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Showing posts from October, 2021

Printer's Devilry #3 (Midi)

 [ PDF ] [ Online ] [ Solution ] It's been a few months since my last puzzle in the PD genre, and what better time time than Halloween to have some devilish  wordplay fun? After writing two minis earlier this year, I wanted to see what I could make work in a slightly larger grid. Most PDs I've seen are 12x12 barred grids with the longest entries being 9-10 letters long, such as this Azed grid which includes THUNDER GOD, INTERSTATE, ORCHESTRAL, etc. As a start I settled on an 8x8 grid with the longest answers being 6 or 7 letters. As mentioned in the instructions, the undeviled passage at 15-Down reconstitutes two proper nouns. There was a debate in my mind about whether this mechanism would be fair play; but in the end I went with it for several reasons, chiefly that I spent a long time investigating alternatives and could not come up with anything better! Besides, the undeviled passage makes sense, the two propers should be recognizable, and the solver has crossings for all ...

Cryptic #9

 [ PDF ] [ puz ] [ online ] [ solution ] We're back on schedule this month. This puzzle has slightly more anagrams/jumble mechanisms than most of my other cryptics to date, but also a couple rarer mechanisms to keep solvers on their toes. Oh, and if you don't get how 28-Across works, just keep looking at the clue a little longer--hope you'll get a nice 'aha!' moment out of it. Bonus variety puzzle coming Halloween weekend, and then another cryptic next month. Happy solving!