Mental Judo: A Cryptic Blog (11)

Content Warning: Death How’s that for the start to a puzzle blog post? But here we are. I love my mom, and her time with us is, unfortunately, coming to an end. I also love the online crossword community I’ve been lucky to be a part of in the last few years, and I want to share a bit of her with you, in a way I know how. So: this puzzle is a celebration of my mom’s life. She chose the highlighted entries, as they have personal significance for her. “You” in clues refers to my mom. The puzzle also holds a hidden message. Each clue needs a letter removed from one of its words to make it a valid clue. The words that have a letter removed are still words (or in one case, a single letter that isn’t a word), and the surface may no longer make sense. Taken in clue order (acrosses and then downs), the removed letters spell out an aphorism I heard often from my mom. If you solve this puzzle (and especially if you stream it), please let me know; it would mean a lot. [ online ] [ pdf ]

Hello, puzzlers! Juff and I agreed that we don’t generally enjoy alphabet jigsaws*... so we decided to make one for you! *An alphabet jigsaw has 26 answers, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet, and you must figure out where the answers fit in the grid. But wait! We made different versions so you can choose your difficulty level; these are roughly in increasing order of difficulty. If you just want to solve a regular cryptic (with enumerations and locations of the answers given as normal) that just so happens to have one answer per letter of the alphabet, click here ( pdf ). However, if you want to try an alphabet jigsaw that gives you… …the length and starting letter of each answer, click here ( pdf ). …the length of each answer, with clues alphabetized by their answer’s starting letter within each length, click here ( pdf ). (If you don't know which version to pick, this is the one we recommend.) …the starting letter of each answer (but not the length), click...

Hello, friends! I had the great fortune of working with Dan Feyer at The Browser  to construct a puzzle for that publication's weekly cryptic crossword , which is available with a subscription. (If you're not subscribed, there are free sample puzzles available.) Dan's excellent editing greatly improved the puzzle, as did help from The Browser's bevy of testers—my thanks to all of you! If you have the chance to solve the puzzle, I'd love to hear from you.

Herzwesten is back for another collaboration, this time with a relatively small and approachable variety cryptic. We hope you enjoy! Many thanks to skaldskaparmal and juff  (both excellent cryptic thinkers, solvers, and makers) for their helpful feedback! [ online ] [ pdf ]* *Instructions: The final answer to this puzzle must be entered in the barred box. The circled letters (reading by column: left to right, and then top to bottom), will give you the key to reading the final answer (in the same order as the circled letters). You will also need to enter more than one letter in some squares.

Eight of this puzzle's answers relate to a specific year—can you figure out which? Online solvers: the answer shows up when you complete the puzzle. Thanks to Dob (a fab puzzle maker and puzzle streamer [who has a new online puzzle solver !]), who picked the year for this cryptic via a channel-point redemption on my stream. As they have many times before, dadgumituh and jmsr525 of The Rackenfracker helped me improve this a great deal, so many thanks to them! Please let me know if you solve (joeadultman on Twitch   and Twitter ) , and thank you! [ fullscreen ]

It's collaboration time! Herzwesten and I have whipped up a quick cryptic for you! Here's what he has to say about the whole ordeal: We've all seen crosswords with phrases spread across two (or more) entries, and I've sometimes thought about how those entries are connected to one another. And I know it's a puzzle and they aren't physically connected, but wouldn't it be fun if they were? I brought this idea to Joe as a Portal-themed puzzle and he helped take it to the next level! Joe is always fantastic to work with and, who knows, it might continue to happen! Thanks to skaldskaparmal (please check out his puzzles ) for the helpful test solve, and also to Norah Sharpe (please check out her puzzles ) for an excellent definition (we leave it to you to guess which). You can solve online at  squares.io or in a Google sheet (just make a copy and you'll be good to go). Thank you for solving!

Today is a special occasion: my first published cryptic! I'm very grateful to AVCX for the opportunity. I was so fortunate to work with  Stella Zawistowski , who greatly improved the puzzle, and I'm also thankful for the testers and others on the AVCX team for their help! You can get the puzzle for $1 here (or you can  subscribe to get access to a ton of really good puzzles). --- If you found your way here from the AVCX puzzle, welcome!  Here's an overview of what's on this blog: Cryptics 101 : A series of 7x7 puzzles meant for people brand new to cryptics; each one introduces (and is limited to) a single clue type.  Cryptic of the Year : A series wherein each puzzle has a set of answers related to a specific year. Where in the World : A series wherein each puzzle has a set of answers related to a particular place in the world, with circled letters throughout the grid serving as a revealer. Collaborations : There are a few of these, including variety cryptics (go ...