Author: Jesse Lansner

Puzzle 9: Tea Party

I was solving an Andrew Reis Rows Garden puzzle recently, and at one point the part of one row I had filled in spelled out the entry at 45-Across. I realized immediately that (1) this would make a great theme entry, (2) this was an obvious enough theme that it must have been done before (probably several times) and (3) it’s a theme with dozens of potential entries, so surely I could come up with a unique set. Since it’s hard to search for themes, I instead searched for my theme entries, and since I couldn’t find them used anywhere I went ahead and constructed the puzzle.

It was only when I got to cluing that I discovered that Merl Reagle had used 56-Across when he constructed a puzzle with the same theme. In fact, Merl used it twice — first in 2006, and again in 2012 when he republished the 2006 puzzle with a completely new set of clues. I decided to leave the entry in, partly because I didn’t relish the idea of redoing the whole bottom third of the grid, but mostly because it’s a fun entry and 2012 was far enough back that nobody’s enjoyment of the puzzle will be ruined by seeing the entry again.

Also I wanted to get this done in time for Boswords, since if you squint hard enough, the theme is kind of Boston related. If you weren’t there, you can still order all the puzzles for a mere $5. You also can still sign up for Lollapuzoola 12 on August 17, the greatest crossword tournament ever held on a Saturday in August. Hurry, as all the tables are already full, and I’m sure they’ll soon start running out of “clipboard seats” (you get a chair but no table). If you’re going to be at the tournament and want to join a bunch of crossword folks for a drink on Friday and/or Saturday night, shoot me a message and I’ll send you the details.

Puzzle 8: Send in the Clones

I’m always on the lookout for good Schrödinger puzzle ideas, but somehow it took me a long time to realize that this theme would be perfect for a Schrödinger. I also realized at the same time that it would be way too stressful to try to make that work, and I was far enough along in the construction that I just kept this as a regular puzzle.

The other reason I didn’t turn this into a Schrödinger puzzle is that doing so would have made much of the puzzle impossible for people who aren’t familiar with the TV show that the theme is centered around. As it is, I ended up with a lot more proper names in the grid than usual, but that’s what Google is for. Also, if you’re not familiar with the show, you should watch it. I missed the final season when it aired, but I’m binging it now. (By binging I mean “watching one or two episodes a week during the few minutes I have after the kids go to bed and before I start to fall asleep on the couch”.)

This Sunday is the Boswords Crossword Tournament. Registration is still open, so you should definitely sign up if you haven’t yet. As always, I’ll be the guy there doing puzzles.

Puzzle 7: Golden Women

I’m not a huge fan of quote puzzles, but when I realized the quote in this puzzle would fit perfectly into a grid I just had to use it. But first I had to wait until Sunday afternoon to start constructing (for obvious reasons), and I wanted to get it up as quickly as possible (also for obvious reasons), and then I decided to add a few more theme entires, so some of the fill is a bit bad, which I apologize for. Also there’s a major profanity in the quote, which I don’t apologize for, so if that sort of thing bothers you, you’ve now been warned.

Puzzle 6: A Crossword Puzzle Walks Into a Bar

The inspiration for this puzzle came from a tweet by Helen Rosner:

This was in relation to her article accompanying a video chat between New Yorker crossword editor Liz Maynes-Aminzade and New Yorker (and other venues) constructor Natan Last, which also supplied one of the theme entries for this puzzle. Spoilers, obviously, so wait until after you solve the puzzle to read it. Or don’t — most of you probably know all these punchlines already.

Not surprisingly, this theme has been done before (“Served With a Twist”, Patrick Jordan, Los Angeles Times, Sunday, November 7, 2004) but I figured there were enough jokes out there to justify my own version — even though Patrick had already used the first punchline I thought of (“Why the long face?”). I also had to leave out my daughter’s favorite joke, so I’m including it here instead.

What do you call a fish with no eyes?

A FSSSH!

Puzzle 5: #banCars

This puzzle is sort of a response to Brendan Emmett Quigley’s It’s A Lot, but really, as anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, it’s the puzzle I was born to construct. I was somewhat surprised at how few potential answers there were for this theme, but I think in the end I came up with a pretty good set — though once again I found myself forced to use some questionable fill in order to fit everything in.

Thanks to my test solvers, Evan, Guan and Kim, for flagging a few clues that needed improvement. They also noticed that questionable fill I mentioned above, but I had no good way of getting rid of those entries. Sorry, guys!

Scheduling note: For a variety or reasons, I’m going to switch this blog to bi-weekly puzzles for a while (that’s a new puzzle every two weeks, not two new puzzles every week) — though if I start to assemble enough of a backlog I’ll go back to weekly. The best way to make sure you don’t miss any of these puzzles is to sign up for my newsletter, which I promise I will never convert into a multi-level marketing scheme.

Puzzle 0: Fudge Factor (with Chris Adams)

I spent too much time hanging out with crossword friends in DC over the weekend to finish the puzzle I was working on, so I’m offering up a rerun instead. (Yes, technically we were all also competing/volunteering at the Indie 500, but we spent a lot more time at restaurants and bars than we did at the tournament.) This puzzle was a collaboration with Chris Adams that originally ran on his website last year. I’m reposting in here for anyone who doesn’t solve his puzzles, but really, you all should be solving his puzzles. They’re good and they’re free.

Speaking of crossword friends, my friend Rich O’Malley’s new book, One Lucky Fan, was released yesterday and you should all go buy it. Rich is a good guy and a good writer, and you should all support him, even if he is a Yankees fan.

New puzzle next week. Promise.

Puzzle 4: E-Quips

The seed for this (which ended up as 60A) came to me while I was solving a recent WSJ Meta puzzle. One very slow database search later, I had a list of about 1,000 words that could potentially fit the pattern. Of those 1,000 words, only about 50 would actually work for the theme, and those 50 words yielded just 20 or so potential theme entires. Of course my personal favorite ended up being the only one that was nine letters long, so the only way to include it was to have five theme entries. That forced me to use some questionable fill in the middle — though my daughter assures me that 32D would at least be familiar to Pokémon fans — but I think it was worth it.

This weekend is the 5th annual Indie 500 crossword tournament in Washington, D.C. If you haven’t signed up yet you can try to get on the wait list, or just participate in the solve-at-home division. If you have signed up, come say hi. I’ll be the guy eating pie and solving a bunch of puzzles.

Puzzle 3: Neat! (with Laura Braunstein)

Today marks my professional crossword debut, with a puzzle in the American Values Crossword Club. It’s a puzzle I co-constructed with Laura Braunstein, who has made a bunch of great puzzles for a bunch of different venues. She also co-created and co-edits The Inkubator, a subscription service of crossword puzzles by women — cis women, trans women, & woman-aligned constructors. Big thanks to Laura for making this with me, and to Ben Tausig for editing and publishing it.

If you somehow read this site and don’t already subscribe to AVCX — and really, how is that possible? — you can buy the puzzle over there for a mere $1. Or you can just subscribe, which is a much better deal because you get an awesome puzzle from them every week, plus access to the complete archive of other awesome puzzles. Go subscribe to The Inkubator, too, which also has awesome puzzles, but (obviously) doesn’t include any by me.

See you here next week with a new puzzle that doesn’t require a subscription.

Puzzle 2: *5 seconds later*

I tried to make this one really easy, so that even people who are not familiar with the meme I’m referencing can solve it. To test this, I turned to a solver who is blissfully unaware of all internet memes — my dad. His thoughts:

“Good puzzle. I didn’t understand the theme questions but was able to get around them. Make the next one harder.”

Will do, dad! And if you’re not 46A enough to understand the theme either, click here once you’re done with the puzzle.

Puzzle 1: Delhi Counter

I was solving a crossword one day when the theme entry at 58A just popped into my head. I then spent a lot of time coming up with other potential themers, including a lot of brainstorming with friends, both on twitter and at tournaments. The clue for 64A was inspired by Brian Cimmet’s rant in Episode 148 of Fill Me In. Brian is also the organizer of Lollapuzoola, the best crossword tournament on a Saturday in August — and easily one of the five best crossword tournaments over all.