Tag Archives: Geeking Out

PuzzleWriMo!

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With NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and NoJoMo (November Journaling Month) both in full swing, writing is in the air!

And we here at PuzzleNation would like to encourage the writers and aspiring writers with a little writing exercise/contest!

We’re looking for an opening line or opening paragraph that incorporates puzzles in some way. They can be funny or serious, dramatic or silly, one sentence or several. All we ask is that a puzzle or the spirit of puzzle solving is included in the snippet.

Let us know you’re participating by using the hashtag #PuzzleWriMo (or leave us a comment right here at the blog), and we’ll collect our favorites and feature them in their own PuzzleNation Blog post.

And those we choose will be eligible to win a great puzzly prize!

Put those thinking caps on and put your puzzlers to work! And good luck to all the writers and NaNoWriMo participants out there!

Puzzles in Pop Culture: The West Wing

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In previous editions of Puzzles in Pop Culture, I’ve recapped classic episodes of M*A*S*H and MacGyver, as well as the numerous puzzly plotlines that’ve been featured on The Simpsons over the years.

But when it comes to erudite, hilarious references to solving crosswords, you’d be hard-pressed to find sharper puzzle-infused dialogue than the moments featured in episodes of Aaron Sorkin’s landmark political drama The West Wing.

Set in the West Wing of the White House, the show focused on the lives of the president and his advisors and staffers as they navigated political situations at home and abroad. To this day it’s a regular feature on most reviewers’ lists of the top television shows of all-time.

And in a show noted for sparkling wit and all kinds of intellectual wordplay, it’s hardly a surprise that the New York Times Crossword was referenced in the very first episode.

In the video below, Chief of Staff Leo McGarry is frustrated with the Times for misspelling the name of Muammar Qaddafi, and his attempts to contact the editor of the Times Crossword and get it corrected are stymied at every turn:

The White House staff’s dubious relationship with crosswords is revisited in the season 3 episode Dead Irish Writers. This time around, as the president’s wife Abbey prepares for both a birthday party and a potential ruling on her medical license, the President busies himself with a crossword in his own inimitable style:

Beyond the spirited humor of both scenes, there’s a marvelous undercurrent of how smart people react when their intellectual superiority is challenged. Leo responds by trying to correct what he sees as an egregious error, while the President bends the rules to suit his own expectations.

In addition to being a wonderful launchpad for the show’s signature rapid-fire banter, it’s a simple and effective way of shedding light on how each character views the world and his role in it. (With writing and direction this layered and engaging, it’s easy to see how The West Wing earned an astounding 26 Emmy Awards!)

Even as subplots in a much-larger narrative, these puzzles added color and personality to scenes that took us inside the minds of these characters. Pretty impressive for crosswords that are only mentioned briefly.

Puzzles… is there anything they can’t do? =)

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, cruise our boards on Pinterest, check out our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

Answers to the PuzzleNation Punderful Halloween Costume Game!

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Happy Day-After-Halloween, puzzlers and PuzzleNationers! (Also known as Candy Coma Day…)

It’s time for the answers to our PuzzleNation Punderful Halloween Costume Game! How did you do? Let’s find out!

 

PuzzleNation’s Punderful Halloween Costume Game: Answers!

#1

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She’s a spelling bee!

#2

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They’re the Black-Eyed P’s! [picture courtesy of ThinkingCloset.com]

#3

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Why, it’s a lovely Mail-Order Bride!

#4

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Dunkin’ Donuts!

#5

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French kiss!

#6

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It’s fantasy football for all to enjoy!

#7

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He’s a ceiling fan!

#8

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What a lovely Freudian slip!

#9

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It’s the Grapes of Wrath!

#10

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She’s a blessing in disguise! [picture courtesy of ThinkingCloset.com]

So how did you do, PuzzleNationers? I hope you enjoyed our little Halloween Costume challenge. Has this inspired you to create a punny costume of your own for next year? Let us know!

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, cruise our boards on Pinterest, check out our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

PuzzleNation’s Punderful Halloween Costume Game!

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Happy Halloween, puzzlers and PuzzleNationers!

One of the best things about Halloween is guessing what people’s costumes are. Clever costumes can be great fun — like these puzzle-themed costumes we featured last year! — and I’m a particular fan of costumes that only cost a few bucks to put together, because they really let your creativity shine through.

Punny costumes lend themselves to the low-budget costume style brilliantly. For instance, this year I’m gathering three pals with flashlights, magnifying glasses, hawaiian leis and party hats, because we’re a Search Party.

And I figured that punny costumes would make for a perfect Halloween game for my fellow puzzlers!

It’s simple. I post a picture, and you guess what the costume is.

For example:

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Did you get it? He’s a chick magnet!

I’ve compiled ten costumes for you to figure out. Let’s see how many you can get!

PuzzleNation’s Punderful Halloween Costume Game!

#1

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#2

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#3

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#4

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#5

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#6

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#7

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#8

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#10

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So how did you do, PuzzleNationers? I hope you enjoyed our little Halloween Costume challenge. Were there any great punny costumes we missed? Let us know! And happy Halloween to you!

[We’ll be posting the answers tomorrow! Many thanks to our photo sources: Buzzfeed, The Thinking Closet, So Much Pun, and Tim Helbig.]

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, cruise our boards on Pinterest, check out our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

PuzzleNation Book Review: World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements

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Welcome to the sixth installment of PuzzleNation Book Reviews!

All of the books discussed and/or reviewed in PNBR 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!

Our book review post this time around features John Hunter’s World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements.

What did you do in fourth grade, fellow puzzlers? Did you master long division, or delve into the history of the Civil War, or expand your vocabulary skills? The kids in John Hunter’s fourth-grade class negotiated lucrative trade agreements, solved global warming, and saved the world.

Yeah, I know. I feel like a slacker now too.

I frequently post articles that reinforce my heartfelt belief that puzzles and the skills we develop solving puzzles make the world a better, more interesting place. And the World Peace Game, John Hunter’s marvelous brainchild, takes empty-space learning to a whole new level.

Instead of regimented, test-based education, empty-space learning encourages students to learn and fail by doing, developing social skills, a deeper sense of the world’s complexity, and an appreciation for hard questions.

The World Peace Game is a fantastic example of what empty-space learning can do. A weeks-long interactive experiment wherein students try to solve real-world problems in a complex, multitiered simulation, kids will tackle poverty, war, environmental cataclysm, terrorism, ethical dilemmas, and more as they manage their imaginary nations.

World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements chronicles the lessons Hunter has learned from developing and running the World Peace Game for groups of all ages, offering dozens of examples of problems encountered — and circumvented — by young minds, each with a core lesson and something to celebrate.

This is pure puzzle-solving at work on a massive, cooperative scale, and just reading this book gave me hope for the future. World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements is a warm, funny, utterly optimistic testament to what creativity and innovative problem solving can accomplish.

[For further information on the World Peace Game, as well as World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements, click here.]

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, cruise our boards on Pinterest, check out our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

Bonus Friday Post: Scottish Reminder Edition!

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Hello puzzle friends and PuzzleNationers, I just have a few quick reminders to drop in this bonus Friday post!

Last week, I wrote about the National Museums Scotland invitation to the public to assist in reconstructing a 1200-year-old Scottish relic, and that website went active today! So if you’d like to put your puzzly skills to work for the greater good, check it out!

But hey, if you’re looking for something a little less challenging, you could always check out our Classic Word Search iBook (all three volumes available here!) or the Crossword app our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles put together (available here!) for some puzzly fun.

Thanks so much for your enthusiasm and support, and enjoy your weekend!