It’s National Puzzle Day on Thursday, also known as International Puzzle Day, depending on where you are and whether your puzzly activities extend across borders.
Hopefully you’ve managed to dig yourselves out of all that snow across the US, and you’ve got a jigsaw, a crossword, a logic puzzle, a brain teaser, or some other puzzly activity set aside to enjoy.
We’re delighted to be celebrating this puzzliest of days with you, and as you might expect, we’ve got a puzzle for you to solve in honor of the holiday!
This 15x crossword is titled Better Without. Happy solving!
On March 2nd, 1955, she refused to give up her bus seat. This was nine months before Rosa Parks would become synonymous with the civil rights movement, sparking the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the United States.
Claudette is part of a proud history of defiance and resistance, but was unfairly pushed aside by black leaders for being unmarried and pregnant during her defiant act, making her a less desirable public image for the civil rights movement.
When asked about her actions and how Rosa Parks was chosen over her as the face of the boycott, she said:
I feel very, very proud of what I did. I do feel like what I did was a spark and it caught on… I’m not disappointed. Let the people know Rosa Parks was the right person for the boycott. But also let them know that the attorneys took four other women to the Supreme Court to challenge the law that led to the end of segregation.
I wrote this puzzle a few years ago during my Eyes Open series. I constructed it in honor of the sixty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott. I wanted to highlight Parks, Colvin, and Pauli Murray, another woman who refused to be treated like a second-class citizen on a segregated bus.
I hope this puzzle serves to both engage you as a solver and encourage you to learn more about these events and those names that are often overshadowed or cast aside by history.
It’s Christmas Day, fellow puzzlers, and it’s tradition around here to celebrate the holidays with a free puzzle to solve!
This year is no exception, as I’ve cooked up something festive and fun for you.
Our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles have a puzzle called Wordfinder, and when I thought of it, I immediately had the idea to do a holiday-themed version of it.
Merry Christmas, friends. May the holidays be kind to you.
The answers to the clues are in the diagram in their corresponding rows across and down, but the letters are rearranged and mixed together. Each letter is used only once, so be sure to cross it out when you have used it. All the letters will be used. Solve ACROSS and DOWN together to determine the correct letter where there is a choice. The first letter of each word is shown outside the diagram and next to each clue. The first answer, TINSEL, has been filled in as an example.
One government agency in England celebrates Christmas a little bit differently than most.
The GCHQ — or Government Communications Headquarters — provides security and intelligence services for the British government. Back when they were known as GC&CS — Government Code and Cypher School — they were responsible for funding Bletchley Park and its successes cracking the German “Enigma” code during World War II.
And now, they provide one of the coolest and puzzliest challenges of the year, designed for solvers aged eleven to eighteen to test their skills, hoping to inspire the next generation of puzzle solvers.
At GCHQ, we love creating puzzles and breaking codes. That’s why every year we create the GCHQ Christmas Challenge, a series of fiendish brainteasers and puzzles, designed by our very own team of codebreakers. It encourages children aged 11-18 to think laterally and work as a team, as well as showcasing some of the skills they might need to become a spy.
The puzzles are not designed to be solved alone, and each student will bring something different to the challenge. At GCHQ, we believe the right mix of minds enables us to solve seemingly impossible problems.
I’ve always been impressed with what festive puzzly efforts GCHQ brings each year, and I can’t wait to see what the 2025 edition has in store for solvers.
So, fellow puzzlers, do you accept this year’s Christmas Challenge? Let us know in the comments section below!
Today is a day for family and friends, for celebrating togetherness, for appreciating good fortune, health, and happiness. And we here at PuzzCulture are so so grateful for each and every reader and solver.
Whether you’re a puzzler or a gamer, a casual solver or a diehard devotee of all things puzzly, you can rest assured you are a welcome member of a very eclectic, charming, and downright likable community of puzzly people. =)
And so, in the spirit of giving thanks, I’ve cooked up a puzzle for my fellow puzzlers on this delightful Turkey Day.
I call this What’s Leftovers?
Following the instructions, cross off words in the diagram. When you are finished, the remaining words will form a message reading left to right, line by line. Some words may be eliminated by more than one of the instructions.
Cross off all words that name family members.
Cross off all NFL teams playing Thanksgiving games.
Cross off all words that name parts of Thanksgiving dinner.
Cross off all words that name types of pie.
Cross off all words that rhyme with FORK.
Cross off all words that name ways to cook turkey.
Cross off all words that can follow TURKEY in a common phrase.
Cross off all words that are synonyms for HUNGRY.
Cross off all two-letter words in columns A and B.
Cross off all words that are spelled out in the word SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS (like LIDO).
[Click here for a PDF of the puzzle to print and solve.]
With Halloween fast approaching, I couldn’t resist putting together a Logic Puzzle for my fellow solvers to enjoy!
At the yearly monster Halloween party, everyone looks forward to the dance contest the most.
Five classic Universal monsters — Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and The Mummy — have created a routine with a different partner to a different song (one is “Season of the Witch”) with a different Halloween treat afterward (including Dead Velvet Cake).
From the information provided, can you figure out all of the monster pairings (one of the dance partners is The Bride of Frankenstein), as well as each pair’s song and Halloween treat?
Frankenstein’s Monster chose the song “I Put a Spell on You.”
The Wolfman and Mr. Hyde didn’t choose Charlie Brownies as their Halloween treat.
The Phantom of the Opera (who danced to “The Time Warp”) didn’t partner with The Creature From the Black Lagoon.
Dracula (who chose “Black Magic Woman”) didn’t choose The Babadook as a dance partner, but The Babadook enjoyed Boo-Scotti as a Halloween treat.
The Invisible Man’s Halloween treat was the Scare-amel Apples.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (who didn’t dance to “Thriller”) enjoyed the Black Cat Cookies.
Did you solve the puzzle and pair up these monstrous dance partners? Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!
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