Crossword #5: Seven Plus One
What better way to spend time while riding out this bitter cold spell than to solve one of my crossword puzzles? And if you are stuck at work, better still! You likely have ready access to a laser printer and nothing productive to do there until March, when you will be up to your elbows filling out NCAA “March Madness” brackets.
This puzzle will be easy enough for those of you who regularly tackle New York Times puzzles. If your idea of a difficult crossword puzzle is one found in the large print edition of Dell’s Giant Book of Crosswords, then you may be frustrated by mine. This is not necessarily because the answers are obscurities. I think that most, perhaps not all, are words or phrases you will find familiar. If the puzzle is difficult, it is my clues—I attempt and fail to emulate the style and quality of the NYT—that are likely to blame.
I am aware of some of the puzzle’s weaknesses and will discuss them when I publish its solution about a week from now.
The solution to this puzzle was published on Friday, December 20.
There is more than one way to recognize how (at least eight of) the nine themed answers fit together. Even those not familiar with the one answer that ties them all together (and defines the order in which they occur), will understand exactly how they are related.[1]
Click here or on the thumbnail to the right to download a PDF copy of the puzzle. I think you will want to work with a printed copy of the puzzle, but you can solve it online at XwordInfo.com or you can download the *.puz file for use with Across Lite software (available free).[2]
Feedback is always appreciated. Feel free to chastise me for wasting your time if you don’t enjoy it as much as I hope you do. C’mon, March is a long ways off! Play along. There will be plenty of time for bracketological research after the first of the year.
| DATE | TITLE |
| 04/24/2020 | #k1: Meadow’s First! |
| 04/20/2020 | #24: Roadside Attractions? |
| 02/20/2020 | #23: World’s Smallest! |
| 06/20/2018 | #22: Northern Dialect |
| 01/30/2018 | #21: Special Editions |
| 10/10/2017 | #20: Saints We’d Like to See |
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Notes
- There may be a pun here, but you will never know unless you do the puzzle. [^]
- The Across Lite program can be downloaded for free at Litsoft.com and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X. I can recommend it unreservedly. It is easy to install and use, and is free of any of the malware garbage that commonly plagues freeware.
I think crossword puzzles are best solved with paper and pen (or pencil for cautious types). But I can no longer use a pen, and so am very grateful the Across Lite program exists. [^]
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