Tag Archives: Puzzlin’ fool

Crossword News Roundup: ACPT and Puzzmo’s Open Submission Week

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We’ve got two quick updates for you today from the world of crosswords. And both of them involve opportunities for you to get out there and show off your cruciverbalist talents!

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The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is moving in 2027!

On Monday night’s Boswords broadcast, Will Shortz joined Andrew Kingsley and John Lieb to announce some changes for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

In 2026, the ACPT will be held at the Stamford Marriott, possibly for the last time.

No, worry not, the ACPT is still going strong. So strong, in fact, that it will be moving to Philadelphia for the 2027 tournament! The new space will be able to accommodate up to 1,250 solvers.

It’s a sad moment for Stamford, but not entirely unexpected. Attendance has been pushing the Marriott’s limits for years, and registration for this year’s tournament closed more than a month early because of high demand.

It’s also not the first time Stamford has said goodbye to the tournament. From 2008 until its return in 2015, the ACPT was held outside Stamford.

You can check out the full announcement here:

Overall, I think this is a great move for the tournament. There’s greater opportunity to attend the tournament, plus a ballroom space fit for voracious solvers of all ages.

I can’t wait to see what 2016 and 2017 bring for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

Remember that registration opens on January 1st for former contestants and on January 8th for rookies!

Reminder: Puzzmo Open Submission Week is Fast Approaching!

From the mecca of in-person crossword solving to one of its most ambitious and welcoming online platforms, we move from one impactful puzzly institution to another that has very quickly made its mark on the world of puzzles.

Puzzmo is holding their next Crossword Open Submission Week from December 29th to January 5th, 2026, with new and established constructors all welcome to submit their puzzly creations.

Themed and themeless puzzles are welcome, as long as they fit Puzzmo’s specs, and the Puzzmo team has created an impressively thorough document to assist aspiring constructors with their efforts. Grid specs, examples of previously published puzzles, and more await anyone hoping to see their work pop up on Puzzmo.

It’s a very cool opportunity to test your puzzly mettle in a creative space known for strong crossword fundamentals as well as playfulness with language and themes (particularly their signature “apt pairs”).

I would highly recommend checking out Puzzmo, whether you’re planning to submit puzzles or not. The minis, midis, and big crosswords are all great fun to solve, and new constructors are bound to learn a thing or two from the terrific names on Puzzmo’s roster of puzzlesmiths.

Will you be attending next year’s ACPT or submitting to this year’s Puzzmo Open Submission Week? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!

Happy puzzling!

Problem-Solving Wolves a Problem in British Columbia?

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If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve no doubt noticed that one of our favorite topics is puzzle-solving animals. In the past, we’ve discussed examples of puzzle solving in cats, dogs, crows, cockatoos, octopuses, bees, pigs, and squirrels.

It’s possible we’ll be adding another mammal to the list today, given reports coming out of British Columbia about wolves interfering with crab traps.

Allow me to explain.

European green crabs are an invasive species in both British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest of the US, and locals have been setting up baited traps to capture them.

But in one particular area — the Haíɫzaqv Nation of British Columbia — they noticed traps broken into and damaged by a mysterious thief, who had been making off with the bait intended for those crabs. This happened not only to traps closer to the surface, but to deeply submerged traps as well.

This had been going on since 2023, so naturally, they set up remote cameras to finally solve the mystery and identify the culprit.

You can imagine their surprise when the cameras revealed a wolf swimming out of the water with a crab trap in tow!

The wolf then manipulated the trap until it could get the bait from the bait cup. The entire operation took only three minutes! That’s Ocean’s Eleven-style efficiency.

Now, is this just a matter of wolves observing humans and replicating the action?

Did the wolves observe the traps at low tide and come back for them at high tide, remembering their positions even while submerged?

Is this as simple as wolves being like dogs and loving nothing more than yanking on a rope toy and seeing what happens?

Or is this deduction, where a wolf sees a rope connected to a buoy and deduces there is something to be found underwater connected to that rope?

The researchers say there are at least two different wolves they’ve observed puzzling the bait out of these traps. Is this something one wolf taught another, or are all wolves capable of this level of tool use and puzzly thinking?

At the very least, this is a potential sign of the sort of problem-solving thinking we regularly see from crows and octopuses.

So it’s entirely possible that we’ll need to make some room on the puzzle-solving animal podium for these clever canids.

Only time will tell.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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lego-store-lego-november-turkey

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow puzzlers!

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.

  1. Cross off all words that name family members.
  2. Cross off all NFL teams playing Thanksgiving games.
  3. Cross off all words that name parts of Thanksgiving dinner.
  4. Cross off all words that name types of pie.
  5. Cross off all words that rhyme with FORK.
  6. Cross off all words that name ways to cook turkey.
  7. Cross off all words that can follow TURKEY in a common phrase.
  8. Cross off all words that are synonyms for HUNGRY.
  9. Cross off all two-letter words in columns A and B.
  10. 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.]

Have a marvelous holiday and happy solving!

An Online Holiday Market! (Plus a Free Puzzle Pack!)

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The PuzzCulture Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide launches next Tuesday — it would have launched this week, but sadly I’ve been ill AND took a tumble down the stairs, good times.

But, to be fair to all the puzzlers and board game fans in the audience, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a huge, first-time-ever collaboration between a plethora of companies to offer great deals before the holidays.

It’s the Backerkit Holiday Market, and it’s live now!

Running from November 18th to December 1st, you can grab bundles of games as well as brand-new games, miniatures, stuffed animals, enamel pins, roleplaying games, and more!

A lot of great companies are represented here, including RPGs from 9th Level Games and Hit Point Press and puzzles from Scarlet Envelope and Morgan’s Escape Puzzles.

Seeing this kind of collaboration is so cool, especially after a year where tariffs wreaked absolute havoc with the puzzle and game industry. Hopefully people will enjoy discounts and these companies will do well. It would be fantastic to see the Backerkit Holiday Market return next year.

But how about a little more festive cheer before I go today?

Our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles have put out a free puzzle packet this week in celebration of National Game & Puzzle Week!

I didn’t know it was National Game & Puzzle Week. To be honest, EVERY week around here is Game & Puzzle Week. Who decides these things anyway?

BUT I DIGRESS.

Click here to check out this awesome puzzle pack.

It’s a great mix of art puzzles, deduction puzzles like Logic and Sudoku, plus some of my favorite Penny Press offerings, like What’s Left? and Stretch Letters.

Happy puzzling, playing, shopping, and gaming, everyone!

Deb Amlen, the Whimsical Wordnik of “Wordplay,” Announces Retirement

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This morning, loyal readers of the Wordplay column in The New York Times were greeted by the news that Deb Amlen is retiring on January 2nd, 2026.

In case you somehow didn’t know, Deb is a talented crossword constructor, but these days, she’s better known for her role as the head writer and senior editor of Wordplay, the crossword blog and educational/humor column associated with The New York Times crossword puzzle.

You can read her thoughts in today’s Wordplay column, but please allow me to share a snippet of her thoughts from an accompanying Facebook post:

After more than 4,400 bylines and millions of words, mostly in the right order, I can honestly say that this has been the best job I’ve ever had. I’ve had the honor of working with some of the greatest journalists and editors in the business. It has been a wild ride, and as the great David Carr once advised, I have enjoyed every caper I’ve ever pulled at the company: the Trans-Atlantic cruise, the curling adventure, the rogue Crosswords Live. All of it.

…

Hopefully, after an extended period of drooling on myself to get over the deadlines, I can also continue to be part of the puzzle community in some way, because you all are the kindest, most generous, most funny people I know. Also extremely attractive.

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As an ambassador into the world of puzzles, Deb’s warmth and playfulness have been the perfect counterbalance for new and inexperienced solvers to the sometimes daunting prospect of tackling a New York Times crossword. Her columns are always funny, more than a little self-deprecating, and very complimentary to each day’s constructor.

I’ve interacted with Deb a few times over the years. I interviewed her for the blog back in 2020, and we had several friendly conversations at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Her enthusiasm for not just puzzles, but for meeting other puzzle fans, is unmatched, and even during a quick “gotta run!” visit, you come away with a smile.

I’m sad to see her go, but I’m glad to know that she’ll be working on new passion projects, traveling, and leaving the Wordplay column in the very capable hands of Sam Corbin and Caitlin Lovinger.

As one of the public faces of The New York Times Crossword, Deb often found herself the recipient of public feeling toward the crossword. Over the years, she has become rather infamous for reminding people that SHE just writes about the puzzles. “I didn’t do it” has become a catchphrase.

Well, Deb, it was true the vast majority of the time, but allow me to say, when it comes to making puzzles more welcoming and accessible to solvers, you absolutely DID do it.

Thank you for everything, Deb.

Justice For Snow! (The 2025 Toy Hall of Fame Inductees Revealed)

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Back in September, I wrote about the 12 nominees for this year’s class of The National Toy Hall of Fame: Furby, spirograph, Star Wars lightsaber, Tickle Me Elmo, scooter, cornhole, Battleship, Catan, Connect Four, Trivial Pursuit, slime, and snow.

I predicted that Catan, Connect Four, and Tickle Me Elmo would win. And I was wrong, as none of those three were selected to join the Toy Hall of Fame.

But I was hoping that the lightsaber, snow, and Trivial Pursuit would make the cut, as they were my personal nominees for this year’s class.

And I did get one of them right!

Battleship, slime, and Trivial Pursuit were the 2025 class for the National Toy Hall of Fame, where they will join all the other inductees on display at The Strong National Museum of Play.

That being said, please allow me to get up on my soapbox for a moment.

How is snow not already in the National Toy Hall of Fame?

It’s not like natural items haven’t made the cut in the past. The stick is already in. And you’re telling me that snow — a free toy that falls from the sky AND CREATES ENTIRE DAYS FREE OF SCHOOL IN WHICH TO PLAY — is not a Hall of Famer?

Blasphemy. Battleship can’t create days off.

And so, fellow puzzlers and players and appreciators of all things play, I ask you on this day to join me in my new movement.

#JusticeForSnow

Oh yes, I’ve already started the hashtag in my reply to the announcement of this year’s inductees. And it’s just the beginning. I intend to correct this injustice with all of the influence I can bring to bear. (Please note, that amount of influence is minuscule, as The Strong National Museum of Play has refused to return my calls on several occasions.)

But I shall not be deterred!

Will you join me on this glorious endeavor? Or has the whimsy and wonder of playing with snow been whittled away by years of shoveling driveways clear or stepping in slushy puddles on the way to work?

I tell you, friends, my whimsy has not abated in the slightest. I can remember staring out the window with my dad, watching wet snow cling to the trees, as if they were painted just so, picture perfect for Christmas card art, right in front of us. And despite the fact that we knew it would royally suck to shovel that snow later, we still smiled as we watched it accumulate.

So, National Toy Hall of Fame, better make some room on next year’s ballot. It’s gonna be snow’s time to shine.