Skip to main content

BWS Puzzle 67 + Announcement: 7x7 hard themeless puzzle pack on Redstone

If you haven't already, please support These Puzzles Fund Abortion: make a donation to any abortion fund and then email them to get 16 great puzzles with reproductive and social justice themes. Check out the specific funds they support or find more at https://abortionfunds.org/ 

---

I was working on some mini/midi themeless puzzles a while back and stumbled on the 7x7 grid above: it has eight interlocking 7-letter entries, eight 3s around the border, and a couple 5s crossing in the middle. This means about half the entries are spanners (good for puzzle-solving intrigue) and, simultaneously, about half are short fill (good for making inroads to the longer stuff). So, I thought it would be fun to fill this grid over and over for solvers who are looking for quick, but still potentially challenging, small themeless puzzles...

...and now you can find 25 of those puzzles on the Redstone Crossword app! The app is available for both iOS and Android, and you can sort puzzle packs by size and difficulty. To find these puzzles, select the "Minis - Midis" and "Hard" categories, then look for the pack titled "B. Sullivan, Minis 1."

I'm hoping that these feel like fun, fresh, Friday-level puzzles, just much smaller. I'm also hoping that you'll derive some fun from both the entries and the clues: with essentially just a bunch of short entries and a bunch of spanners, I tried to spread the difficulty around, give solvers several chances to break into the puzzle, and overall live up to my belief that shorter fill doesn't have to feel stale.

To celebrate, this blog post has a bonus 7x7 puzzle (links and applet below) to give you a sense for what you'll get in the puzzle pack. And, if you'd rather solve those puzzles in .puz or .pdf format, please email me and I'll gladly send you a folder of files.

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

Download links:   [puz]   [pdf]   [solution]        Direct link: [open in new tab]

Labels:
Location: Cambridge, MA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

Puzzle 91: Themeless #23

  I was almost halfway through cluing (an early version of) this when I noticed a short word in the grid duping part of a longer entry. See if you can guess what used to be at 1-Across before I had to rework that section... (Also, does anyone else have trouble deciding whether a ?  is warranted for a clue? There are some obvious, punny cases, but other times it feels like it comes down to a matter of how easily I think a solver will spot a misdirection or some kind of unexpected usage, and that's hard to do sometimes.) Anyway, enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution
Post a Comment
Read more

Puzzle 87: Themeless #19

I'm pretty excited with how fresh and  clean this puzzle turned out, although you, dear solver, will be the true judge of that. Some tricky clues here, but also some fun and easy ones to help you crack in. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution
Post a Comment
Read more