Tag Archives: cruciverbalist

Open Submission Contest for the Boswords Spring Themeless League!

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The Winter Wondersolve has come and gone, but the team at Boswords is already looking ahead to their 2026 Spring Themeless League.

The Spring Themeless League spreads out a tournament-style solving experience over nine weeks, with one themeless crossword per week. Each puzzle is scored based on your answer accuracy (incorrect letters, empty squares, etc.) and how quickly you complete the grid.

While each week’s puzzle only has one solution, 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 solvers register to participate, they choose the difficulty level that suits them best.)

And the Boswords team has announced that they’ll be accepting Open Submissions for one of those themeless puzzles.

They’re looking for an unclued themeless grid (size 15x or 15×16), and it’s only open to constructors who have never had a themeless crossword published in the New York Times (prior to 1/24/26). Constructors who have constructed for a previous Boswords event are also ineligible.

Click here for full details and guidelines for your submission!

Send your grid by Sunday, February 22nd, and you should hear by March 1st if your grid has been chosen.

What an awesome opportunity for up-and-coming cruciverbalists to show off their constructing talents!

While we’re talking about crosswords, let me also take this time to again shout out the ORCAS collaboration with the Trevor Project.

Just donate to the Trevor Project from the special link, and you’ll receive a puzzle pack featuring 76 ORCA-nominated puzzles from 44 outlets, plus five original puzzles from the Constructor of the Year nominees. I solved my way through the entire pack, and it was an absolute joy.

Please give if you can, it’s a wonderful cause. For information on how to make a donation and receive the puzzle pack, email: theorcaawards@gmail.com.

Oh, and the ORCAS ballot for this year’s nominees is now public, so be sure to get your votes in for all those marvelous puzzles and constructors.

(Oh, and PuzzCulture is nominated as well — Best Crossword-Related Media — and the competition is stiff. So much great crossword commentary and content available online!)

Crossword fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks and months!

Boswords Winter Wondersolve was on Sunday (I’ll be delving into the tournament puzzles on Thursday), this coming Saturday is the Westport Library Crossword Tournament, and we’ve got the ORCAS livestream on Monday, February 23rd.

Not only that, but the Boswords Spring Themeless League starts in March, plus we’ve got the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and Crossword Con in April! (And somewhere in there, Westwords will announce when registration is open for their June event.)

Are you looking forward to any puzzly events coming up, or will you be submitting to the Boswords Spring Themeless League open submission contest? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you.

Crosswordese: Now with Rhythm!

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[Image courtesy of Crosswordese Selfies.]

Crosswordese is the bane of solvers and constructors alike.

For the uninitiated, crosswordese consists of words that appear frequently in puzzles, but not nearly as often in conversation or common use. (My favorite variation on that definition: “words that crop up a lot but are otherwise pretty useless.”)

Not only does crosswordese prevent new solvers from enjoying crosswords to the fullest — by forcing them to learn a weird, esoteric jargon that feels exclusionary — but it hounds constructors who are trying to build solid, engaging grids, tempting them with easy letter combinations and tricky corner resolutions.

Crosswordese is so prevalent in the field that some crossword enthusiasts try to craft stories that include as many examples of crosswordese as possible.

The father of Reddit user Cheedrifin went another way, though, penning a delightful poem full of crosswordese!

We’ve posted it in full below. Enjoy!

THE CRUCIVERBALIST’S BALL

I was stunned, I’ll admit, when I got the call
To go to this year’s cruciverbalist’s ball.
For eons I’d wanted to earn such a bid
To see all the bigwigs who live in the grid.

I should say that I don’t have a poet’s portfolio
Up to describing this fabulous olio,
But I’ve always said “Carpe diem’s my motto.”
I’ll give it a shot with some help from Erato.

The lot of us boarded a sleek SST
And flew over what looked like the dry Aral Sea.
But just where it was held, I can’t properly say.
They swore me to silence at point of epée.

But it might have been Riga, or maybe Oman.
The Rhine? The Rhone? Iraq or Iran?
It could have been Agra—I know it was far—
Or maybe an aerie perched over the Aare.

Wherever it was, they served us some naan,
Aioli and Nehi and roasted eland.
And down at our heels, keeping watch for dropped pasta
Were dogs from the A-list: Ren, Odie, and Asta.

We all settled down at the sound of a raga
Announcing arrivals of sri, shah, and aga.
Still more eastern royals stepped out of the car:
An Arab emir and a ranee and tsar.

The big names could not keep away from this forum.
Mel Ott! Ernie Els! William Inge and Ned Rorem.
And brimming with pride both paternal and filial,
The architects Saarinen: Eero and Eliel.

Sajak was stoked to meet old Ayn Rand.
And Ezio Pinza hailed Elia Kazan.
Malia and Oprah remembered Chicago,
And Amis and Imus examined Iago.

James Agee went on about where he had been
With Ani DiFranco and Anaïs Nin.
We saw Uta Hagen, who didn’t speak German
To Yma and Uma (yeah, Sumac and Thurman).

E. Utne shared new-age convictions with Moby
While Cheri Oteri was tying her obi.
We sampled the ahi (it’s really just tuna)
With dear Mrs. Chaplin, who said “Call me Oona.”

We sang and we danced till they all had to go,
Catching planes to the Urals, or trains to St. Lo.
Now I’m stuck for an ending. Have one I can borrow?
I guess I’ll just wait for the answer tomorrow.

So many of the chronic crosswordese offenders are included! Did the poem miss any of your favorites/least favorites? Let us know in the comments section!

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