Tag Archives: constructing

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Cinematic Crossword Codecracking 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 revisit one of my favorite puzzle constructors, David Kwong!

[Check out David’s session of 5 Questions here.]

Not only is he a topnotch constructor, he’s also a magician who performs his own signature tricks while consulting for film projects and television shows. He’s worked on The Mindy Project, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, and Now You See Me (as well as the upcoming sequel).

And his latest collaborative efforts just hit theaters yesterday in The Imitation Game, the Benedict Cumberbatch/Keira Knightley film detailing Alan Turing’s efforts at Bletchley Park to break the infamous German Enigma Code during World War II.

But it was David’s crossword skills on display this time around, as he constructed the crossword Alan Turing uses in the film to test potential cryptographers in the movie.

I don’t have that crossword for you to solve, unfortunately, but thanks to The New York Times and Deb Amlen’s Wordplay blog, I can offer you a link to an actual crossword Alan Turing created for The Telegraph.

Plus, the official website for The Imitation Game has a puzzle you can solve to unlock exclusive content. (Just click the link and then click “Crack the code” in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.)

The film is already being hailed as one of the best of the year. I can’t wait to see what David works on next.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

Deck the Halls with Loads of Puzzles!

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Merry Christmas, puzzlers and PuzzleNationers! I hope you’re having a marvelous holiday!

One of the integral parts of the holiday season is decorating, decking your halls in all manner of festive holiday fun. Whether it’s Santas or garland, mistletoe or sleigh bells, a Christmas village or little dancing reindeer, everyone expresses their holiday spirit differently.

Naturally, around here, we couldn’t resist adding some puzzly flavor to our holiday decorating. I put my origami skills to the test to come up with some puzzle ornaments for the tree my friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles were putting together, and I think the end result was something pretty terrific.

Here’s the tree in progress. You can already see some puzzly touches like a Mega Sudoku front and center there, as well as a wreath on the wall behind the tree!

Let’s take a closer look at that wreath! Darcy did an outstanding job on it, and you can see a lot of flagship Penny/Dell puzzles represented here, like Cross Sums (Kakuro), Codewords, Cryptograms, and Word Games Puzzles!

Here’s a close-up on some of those puzzlier ornaments, including a Crossword star and a Cryptogram crane (one of my contributions) soaring above the Mega Sudoku. (The tree was also liberally garnished with coupon offers!)

A few more ornaments, including a Flower Power grid in the lower left corner!

Here’s the tree in its finished state, all lit up and decked out with gifts. It looks great! The mix of traditional ornaments and puzzly ones really makes for a unique display.

And check out this word search-wrapped gift just waiting for someone! I wonder if the recipient’s name is hidden in the grid! (Maybe they can’t open it until they find themselves!)

Are there any puzzly decorations on your tree this year, fellow puzzlers? Let us know! Send us a picture! We’d love to see it!

Have a terrific holiday!

What crosswords have taught me

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I’m a huge proponent of puzzles not just being fun, but being great for the brain as well. There are numerous studies (and PuzzleNation blog posts) touting the ways that certain puzzles can keep you sharp and perhaps even stave off developmental issues later in life.

Whether it’s crosswords helping with retrieval of previously learned information or Sudoku exercising your concentration, attention, and formation of new memories, puzzles are good brain food.

[Please note that I am making no promises about potential health benefits of our puzzles; I’m simply reporting on the results of certain studies regarding puzzles and brain health. The jury is definitely still out on this subject.]

And then there are the curious facts and new words we learn simply by solving crosswords and other puzzles.

In the decade plus that I’ve been constructing and editing puzzles, I’ve encountered all sorts of strange vocabulary and interesting trivia that wouldn’t have crossed my path in other fields.

Through proper crossword cluing and fact-checking, I’ve learned the difference between Inuit and Eskimo (and why they are not interchangeable). I’ve learned which Hawaiian islands the nene calls home.

I now know that cows are fed magnets in order to cope with the random bits of wire and other metals that they unintentionally swallow. A puzzle about rationing during World War II taught me that an ordinary piano contains enough steel, copper wire, and brass to make a dozen bayonets, a corps radio, and sixty-six thirty-caliber cartridges.

My Latin has certainly improved from years of studying word etymologies. Did you know that “ita erat quando hic adveni” is Latin for “it was like that when I got here?” That’s a handy phrase to have in your back pocket.

Heck, I now know how pineapples grow because of crosswords. How cool is that?

And it doesn’t stop there.

Crosswords provoke your curiosity and lead you down unexpected avenues of thought. Crossword clues cause you to ask questions you probably never would otherwise, like “Is ‘L.A. Law’ two words or three?” or “Is ‘bat-signal’ hyphenated?”

(Both of those are actual topics of discussion for puzzles of mine in the past.)

What sorts of interesting facts and weird vocabulary have crosswords introduced you to, fellow puzzlers? Let me know! I’d love to hear about it!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

A Quantum Leap Forward in Crosswords!

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It’s fair to say that the 1996 Election Day crossword, pictured above, is one of the most famous puzzles in crossword history. The puzzle “predicted” the outcome of the election quite cleverly by allowing for either CLINTON ELECTED or BOB DOLE ELECTED to read out, depending on how the solver answered seven down clues.

(You can click the image to see a larger version of the grid and clues.)

Reportedly, Will Shortz called it the most amazing puzzle he’d ever seen.

Well, that puzzle may have been topped.

But first, a bit of backstory.

These rare crosswords are called Quantum puzzles or Schrodinger puzzles. These names reference the famous thought experiment involving a very unlucky cat in a box that could be alive or dead, and an observer wouldn’t know which until he opened the box. Meaning that both answers are correct at the same time; the cat is both alive and dead.

[This great t-shirt melds the Schrodinger’s Cat concept with a classic joke.]

Similarly, these puzzles have more than one answer, and each answer is equally correct.

And on Thursday, December 4, constructors Kacey Walker and David Quarfoot combined some considerable Scrabble skills and a dynamite crossword grid to create the most impressive Schrodinger puzzle to date.

You see, clues 26-Across, 36-Across, and 44-Across all feature seven letters, like a rack in Scrabble. And it’s up to the solver to find the anagram of each rack that fits the grid.

For example, 26-Across reads “Play in 7-Across with the rack DEIORRW”. (The answer to 7-Across is SCRABBLE, giving the solver a strong idea of where to go next.)

Quite amazingly, Walker and Quarfoot have designed the puzzle so that each of those clues has three possible correct answers — for 26-Across: ROWDIER, WORDIER, and WORRIED all fit the down clues — meaning there are a staggering 27 possible correct solutions!

This is just one of those 27 solutions:

[You can check out all of the possible solutions, as well as the clues, on XWordInfo here.]

This is David Quarfoot’s 41st NYT published puzzle and Kacey Walker’s first! Talk about setting the bar as high as you can.

This is also one of the flat-out coolest puzzle constructions I’ve ever seen. My thanks to Deb Amlen for doing such a great write-up on the puzzle and for pointing it my way.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

Beware the power of crosswords!

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Both athletes and sports fans can be superstitious. Some have rituals before game or during game, or certain things they have to do or say after a big play.

Sometimes, it’s a playful thing, a form of passive support for the team, or a fun activity for everyone gathered around the TV on a Sunday afternoon or in the parking lot tailgating.

But other times, it’s taken much more seriously. After all, where you have superstitions, you also have curses.

Well, we might just need to add crosswords to the list of possible ways to jinx a team or player.

You see, sports fan Evans Clinchy knocked one entry off his bucket list by publishing a crossword with the New York Times, a worthy goal to be sure.

But he’s afraid his entry for 58-Across, KEVIN DURANT, may have jinxed a long-time favorite player and idol. You see, news went out the next day that Mr. Durant fractured his foot and will be out from 6 to 8 weeks.

I highly recommend reading the entire article, which is very funny and offers some hilarious insight into the mind of sports fans everywhere.

And his post does raise an interesting question: have any of the constructors or puzzlers out there jinxed an athlete, an actor, or a celebrity with their puzzles, or worried about doing so? I have a hard time believing Mr. Clinchy is the only one, especially since there are plenty of sports fans in the puzzle constructing community.

Let me know! I’d love to hear your stories.

Better luck with your next puzzle, Mr. Clinchy! And heal up soon, Mr. Durant. Your team, and Mr. Clinchy’s conscience, need you.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Don’t forget to check out our Facebook Giveaway for the chance to win a free puzzle app download!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Fond Farewell 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’s update is all about constructor Robin Stears.

You’ve probably seen her puzzles in various Penny Press magazines, not to mention her delightful Team StearsWords mailings and products. She’s a prolific and creative constructor, a longtime friend of the blog, and an all-around good egg whose body of work spans two decades of terrific puzzling.

So I admit, I was a little sad to see her latest blog post a few days ago.

In short, Robin is taking time away from crosswords to embark on a new adventure: returning to college to study mathematics, in the hopes of sharing her love of math with the world.

While I’m overjoyed to see her tackling new and exciting challenges, I must confess that as a fan of her crosswords, I’m a little sad. Robin’s crosswords always feature clever, topical themes and fun entries, and her support, humor, and friendship over the last two years has been wonderful. She has always been unflinchingly kind and generous when it comes to PuzzleNation, granting interviews and contributing her wisdom, drive, and expertise to several blog posts.

Robin, I wish you the very best in starting a new chapter in your life. For many, many reasons, thank you.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!