Skip to main content

BWS Puzzle 15: Grid 'n Play #2 - 68er

 

This themeless puzzle is an ol' 68er, which is not as low as tons of amazing puzzles out there (including Paolo Pasco's recent ol' 62er) but is the lowest I've managed to pull off decently enough that I'm willing to share here.

I'm categorizing this in the Grid 'n Play series because I took this grid from the xwordinfo database and modified it ever so slightly, then filled it in, as opposed to starting with some entries and building the grid from there. Specifically, the grid for this Caleb Madison puzzle in the NYT on Friday, April 19, 2019 really caught my eye! I find the 3-blocks jutting in from the side and situated in the center rather pleasing, especially when paired with the short diagonal segments and tetromino pieces in the four corners.

If you look carefully, you'll see that my grid here is only different in where those 3-blocks are placed. Caleb's grid staggers them so they're not all along the central row, creating stacks of 6s in one pair of corners and stacks of 8s in the other. I moved those 3-blocks so they're on the central row, making all the corners have stacks of 7s and making space for a couple of spanning 15s around the middle. I seeded those 15s first (31-Across is something I said out loud the other day and 35-Across is tangentially related to something I'm working on) and then filled the rest from there. As you'll notice, there are some blips that make this puzzle unpublishable elsewhere, but I think the entries and clues are fun enough for posting here on the blog.

I opted for the tricky version of several clues so, along with the lower word count and spacious areas, that's why I'm labeling this puzzle as extra hard. For you competitive solvers out there, I don't think this will really be that bad (nothing like those tough Boswords puzzles we've had lately!), but I think this is a significant challenge compared to most other puzzles I've posted here. I hope this doesn't scare you off and instead motivates you to test your mettle! 😁

Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! Constructive feedback in the comments is always welcome.

Download links:   [puz]   [pdf]   [solution]        Direct link: [play online]

Labels:
Location: Cambridge, MA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Puzzle 93: Choice Words

I felt inspired to construct over the last few days for the first time in a while and ended up with this wide midi puzzle that's lightly themed and probably not too challenging. I hoped to post this yesterday, Tuesday, but didn't quite finish in time. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf solve fullscreen solution
Post a Comment
Read more

Puzzle 92: Take a Break

Just a quick break from themelesses for this silly little puzzle, inspired by a phrase that came up in conversation. Warning: one theme entry has some vulgar language; not recommended for kids. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution
Post a Comment
Read more

BWS Puzzle 37: Phrases of Physics

  Huzzah, a full-sized, themed puzzle! I tend to post mostly midi-size puzzles on here, but I doubt there's really a good home elsewhere for this particular puzzle. As the title indicates, you will be well served by any prior knowledge of physics, science, and mathematics, but you don't need  any such expertise to solve the puzzle. It would just really help because, in addition to the theme answers, I peppered the fill with plenty of science-related entries and clues. (In particular, [spoiler alert] you may want to look back to this post about my puzzle on 7xwords for more info about one entry in this puzzle.) You may also notice one blemish of asymmetry here: there's an extra black square just to the left of where 66-Across begins. I didn't need  to add this to make the grid fillable at all, but I did need it to make the entries in that corner more reasonable and science-related. I'm hoping that, like me, you either won't care/notice at all, or you'll thin...
1 comment
Read more