Hat trick (solution no. 3,336)

Three and lits in this one—a letter bank, a relocation, and a heteronym too.  Hot and Trazom ought to be pleased with themselves.

Orchestra (Solution no. 3,335)

Sabers is with a new orchestra this season.  I’m writing this was I hear pieces of of The Firebird come together, not unlike solving a cryptic.  An even better analogy is the Bach Little Fugue, which is also on the program for their first concert.  Great piece.

Catching up (Solution No. 3,334)

Figuring out where to fit in blog time now that Sabers and Bangle are back in school and the schedule fills up again.  The solutions were done, just haven’t had time for commentary, so I’ll just get them up for your review.

Heads (Sunday brunch: Sept. 14, 2014)

While I was in Princeton last weekend for my pre-season referee seminar, I came across a sidewalk sale from some of the shops on Nassau Street.  There I finally found a sun hat in my size that didn’t cost 80 dollars.  I’d been looking for one for a while but was unsuccessful because there aren’t many hatmakers who make sizes up to a 7 7/8 (XXXL).  Tilley makes huge hats, but they never go on sale.  This Dorfman Pacific outback-style hat was a pretty good alternative though.

My head’s been like this a long time—it didn’t just swell because I managed to finish two of the tougher puzzles in the regular menu this week.  Usually I get about half to three quarters through the Globe and Mail cryptic and LizR’s puzzle, both of which are more or less in the British style.  How did you do?

A fine variety of puzzles from American constructors this week.  Included in the lot was Thursday’s NYT puzzle (link to Wordplay: spoilers) by Patrick Blindauer.  It was used in Lollapuzzoola 7, and Willz warns solvers to expect something unusual by noting that it was the subject of a lot of talk there.  Obviously there’s a twist to it, but you’ve got to find it, and it’s still challenging once you get the theme.  If your newspaper runs the NYT puzzle in syndication, look for it on October 2.  Patrick also did the Sunday Times puzzle this weekend, which is a straight puzzle, but with a fun theme.

The weekend Times has a diagramless by Fred Piscop (another Wordplay link: more spoilers).  The solution is posted elsewhere.  Having an Excel template for working diagramless is a real help.  I had to pick up and move puzzle sections two or three times during the solve.  This one was harder than most recent NYT diagramless.  The Hex cryptic in the National Post also wasn’t as easy as usual.

The Wall Street Journal ran a Spell Weaving by Mike Shenk this weekend.  I was amused to see it since I had just finished another Spell Weaving in Puzzazz (in the Puzzability’s Variety Show e-book).

New York Times diagramless solution (Sept. 14, 2014)

Below the fold is the solution to this weekend’s New York Times variety puzzle: a diagramless by Fred Piscop.  Turns out to have had a theme.  A little bit of cruft around the edges, but a nice challenge due to the grid form.  Definitely has the jigsaw puzzle character of a good diagramless.

Lid lifter (Sunday brunch: September 6, 2014)

The latest USA Hockey magazine has an feature on the American Development Model: our governing body’s program for age-appropriate training, and a sidebar asking whether some youth teams are playing too many games in a season.  I do think some teams are playing too many games, but that won’t stop me from taking a ref assignment on the first weekend of September.  A good skate in a game that wasn’t too difficult, cash on the spot, and a story I’ll share Monday.  The rest of the season should be like this.

Puzzle season doesn’t take a break, but you can keep the pastime from becoming a chore by trying some new kinds of puzzles.  How about a Brit-style cryptic such as LizR’s latest or the hybrid British/Canadian cryptic in the Globe and Mail?

Hex have two cryptics for us: straight in the National Post (blogged by Falcon) and variety in the Wall Street Journal.  They also have their bi-weekly acrostic in the New York Times (blogged with spoilers by Deb Amlen).  Deb also invited her former Times colleague, political reporter Matt Bai, to blog the Sunday puzzle.  The variety cryptic is of medium difficulty: a little harder than some of their other WSJ puzzles.  Nothing unfair or anything, but it took me a little longer to find the theme.