This one almost looks and feels like a themeless puzzle, with this wide open grid. Indeed, just 6 blocks in a 7x10 grid amounts to 6/70 = 3/35 ≈ 8.57% of the grid, which is the lowest I've been able to achieve in any puzzle. Still, I think the shorter fill and knowing the rhyming theme will help you crack into the puzzle. Just now when I did the calculation 3/35 , I noticed a pattern in the decimal digits that is quite interesting and reminds me of another fantastic number: 142,857. If you multiply that number by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, the result is a cyclic permutation of the same digits; for instance, 142,857 × 4 = 571,428, found by starting at the 5 and "wrapping around." I'll leave it to you to read a bit about this number and it's connection to 1/7, and then ponder why you think that same pattern shows up in the 3/35 calculation I mentioned. Finally, this is set to post on the Friday just before the 1st week of classes of my Fall 2021 semester. I expect to be p...

  Back to challenging midi themeless puzzles, after last week's easy rhyme time :-) I like all the spanning answers in this one, especially the mathematical connections in 3-Down and 6-Down, and even in 7-Down (who was a mathematics major in college). There are quite a few TLAs in the grid to hold it all together, but I'm hoping that you're like me and really don't mind all that much. I am a little curious about whether you'll consider two of the spanning entries to be dupes of each other. I thought they were fine enough to leave in, [3-Down], but let me know if this is something you would have avoided in construction. You'll see what I mean... 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 ]

  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...

  Another midi-sized themeless puzzle with diagonal symmetry! This one is 11x11, and it all started with the diagonally crossing entries 38-Across and 9-Down. As I filled in the rest of the grid, I noticed a few chances to include some other entries that "fit" with those two seed entries (hah, seed! ), so that's why I have somewhat contradictorily labeled this post with both the  "themeless" and "mini themes" categories. Still, it's decidedly not a "themed puzzle", and I'm just pointing this out in case you notice the miniature theme and it helps you solve a clue or two. I acknowledge there's an abundance of proper names in this puzzle, so that's why I'm labeling this Extra Hard , even though the rest of the clues are probably more medium-to-hard .  I'm sorry if some of those names get in the way of your solving, but please always feel free to use that Reveal  button liberally! In fact, just the other day I inadvert...

  Check out this funky 11x9 grid! I tried several different ways to fit this theme set -- with lengths 8, 7, 8 -- into a smallish grid while also leaving room for some decent fill, and this is what came out. Just in case it's not clear, the long downs (3D and 6D) are not  part of the rhyming theme, but I hope they're interesting enough that they add to the solving experience. Let's call this one hard  because of a few clues, but I hope it's enjoyably tricky overall. I also hope you're enjoying these midi rhyme time  puzzles, overall. Looking at the three theme entries here, as an example... I'm just not sure how else I could fit those entries into a larger theme set. So, my thinking is that these puzzles are a way for me to feature some fun, fresh answers while also giving you, dear solver, something thematic to tie it all together. As always, let me know if you have any comments or suggestions about these puzzles. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! Construct...

Check it out, diagonal symmetry! I didn't start out with that idea for this puzzle, but I realized it would work well with a couple of the 10-letter seed entries. I like how everything turned out, with the confluence of intersecting 10s toward the bottom-right*, as well as the sprinkling of mathematics in the entries in the top-left*. * I've realized recently that I really don't like the NESW convention for referring to grid sections. I  can understand why it's used, but I honestly struggle to remember which way is East and which is West, in a way that I very much  don't  with Left vs. Right. So, I plan on continuing to use top/bottom & left/right instead. Hope that's alright with y'all. However, I'm unsure about one particular square in this grid. It  could  have been an S, pluralizing both of the entries crossing there, but I ended up making it a black square. This increased the black square count beyond what I was hoping for, but there were alread...

  I started off wanting to make a nice, medium puzzle, or at least one for which I could write both easy and hard clues. But I was also feeling inspired by some recent themeless puzzles I've solved* that feature wide open grids with lots of white space, especially around the middle. I'm thinking of Ryan McCarty's "Chasm" McGrids , some of Brooke Husic's demi themeless grids , and Will Nediger's Freeform Freestyles , among others. * well, I admired the grids and filled in a few squares, but "solved" is generous This puzzle is my humble attempt at those kind of grids, but on a much more manageable (for this mere mortal) 10x10 scale. In the process of keeping the middle of this grid open, I ended up with some challenging but gettable fill. And then I kept coming up with pretty hard (I think) clues, so I gave up on the easy/medium possibilities and just tried to make this really tough but hopefully still fair. If it proves too tough, check back this ...

  As promised in the previous post , here is a (hopefully) nice and easy puzzle for your weekend! I made some tweaks to the 10x10 themeless grids I've been using lately and ended up with this one: there's a ton of 3s and 6s and not much else. Some of the 6s form a theme, too, and I bet I'll be able to make more like this, which is why I've labeled this (ambitiously, perhaps) as #1 in a series. As usual, some inspiration came from my life, as my 3-year-old daughter has been all about rhyming lately. (Example: "Cucumber the bucumber the doocumber!") We've also read the book referenced in 6-Down a lot recently. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! Constructive feedback in the comments is always welcome. (In particular, I'm wondering... is this too easy?  More like this one? More like this but harder? Let me know 😊) Download links:   [ puz ]   [ pdf ]   [ solution ]        Direct link: [ play online ]

In my previous puzzle post ( BWS Puzzle #12: Network Programming ), I mentioned that the final grid there was "pretty heavy on the 3 letter entries". In fact, out of 54 total words in that puzzle, 22 of them were 3s; that's just over 40%. Yikes! Consequently, I set myself a challenge for this next puzzle:  no 3s whatsoever!   I thought that might be difficult in a big grid, so I'm starting small with a 10x10 themeless. You can see the histogram of word lengths in the image below. There's an abundance of 4s and 5s this time, along with a handful of 7s and 10s. You may also notice some pleasing symmetry in the grid: each corner is a 4x5 or 5x4, and the four central squares are each crossed by exactly two 7s. As usual with these midi themeless puzzles, I picked a few of the 10s based on stuff that's on my mind or happening recently. In particular, 4-Down and 14-Across come from a recent dinnertime conversation, and I was delighted to notice that they could cross...

I've enjoyed making these 10x10 themeless puzzles, so I'm trying to share a new one each weekend just for fun. I hope the clues and entries give you a few laughs and a few (but not too many) head-scratching moments, and maybe even teach you some interesting things, I'm also still playing around with grid designs and word lengths and things like that. This one (image above) has regular ol' rotational symmetry but, in contrast with the previous midi themeless puzzle (which had word lengths of only 3, 5, 9, or 10), it has a whole range of word lengths (10 x 3s, 6 x 4s, 8 x 5s, 4 x 6s, 2 x 7s, and 4 x 10s). All of the 10s are inspired by recent events: 22-Across and 3-Down are things I'm teaching about in one of my classes right now, 6-Down is inspired by a clue in last week's puzzle (spoiler alert, but if you need a hint: check 14-Across there ), and the idea for 13-Across and its clue came to me while thinking about something happening this week. You might also n...

Have you seen the awesome 7xwords website yet? Check it out! The index page shows you all 312 possible 7x7 crossword grids (subject to a few standard rules as described on the "why?" page ). That amounts to a new puzzle six days a week for all 52 weeks of the year and constructors could claim a grid for a certain day in advance. When I first heard about this project on Twitter toward the beginning of the year, I was really intrigued and hoped to take part. I looked for a date that was not imminent (so I could worry about making a puzzle later) but also not too far off in the future (so I wouldn't have to worry about forgetting until the last minute). I picked April 3 because it was soon-ish and also not within a day of a holiday. I didn't even think to look at what the grid would be, so I'm glad it ended up being something manageable (the image at the top of this post). A few weeks later, when I started working on the puzzle, I looked for interesting people bor...

I'm starting a crossword blog, and this is it! Here's a quick summary of my crossword journey to this point: I've enjoyed puzzles of all kinds since childhood: logic games, crosswords, Scrabble, brainteasers, trivia, etc. I started playing competitive Scrabble tournaments in college and kept that up for a few years, but haven't played in a while. In grad school, friends and I would solve the New York Times  crossword together daily, and I starting exploring the indie puzzle-verse, as well. I made a bunch of crosswords just for fun, but didn't really share them beyond my circle of friends. I also made some crosswords with indie music themes to share on a website I was working for about the local music scene. (If you lived in Pittsburgh around 2010-2012 and remember the  Draw Us Lines blog, let me know!) After that, I got caught up with finishing grad school and entering academia. I would still solve puzzles for fun, but not as often as before. I started making some ...