They went as common crossword answers! This jumpsuit made of Halloween grids is loaded with crosswordese and familiar vocabulary in picture form. Can you name them all?
So fun to see people getting into the Halloween spirit in a puzzly way. Nicely done, both of you!
Now let’s check out some other creative costumers as we reveal the punny answers to last week’s game!
Godzilla has been a cultural icon for seventy years.
Across dozens of films, in a film market with hundreds of behemoths, leviathans, and titans to watch, Godzilla is still the King of the Monsters. Godzilla has battled humanity, aliens, robotic duplicates, and other kaiju, bringing joy and wonder to millions of moviegoers. Godzilla has evolved from personifying the specter of nuclear annihilation to representing the spirit of a proud nation against threats like pollution, environmental catastrophe, and war.
The cultural influence of Godzilla cannot be overstated. So you shouldn’t be surprised to see that it extends into the world of puzzles and games as well.
Now, sure, Godzilla isn’t popping up in crosswords on the reg. Xwordinfo tells us that Osaka has been clued a half-dozen times in relation to Godzilla (and Tokyo nearly as many times).
Godzilla has appeared in New York Times crossword grids four times (including one where they cross paths with King Kong). In comparison, fellow Kaiju Mothra has appeared in New York Times crosswords five times.
But The New York Times isn’t the only publication worth discussing here. No, to truly appreciate the puzzly legacy of Godzilla, we have to discuss G-Fan magazine.
The art for this cover (and a half-dozen others) was done by my marvelous friend Matt Harris!
G-Fan is the premiere magazine for all things kaiju, especially Godzilla, and it was flipping through an old copy of the magazine that inspired this post. (It’s amazing what you unearth when you’re packing up your whole life to move.)
Among interviews, movie reviews, and wonderfully nerdy deep dives into various monster-centric topics, I stumbled across not only a Godzilla-shaped maze (pictured at the start of this post), but a crisscross all about my favorite skyscraper-sized monster.
So, naturally once I started, I kept digging, delving into the G-Fan archives and reaching out to JD Lees, the man behind not only G-Fan, but the annual G-CON / G-FEST convention!
He was kind enough to take some time out to discuss the puzzles periodically appearing in the pages of G-Fan.
What inspired you to start putting puzzles into G-Fan?
When I was a teacher, I would often include puzzles in the worksheets I created for students. I figured it was a way to increase engagement that was a bit fun and different for the kids. I found I enjoyed making them, so when I was creating G-FAN Junior, puzzles seemed a natural thing to include to break up the articles, add variety, and fill space!
Do you have a favorite puzzle (either in terms of topic or overall execution) from over the years?
I have a lot of fun creating the puzzles where a monster’s name is hidden in an unrelated sentence. I first saw this done with the names of the U.S. states and their capitals. I think it was in a puzzle book I used in my Grade 10 math class.
There’s a Godzilla Monopoly game. Is your affection for Godzilla potent enough to make you endure a game of Monopoly through to the end?
Ha ha! I look back and marvel at those long-ago times when my friends and I used to enjoy playing Monopoly. Maybe I’m just getting old. (Actually, no maybe about it!) However, I did buy the Godzilla version of Monopoly for the Gaming Room at G-FEST, and it was used. The second year someone stole all the kaiju tokens, so I replaced them with generic monster figures. Overall, G-fans are very honest, but thousands attend the convention, so I guess there will be a few bad apples.
Although he’s currently taking a break from G-Fan, JD did say he expects to construct more puzzles in the future (though they might not be so kaiju-focused.)
Speaking of the Godzilla edition of Monopoly, that brings me to the other half of today’s post: the legacy of Godzilla in board games.
The many ways Godzilla has been translated to board games. Clockwise from upper left: Godzilla Electronic Wargame (1984), Godzilla: Monsters Attack! (2008), Godzilla pen and paper game (1988), Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars (2011), Godzilla Game (1978), Super Godzilla Tempest (1990), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2020), Godzilla: Kaiju on the Earth LEGENDS (2022).
There are literally DOZENS of board games inspired by Godzilla and the many kaiju that followed in those monstrous footsteps.
Alongside the aforementioned official Monopoly version, there’s an official Godzilla Jenga, a Godzilla version of The Incredible Hulk Smash (one of several dismal tie-ins promoting the atrocious Fox 1998 Godzilla film), as well as expansions for Cthulhu: Death May Die and an upcoming reimagining of the game Battle Masters called Battle Monsters.
Godzilla-inspired board games date all the way back to 1963, when the imaginatively titled Godzilla Game was released. It was actually the first Godzilla toy produced in the US and only the second Godzilla toy ever made.
In 1978, another Godzilla Game was released, followed by a Mothra vs. Godzilla game in 1982. There have been strategy games (like a pen-and-paper game in Swiss gaming zine AHA in 1988), dice games like Godzilla VS Kong from 2022, and loads of, quite frankly, fairly disappointing board games.
This trend has only reversed in the last fifteen years or so with releases like my all-time favorite Godzilla game, Godzilla: Tokyo Clash from 2020.
There’s also a curious pattern of Godzilla card games with names that go unnecessarily hard, but I respect the manic energy they bring to game shelves. These names include Godzilla: Stomp! (2011), the delightfully named Godzilla Boom (2012), and Godzilla Total War (2019).
Confusingly, there seem to be both a board game AND a card game called Godzilla Rampage, and they both have supplements adding other monster/monster-fighting icons like Ultraman, Gamera, and Daimajin to the mix.
From cutesy to vicious, from the pages of fanzines to coffee tables across the world, Godzilla has moved far past the silver screen and become part of the cultural language. People who have never seen a Godzilla film — yes, they exist, and we pity them — still know the name.
Bridezillas the world over owe their monstrous reputations to our beloved atomic-breathed kaiju. We know dozens of other monsters because of Godzilla. Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah… heck, even King Kong rides those enormous coattails from time to time.
And it’s fun to remember that even the world of puzzles and games is not immune to the mighty roar or the deep, deep shadow of the King of the Monsters.
Thank you to JD Lees, Matt Harris, and several chums from the Board Game Geek forums for helping me with this post. Be sure to check out the G-Fan website for all things Godzilla, and enjoy this not-at-all-exhaustive list of G-Fan issues with some of JD’s puzzles:
Issue #110, Fall 2015
Issue #109, Summer 2015
Issue #108, Jan/Feb 2015
Issue #97, Fall 2011
Issue #49, Jan/Feb 2001
Issue #42, Nov/Dec 1999
Issue #39, May/June 1999
Issue #37, Jan/Feb 1999
Issue #36, Nov/Dec 1998
Issue #33, May/June 1998
Issue #32, March/April 1998
Do you have a favorite Godzilla film, Godzilla game, or Godzilla pop culture moment, fellow puzzlers? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!
All of the books discussed and/or reviewed in PCBR articles are either directly or indirectly related to the world of puzzling, and hopefully you’ll find something to tickle your literary fancy in this entry or the entries to come.
Let’s get started!
The subject of today’s book review is Words Apart by Aimee Lucido, illustrated by Phillippa Corcutt and Rachael Corcutt, intended for ages 8-12.
Olive and Mattie are sisters, two years apart, but in the same grade. While Olive expresses herself with an impressive vocabulary and a love of wordplay, Mattie struggles with reading but finds comfort expressing herself through cartoons, sketches, and comic strips.
But this once-inseparable duo soon find themselves at a crossroads, as family dynamics, crushes, the pressures of schoolwork, and Mattie’s distrust after years of bullying drive a wedge between them. Is this sisterly friendship broken, or can they find a way to bridge their differences again?
Words Apart manages to encompass so much of the school experience without feeling like Lucido is working her way down a checklist. Each conflict feels natural, each misunderstanding and misstep feels realistic, and the snowballing effect of all these changes adds real drama to the story.
And yet, despite heavy topics and sad moments, this book is so fun.
Using the twin narrative styles of comic book art for Mattie and poetic layouts dappled with linguistic playfulness for Olive tells the reader so much about each character so quickly, they feel like long-time acquaintances, not brand-new characters.
As a dyed-in-the-wool word nerd myself, Olive’s penchant for wild vocabulary and linguistic invention was a delight.
The inclusion of three of Olive’s crosswords revealed her preoccupations and state of mind in a unique way, making them an integral part of the ongoing story and not just a puzzly gimmick. (Sadly, mere gimmickry is often the case with novels that involve puzzle elements, so this was a welcome change of pace.)
I also found Mattie’s desire to express herself in other ways really compelling, and her distrust of the world and outcast outlook resonated with me. Who can’t empathize with feeling alone and misunderstood at that age?
The sisters manage to be so very similar in their passions and desire for expression, and so wonderfully different in believable, meaningful ways. Their fights — both small and big — felt so REAL, it captured the sibling experience, that energy where you can be at odds one minute, but then united the next.
Even when I was younger, I rarely felt seen by literature, YA or otherwise. I could enjoy the stories, and sympathize or empathize with protagonists my age, but I never felt represented. So for Words Apart to come barreling out of nowhere and knock me over was both a treat and something to be savored. It would have been a joy to read this when I was young.
This is a family drama, a coming-of-age story, a wordplay lover’s delight, and a young artist’s inspiration all in one. Words Apart is something quite special.
To coincide with the book’s release date, Aimee will be hosting two launch events, one on each coast!
If you’re on the East Coast, you’re welcome to join Aimee on Sunday, October 5th at 5 PM at Books of Wonder, 42 West 17th Street in New York, New York to commemorate the book’s release.
And if you’re on the West Coast, be sure to visit Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore in Berkeley, California on Saturday, October 11th from 4 PM to 5:30 PM!
I wish Aimee, Phillippa, and Rachael great success with this story. It was a pleasure to experience it early.
One year ago today, my first post under the PuzzCulture name went live.
It’s been both overwhelming and gratifying to return to writing about the world of puzzles and games after a few years away, and I’m so so grateful to all of you who have joined me on this journey.
And although it’s only been a year, it sure feels like a LOT has happened over the last twelve months.
More deep dives into the history of puzzles and games. More puzzles to solve. More interviews. More reviews. And other things without the word “views” in them. (But hopefully ones that still inspire your views!)
Again, I’m so chuffed with the response PuzzCulture has garnered so far, and I’m excited to continue creating content for you to enjoy.
But what are you looking for, fellow puzzler? Is there something you would like to see that we haven’t done before? Or something you’d like to see more of?
Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.
If you’re unfamiliar, the Boswords Fall Themeless League is a clever weekly spin on traditional crossword tournament-style solving. Instead of cracking through a number of puzzles in a single day (or two), the Fall Themeless League consists of one themeless crossword each week, scored based on your accuracy and how fast you complete the grid.
Each week’s puzzle only has one grid, but there are three sets of clues, each representing a different difficulty level for solvers. Smooth is the least challenging, Choppy is the middle ground, and Stormy is the most challenging. (When you register to participate, you choose the difficulty level that suits you best.)
Each week’s puzzle is accompanied by a one-hour broadcast on Twitch, starting with a preseason puzzle and broadcast on Monday, September 29th at 9 PM Eastern.
The Fall Themeless League then runs the next nine Monday nights starting at 9 PM.
Don’t worry if you can’t attend the Monday night broadcasts. Solvers will have until the end of the day Sunday each solving week to complete that week’s puzzles!
As for the puzzles themselves, each year the Boswords team assembles a lineup of top-flight constructors, and this year is no exception.
This year’s constructors are Carina da Rosa, Barbara Lin, Ryan Mathiason, Sophia Maymudes, Paolo Pasco, David Quarfoot, Brendan Emmett Quigley, Jeremy Venook, Emily Yi and Wayne Zhao.
I’ve participated in the Spring and Fall Themeless Leagues in years past, and it always sparks a renewed appreciation for what talented constructors can do outside the traditional themed structures of a grid. The grid work, the fill, the cluing… these are all given greater focus.
Consider checking it out, you won’t be disappointed!
Will you be participating in this year’s Fall Themeless League, fellow solvers? Let me know in the comments section below, I’d love to hear from you!
The eighteenth edition of Lollapuzzoola, as is tradition, arrived on a Saturday in August. (I was not in attendance, but I did purchase the Solve at Home puzzle pack.) I finally had a chance to sit down and try my hands at this year’s tournament puzzles, and I was certainly not disappointed.
Lollapuzzoola continues to push the envelope with inventive themes and unique spins on how to bring crosswords to life. (Never forget competitors MEOWING for milk at Lollapuzzoola 10!)
This year’s theme was “We Put the Zoo in Lollapuzzoola.” Every puzzle had something to do with animals and animal-based wordplay, and the constructors were clearly inspired in all sorts of ways. Let’s take a look at what they came up with.
Warmup Puzzle A: Twinletsby Brian Cimmet
This puzzle felt more like hitting the ground running than warming up, but it definitely got the creative juices flowing. The solver is presented with two identical grids and two sets of clues, and you have to figure out which grid each answer applies to.
This was complicated by the fact that several of the clues were the same for multiple entries. For example, the clue to 1 Across for both grids was “Mythical equine beast.” Naturally, the only thing to do is start writing in one grid and let the answers populate and push you toward the next entry.
I really dig Twin Crosswords or Twinlets puzzles, and Brian has a knack for putting just enough common letters in the same spaces in both grids to keep you guessing. (And for writing one exceptionally long clue that never disappoints.)
Beginning and concluding the acrosses with mythical beasts was a great hook, and I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle.
Interesting grid entries included our mythical beasts (SIMURGH, what a shout!), JANE DONE, ME THREE, and INTEGER, and my favorite clues were “Oscar Cimmet, to Brian Cimmet” for SON and “Amazing song or British sausage” for BANGER.
Warmup Puzzle B: Meet Cuteby Brooke Husic
An apt pair — HELLO KITTY and BYE BYE BIRDIE — ties together this themeless midi, although the meet cute of the title is slightly less cute with the crossing entry COULD GET IT. (While I was solving, I thought the other long down entry was a similarly saucy ARE YOU DOWN, before it turned out to be ARE YOU DONE, heh.)
Brooke is a pro at making the most of a tight grid, and this puzzle was clean and loaded with great trivia in its cluing, particularly for entries solvers have seen loads of times, like ORS or UNO. Breathing new life into crossword classics can be tough, but Brooke always goes the extra mile.
Interesting grid entries included SSRIS, CLUSTER, and ARE YOU DONE, and my favorite clues were “Last number shouted before “Feliz ano nuevo!” for UNO, “Group of stars, computers, or consonants” for CLUSTER, and “Percussive string instrument technique heard in funk music” for SLAP BASS.
I think creating a proper puzzle #1 is one of the toughest tasks in crosswords. It has to be challenging enough to engage the solver, but accessible enough to ease them into a full day of competition. It has to represent the spirit of the event and pique interest in the puzzles to come.
That’s a lot, but Hannah delivers a solid starting puzzle with a fun theme: entries that start with commands to a pet, like DOWN, STAY, or ROLLOVER. (I also appreciated the dog-centric cluing peppered throughout the puzzle. That’s dedication to the gimmick!)
I definitely need to look up more of Hannah’s puzzles going forward.
Interesting grid entries included STEM CELLS, TEWA, T-SHOT, and ITHACA, and my favorite clues were “Alvin and the Chipmunks or Josie and the Pussycats” for TRIO and “Latter member of a rhyming candy duo” for IKE.
Wait, wrong one…
Puzzle #2: Cave Dwellers by Mark Valdez
This puzzle combined a great visual element — lots of black squares and a squat, wide design to evoke the setting in the title — and paired it with a smart gimmick for the themed entries.
We’ve unknowingly ventured into a puzzly cave with bats hanging upside down from the ceiling… so all of the themed entries reading down start with TAB instead of BAT. Diabolical!
Mark crammed LOADS of these hidden bats into the cave, making for an impressive feat of puzzle construction.
Interesting grid entries included SO SUE ME, AM DIAL, and PAWNEE, and my favorite clues were “Tower on the sea” for TUG and “Short king?” for TUT.
Yes, all your favorite animals like helicopter and hat…
Puzzle #3: Balloon Animalsby Kate Hawkins
Size matters in this 19x stormer, where animal names not only appear in multiple entries, but each letter fills a 2×2 set of boxes! I was definitely confused on several of the down entries, since I knew the answers, but they didn’t fit. When it finally clicked for me, it was very satisfying to write those huge letters across the grid.
I’ve seen rebuses and shared letters and repeated letters, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen ballooned letters before. I can only imagine the a-ha moment happening in real time during the tournament!
Interesting grid entries included RAW SCORE, TESLA COILS, AND SCENE, and ARCHIVAL, and my favorite clues were “Curry popular in the Bay Area” for STEPH, “Bedizen with lace or ribbon” for TRIM, and “Took the wrong way?” for STOLE.
Puzzle #4: Shady Charactersby Brooke Husic
Brooke is one of the most inventive constructors in puzzles, and this 15x is no exception. Every clue that includes the word “red” required the solver to use the opposite of that word in the clue instead. For instance, “Hatred” clued the grid entry KINDNESS (a one-for-one swap) while “Spotted Serengeti predator” clued the grid entry GIRAFFE (swapping only “predator” and not the entire clue).
This was bolstered by the instruction in 63A (“what you should do, appropriately, when you see red”) for the revealer CALL BULL. Which is just lovely wordplay, hitting both the misleading cluing gimmick and referencing the classic concept of waving red to a bull.
This one was tough but quite clever, definitely the puzzle I struggled with most. (I was having flashbacks to a similarly devious #4 puzzle from Brooke in the 2021 edition of Lollapuzzoola.)
Interesting grid entries included GASOLINA, IN SEASON, CRITTERS, and PREFECT, and my favorite clues were “Useful paper for a trip” for LSD TAB and “Matter of record?” for VINYL.
Good job folks, we did it. We found my new favorite stock photo…
Puzzle #5: Wild Discoveriesby Kareem Ayas
This 21x two-page delight managed to fit two hidden answers (spelled out with circles), another scattered throughout the grid, an anagram, a rebus, and an answer beyond the grid itself, all tied together by the revealer SCAVENGER HUNT, tying together the animals and the puzzle gimmick perfectly.
This was SO MUCH FUN. The creativity is off the charts. Kareem had lots of clues that referenced the main gimmick, providing hints to our six crafty scavengers, and really making the puzzle feel unified and thoughtfully assembled.
Interesting grid entries included CARRYON, EXECRABLE, VOYAGER, and UV LAMP, and my favorite clues were “Glue bottle bull whose mate is Elsie” for ELMER and “Imitates nested spoons with a partner or pet” for SNUGGLES.
Puzzle #6: Championship Finalby Malaika Handa
As always, there were two sets of clues for the Finals puzzle, the Local and the more difficult Express clues. No matter which clues you were working with, you were in for an excellent tournament finale.
This grid fill was SMOOTH, offering a lot of strong vocabulary, interesting crossings, and devious cluing. Everything you could hope for, highlighting the strengths and possibilities of a smartly constructed themeless puzzle.
I had the privilege of interviewing Malaika years ago for the blog, and I’m overjoyed to see her continue going from strength to strength in constructing.
Interesting grid entries included SAYSO, TRIPSITTER, KOREAN TACO, and RAT CZAR. Both the Local and Express sets of clues had some gems, so I’ll list them separately below:
Local clues:
“Game whose box depicts someone covering their mouth” for TABOO
“It might help you treasure your chest” for TOP SURGERY
“Lead-in to tail or trial” for MOCK
Express clues:
“Possessive that becomes another possessive if you add a letter” for OUR
“Fictional Russian aristocrat portrayed by Garbo, Leigh, and Knightley” for KARENINA
“Way of getting something off one’s chest” for TOP SURGERY
“Body found deep in a forest, perhaps” for LAKE (SO DARK, I LOVE IT)
“Board present at a corporate event?” for CHARCUTERIE
“Target of much paper coverage” for ROCK
There was also a tiebreaker themeless midi by Sid Sivakumar. It was a quick and satisfying solve, offering the apt pair of TALKS TURKEY and CRIES WOLF (though I enjoyed the grid-spanning down entries more, STICK FIGURE and SO FAR SO GOOD).
My favorite clues were “Well-supported gp.” for OPEC and “Coin on which a star indicates it was minted in Hyderabad” for RUPEE.
I’m sure I sound like a broken record at this point, but that’s because there are only so many ways to talk about how GOOD things are. (It’s way easier to complain about the bad than to find ways to celebrate the good.)
The puzzles at Lollapuzzoola always impress, and this year was easily my favorite edition of the tournament so far. Every puzzle had a strong theme, good fill, and topnotch cluing. So many of the themes were creative, playful, and eye-opening in how they played with the solver’s expectations.
There are so many great puzzle tournaments each year, and constructors sweat over these brilliant grids for our enjoyment. But Lollapuzzoola truly remains its own unique flavor of puzzles, embracing imaginative themes and clever execution like none other.
I cannot wait to see what they’re cooking up for next year.
Did you tackle this year’s Lollapuzzoola crossword tournament, fellow puzzlers, either from home or live in person? Let me know in the comment section below, I’d love to hear from you!
PuzzCulture 