Monday, August 28, 2017

Puzzle #44: The Days Are Getting Shorter

Despite the title, this puzzle (pdf, puz, pdf solution) is completely unrelated to my "The Times They Are A Changin'" puzzle from back in December. Enjoy!



Monday, August 21, 2017

Monday, August 14, 2017

Puzzle #42: Shake It Like a Polaroid Picture

Last week's puzzle, Rack Your Brains, asked you to identify an apt compound word. One seven-letter entry, ABDLORS, was simply clued as [Your rack], which suggests you're playing a game of Scrabble. If the circled letters in the grid represent the words on a Scrabble board, then your best play (and your only bingo) is SHUFFLEBOARD through HUFF and E, forming SHAWL - a compound word made up of two Scrabble-related words. Congrats to everyone who solved it!

Regular non-meta puzzle (pdf, puz, pdf solution) this week - enjoy!



Monday, August 7, 2017

Puzzle #41: Rack Your Brains

Last week's meta asked you to identify a phrase with the name of a video game character in it. The key to the meta is the KONAMICODE (one of the two longest across entries), which is the sequence of ten buttons "up up down down left right left right B A." If you take the other 10-letter across entry, SIKHTEMPLE, and replace each letter with the letter in the corresponding direction from the Konami Code (with the last two letters being replaced with B and A), you get the phrase PEACHMELBA, containing the name of Princess Peach.

At least, that's what you would get had I not mistranscribed the Konami Code as "up down up down left right left right B A" while writing the puzzle, so that you actually get PHECHMELBA. I wish I could say I did it on purpose as some sort of "your princess is in another castle" reference, but alas no. Congrats to the solvers who figured it out despite my mistake!

Anyway, this week you get another meta (pdf, puz, pdf solution) to make up for it. The meta answer is an apt compound word. As always, my email's on the sidebar if you want to submit a solution, ask for hints, etc.



Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Puzzle #40 erratum

Solver Yossi Fendel alerted me to a bone-headed mistake I made while constructing this week's puzzle, which renders the meta unsolvable! (Though Yossi impressively managed to figure out the solution I was going for anyway.) So if the meta has you stumped, it's not your fault.

I'll explain the intended answer next Monday, but in the meantime you can either just treat the puzzle as a themeless, or try to figure out the meta anyway. If you do, you'll have to switch two directions in order to correct for my mistake.

A thousand apologies! I'll post another meta next week, this time one that actually works, to make up for it.