Puzzle #8: “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop”

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Hello, puzzle fans! I hope everyone’s well out there. When you’ve got a crossword blog, you’re allowed to publish puzzles about stuff that might not make the cut in mainstream venues. While the subject matter of this one isn’t niche in the least, it is specific and certainly outside the dominant culture in our country.

You don’t need to know anything about this puzzle’s subject to solve it, but this week we’ve got a timely tribute to a genre-creating figure who isn’t as much of a household name as he deserves to be. His innovations were always made at street level. Perhaps that’s why we don’t hear about him as often as we should.

Enjoy the solve, people, and take care of yourselves! Back next Wednesday with a themeless offering.

.puz

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.pdf SOLUTION

Puzzle #7: Themeless #4

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It’s another holiday week for many of us in crossword land, and I hope this week’s challenge is hard enough give you a bit of extended entertainment! If you’re celebrating something yourself this week, please stay safe and accept my warmest wishes. If not, I wish you a happy non-holiday week full of springy weather and plenty of puzzling and joy!

So here’s your themeless puzzle. Enjoy and let me know what you think! It’s been great to meet and talk to other solvers and constructors because of this blog so far. Back with a timely themed puzzle next week!

.puz

.pdf

.pdf solution

Bonus Variety Puzzle: Pangram Midi

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Hi all, I’m quickly popping in with a Monday special! Sid Sivakumar, the excellent constructor behind Sid’s Grids, came up with a new puzzle concept last month. In his Pangram Midi, solvers get an 8×8 grid in which every letter of the alphabet is used at least once, along with a set of unnumbered clues. It’s the solver’s job to figure out which answer goes where. It’s an elegant form that I absolutely had to try making myself. I did so, and with Sid’s encouragement, I’ve decided to post the result here. Before solving mine, I hope you’ll go try the ones on his site, linked above.

Below you can find my stab at an 8×8 Pangram Midi in .pdf format. Page 1 is the hard version with no letters in the grid. Page 2 has a few free squares filled in to get you going, and page 3 is the solution. Enjoy! Back with a regularly scheduled themeless on Wednesday!

.pdf (Hard, Easy, Solution)

Puzzle #6: “April Rules!”

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It’s April, fools!

In these last few weeks I’ve been able to take lots of walks in the woods behind the house with my family. We’ve been watching nature day by day, and the changes are beautifully apparent. Up here in New England, magnolias are starting to bloom, the blue jays are flocking, the robins are singing, and the spring peepers are peeping from every vernal pool.

In honor of this fine, rainy month, I happily offer you a mildly tricky little holiday crossword. I hope it makes you smile!

Back with a themeless next week. Stay safe, keep in touch, and puzzle on!

.puz

.pdf

.pdf solution

Puzzle #5: Themeless #3

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The flavors of Natick, MA
The flavors of Natick, MA

Hello, puzzle people!

For almost twenty years now, I’ve been going to eat numbing hot Sichuanese food on the Framingham/Natick line in my state of Massachusetts. If the term “Natick” is unfamiliar to you, it’s a square in a crossword grid that sits empty because the two crossing entries are too hard to solve and won’t cancel each other out. I hope you don’t have this experience today. If Sichuanese food is unfamiliar to you, I recommend you try some as soon as restaurants open back up in your locality. It’s a wonder.

It’s Themeless Week again at Square Pursuit, and I’ve been riding hard on the themeless train since Byron Walden’s excellent championship puzzle in this previous weekend’s Crossword Tournament From Your Couch. If you haven’t solved it, you can head over there now and grab it for free, along with the others, and consider making a charitable donation in return.

My themeless this week may be a bit gentler than usual, but you’ll have to tell me. May it be full of numbing hot flavors and devoid of Naticks. Enjoy, everybody! Back with an apt themed puzzle next week.

.puz

.pdf

.pdf solution

Puzzle #4: “Speed Solving”

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Hello, everybody! It’s theme week again at Square Pursuit, and this time around I made something special for the people headed to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Which got canceled for obvious reasons. What do you do?

You post it anyway! A whole bunch of people have been practicing speed solving (that’s going as fast as possible on these puzzles while making no errors) in order to have a shot at glory in Stamford, CT. That glory awaits us in September, when the tournament’s been rescheduled, and I will most certainly be there.

This Saturday, however, I’m going to be on my couch doing this: http://www.crosswordtournamentfromyourcouch.org/. It’s not the same, of course, but I’m here to tell you that the puzzles involved are all made by really good constructors and that the people running it are crossword veterans. In addition to the fun and camaraderie, it helps raise money for those who need it to fight COVID-19 and the other harm it’s inflicting.

This week’s puzzle takes a moment to honor all speed solvers, but in particular to highlight the work of a couple notable ones from times gone by. These two were solving before I was old enough to even make it through a New York Times Monday! As always, I hope you folks enjoy it. Take care out there and I’ll see you with a fresh themeless next week!

.puz

PDF

PDF Solution

Puzzle #3: Themeless #2

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Welcome back, people! It’s themeless time again at Square Pursuit.

Thanks so much to everyone who has given me support as I’ve been getting this puzzle blog off the ground. It’s been a fascinating way to interact with the community so far, and a great reason to keep the creative wheels turning.

There are a few autobiographical moments in today’s offering, and I hope there’s something fun in there for everybody. My estimation is that this puzzle is a touch more challenging than the first themeless, but you’ll have to let me know. Enjoy!

puz

pdf

pdf solution

Puzzle #2: “Jazz Matriarchy”

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As a person in jazz, I often roll my eyes at the way the genre is represented in puzzle grids. Usually we get ELLA Fitzgerald (jazz legend, good letters), ETTA James (great non-jazz singer who dabbled in the style in later years) and maybe Al HIRT (easy-listening trumpeter who had a great sound and played little serious jazz).

A couple of weeks ago, I solved an excellent puzzle by Will Nediger that contained more real jazz legends in one grid than I’ve seen in years of solving crosswords. It’s witty and fun on multiple levels. I hope you’ll pause here and consider solving that one. OK, we’re back!

Now it’s Women’s History Month and thanks to the advocacy of constructor and feminist Rebecca Falcon, solvers get to experience an exciting run of exclusively female constructors in most major crossword outlets! Please consider pausing and checking out these fresh voices and excellent puzzles. OK, we’re back!

Rebecca and Will’s work got me thinking about that near, dear field in which women do amazing work that is ridiculously overlooked. Today we have a puzzle containing the names of four important artists that many people may not know. With that in mind I’ve tried to keep this one pretty straightforward, but if you’re stumped, I hope you’ll consider doing some googling followed by some listening. I promise you’re going to hear something you like!

puz

pdf

solution

Puzzle #1: Themeless #1

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Hot dang, it’s a 15×15 themeless!

The more puzzles I make, the more I’m able to appreciate the subtle genius of the constructors I admire.

I’ve been writing music for decades, and have found that the way towards burnishing that craft has been doing it regularly, again and again, and watching the lesser elements fall away as the the core mechanism gets stronger. As I’ve gained musical fluency, I’ve come to sound less like someone trying to compose meaningful music, and simply more like myself. In this spirit, I’ve chosen to lean into constructing some themeless grids of my own in hopes of seeing that same sort of gradual refinement, and if possible, to put something personal into these little squares.

By which I mean: enjoy the puzzle people, and tell me what you think!

puz pdf solution