Just another small themeless puzzle this week. I quite like this grid layout because it has both 90° and 180° rotational symmetry and no 3s!  Indeed, the length distribution goes like this: 16 x 4 letter entries, 16 x 6 letter entries, 4 x 7 letter entries, and 2 x 11 letter entries. (In fact, if you shorten those fingers of blocks to be all three squares long instead of four, that makes the grid much more chasm -like in the center and opens up four more 11 letter slots around the middle.  Hmm, I wonder if I could actually fill that grid...) 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 a new tab ]

  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...