Puzzle 39: Yellow Stockings

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.

Puzzle 38: The A’s Have It (with Laura Braunstein)

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!

Puzzle 37: Green in Judgment (with Laura Braunstein)

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.

Puzzle 36: Uptown Mix

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?)

Puzzle 35: It’s Christmas Time in the City (guest puzzle by Dave Eckert)

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.

Puzzle 34: Fauna Forecast (with Laura Braunstein and the Marlene Meyerson JCC crossword class)

Laura and I recently finished another class for the Manhattan JCC, which means we have another puzzle to show for it. You might find the theme a bit familiar. It’s something we came up with back during our July class, but didn’t use. Then in August the New York Times ran a puzzle with some of the same themers, but a different actual theme. Great minds, etc.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy it.

Puzzle 33: There’s a Double Meaning in That

Another opening, another crossword… Yes, it’s Shakespeare time again (again). Starting tonight, Rochester Community Players will be presenting [57-Across in today’s puzzle]. As always, if you’re anywhere near Rochester this weekend or next weekend, please come by and see it.

As with the summer show, this is a production we were originally supposed to stage last year, but this is also a puzzle I’ve been thinking about for a long time, so I was glad to have an excuse to finally post it. This was another one of those instances where I came up with an idea, thought “how hard could this really be?”, and then found out it was, in fact, really hard to construct. Also, the only way I could make it work was to expand the grid to 19×19, which takes so much longer to fill than a 15×15 grid does. Anyway, I’m please with how it turned out, and I hope you all enjoy it.

Puzzle 32: Crypt-epic

“I should construct a cryptic”, I thought. “How hard can it be?” Pretty damn hard, as it turns out. How are there people who do this every week???

If you don’t know what cryptic crosswords are, you can read about them in Stella Zawistowski’s recent article. Basically, each clue is made up of two parts – a (usually) straightforward definition, and some word play where the words may have no connection to the definition. Cryptics are pretty standard fare in the UK and other countries, but are still relatively rare here in the US. But you can find lots of great clues on Twitter by searching for #crypticclueaday or #crypticcluecontest.

I started this puzzle as a regular crossword, but quickly realized it wouldn’t work. Then I thought of the clue for 1-Across, and realized the theme would be great for a cryptic. After that it was a simple matter of spending a few hours forcing all the words into a grid, and then many many more hours of writing clues for them all and then endlessly revising those clues to make them all work. Huge thanks to everyone who tested this puzzle, but especially to Joshua Kosman and Lily Geller for their incredibly detailed edits and suggestions. Every word matters in a cryptic clue, and it’s in large part thanks to them that my clues have the right words – and only the right words. If you are at all interested in cryptics you should subscribe to Joshua’s weekly Out of Left Field puzzles, which are insanely good and reasonably priced. You should also follow Lily on Twitter where she posts lots of cryptic clues and usually wins the weekly cryptic clue contest (including an amazing clue this week).

I have a lot more to say about this puzzle, but all of it would be spoiler-y, so instead you’ll just have to solve it and then read the solution notes.

Puzzle 30: Stormy Weather

It’s Shakespeare time again! Tonight is opening night for Rochester Community Players’s free Shakespeare in the Park production of The Tempest (that’s assuming the actual tempest bearing down on Rochester right now spares us). If you’re anywhere near the Rochester area between now and July 26, please come and see the show. This is a dual-language (English/ASL) production, and each role will be shared between a speaking actor and a signing actor.

I’ve spent a lot of time on this over the last few months as one of the production managers – though not nearly as much time as the cast and crew have spent on it – which is why, even though I came up with this theme last year (we had originally planned to stage this show in 2020, but, you know) I didn’t finish actually constructing the puzzle until this week. You’d think over that time I would have come up with dozens, if not hundreds of potential themers, but it turned out that this theme doesn’t have as any possibilities and I’d imagined. Regardless, I’m still happy with how it turned out.

Since I’m planning to hand a bunch of these out at the show, I tried to keep the clues and fill a little more straightforward than usual. Since I’m still me, I kept some of the nonsense in anyway.