store for us this year!

Will you be solving this year’s Midwest Crossword Tournament puzzles (either in person or online), fellow solver? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.

Forrest Fenn’s Treasure: Found?

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Well, it looks like someone took my advice.

On June 6th, Forrest Fenn announced on his blog that his treasure has been found.

In such quiet fashion ends a ten-year search undertaken by an estimated 350,000 people, one that sadly cost five of those people their lives.

In 2010, Forrest Fenn hid a treasure chest full of gold and diamonds, purported to be worth millions, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. The only clues offered — nine, to be specific — were hidden in his poem, “The Thrill of the Chase.”

[Image courtesy of Westword.]

After eight years — and several of the deaths mentioned above — Fenn offered a few new clues in the hopes of preventing any further tragedies:

The treasure chest is not under water, nor is it near the Rio Grande River. It is not necessary to move large rocks or climb up or down a steep precipice.

Please remember that I was about 80 when I made two trips from my vehicle to where I hid the treasure.

In the two years since those clues were released, many more attempts have been made to find the treasure.

And now, with this brief announcement, it appears to be over:

It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago. I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot.

I congratulate the thousands of people who participated in the search and hope they will continue to be drawn by the promise of other discoveries.

So the search is over. Look for more information and photos in the coming days.

Fenn claimed in a local interview that the chest had been found “a few days” before he broke the story. Additionally, he told the Santa Fe New Mexican:

“The guy who found it does not want his name mentioned. He’s from back East,” he said, adding that it was confirmed from a photograph the man sent him.

The paper then reported that Fenn “declined to produce the photograph Sunday.”

forrest fenn

[Image courtesy of the Santa Fe New Mexican.]

But, as you might expect when there are millions of dollars at stake, this news is not without controversy.

A real estate attorney in Chicago alleges that she solved the puzzle but was hacked and had the solution stolen from her. Supposedly, the thief had been taunting her through text messages for months. She is suing not only to prevent the unnamed treasure hunter from selling any of the treasure, but also to have the court award the chest to her as well.

This seems like a peculiar scenario. Unless she was unwisely braggadocious about her solve, how would someone she doesn’t know “hack” her, steal her solution, and then beat her to the treasure?

(Having traveled between Chicago and Santa Fe over twenty times as part of her search, she claims she’s spent between $10,000 and $30,000 trying to locate the treasure, only to have it stolen out from under her.)

This isn’t the only lawsuit tied to Fenn’s treasure hunt. He was previously sued for $1.5 million by a Colorado man who claimed Fenn cheated him out the treasure through misleading clues and fraudulent statements. (This case was thrown out by a judge in late February, but the claimant is petitioning to have it reopened.)

A third case is pending, and the plaintiff believes Fenn is fraudulently announcing the treasure has been found in order to undermine his case.

Of course, there are folks who believe the treasure was found years ago, but Fenn never told anyone, using the mystery to feed fame and book sales.

And then, there are those who claim the treasure never existed at all.

[Image courtesy of Wikipedia.]

I must admit, I can understand the doubters’ skepticism. It’s a little too perfect, isn’t it? Exactly ten years after he first hid it, despite no new clues for two years, suddenly the treasure is found.

And yet, we have no photograph, no identity for who found it, and court cases already claiming theft and chicanery. All we’re left with is a brief announcement, a small flurry of press, and more questions.

Who found Forrest Fenn’s treasure?

Was the solution stolen?

Did the treasure ever exist in the first place?

Perhaps we’ve waited ten years only to end up with a new mystery.

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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A Real-Life Treasure Hunt Awaits You…

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[Image courtesy of Go.ActiveCalendar.com.]

Who can resist participating in a real-life treasure hunt?

I certainly can’t. I’ve organized them in role-playing games and as part of birthday celebrations, creating maps, riddles, and puzzles in order to challenge friends to locate hidden loot in both imaginary and real locations over the years.

From The Goonies and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to National Treasure and the Indiana Jones series, treasure hunts are a part of our collective cultural imagination. People hunt in their attics for forgotten antiques and prowl flea markets and thrift shops for unexpected bounties.

So is it any wonder that a few intrepid souls out there are still pursuing treasures hidden over three decades ago as a publicity stunt?

[Image courtesy of Amazon.]

In 1981, when author Byron Preiss launched a puzzly scavenger hunt to promote the release of his new fantasy book The Secret, he had no idea he’d just fired the starting pistol on one of the greatest unsolved puzzles in history.

Twelve plexiglas boxes were hidden around North America, each protecting a ceramic container that, in turn, held a key to a safe deposit box containing an actual gemstone.

The book contains twelve paintings and twelve poems. Solvers were expected to figure out which poems to pair with which images, and then decipher them in order to reveal the locations of the keys.

Preiss believed that all twelve boxes would be found relatively quickly.

Only two have been recovered in the thirty-plus years since then, one in Chicago’s Grant Park and the other in Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens.

[Image courtesy of Vice.]

This image is believed by some treasure hunters to point to one of the boxes being hidden in Milwaukee’s Lake Park, but thus far, no box has been recovered there.

There are entire forums online dedicated to parsing the various poems and images in The Secret, plumbing them for hidden clues and vetting theories from fellow treasure hunters.

Unfortunately, the cleverness of Mr. Preiss isn’t the only opponent for these hunters. Time itself is against them.

It’s safe to assume that the missing ten boxes are also buried in public parks and other spaces open to the public. But parks get renovated. Landscapes change. Hell, some parks are repurposed and paved over!

So how many of those prizes are no longer within easy reach of a shovel’s blade, even if you do unravel the mysterious clues available? How many were tossed aside as curious garbage by disinterested work crews during renovations?

As The Secret and the treasure hunt it inspired fade into history, so too do the chances of anyone recovering those keys and claiming those gemstones for themselves.

[My thanks to friend of the blog Darcy Bearman for reminding me of this marvelous puzzly mystery, as well as Josh Gates and his Travel Channel show Expedition Unknown for reminding her.]

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Cross Worlds with Crosswords (and Other Puzzles)!

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puzzlegeography

You may be familiar with the board game Schmovie, hashtag games on Twitter, or @midnight’s Hashtag Wars segment on Comedy Central.

For years now, we’ve been collaborating on puzzle-themed hashtag games with our pals at Penny Dell Puzzles, and this month’s hook was #PennyDellPuzzleGeography, mashing up Penny Dell puzzles and countries, cities, landmarks, tourist spots and more!

Examples include Stepping Stonehenge, Sri Linkwords, and Istanbul’s-Eye Spiral!

So, without further ado, check out what the puzzlers at PuzzleNation and Penny Dell Puzzles came up with!

Match-Up Picchu

Warsaw Squares

The Shadow of Liberty

Bricks and Mauritania

Empire State Building Blocks

Around the Block Island

Sutokyo

Leicester Anagram Magic Square / Amazon Magic Square

Fill-Indonesia

TimbukTwo at a Time

Three Sommes

Across and Down Under

Ups and Churchill Downs

Torontop to bottom / Top to Foggy Bottom

Rhyme Times Square / Times Square Deal / Time Squares / Times Squares

Charing Crossroads

Around the Great Bend

Bermuda Triangle Seek / Bermuda Try-Angles

Paris in Rhyme

Build-a-PyraMidland

Arctic Circle Search / Arctic Circle Sums / Arctic Circles in the Square

Hidden Circle in the Squares / Piccadilly circles in the Square

9 of Diamonds Head

MarbleHeadings

Classified Addis Ababa

Grand Tours / Rio Grande Tour / Grand Canyon Tour

Boston Common Bond

In the Middle East

End of the Maginot Line

HidDenali Word Squares

Make the MaConnection / Make the Connecticution

It’s Ural Move / It’s Your Mo-ja-ve

United KingDomino Theory

Quote Niagara Falls / Niagara Quotefalls

Montauk Point the Way / West Point the Way

QuotaGramercy Park

SpinWheeling

Right of Appian Way

Dubl-In and Around

TripLexington

Madriddle Me This

Cancuncellations

Helsinkey Word

Mexicombos

Mount Skill-O-Gram-jaro

Pentagon Match

Missing Sphinx

Word Thames

Crypto-Bolivia

Continent Search

LouisiAnacrostics

Three from Rhine

Middle of the Abbey Road

A-spenwheel

Lake Tahoe Many Squares?

Acropolistics

Egyptograms

Catacombies

Crackerjacksonville

The Appalachian Word Trail

Little Fancy Five Points

Little Rock Puzzler

Mount Places Pleasant / Places, Belize

Eiffel Tower Power / Flowrida-er Sunshine Power

Florida Keywords / Turkeyword

Trafalgar Squares

Minsk Bag / Mixed Baghdad

Dublin Crosser

Amsterdiamond Rings

Birminghome Runs

Madaga-stars and Arrows

Sum-alia Triangles

Alaskan Penin-syllacrostic

Puzzle Der-bai

M_ss_ss_pp_ng V_w_ls

Who’s Whousatonic

Ottawat Is It?

Picture Paris

Chicago Fish

Crypto-Kalamazoo

Pencilvania Pusher

Stockholm Runs

Say That Againsville?

Okefenokeyword Swamp

Angkor What’s Left? / What’s Left Bank?

Finnish the Fours

Battleships Creek

Ken-Kenya

Sierra Leone and Only

Tierra Dell Fuego

Caribbean carnival

Red Rock Challenge

There were a few submissions that deserve their own section, as several of our intrepid puzzlers went above and beyond.

One offered a tourism pitch for a puzzly destination: Mount OddsandEverest: Only a HopSkipandJump ToptoBottom

Another offered the following exchange and puzzly directions:

1: “Excuse me, how do you get to these Places, Please? Could you Point the Way?”
2: “Just follow the Word Trails until you get to the Borderline. If you see the Quotefalls, you’ve gone to far. At the Four Corners, Keep On Moving until you reach the Crossroads. Then it’s just a walk Around the Block and you’ll be at the Crypto-Zoo!”

Finally, one offered a quick tour of her favorite puzzle locale:

One of my favorite locations to visit is Anagram Magic Square, where if you take your PLACES, PLEASE, you can ESCAPE A SPELL to anywhere on earth. You can travel to PARIS in PAIRS, or dine on ALPHABET SOUP at an UPBEAT L.A. SHOP. And whether you’d rather see a SLICK DUBLIN BOG or a GLIB LISBON DUCK, you can find it in the BUILDING BLOCKS of this amazing place.

Have you come up with any Penny Dell Puzzle Geography entries of your own? Let us know! We’d love to see them!

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A Legend of Zelda Escape Room? Puzzles Plus Adventure!

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[Image courtesy of LaCrosse Escape Room.]

Escape Room puzzles are really pushing new boundaries in terms of themes and storytelling. Horror, post-apocalypse, and other disaster themes are fairly common, and we recently discussed a escape event in Chicago with a monsters-on-the-loose theme.

So I’m definitely not surprised to see media companies getting in on the action. As it turns out, Nintendo has gotten in on the ground floor and will be producing a touring escape-the-room event this year.

The theme: The Legend of Zelda. One of the most beloved video game franchises of all time.

Defenders of the Triforce offers the opportunity for game fans and puzzlers to leap into the vast universe of the Zelda games, exploring, solving puzzles, and becoming an adventure hero just like Link!

Unlike traditional escape-the-room challenges, you’re not locked in a room with only your team. Several teams use the space at the same time to try to solve all the puzzles and “escape,” but each team has its own table to serve as a base of operations. (Though the organizers warn “you will need to get up and explore the game space in order to find all the clues. Write everything down!”)

You have to buy tickets in advance to ensure a spot at one of these events, and teams of six will participate in the game. So you can sign up with friends or sign up on your own and join a team!

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[Image courtesy of Zelda.com.]

No specific Zelda game knowledge is required in order to play, but I suspect long-time fans of the Zelda games will get more out of the experience.

These are the dates announced so far:

San Francisco: Jan 31 – Feb 5 (sold out)
Los Angeles: Feb 10 – Mar 12 (sold out)
Phoenix: Feb 15 – Feb 17 (1 date with spaces left)
San Diego: Feb 23 – Feb 25 (sold out)

Further information on events in Seattle, Houston, Chicago, and New York will be announced on January 24th. And be quick on the button, because these things are clearly selling out fast!

This sounds like a perfect matching of video game puzzlers and traditional puzzle solvers, and I can’t wait to hear about the events. I’ll be sure to keep you posted, and if anyone in the PuzzleNation readership is planning on attending, let me know! I’d love to hear from you!

[You can find more details on the event here, along with links to The Legend of Zelda and SCRAP, the escape room team organizing the event.]

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An Escape Room in a Box!

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[Image courtesy of Escape Game Addicts.]

Escape rooms have been all the rage lately, as teams of people pit themselves against riddles, puzzles, codes, and other challenges in order to escape a room within a certain amount of time. It’s about as close as you’ll get to being MacGyver or Batman in this life, and it can be great fun.

They’ve been around long enough that themed escape rooms are beginning to emerge. From post-apocalyptic and horror themes to hockey, schools, pirates, and more, escape rooms are constantly innovating to keep solvers on their toes.

So when I heard about an upcoming escape-the-room-style event in Chicago, I had to share it with my fellow puzzlers.

Revolution Brewing Tap Room in Chicago will be hosting Creatures on the Loose on December 28, a creation of The Mystery League, and they’ve put a curious twist on the escape-the-room scenario: everything you’ll need is inside a locked briefcase.

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From the announcement on Eventbrite.com:

Ten terrible creatures, each from an alternate dimension, have been let loose to wreak havoc on our town. The culprit’s identity and motives are unknown. Hunters have been on the case, snooping around town and collecting evidence. But they too have vanished, leaving just their locked briefcases behind. You will need to break into the briefcase, find the creatures, and figure out who is causing all this mayhem.

Inside the briefcase you will find all the tools you need to solve the mystery, including (but not limited to): a newspaper, a magic wand, a bible, a calculator, a wallet of money, a pile of stocks, a Wonka bar, a leather strap, a code wheel, a map, and an enigmatic computer.

The idea of an escape room that comes to you is an awesome one, and I hope the Mystery League finds great success with this challenge. (And the winning team gets a round of pints as their prize!)

Tickets start at $29 for a 90-minute event, and that sounds like a great deal for a puzzly experience like this. Let me know if you participate! I’d love to hear about it!

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!