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| I used to collect watches and still have a drawerful of Casios. These are the classic Casio AE 1200, probably the best, and best-looking, watch you can buy for around $20. Photo from the estimable watch blog The Time Bum. |
Like a 15x15 grid, a 25x9 grid has 225 squares. Unlike a 15x15 grid, it can accommodate a 25-letter seed entry.
You'll have a better online solving experience in the app.
Hopefully smooth-solving 66-word themeless today from a forthcoming pack of 10 themelesses on the Crossword app from Redstone Games.
And speaking of puzzle packs, the second issue of the Lexicon Devil midi crossword zine, Midi Controller, is here! It's fifteen 9x9 midis with a little Easter egg tying them all together. Your download will include a PDF of the zine that you can print out and staple yourself, as well as .puz files and individual PDFs. It's pay what you wish, but a little financial contribution always helps.
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| perennially relevant image |
It's the beginning of a new year... or at least it was a month ago. To all the solvers out there, especially the meta solvers, thank you for solving last year's puzzles and for your kind comments. As for 2024, I'm in the position of having a real backlog of finished puzzles, but my life being so complex at the moment -- not in a good way, frankly -- that it's hard even to find the time to upload them and write brief blog posts. I really do want to get them out into the world eventually, though.
A huge thanks to everyone who sent proof of a charitable donation in order to get my 2023 Puzzle Pack -- I received around $500 in receipts, which is great. Another benefit puzzle pack, for the most important cause imaginable at the moment, launched recently: Puzzles for Palestine. It's available with proof of a donation to one of the four charities identified on their site.
As the editors note, however:
Your donations are truly appreciated, but right now, monetary support is NOT the most effective way to help Palestine. If you want your donation to have the maximum impact, we first need a permanent ceasefire and end to the bombing to ensure adequate material support can enter Gaza and unfettered access to all parts of the Strip can be provided to effectively distribute humanitarian aid. To that end, we encourage you all to write an email, send a fax, or place a phone call to your local and national Representatives and Senators, urging them to demand a ceasefire in Gaza now.
Enigmarch begins again. Today's freestyle is for Day 2 and the prompt... Well, I put the prompt in the puzzle as an entry. You can figure it out pretty easily.
(Yes, I know today is March 3rd. I ran out of time to post this yesterday.)
I'm going to be posting my #Enigmarch puzzles in this thread on XWordMuggles.
Scroll down once you're done for my Day 1 mini-meta puzzle - for the prompt KEY.
Watch this space during the rest of December - the 21st in particular - for some special end-of-year announcements and opportunities.
This themeless was described as "a bit morbid" by one commentator. As if that's a bad thing!
A more gently-clued 72-entry freestyle this week, and hopefully a smooth solve for you. Thanks to kateschmate for test-solving (go solve her puzzles if for some reason you're not doing that already).
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| Mr. Ronnie James Dio, everyone |
It's the big 5-0 for Lexicon Devil and we're celebrating with a chonky 64-word themeless inspired by Mr. Ryan McCarty's Chasms over at McGrids, plus a little bonus mini-meta below. Thanks again to Quiara for test-solving.
I've been waiting to drop this one. Hope you enjoy.
Solving music: Dilated Peoples' "DJ Babu in Deep Concentration," a tribute to Gang Starr's classic "DJ Premier in Deep Concentration"
A few months ago I challenged myself to construct a themeless puzzle incorporating the first five words produced by an online random word generator. Part 1 below is the second such grid and the first full puzzle I've produced using this approach. You'll find out what the words are as you go.
More recently, at the end of July, Will Nediger (independently) concocted an even tougher random construction challenge: incorporate five letters selected at random at points in the grid selected at random, and five black squares whose locations would also be selected at random. I took on that challenge as well, and Part 2 is the outcome. The random letters and their locations are highlighted in yellow and the five mandatory "black" squares, the location of which made this a true challenge, are highlighted in pink.
Other constructors who entered the Nediger Aleatory Thunderdome and emerged with solvable puzzles include:
Trent Evans, Grid Therapy: "Random Association 1"
Brian Thomas, Puzzles That Need a Home: "Themeless #57" and the new "Themeless #59"
Thanks to Quiara for test-solving both of these. And to the 00s UK grime sensation Lady Sovereign for the solving music below (it got stuck in my head while constructing, okay?).
META UPDATE: Though I haven't posted one in six weeks, the contest meta puzzles will return soon. I simply hit an idea drought at the same time as I also ran short on time to do the extra tasks related to the metas, like catching up on mailing out stickers to past winners, making spreadsheets, writing clues, sending draft puzzles out to be test-solved, and so forth.
Bonus puzzle today outside of the standard biweekly schedule. This past week saw the publication of a number of themelesses (see, e.g., Trent's and Quiara's) with equally rounded-off corners, what some call "cookie grids" and I privately think of as "sushi grids." I had been meaning to post this puzzle on a future date and figured I would bump it up. A slightly easier version has already appeared in Volume 2 of my puzzles in Redstone Games's Crossword Puzzle Free iPhone and Android app (there's also a paid version).
It's about a year old at this point and contains three or four entries I might not use now, but I'm still fond of the long entries and one crossing in particular, though I can't say which without spoiling things. Hope you enjoy. 64 words / 43 blocks / 5/69 avg. length.
puz / PDF
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| Memorial to 32-Down in Zwickau, Saxony |
Another freestyle on the hard side. 68 words. Average word length 5.5 letters. Thanks to Quiara V. of QVXwordz for test-solving. She's got a new themeless up today so go solve that one too.
TW: communism.
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The meta returns after an unscheduled two-week break. I was rushing to post this puzzle on the morning of January 21 when I spotted a factual error in a clue. At that point I still hadn't written a blog post to go with the puzzle, found a header image, set up an answer spreadsheet... So I set it aside for the day, despite preferring not to post meta puzzles on Fridays because the WSJ and MGWCC metas are posted on Fridays. Then, on Friday morning, I decided I didn't like the title, and I still hadn't fixed the factual error. So I punted again. And then I was busy with other responsibilities for another week and a half.
I had originally intended to post puzzles bimonthly. Then I got on a roll and wound up posting them weekly, which has been fun, but also a ton of work on a very short self-imposed deadline. In particular, it doesn't budget in enough time for test-solving, which helps a great deal in ironing out issues with the metas. I'm happy with most of the metas I've posted so far, but I intend the ones I have planned for the near future to be even better, and that's going to require a different approach. So this is a heads-up both that I will be returning to my original biweekly plan and that if you enjoy solving the metas, you should sign up for the Lexicon Devil mailing list, because I will be distributing the metas by email before putting them on the site to ensure they go out at a consistent day and time. More on that later – just sign up for the list now.
The answer to this week's meta is a former US president. The puzzle itself, though, at 70 entries and a four-star-plus difficulty level, is another meta/themeless hybrid, so you should feel free to treat it like a themeless and ignore the meta aspect if that's not your bag.
Submit your answer by clicking HERE.
Submissions are due by Monday, February 8, 2021 at 12:00 PM EST.
The January 7 meta "Miles to Go" proved more of a fun run for many solvers – read more on the solutions page HERE.
If you have any issues submitting your answer, just put it in an email to lexicondevillive at outlook dot com with your name, preferred screen name / ID and email address and I'll add you in manually.
Two winners – the first person to submit a correct answer and another person selected at random from the correct entries – will receive a Lexicon Devil sticker as well as the respect of their puzzling peers.
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| Photo by Jeremy Noble. |
Freestyle with diagonal symmetry. 68 words. Saturday difficulty, if not harder.
When you're done, this puzzle contains something that is more of a small Easter egg than a meta. You can email me at lexicondevillive at outlook dot com if you find it.
If you like this one, Steve Mossberg published a diagonal themeless of similar difficulty last night on his blog Square Pursuit. And the Diagonal Master, Brooke Husic, dropped a non-diagonal scorcher this week on her own blog, following up on a great literary diagonal midi in October and a super-tough diagonal themeless in September. Brooke also teamed up with Matthew Stock for a tough diagonal themeless on Brian Thomas's Puzzles That Need a Home recently.
Enjoy!
New puzzle for the long Thanksgiving weekend, which I am regretfully not traveling or seeing family to celebrate, and I hope you are not either.
This is a 72-worder that should play just as well as a freestyle / themeless, so feel free to solve it that way and skip the meta solving entirely if that's not your bag.
If it is your bag, the answer to this week's meta is a noted cryptid. You have until Monday to solve it, which you probably won't need.
Submit your answer by clicking HERE.
Submissions are due by Monday, November 30, 2020 at 12:00 PM EST.
If you have any issues submitting your answer, just put it in an email to lexicondevillive at outlook dot com with your name, preferred screen name / ID and email address and I'll add you in manually.
Two winners – the first person to submit a correct answer and another person selected at random from the correct entries – will receive a Lexicon Devil sticker as well as the respect of their puzzling peers.
Leaderboard
| Screenname | Correct Answer Submitted |
| Kitchendiva | 11/25/2020 10:20:24 |
| Megarrific | 11/25/2020 10:23:35 |
| I. K. Snamhcok | 11/25/2020 15:04:23 |
| paolo p. | 11/25/2020 16:13:37 |
| Richard B. | 11/26/2020 6:56:41 |
| Cindy Heisler | 11/26/2020 8:06:46 |
| lbray53 | 11/26/2020 12:19:48 |
| LuckyGuest | 11/26/2020 13:29:17 |
| schmeel | 11/28/2020 15:37:58 |
It's been a very long time, but I'm finally back with Lexicon Devil's 100th puzzle. Of course, it's a meta, but it's a l...
