Crosswords
I am a newbie to crossword puzzle construction. My first amateurish effort appeared here in October of 2012. I finished that first puzzle in about two days and it showed. In addition to a couple of “creative” answers, I constructed a grid that contained an isolated block of answers and unchecked squares. Undaunted, I have continued to litter my pages here with new attempts. One day, I hope to successfully emulate the style and conventions if not quite the quality found in puzzles of the New York Times.
| DATE | RATE | 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 |
| 02/13/2017 | *** | #19: Themeless, but Dark |
| 10/03/2016 | **** | #18: Shady Business |
| 07/11/2016 | *** | #17: Ars Poetica |
| 05/01/2016 | *** | #16: So It Goes |
| 03/07/2016 | **** | #15: You Might Be Geeky If … |
| 02/16/2016 | *** | #14: Take Turns |
| 12/13/2015 | *** | #13: Wit and Wisdom |
| 10/09/2015 | **** | #12: Don’t Eat That |
| 03/05/2015 | **** | #11: Sometimes Wise |
| 10/12/2014 | ** | #10: Wisconsin’s Playground |
| 09/24/2014 | *** | #9: Themeless? |
| 07/25/2014 | **** | #7: Escalation |
| 05/27/2014 | *** | #8: Meet in the Middle |
| 02/11/2014 | *** | #6: Papa’s Children |
| 12/13/2013 | ** | #5: Seven Plus One |
| 05/28/2013 | *** | #4: An Unlucky Mob |
| 02/05/2013 | ** | #3: Hail to the Chiefs |
| 12/04/2012 | * | #2: A Tale of Two Gentlemen |
| 10/02/2012 | #1: An Early Report |
Rating system | An all-star panel consisting of the constructor and a select group of solvers too close to the constructor to be objective have contributed to these ratings. Here is how they break down:
| ***** | 5-star | Almost perfect and universally admired. Don’t hold your breath in the expectation of finding one here. |
| **** | 4-star | Just about as good a puzzle as ever can be expected here. A kudos-winning puzzle. |
| *** | 3-star | This puzzle earns the Minnesotan “not too bad a deal” seal of approval. |
| ** | 2-star | A decent, if amateurish, effort. Some rough patches can be expected. |
| * | 1-star | Badly flawed puzzle. Avoid. |
| 0-star | No one outside of the constructor’s immediate family should ever find it necessary to look at this puzzle. It is embarrassingly bad. |
All puzzles are available in PDF format. Starting with puzzle #3, downloadable AcrossLite *.puz files and links to online-solvable versions are made available.
Selected puzzles are co-published on the George Barany & Friends site, sometimes in slightly modified form. Access them here:
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