Tag Archives: Wordplay

Two Puzzly Events: One Soon, One Today!

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If you’re looking for puzzly events in the very near future to keep your solving skills sharp, then this is the post for you.

After all, the 41st annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is only six weeks away! Yup, on March 23rd to the 25th, puzzlers shall descend on the Stamford Marriott Hotel once again to put their puzzly skills to the test in what is lovingly known as “the Nerd Olympics.”

I’ve attended the event for several years now, and it is always one of the highlights of the puzzle year. The tournament itself takes place over two days, with six puzzles to solve on Saturday, followed by one on Sunday. Then the top three finishers in the A, B, and C brackets solve the championship puzzle on whiteboards in front of the audience.

On Friday and Saturday night, there are puzzle events, demonstrations, and panels by top puzzlers and figures in the puzzle world as well.

It’s a terrific way to not only see how you’d fare in a tournament setting, but also to meet many of your fellow puzzlers, including prominent constructors and previous tournament winners!

(Click here to read our rundown of last year’s event, and click here to visit the Facebook page for attendees and new solvers to share info and learn more about the event!)

But maybe March is too far away for you. What if you’re looking for a puzzly challenge right now?

Well then, The World Puzzle Federation has you covered, because The WPF Puzzle Grand Prix returns today!

With similar rules to the Sudoku Grand Prix (which kicked off last month), the Puzzle Grand Prix consists of multiple rounds over the course of the year, spanning all types of puzzles, including kakuro, deduction puzzles, and more.

And although only members of the WPF are active competitors for those rankings, you can still solve each round’s puzzles and see how you fare against the best in the world!

The Turkish team have prepared the puzzles for Round 1, which will be available from noon on February 9, 2018 (GMT + 1 hour) to 11:59 PM on February 12, 2018 (GMT + 1 hour).

So what do you say, PuzzleNationers? Do you accept the challenge of the Puzzle Grand Prix?

Let us know in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you!

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National Puzzle Day Puzzle Hunt Solution!

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Last Monday was National Puzzle Day, so to honor one of the puzzliest days of the year, we celebrated with not only giveaways galore, but a special online puzzle hunt as well!

And today, we’ve got the solution to the multi-stage puzzle that awaited solvers that day! Enjoy!

Step 1 started with a Carry-Over puzzle where answers from that day’s free Daily POP Crosswords puzzle were plugged into a chain of escalating anagrams.

As each word was anagrammed into a new word that fit the given clue, letters were subtracted and added to the next word down, giving the solver a larger pool of letters to work with to answer the next clue in the chain, and so on.

Here’s the completed puzzle, with Grid Words and Answer Words filled in:

And when solvers plugged the answer “acrobat” into the link on the page, it took them to a hidden page on the PuzzleNation Blog website, where Step 2 awaited them.

Step 2 challenged solvers to complete a series of tasks in a game of Simon Says. But before they could start, they had to plug in answers from that day’s Penny Dell Crosswords App free daily puzzle.

With the answers handy, they could begin following the instructions and transforming the initial answer word into something unexpected.

Here’s the completed puzzle:

And when solvers plugged the answer “tumbling” into the link on the page, it took them to a hidden page on the PuzzleNation Blog website, where Step 3 awaited them.

Step 3 marked the final leg of the puzzle hunt. But to complete it, solvers had to pay attention to all of those red asterisks in the first two legs of the puzzle.

There were fifteen of them, between answer words and grid words, for solvers to arrange alphabetically into three columns of five words apiece.

Solvers then had to read across each row of words and cross off every letter that appears twice or four times in that row. Then, reading down, do the same in each column of words. Once a letter is crossed off, it cannot be part of another pair or foursome.

The pairs/foursomes across are highlighted in red and the pairs/foursomes down are highlighted in blue, with only the black letters remaining.

So that leaves this pool of letters:

Five of the fifteen words in the grid can be spelled from that pool of letters. (You’re not crossing out letters as you use them; you’re simply seeing which words can possibly be spelled from that pool of letters. Hence, DINERO can be spelled, but MURMUR cannot.)

Those five words are DINERO, LIMO, MUSLIN, RODIN, and SNEER.

And when solvers plugged those five answers into the link on the page, it took them to one last hidden page where they saw a little congratulatory graphic:

Solvers who completed the puzzle hunt also earned 100 coins for the Daily POP Crosswords app!

A hearty thank you to everyone who participated! We hope you enjoyed this puzzly challenge!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

A New Puzzle Pack for the Penny Dell Crosswords App!

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Hey there, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers! We’ve got a brand new Penny Dell Crossword App puzzle pack for your solving pleasure, and this one is for all the avid TV watchers out there!

This is the 35-puzzle Classic TV deluxe set, featuring 5 themed bonus puzzles in addition to the high quality puzzles and inventive clues you’ve come to expect from PuzzleNation!

And you don’t need a genie in a bottle or any nose-twinkling magic to nab this terrific puzzle set! It’s available for in-app purchase for both Android and iOS users right now!

You can’t go wrong with this one! PuzzleNation is dedicated to bringing you the best puzzle-solving experience available, with world-class puzzles right in your pocket, ready to go at a moment’s notice! That’s the PuzzleNation guarantee.

Happy solving everyone!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

A Crossword Mystery Movie?

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It’s 2018, and these days, it seems like crosswords are everywhere. They’re in the paper, on the newsstands, and even in your pocket.

And now, they’re making it onto TV with a Hallmark Channel original movie!

Oh yes, check out this snippet from the recent press release:

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries has greenlit development for new mystery movie, The Crossword Mystery starring Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott. The movie is co-created by Will Shortz, crossword editor of The New York Times, puzzle master for NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday,” editor of Games magazine and founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott are no strangers to Hallmark themselves, having starred in three movies together since 2015: All of My Heart, A Christmas Melody, and All of My Heart: Inn Love.

Now, they’ll reunite for a new puzzly mystery.

Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect from the film:

A brilliant crossword puzzle editor (Chabert) finds her life turned upside-down when she is pulled into a police investigation after several of the clues in her recent puzzles are linked to unsolved crimes. Proving her innocence means leaving the comfort of her sheltered world and working with a tough police detective (Elliott), puzzling through clues together in order to crack the case, as the two are fish out of water in each other’s worlds.

As far as we know, there’s no airdate scheduled yet for the film, but we’ll keep you posted when we know more.

Perhaps Will himself will have more details for us by the time the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament rolls around in March.

Still, what an unexpected bit of news for puzzlers everywhere. 2018, what other surprises are lurking up your sleeve?

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

It’s National Puzzle Day!

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Hello hello, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers! It’s National Puzzle Day (aka International Puzzle Day), and we hope you’re having a fabulous time!

As you might expect, we’re overjoyed to be celebrating this puzzliest of days with you, and we’ve got a few things going on today in honor of the holiday!

There are promotions running on both the PuzzleNation Facebook page AND the Daily POP Crosswords Facebook page, so be sure to check them out! Or simply click this link for full details on today’s National Puzzle Day free coins promotion!

And that’s not all! We’ve organized an online puzzle hunt for you as well! Step 1 begins below, so why not take a few minutes and see if you can unravel an app-fueled puzzly challenge!

How are you celebrating National Puzzle Day, fellow puzzlers? Let us know in the comments below!

National Puzzle Day Puzzle Hunt: Step 1!

To complete this leg of the puzzle hunt, you’ll need to solve today’s Daily POP Crosswords App free daily puzzle.

Once you’ve solved it, keep the grid handy, because we’re going to test your anagram skills! Ready? Here we go!

Add and subtract letters from the Grid Words to form answers to the Clues. Start with the first Grid Word, subtract 2 letters, and rearrange the remaining letters to form the answer to the first Clue.

Carry over the letters you subtracted to the blanks on the next line. Now add them to the second Grid Word, subtract the number of letters indicated, and rearrange the remaining letters to form the second answer. Continue solving this way until you’re left with your final answer.

Once you’ve completed the puzzle, take your answer word (all lowercase) and plug it into the blank in this web address: https://blog.puzzlenation.com/npd-________.

If you’ve solved the puzzle correctly, that completed link will take you to the next part of the Puzzle Hunt!

Good luck!

[Note: remember to keep track of those answer words/grid words with red asterisks next to them! You’ll need them later!]

A Real-Life Treasure Hunt Awaits You…

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[Image courtesy of Go.ActiveCalendar.com.]

Who can resist participating in a real-life treasure hunt?

I certainly can’t. I’ve organized them in role-playing games and as part of birthday celebrations, creating maps, riddles, and puzzles in order to challenge friends to locate hidden loot in both imaginary and real locations over the years.

From The Goonies and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to National Treasure and the Indiana Jones series, treasure hunts are a part of our collective cultural imagination. People hunt in their attics for forgotten antiques and prowl flea markets and thrift shops for unexpected bounties.

So is it any wonder that a few intrepid souls out there are still pursuing treasures hidden over three decades ago as a publicity stunt?

[Image courtesy of Amazon.]

In 1981, when author Byron Preiss launched a puzzly scavenger hunt to promote the release of his new fantasy book The Secret, he had no idea he’d just fired the starting pistol on one of the greatest unsolved puzzles in history.

Twelve plexiglas boxes were hidden around North America, each protecting a ceramic container that, in turn, held a key to a safe deposit box containing an actual gemstone.

The book contains twelve paintings and twelve poems. Solvers were expected to figure out which poems to pair with which images, and then decipher them in order to reveal the locations of the keys.

Preiss believed that all twelve boxes would be found relatively quickly.

Only two have been recovered in the thirty-plus years since then, one in Chicago’s Grant Park and the other in Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens.

[Image courtesy of Vice.]

This image is believed by some treasure hunters to point to one of the boxes being hidden in Milwaukee’s Lake Park, but thus far, no box has been recovered there.

There are entire forums online dedicated to parsing the various poems and images in The Secret, plumbing them for hidden clues and vetting theories from fellow treasure hunters.

Unfortunately, the cleverness of Mr. Preiss isn’t the only opponent for these hunters. Time itself is against them.

It’s safe to assume that the missing ten boxes are also buried in public parks and other spaces open to the public. But parks get renovated. Landscapes change. Hell, some parks are repurposed and paved over!

So how many of those prizes are no longer within easy reach of a shovel’s blade, even if you do unravel the mysterious clues available? How many were tossed aside as curious garbage by disinterested work crews during renovations?

As The Secret and the treasure hunt it inspired fade into history, so too do the chances of anyone recovering those keys and claiming those gemstones for themselves.

[My thanks to friend of the blog Darcy Bearman for reminding me of this marvelous puzzly mystery, as well as Josh Gates and his Travel Channel show Expedition Unknown for reminding her.]

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!