Another Shakespeare play, another Shakespeare puzzle. This time, Rochester Community Players is presenting a really fun version of Pericles, Prince of Tyre for our annual free Shakespeare in the Park. If you’re in the Rochester area between now and Saturday, July 27, you should come see it. If you’re not, you should still do this puzzle.
Thanks to Laura Braunstein, Will Eisenberg and Heather Kennedy for proofreading and test-solving.
This isn’t my usual type of theme, but we went with it anyway since Laura is a big fan of this puzzle’s subject and I’m a big fan of finding related entries that have matching lengths (and also somewhat a fan of the puzzle’s subject). The grid ended up with a lot of short entries, which always leads to some iffy fill, but we tried to make up for it by having some fun with the clues. Some of those clues (and a couple of the entries) are on the more adult side, so if you normally solve my puzzles with a small child, first of all, why? But also, maybe do this one on your own.
Shakespeare! Shakespeare! Shakespeare! Rochester Community Players’ latest Shakespeare production, The Winter’s Tale, opens tonight, and, like with all our Shakespeare plays, I’ve constructed a Shakespeare crossword for it. Thanks to Laura Braunstein for helping me brainstorm ideas, and to Kate Hawkins and my dad for test solving.
If you missed it, Laura and I had a puzzle in the Washington Post back in December while regular constructor Evan Birnholz was on paternity leave. You can solve that puzzle here, and also read a little interview with us.
It’s Shakespeare time again! Rochester Community Players’ production of The Merry Wives of Windsor opened last Thursday, and when RCP does Shakespeare, I make a puzzle for it. This one is pretty straight-forward, but the connection between the theme and the play won’t be apparent unless you’re at least a bit familiar with the play – which, let’s face it, even most Shakespeare fans aren’t. Merry Wives isn’t staged that often because it’s not a great play – but this production is great, and anyone in the Rochester area should come by and see it. The show runs until Saturday, July 29, with shows every night except Monday and Tuesday.
Thanks to Matt Gritzmacher, Diane Mezzanotte, BeerandCrosswords, and Stella Zawistowski for test-solving.
Notes (including spoilers)
The Merry Wives of Windsor starts with Falstaff deciding to seduce Mistress Ford and Mistress Page by sending them identical love letters. Of course the two women compare the letters and figure it out immediately:
MISTRESS FORD (after showing her letter to Mistress Page) : Did you ever hear the like?
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II, Scene 1
MISTRESS PAGE: Letter for letter; but that the name of Page and Ford differs!
This puzzle is inspired by the 2019 novel This Is How You Lose the Time War, and the recent events that have made that novel suddenly trendy again. If you know what those events are, you don’t need me to rehash them here. If you don’t, well, there’s no good way of explaining them without spoiling most of the puzzle. Also, if you haven’t read the book yet, you really should. It’s still really cheap at Amazon, but you can also find it on Bookshop.org, or at your local independent bookseller.
Thanks to Ken Stern and Jeremy Koenig for test-solving this. I’ve added some notes below the embedded puzzle, so be sure to check them out after solving.
This story was covered in dozens of publications, including Slate, Tech Crunch, Gizmodo, and even The New York Times. The best way to read about it, though, is to check out either of the co-authors‘s blogs.
A few notes on some of the clues and answers.
It’s been a hectic few weeks here, but it’s finally time for another op’nin of another show. This time, Rochester Community Players is presenting Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s greatest comedy about twins who have been separated by a shipwreck and are now constantly being mistaken for each other. The show opens tonight, so if you’re in the Rochester area – and aren’t scared off by the wind and cold – come on by. (Performances continue until Saturday, February 11, just in case you are scared off by the wind and cold.)
Constructing a crossword puzzle for each Shakespeare play seemed like it would be fairly easy when I first came up with the idea, but this one turned out to be a lot harder than I’d expected. I settled on the revealer for this early in the process, but then went through a bunch of failed attempts to fit a theme around it. And once I worked that part out, building a grid around it was another challenge. In the end, the only way to make this work was to include more 3-letter entries than I’d like (the ideal number is as close to zero as possible, because otherwise the puzzle ends up filled with acronyms and foreign words that it’s impossible to write interesting clues for), but I think on the whole I think it worked out well. Thanks to Helen Rosner, Matt Gritzmacher and Evan Jenkins for test-solving.
In non-Shakespeare-related crossword news, Laura and I co-constructed a puzzle for Grids For Kids, a charity pack of puzzles for all ages, created by parents, to benefit children in need. This is a great pack of 25 puzzles (including six kid-friendly ones) by a bunch of awesome constructors (and also me), and you can get them all by donating at little as $10 to a youth-focused not-for-profit of your choice. You can check out a free sample puzzle now, and order the whole package starting this weekend.
This puzzle started with a conversation on the Fill Me In podcast back in (checks notes), November 2020??? Was it really that long ago??? Anyway, back then Laura and I fleshed out the theme set and set up a grid. Then we made one half-hearted attempt to fill the grid and promptly forgot about the puzzle for the next year and a half. We decided to take another stab at it because tomorrow is the return of Lollapuzzoola – the greatest crossword tournament ever to be held on a Saturday in August – as an in-person event. “Why does that matter?” some of you may be asking. Well, Lollapuzzola was created by Brian Cimmet and Ryan Hecht, the cohosts of Fill Me In, and is still run by Brian (in conjunction with Brooke Husic and Sid Sivakumar).
If you’re in the NYC area and haven’t signed up yet, you can still get tickets at the door. If you’re not in the NYC area you can still sign up for the online version of the tournament. If you’re spending the entire month of August off the grid and don’t see this post until Labor Day, you can simply buy the puzzles and solve them on your own. These are guaranteed to be awesome puzzles, so you really have no excuse for not solving them.
When you’re done with this puzzle, you can listen to the conversation that inspired it by checking out Episode 270 of Fill Me In and skipping to the 28:20 mark.
Hope to see lots of you tomorrow!
Summer in Rochester (as in most cities) means Shakespeare in the Park – in this case, presented by Rochester Community Players. And anytime RCP puts on a Shakespeare show, that means it’s time for me to construct another Shakespeare-themed puzzle. This year’s show is Antony & Cleopatra, which opened on Saturday, and continues until Friday, July 29. If you’re in the Rochester area, please come by and see the show. If you’re not, print out the puzzle, spread out your favorite picnic blanket in a park somewhere, and solve it there. (That doesn’t have anything to do with the puzzle, but at least you’ll get the proper feeling.)
Big thanks to Laura for helping me come up with a theme here and then co-constructing with me.
I came up with idea after recently reading 54-Across, but I wasn’t sure if it was worth pursuing. Then I thought of the entry at 41-Across, and realized I had to do it – especially because 41-Across has apparently never been used in a puzzle?!?!? WTF?!?!? Do better at appealing to my personal faves, crosswords constructors of the world! Also, while my use of any particular artist or work of art in an entry should not automatically be taken as an endorsement (I haven’t read 22-Down yet, for example, though I’ve heard good things about it), 54-Across is a really good book, and you should all go read it.
I tried to get a little more clever with the clues, so I hope at least one of them makes you laugh (or at least smile). I also ended up with a few more proper nouns than usual in the grid, so if any of them give you trouble just remember that Google (the search engine) is your friend – unlike Google (the company), which is a giant corporation, and may also be evil.
Over the weekend, a few fine crossword folks (Rachel Fabi, Michael Sharp and Neville Fogarty) solved my Crypt-epic puzzle live on Twitch. It’s a fun watch, if you’re into puzzles. (And if you’re not into puzzles, why are you reading this?)
Another Christmas, another guest puzzle from my friend Dave. I’m not sure if he only constructs one a year, or if he only sends me one each year, but either way I’m happy he shared this very fun, very seasonably-appropriate puzzle.
I hope none of you are visited by three spirits tonight, and that all of you enjoy whichever holidays you choose to celebrate, and I look forward to sending you more puzzles in 2022.
