Scenes from Oslo (Sunday brunch: June 14, 2015)

Rather than the usual diet of scenery and art, I'll share a few brief experiences from my Oslo trip:

How many motifs from classic albums
can you spot in the picture?

• I attended services at the cathedral (domkirke) this morning, doing my best to follow along (my ability to read music only slightly exceeds my ability to read Norwegian).  But I saw a familiar sight: the ribbons of the bookmark for the hymnal had been braided together.  Kids fidget in church wherever you happen to go.  
• The design museum has a special exhibition of record album cover art (how could they leave out the minimalist style of the ECM jazz albums of the 70s and 80s, many of which were recorded in Oslo).  In the foyer, they set up two stereos, with headphones and an eclectic collection of records for visitors to play.  There was a family there with a kid about 12 who was playing with the turntable.  So I picked out a record (which turned out to be Janis Joplin) and showed him how it worked.  Then gave him and his parents the headphones so they could listen.
• After the museums closed, I took a hike down from Frognereteren (the end of Metro line 1) down the mountain to the Holmenkollen ski jump.  In the stadium, there was a biathlete and her coach doing shooting practice.  So I made like the spectators at the Olympics and cheered when the shot hit the target and groaned when it missed.  Perhaps it gave her a more realistic practice experience.  

New variety cryptics this week:  Kevin Wald went off on a picnic, while we have a Sixes and Sevens from Richard Maltby (blogged by Erica).

Hex cryptics in the Wall Street Journal (variety) and National Post (straight) and a Hex acrostic in the New York Times (blogged [with spoilers] by Deb Amlen)

And the regular syndicated cryptic in the Globe and Mail (who’d like to blog that one?).

See you tomorrow!

Congratulations, Erica and Vlad! (Sunday brunch: May 17, 2015)

Well as promised, this is a weekend for variety cryptics.   Wall Street Journal solvers are doing some “Spring Cleaning” with assistance from Hex.  It’s a nice easy task with some unclued answers and a theme that you’ll pick up just when you need it.

We’re wishing you
many blissful years together

Meanwhile, the latest Harpers is out, including a Diametricode from Richard Maltby, which the URL tells us is number 8.  If it’s anything like the previous ones, it will be a tough solve.

The publication of the new Harpers brings Erica’s solution and comments on the last one:  she and Vlad are still debating one of the answers, and their post brings news that they intend to cross words and lives for a long time to come.  I’m thrilled—I had a sense that the two of them were going to do something like this: there’s a happiness in Erica’s blog when she thinks about Vlad.

The New York Times puzzle is a Hex acrostic (blogged–with spoilers–by Deb).

Weekly cryptics

• Hex in the National Post (blogged by Falcon): Anticipating Arturo
• Stickler: puzzle No. 82
• The Globe and Mail (syndicated): Click here

Sunday Brunch (April 19, 2015)

Hex created their best WSJ cryptic ever—it’s called “Minor Adjustments.”  Why am I raving about this one in particular?  Not because they had a nicely polished grid with full symmetry and no weak fill—nearly all their monthly puzzles manage that.  Not because of the cluing, which was solid as always, making you think a little.  I really appreciated this puzzle because it hit the sweet spot of a variety puzzle that applied an alteration to every entry yet still was approachable to the average solver.  Print extra copies to give to friends of yours who haven’t tried cryptics before.  The gimmick is easy to get and to apply, and the answers you get can stand alone, unlike some more complicated puzzles (they have their place too) where you can’t start filling in the grid until you have a fairly large amount done.  

For those of you who are disappointed by easy-to-moderate puzzles, Kevin Wald has a pencil-breaker for you: “World of Graphite.”  I’ve been working on it off and on for a couple of weeks and still am missing part of the theme.  I’ll keep plugging though.

The new Harpers is out, and Richard Maltby’s puzzle is a Theme and Variations–a classic format introduced by The Listener.  Haven’t started on this one yet; share your comments below or over at Erica’s blog, where the tackiness of last month’s puzzle is reviewed at length.  

Weeklies:
Hex in the National Post (blogged by Falcon)
Syndicated in the Globe and Mail (I got all of this one on the first try!)
Stickler 79 (your hard puzzle for the week)

Sunday Brunch (March 29, 2015)

We’ll try the streamlined format again, since The Other Doctor Mitchell was out of town all weekend working a skating competition, and I've been functioning as orchestra roadie, caterer, usher, cook, and more.

Cryptics 

National Post (Hex, blogged by Falcon): “Monkeys With a View”
   Peculiar in that the bottom right was a lot harder than the rest of the puzzle.

Stickler: #76 (congratulations, Australia!)

Maya: no new puzzle, but well played, Black Caps!

Harpers (Richard Maltby): “Search Warrant”
   Which means that the March puzzle (“Tetris”) is blogged by our friend Erica,
   who’s made a very big commitment: not to Vlad (yet) but to a dedicated domain.

Globe and Mail (syndicated): themeless, but hard.

Variety puzzles

Wall Street Journal: “Hunting Season” by Patrick Berry
   Great puzzle, hints and solution provided elsewhere on the blog

NY Times: Marching Bands by BEQ (blogged by Deb Amlen)
   And Deb provides ACPT commentary at Wordplay.
   Note also that BEQ is looking to kick off a subscription Marching Bands series
      like Aries’s Rows Gardens (which I highly endorse)

Plastic skates (Sunday brunch: Dec. 20, 2014)

Not quite my old skates

When I was in high school and college, it was a time for a lot of new technology to find its way into sports.  I played in a pair of Daoust skates that had boots made of plastic instead of leather.

I can’t find a picture of the Daousts, but Lange (the ski boot maker) made a lot more of them, and they were pretty similar.  A hard outside shell hinged with a rivet at the ankle, and a soft inner liner that was very comfortable.  I think a lot of people bought the skates for their comfort, but were disappointed with their performance. So plastic skates are pretty much gone except for the learn-to-skate, little kids, and rental markets.

One practice from my plastic-skate days persists to this day though: the way I lace my skates.  With the plastic skates, I actually cut my laces in half and laced the tops and bottoms separately, so I could keep the laces tight over my instep and still have some flex in the skate.  Now my laces are one piece, but I put a half-turn in them between the lower and upper parts of the boot, for more control over where the laces are tightest.  I haven’t seen anyone else do it, but I think it helps.

A lot of puzzles to keep you occupied during the holidays.  Just what we needed.

We’ll start with the weekly straight cryptics for a change.  Falcon reports he was seeing double doing Hex’s cryptic in the National Post.  I had a good run through the Stickler earlier this week, but I haven’t had time to get to the Globe and Mail syndicated yet.  Maybe someone can share a comment on it.

Regular weekly non-cryptics: Patrick Berry offers a Candy Canes (his third) at the Wall Street Journal—it’s much harder than the average WSJ variety puzzle.  The New York Times has a Puns and Anagrams by Mel Taub (solution to follow).  Deb Amlen grumbles (note spoilers) at Wordplay, but notes that the PandA are a healthy “gateway drug” to cryptic crosswords, so they are to be encouraged.  I’m fairly satisfied with one of those every few months or so as is current NYT practice.
Speaking of the Times, Willz has a guest post at Wordplay that’s well worth reading.  In it he explains the process of editing a puzzle.  Solvers may be surprised at how many clues are changed in the process; constructors may not be surprised.

On the cryptic front, we have the Kevin Wald variety cryptic I commented on in my Thursday post: go solve it, it’s a nice moderate-difficulty opportunity to experience the depth of his work.   Māyā has another new straight cryptic, which she did as a 13 x 13 for a change.  Let he know what you think. There’s also a new Harper’s that was published last week (an easy one, in my opinion), which means it’s time for Erica to assess the tackiness of the December puzzle.

Hall of Fame (Sunday Brunch: November 16, 2014)

This weekend is the annual Hockey Hall of Fame induction in Toronto.  Canton has its bronze busts, and Cooperstown its history, but the Hockey Hall of Fame is the best of all.  It’s in a former bank building in downtown Toronto, and you walk into the bank vault to see the Stanley Cup.  Unlike the HOFs for the other major sports, the Hockey Hall of Fame has welcomed great players and coaches from outside North America like legendary Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak, along with female champions like Cammi Granato.  Referees and linesmen take their place alongside the players too, which obviously I agree with: no sport is more demanding on its officials than hockey.

This year’s class features Bill McCreary, who for a decade was the finest referee in the NHL (no offense to Kerry Fraser though).  There’s no greater honor for an official than to be chosen for the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals, and McCreary got that call several times.  Also in the class of 2014 is Sweden and NHL star Peter Forsberg.  He had the same shoulder operation I had, the same week that I did, but the opposite side.

Some Hall of Fame constructors have puzzles for us this weekend: let’s start with Hex, who have an acrostic (spoiler alert) in the New York Times along with their weekly straight cryptic in the National Post.

Kevin Wald posted two new birthday cryptics this week.  I managed to finish the first of them in one sitting, including the ending pieces—that doesn’t happen very often.  Remarkable how Kevin can tie up so many loose ends in a puzzle so neatly.

Richard Maltby in the new Harper’s?  I managed to finish that one pretty quickly too.  Can’t say more because it’s a prize puzzle, but I’ll share some notes once the entry deadline passes. Meanwhile, Erica blogs the November puzzle at Tacky Harper’s Cryptic Clues.

Mike Shenk set the acrostic in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal, Stickler has his weekly Australian cryptic, and our friend Anonymous has the weekly Globe and Mail cryptic.

How about something different?  If you solve sudokus, you should try Thursday’s Samurai Sudoku (hit the link and then select November 13--Evil).  These puzzles are five interconnected grids, and when they’re on, they really have a lovely rhythm where you have to move from one grid to the other to get the missing answer.  Once you figure out the logical key to the November 13 one, it goes down very smoothly.

Pits (Sunday brunch: Oct. 26, 2014)

Monday, I groused about the ice at one of my home rinks and the management’s ongoing problems. It’s been like that as long as I’ve been skating there, and I’ve been skating there since Ian Walsh was working Pee Wees.   But there were some years I didn’t skate there.  Around 2000, they fully enclosed the rink (it used to be partly open-air) and reconfigured the boards, moving the benches from one side to the other.

Not surprisingly, they cheaped out on the job.  Instead of buying new glass or at least some replacement panes for the relocated bench doors, they transferred the glass from one spot to another, cutting where the panes were too big.  That left two spots with gaps in the glass about six inches to a foot wide: just enough to catch an arm.  And when the put up protective nets behind the end glass, the eye bolts they bought were too long, and stuck out into the playing area.  If I put up my hand for a penalty in one of those spots, I could cut it on the bolt.  And then the bottom of the Zam door was worn, and if it wasn’t shut tight enough, a puck could slip under.  

All accidents waiting to happen.  If a player got hurt on one of those danger spots during a game I was refereeing, the family would probably sue everyone in sight.  We refs get liability insurance from USA Hockey, but even if it didn’t hit me in the bank account, a lawsuit would be a real pain in the tail.  So I reported the situation to the Risk Management department at USA Hockey, and when the rink didn’t do anything about the problems.  I told my assigner not to give me any more games there. About five years later they finally replaced the boards and glass, and I resumed skating there.  But the place is still a pit.

Much better quality in the puzzles, as always.  First off, don’t forget the annual NYT crossword contest.  You need the solutions to all six of the week’s puzzles to get some kind of meta.  Answers are due at 6:00 tonight, New York time.

The new Harpers is out, and this month’s Richard Maltby cryptic is too.  That means it’s also time for Erica to take apart last month’s Playfair Square.   Even though she and her Sweet Vladimir were winners (again: good for you!), her blog brings the smack from the get-go.  “This was some real bulls***” she says.  But Erica and Vlad were smart enough to pull out a bag of Scrabble tiles to solve the cipher.    I got partway through the cipher (the puzzle wasn’t unduly hard) but never got around to finishing.  I’ll try Erica’s trick.  Bonus in her post: her mom makes an appearance.

The Wall Street Journal variety puzzle is a Rows Garden by Patrick Berry.  It was the easiest Rows Garden I’ve ever solved.  But there are hints elsewhere on the blog if you need them.

Likewise, the Fred Piscop diagramless (Wordplay link: spoilers!) in today’s New York Times posed little difficulty as well. I’ve posted a solution in case you’re stuck on anything.

For your straight cryptic pleasure, there are three weekly puzzles by Hex, Stickler, and the syndicate for the Globe and Mail.  These will be harder than the WSJ and NYT puzzles.

Marshy (Sunday brunch: October 19, 2014)

This is being posted on Saturday because 25 years ago today, The Other Doctor Mitchell and I were honeymooning in Toronto (after a few days in Niagara Falls—how traditional can you get!), and on October 18, 1989, we attended the Toronto-Vancouver game at Maple Leaf Gardens.  The home team won (we didn’t have a rooting interest), but to my delight, Leafs’ veteran defenceman Brad Marsh played a memorable game.

Being an old, slow defenseman myself (I wasn’t old or a defenseman until the end of my playing career, but I had a lifetime of slow), I was especially thrilled. The Leafs, who had had a pretty bad start to the season, got the go-ahead goal early in the third period, but the Canucks mounted a furious effort to tie the game.

One of the last NHL
players without a helmet
(not that I endorse that).

Late in the third, Marsh had a shift where he blocked two shots: dropping to the ice to put his shins in front of a slap shot (one of the unsung aspects of the game you can’t appreciate without having played it).  After the second one, he picked up the puck and lugged it up ice into the Canucks’ zone.  After all, even a stay-at-home defenseman knows that sometimes a good offense is the best defense.   The crowd roared its appreciation and Marsh was named one of the three stars of the game despite having no goals, no assists, and only one shot on goal.
A few years later, when I earned a place refereeing in one of the high school leagues here, and my number 5 wasn’t available, I took number 8, in honor of Marshy, who wore that number for the Flyers.  

Now it turns out that Marshy has joined Hockey Buzz and contributes a few blog posts each month. Maybe he’ll share a few memories of that game in T.O. with us.

Speaking of slow, it continues to be a slow cryptic month: nothing new recently from LizR or Kevin Wald, Harper’s is off this month, and in the national papers it’s a two-acrostic week: Mike Shenk in the Wall Street Journal and Hex in the New York Times (blogged with spoilers by Deb Amlen).  Solvers note: the week-long New York Times crossword contest will be going on all next week.  20 solvers who figure out the correct answer to the challenge will win a full year NYT puzzle subscription.  I got my win already, finding out (on my birthday no less!) that I’d won Aries’s Rows Garden meta sweepstakes, and another year of his timely and thoughtful puzzles

The National Post cryptic (blogged by Falcon) was a little disappointing because of the large number of ‘ing’ words. Probably an easier grid to construct, but it made it easy to get partials, and the words those partials intersected.  The syndicated puzzle in the Globe and Mail is your other new cryptic today.

So I solved some Sticklers this week.  Go out and give them a try.  Stickler’s an Aussie, but he’s quite welcoming to us Northern Hemisphere solvers, providing “overseas help” in the form of definitions of Australian slang and cultural references that show up in his weekly puzzles. Every constructor should be so considerate: making the explanations available to those who need them but not forcing them on those who don’t.

Boy among men [and women] (Sunday brunch: August 3, 2014)

We have a good young fencer at the club, whom I don’t see very much of since his weapon is foil and my son’s is saber.  Like my son, he’s also been encouraged to do some refereeing, and the coach decided to have him work the tournament at the club last Sunday.  One important difference: he’s 10 or 11 years old.
[continued below the fold]

You’re never too young to try a new puzzle though, and there are lots to choose from (see Kegler and scroll to the bottom for a pair of cryptics created for middle schoolers).

The new Harper’s is out, with a Richard Maltby variety cryptic called “4 Across.”  No hints since it’s a prize puzzle, but I will say it makes up for what Erica thought was a shortfall of tackiness in June.  See her blog for a rundown of last month’s Sixes and Sevens (and Twelves).

In the Wall Street Journal, we have a Double or Nothing by Patrick Berry.  Each space in the grid is filled with either two letters or none: never one.  Enumerations are not given so you have to figure out the length of each answer and which spaces have to be left blank as you fill it in.  It actually isn’t as hard as you think.  Getting the first few words in is tough, but once you have that, the rest is very satisfying.  Give it a shot, and if you really can’t hack it, I’ve posted a hint grid and solution elsewhere on the blog.

Also on the blog is the solution to this weekend’s New York Times variety puzzle, a diagramless by Paula Gamache.  Solve it (puzzle is behind the NYT paywall) and then click over to Wordplay for solvers’ notes from Deb Amlen.

Weekly straight cryptics are in the National Post (by Hex) and the Globe and Mail (syndicated).

Scorecard (Puzzle No. 3,331)

Still owe you a solution to 1,066—it’s pretty hard.

As Hot and Trazom hinted a few weeks ago, we have a variety cryptic this week in The Nation. Variety cryptics usually but do not always have a bar-style grid instead of a block grid.  The thing that defines a variety cryptic is some kind of systematic breaking of the basic rules.  It could be an alteration to some of the clues, an alteration to some answers before they go into the grid, a set of unclued answers or answers which are not numbered so you have to sort out where they go.  It can get much more complicated from there, working up to the well-loved forms seen regularly in The Listener and in Harper’s and the intricate and unique twists Kevin Wald creates.  This puzzle is an invitation to explore that universe.

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/180658/puzzle-no-3331

Degree of difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle):  Easy.  I think that was intentional, as a means of not scaring solvers off from trying a variety puzzle.  Still, there were some good spots of misdirection to trap solvers who want things to be too proper.

Hozom’s comment: “Writing a letter,” in which Hot and Trazom explain how constructors get and use single letters in their clues.  There’s a lot of opportunity for misdirection here if constructors are alert and creative.

Cluing challenge: “HORSESHOE”


We got a nice comment a coupla weeks ago correcting an earlier post about the MIT Mystery Hunt.

Erin Rhode wrote:
>>Sometimes I Google myself to see what comes up... regarding the Mystery

>>Hunt cryptic, while I wasn't an author, I was an editor. The original idea

>>was Aaron Bader's, Kevin Der wrote the grid (and holy crap, I still don't

>>know how he did that), and Aaron and Dan Katz wrote the clues.

So I looked up Erin, and interestingly, she fit right into the topic I’d planned on using this week.  The Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held Tuesday, and it brought to mind my habit of keeping a scorecard when I go to the ballpark.  My earliest recollection of scoring a game was watching an All-Start game on TV when I was about 12.  I made up my own form for it, with a ruler and ball-point pen, and eventually used a ditto master to print a bunch of them.  Like so much else, the computer makes it a lot easier today, but I still use a scorecard of my own design, with a few quirks like spaces designated to record hot dogs, cheesesteaks, and beer consumed by the scorer.

So I wonder if the same geek gene that’s responsible for an interest in cryptic crosswords and other odd puzzles also drives an instinct to keep score at the ballgame.  It’s worth doing if you’re at the game: not just for the bleacher cred (Erin subtitles her blog “Don’t try to show up the chick with the scorebook.”), but also because you might end up with the greatest souvenir, as when a college friend of ours went to a Braves game and ended up scoring a no-hitter.

Erin linked a couple more puzzles from the Mystery Hunt: I’ll add them to this weekend’s Sunday brunch.

Bonus hockey (Sunday brunch: June 15, 2014)

I think it was Bill Pidto who popularized the phrase “bonus hockey,” and it’s so much a part of the Mitchell vocabulary that you’ll find “bonus fish” on the table, and “bonus laundry” being done late on Sunday.  Bonus hockey is great in the regular season, but in the playoffs it’s much more.

Congratulations to the Stanley Cup champion LA Kings, and also to the officials who were selected to work the Finals:  referees Steve Kozari, Wes McCauley, Dan O’Halloran, and Brad Watson, and linesmen Derek Amell, Scott Driscoll, Shane Heyer, Brad Kovachik.  

Good weekend for cryptics: Hex have a great variety cryptic in the Wall Street Journal (“Flower Cuttings”) as well as their weekly straight cryptic in the National Post (Falcon has interrupted his vacation to post it).  I’ve got hints for the WSJ puzzle elsewhere on the blog.

Meanwhile, the new Harper’s is out, with another Sixes and Sevens (and Twelves) from Richard Maltby.  That means Erica will be around soon to blog the June puzzle in her unique style.

LizR has your Brit cryptic needs satisfied with another new puzzle, while Fraser Simpson has his regular Brit-Canadian cryptic in the Globe and Mail.

The weekend’s New York Times variety puzzle (behind the paywall) is a Hex acrostic.  Deb Amlen blogs it (with spoilers) at Wordplay.

Add to that the 1974 Frank Lewis puzzle we started on Thursday, and a cluing challenge, and we’ve got a great variety of puzzles to have your brain working overtime.

More hockey below the fold.

The NHL draw (Sunday brunch: May 18, 2014)

Typical men's league faceoff.

Last Sunday I had a spring league double-header.  Off-season hockey ought to be more about building skills than being competitive. There was a summer league I worked in Maryland twenty years ago that had the right idea.  Body checking was not allowed, and the organizers told the players they were expected to play defense by outskating the puck carrier instead of hitting him or going for his stick.

Even at this point in my career, I too still look for opportunities to work on new skills, and last weekend was one of them.  The first game was 9- and 10-year-olds, and many of them look to have just moved up from mite-level.  So I decided this would be a great time to try an NHL-style draw: down way low with your arm out to present the puck.  Colorado wants us to use that type of draw, but most of us value our safety more than pleasing the USA Hockey administration, so we drop the puck the way they used to instruct us to do.

An NHL face-off.  See where the players are?

But a spring league game, with players who probably couldn’t hurt me if they tried?  Perfect time to work on a new technique.  The photo at left shows what it should look like: get your rear end down and form a diamond with your rear end, your shoulders, your puck hand, and your skates.

But I bounced the puck through the whole first period.  Once I was comfortable with the position and still bouncing pucks, I shifted my hand and put two fingers on top of the puck.  The pucks started landing flat.  Mission accomplished.

Work on your pencil-holding grip for these puzzles.

It’s an excellent weekend for variety cryptic fans like me.  The Wall Street Journal puzzle is a Hex cryptic called “Rebuses.”  There are fifteen unconventional clues: you should be able to figure out how they work.  If you can’t, try these hints.

Next we’ve got the new Harper’s, which is called “Full Circle.”  A dozen answers are unclued.  How do you take on a puzzle like this?  Get as many of the regularly-clued answers as you can and hope they give you enough intersecting letters for you to get some of the unclued answers.  Then those might help with the rest of the regular ones.  I couldn’t figure out the theme connecting the unclued answers until I was nearly through with the entire grid.

And on top of that Mark Halpin has a Sondheim-themed puzzle called “There’s Always a Woman.” These are good puzzles, not impossibly difficult, but hard enough that getting all the themework done gives you a real sense of accomplishment.

Straight cryptics?  Hex have you covered in the National Post (blogged quickly by Falcon, who is going off on vacation), while Fraser Simpson’s weekly puzzle is in the Globe and Mail.

This week’s New York Times variety puzzle (behind the paywall) is a Hex acrostic.   Deb Amlen felt like getting a drink when she was through with it.  That sounds like a good idea.

Daffodils (Sunday brunch: April 13, 2014)

Lots of them left even after I cut three dozen.
The daylillies in this bed multiply just as well as
the daffodils. 

With the late spring, it’s been a peculiar year in the garden.  We had crocuses and daffodils at the same time, and the forsythia bloomed only this week.  The compressed schedule means that the daffodils came in about a two week span rather than three or four.  It does make an impressive show in the back yard, but the main reason I divide and transplant bulbs every year is to have more flowers to cut and share.

Some for the dining room table, some for the office, some for The Other Doctor Mitchell’s birthday (they’re her favorite flower), and even bunches to hand out to the winners of the fencing tournament today.

Finish these puzzles and earn yourself a virtual bouquet.

It was kind of a weird weekend.  I had a particularly tough time with the National Post puzzle by Hex, which usually is a breeze.  Falcon agreed, and gave us a breakdown of his solving effort on his blog.   Meanwhile, I got a lot more of Fraser Simpson’s Globe and Mail puzzle (Java, printable) than usual.

The New York Times variety puzzle was a Puns and Anagrams by Mel Taub (paywall).  That was hard too, and there are still a few clues I can’t parse.  However, I think I’m learning enough to get better at the genre, and also learning enough to understand why I don’t like them as much as proper cryptics: terseness of cluing is valued over elegance.  But I solved it, and the solution is posted elsewhere on the blog.  Deb Amlen solved it too, and blogs the puzzle (spoilers) at Wordplay.

Patrick Berry fans are happy: he has a Beginnings and Ends in the weekend’s Wall Street Journal.  Solution and hints are also posted elsewhere on the blog (please welcome our guests).

On the right is a drift of double daffodils, the genetics of which are described here (no, I’m not a flower geek, just a backyard gardener).

LizR has a new Brit cryptic up, which she says goes well with coffee.  Some delightful clues there, worth a go even if you won’t finish the puzzle.

The new Harper’s is out this week.  The Richard Maltby variety cryptic is that old The Listener favorite: Theme and Variations.  Erica (who survived the battle with the bedbugs) blogs this puzzle, though on a month’s delay because it’s a prize puzzle.

Flowers doing their intended job.
The women’s saber winners were Helen, Shelby, and Vanessa.

What are you waiting for? (Sunday brunch: March 16, 2014)

The calendar says spring is supposed to begin next weekend, but I’ve still got snow in the yard and there’s another four inches predicted for tomorrow. Normally I like winter, but I think we’ve had enough already.  Worse still, there’s all the cleanup to do from the ice storm to do before I can get on with starting the garden for spring.  Maybe time to go back in where it’s warm and there are puzzles waiting.

The new Harper’s is out, and the latest Richard Maltby variety cryptic is a “Twofers” with two grids and run-together double clues.  You may have seen this kind of puzzle before (the inaugural issue of Wordplay had a triple version), but it’s a good concept worth doing again.  Interestingly, the April issue went online Wednesday March 12, but the deadline for solvers to submit for the prize (and the coveted note from Maltby) was the 14th, so you could have gotten away with copying the answer from the magazine.  Stay tuned for the next edition of Tacky Harpers Cryptic Clues (or maybe not, if the army of Chicago bedbugs has carried off Erica).

Like Mark Halpin, Tom Toce doesn’t do anything twice, but he bowed to popular demand and made another cryptic acrostic.  Short and sweet, though the people who typeset it forgot to put in the letters that tell what answer the letter in each box is from, so you have to scan through the puzzle to find the number when you work back from the grid.  Fortunately, I got a lot of the clues right off the bat, so I didn’t need to work backwards much.

Also in twos, block cryptics in major Canadian newspapers: Hex in the National Post (blogged by Falcon) and Fraser Simpson in the Globe and Mail (blogger wanted)

The Wall Street Journal weekend puzzle is a Rows Garden by Patrick Berry.  For once I got this one in a single sitting.  It was very gratifying to have one answer lead to another that led to the next on up the grid until the puzzle was finished.  For those of you who couldn’t make that nice chain, I have some hints posted.  And if you love Rows Gardens, Andrew Ries has a bi-weekly series available by subscription.

Also in the variety crossword department, BEQ’s puzzle no. 622 is a Marching Bands.  It was not easy, and it’s intended to whet your appetite for his upcoming book of Marching Bands.  Brendan’s post also includes a recap from the ACPT.

In the Times (behind the paywall) is a Will Shortz word puzzle called Two For One.

Finally, Foggy Brume has posted issue 48 of PandA magazine as a free sampler.  Register to see and download the issue.  PandA is a subscription e-mag that contains a new extravaganza each issue (six times a year).  Not for the faint of heart or mind, but if you think you’re up for the challenge, give it a try.

Dumping a coach (Sunday brunch: March 9, 2014)

Well, I got three quarters through the season before I had to assess any game misconducts this year.  No more: I had to dump a coach last weekend.  Or more precisely, the coach did stuff that he should have known was going to get him a game misconduct, and I penalized him appropriately.

There’s a popular opinion that referees are out to get coaches, but aside from a few ego cases, most of us are trying to keep the coaches and players in the game.  Part of it is for the good of the players and the game, but there’s also a selfish reason: it’s a pain in the tail to dump a coach.  Most immediately, it risks turning the rest of the team and the spectators against you and your partner, and then after the game it’s just a boatload of paperwork and hassle. (continued below the puzzles)

I don’t think I made note of this month’s Harper’s puzzle.  It’s called Gremlins, and after a couple of relatively easy puzzles from Maltby, we get a tough one again.  Each and every clue has an alteration, and each and every answer has an alteration.

By comparison, the acrosses in the Kevin Wald Academy Awards puzzle are all normal, which made it considerably less difficult than his puzzles usually are.

Straight cryptics?  We have a trio: Hex in the National Post, Fraser Simpson in the Globe and Mail, and LizR’s Brit cryptic, in order of difficulty.  Some nice clues in the Simpson and LizR puzzles so if you don’t usually attempt them, consider a try this week.  Even if you don’t get all the way through (I often can’t), they’re enjoyable.

The New York Times variety puzzle (behind the paywall) is an acrostic by Hex.  Hex also have their weekly straight cryptic in the National Post while Fraser Simpson constructs for the Globe and Mail.

We also have an acrostic (by Mike Shenk) in the Wall Street Journal (Java and printable versions).  It was easy, perhaps because there was so much repetition.  I got several letters of a key word in one place, and some different letters in another, and nailed that word, which quickly led to the neighboring words and the rest of the puzzle.  A lesson there for constructors.

Elsewhere in the puzzle world, Puzzazz released an update to their app this week, and it’s a big one. You can now solve any .puz or ipuz in the app, if the author provides the download link.

(back to hockey below the fold)

International ice (Sunday brunch: February 2, 2014)

With the Olympic hockey tournament coming up, let’s use this brunch to look at the differences between international hockey and the NHL game most people are used to seeing on TV.

The most visible difference is the size of the rink.  The NHL plays on a surface that’s 200 feet long and 85 feet wide, while international rules call for a rink that’s 200 by 100 (even a little bigger than that if built to a metric standard).  Many fans know that the bigger rink puts a premium on agility in skating, but there’s another key difference of Olympic ice, and that’s the placement of the blue lines.  The lines are closer to the goals, making the neutral zone even bigger.  That helps the passing game a lot.

So it used to be that international hockey was a fast and free-flowing game while North Americans played a tougher, more defensive style.  But after the lockout, the top brass of the NHL took steps to make their game more like the international one.  While they didn’t change the rink and the main rule change they made to open up the game was to legalize the two-line pass, they issued new standards and interpretations for the existing rules on obstruction-type fouls and gave instructions to the officials to enforce them vigorously.  So with respect to those rules, we officials in amateur hockey let a lot more go than our pro counterparts do.

The international rules that will apply at the Olympics are closer to USA Hockey rules than to NHL rules in most other aspects.  Most of the differences are to protect player safety.  “No-touch” icing is called, instead of the exciting but dangerous race to the puck in the NHL.  And there are extra penalties for hits from behind or contact with the head.  The NHL is trying to crack down on those injury-potential infractions, but mainly with fines and suspensions rather than increasing the penalties. 

A few other differences: attacking players have to stay out of the goal crease, and goalies have more freedom in playing the puck behind the goal.  Overtime is 10 minutes rather than 5. Don’t expect much fighting: the international rules are more strict, and with roster spots at a premium, Olympic teams aren’t going to save room for an enforcer.  Look here for the full International Ice Hockey Federation rulebook.

For your between-periods entertainment, here are this week’s new puzzles. 

Nathan corrects our last week’s post to tell us there was indeed a cryptic in the MIT Mystery Hunt.  It’s a beaut.  No instructions, no enumerations, and the down clues aren’t numbered.  But it’s not impossible!  You just have to dive in, trust your solving instincts, and figure out how the across clues and/or answers all have to be altered.  There’s no credit for it, but it reminded me of a Kevin Wald creation with its alterations and final puzzle to solve.  Nathan: was this yours?

Variety cryptic fans also have a new Harper's puzzle to contend with, called “Tongue Twisters.”  Erica’s always-entertaining analysis of the January puzzle is now posted too.  

The Wall Street Journal features a Marching Bands by Mike Shenk.  A hint grid and the solution are posted elsewhere on the blog.  This is a nice constructing job by Mike, who managed to get the completely-checked grid filled with lots of long words and phrases and little resort to dinky words.  Patrick Berry would be pleased.  The cluing has some fun twists too.

Our regular pair of unthemed Canadian cryptics are found in the National Post (Hex, blogged by Falcon) and the Globe and Mail (Fraser Simpson, not blogged yet, Java version here).  I thought the Hex puzzle was a little harder than usual: several 13s and 15s in it to challenge you. 

In the New York Times (behind the paywall), there’s an anagram-filled puzzle by Patrick Blindauer.  Deb Amlen says she got clobbered by it, so stop over to Wordplay and help her out.  I’ll try and have the solution up for you Sunday afternoon. UPDATE: solution is posted.  That puzzle was more word work than wordplay.    

Fraser and Fraser (Sunday brunch: January 19, 2014)

Hot and Trazom’s chat with Fraser Simpson points out to me that I’ve overlooked one of the regular North American cryptics.  So starting this week, I’ll add the Globe and Mail puzzle to our weekly brunch menu as well.  This week’s is here.

Second, we need a Fraser Simpson/Globe and Mail cryptic blog.  There apparently was a Saturday Globe Cryptic Blog a few years ago, but the cat must have gotten the unknown blogger’s tongue.  Here’s a great opportunity for someone to get into crossword blogging.  Interested?  Send me or Falcon an e-mail and we’ll lend you a hand.

Kerry Fraser at the Winter Classic in Philadelphia: 2011

In the meantime, here’s another Fraser blog to follow.  If you watched NHL hockey in the 80s, 90s, or 2000s, you’ll recognize Kerry Fraser, and even if you didn’t remember his name, you remembered his hair.  He was one of the last officials to work without a helmet (they’re required now), and he was one of the refs you could count on seeing in the Stanley Cup finals.  After working more NHL games than anyone else in history plus the Nagano Olympics, he retired in 2010 (and is living in South Jersey), wrote a memoir, and does some analysis for TSN (Canada’s version of ESPN).

His blog is titled “C’mon Ref!” and it’s notable because he’s quite willing to second-guess today’s officials and point out missed calls.  Plus Fraser shares some anecdotes from his own experience (we call it “pit” because it’s the kind of stuff refs talk about around the Zamboni pit after the game).  I don’t always agree with him, but I read him regularly.    

Good week for cryptic solvers.  Besides the regular Hex puzzle in the National Post (Falcon says it’s tricky), we have another straight cryptic in the New York Times (behind the paywall). Daniel Raymon is a constructor I haven’t heard of before, so I’ll be looking forward to Deb Amlen’s post at Wordplay.  Solution will be posted Sunday afternoon.

Harper’s is out this week. Prize puzzle, so no hints, but I got this one without too much trouble.  No post from Erica yet, but I expect she’ll have her take on the January puzzle very soon.  I thought this month’s is a better puzzle than usual, though some will find it particularly hard because of all the unclued entries.  But stick with it: once you get the theme, those answers will fall in quickly.

And on top of that, the Cryptic All-Stars crew have finished and mailed their print books for those who pledged accordingly.  Electronic copy is in progress, and will be provided in Puzzazz format.

The Wall Street Journal puzzle is a Rows Garden by Patrick Berry.  See elsewhere on the blog for hints if you need them.  If you like Rows Gardens, have you tossed some $$ in for a subscription from Andrew Ries?

Sprained whistle (Sunday brunch: November 17, 2013)

Hockey can be as rough on whistles as it is on the players and officials.  I had a really good AA pee wee game Sunday morning, and in the third period we had a scrum for the puck right on the blue line, so I had to get up on the boards to get clear of the play while keeping a good view of the puck and the line.  Moments later, the puck got shot on goal, and when I put the whistle in my mouth for the stoppage, I felt cold brass instead of the rubber mouthguard.  The mouthguard got knocked off in the fray and was lying on the ice back at the blue line. One reason some guys prefer tape.

There was similar situation in a men’s league game once, when a couple of players took advantage of the jam-up to crunch me and my whistle into the boards.  I came out of it OK, but one of the welds of the fingerclamp got loose and made the whistle wobbly.  Not a fatal injury, but career-ending (for the whistle, not me...).

Then there was the time last season I had a routine offside, and when I blew the whistle all it went was ‘tithhh.’  The pea had gotten jammed in the chamber.  I shook it, blew again, and got the right sound.  “Sprained whistle,” I explained with a smile to the coach.

Do your stretches, prevent injury.  Stretch your brain now?

Cryptics first.  There’s a new Harper’s out this week, and the Richard Maltby puzzle in it is called “Hex Signs.”  Some of the same strategies for getting a toehold on the puzzle apply here as with the Seven Sages last week.  No further hints, since it’s a prize puzzle.  With the new puzzle up, Erica ought to have her annotation of the November puzzle up soon, but it wasn’t posted, last I checked.

Meanwhile, Hex have their regular straight cryptic in the National Post.  I thought it was a little more difficult than usual.  Both Falcon and I were groping to find a theme in the puzzle: Falcon with more success than me.

And it’s time for the quarterly Mark Halpin opus.  The title: “Here’s to the Ladies Who Lunch” is a reference to a song from Sondheim’s musical Company.  It’s not too hard, and there’s a fun ending.

The Kevin Wald puzzle I did this week was called Multiples of Pie.  Another great medium-sized theme cryptic.  I’ve figured out half the meta, but not the last bit.  

Two acrostics this weekend: the Wall Street Journal puzzle by Mike Shenk has a seasonal theme, and some interesting bits of information in the clues as well as in the quotation.  The New York Times puzzle (Java puzzles at both links) is by Hex as usual.  Thomas Gaffney fills in for Deb Amlen blogging at Wordplay this week.

No new puzzle yet from LizR, but her fans are waiting in eager anticipation for a puzzle to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who: which premiered November 23, 1963.

Come back for an update when the Nathan Curtis variety puzzle is posted.

Keep your sweater untucked (Sunday brunch: October 13, 2013)

One of the other NHL rule changes taking effect this season is a delay of game penalty for players who tuck their jersey into their pants.  Some smart fans think this is a precursor to teams selling advertising on the bottoms of the jerseys, the way they do in European leagues.  In fact, their refs have advertising logos on their sweaters too.

Of course, there was one player they never would have dreamed enforcing such a rule on: Wayne Gretzky always tucked in the right side of his sweater and left the left side out.  So on Gretzky’s sweater, the manufacturers would move their logo from the bottom right (where the logo is on everyone else’s) to the bottom left.  And the day Gretzky’s number was retired, I wore a Flyers turtleneck to work and left the left side untucked in his honor.

Also on the equipment front: goalie’s pads are going to have to be a little shorter (about two inches), which the league hopes will increase scoring.  Their sticks are going to be a little smaller too.  Those changes could be more than a little annoying to some goalies: it could mess up their balance while making them get rid of their favorite old pads and break in new ones.

It’s the weekend, and we don’t care whether your shirttails are tucked in or not, or even if you’re still in pajamas.  Get comfortable and solve some puzzles now.  

The new Harper’s is out and timed just right to illustrate the comment I made at Word Salad about clues in verse.  The format is one we’ve seen before, where the grid has four-way symmetry and answers are clued in groups of four: you have to figure out which of four spaces each answer has to go in.  This makes for a good level of difficulty: challenging but not impossible.  If you get two or three answers from a couple of intersecting sets, you can eliminate most of the possible locations until you come up with the right one, or at least a good guess.  Since this is a prize puzzle, this is the only tip you’ll get.

I don’t think I’ve linked Kevin Wald’s Oscar-watching puzzle yet: it’s called “16 Changes” because the alterations to the answers are somewhat themed to the Best Picture nominees.

The Wall Street Journal puzzle is a Labyrinth by Mike Shenk.  Right in the sweet spot of difficulty level.  I got a few of the acrosses, had a guess at the first winding, and then stalled a little.  I had some guesses, but I wasn’t trusting them enough to write them in.  So I got a pencil, filled in the guesses, and they were all right!  That got me around to the halfway point and then some, where I got stalled again.  I trusted my guess again, got a little further, and one more guess later got to the end.  Nice grid: the average answer in the winding is 8.4 letters long.  Even Patrick Berry would be proud of an grid like that.

If you’re still having difficulty, I’ve created a hint grid that shows where each of the boundaries between Winding words is.  Look below the fold.

The weekend’s New York Times puzzle (behind the paywall) is a diagramless by Fred Piscop.  Deb Amlen blogs it (spoiler warning) at Wordplay.  I’ll have the solution posted here (I’ll stick it below this Sunday brunch post) between games on Sunday.

Falcon is on vacation, but he’s posted the National Post cryptic for us, though the solution and annotation may be late.  The grid looks interesting: Hex have put six(!) fifteen-letter answers in it.

[update] Nathan Curtis’s weekly variety puzzle was also from the “puzzle potluck”: it’s something called a Nurikabe.  These are tesselation (tiling) exercises like the four-color map problem, only in black and white.  You are given a grid and a set of instructions: you must color (or not color) every polygon so the final result will meet all the restrictions set up in the instructions.

Hybrid icing (Sunday brunch: October 6, 2013)

The NHL season began this week, and as always there are rule changes intended to make the game better and safer.  The most significant is the adoption of “hybrid icing.”  Icing is when a defending player shoots the puck from his half of the ice all the way down to the other end: it often happens when a player is under pressure from a forechecker and doesn’t want to turn the puck over and give up a scoring chance.  Icing is not a penalty, but the puck is brought back down to the defensive zone for a face-off, so the offending team loses any positional advantage.

For many years, the rules provided for icing to be negated if a player from the team that shot the puck down the ice could hustle there and get to the puck first.  This leads to some exciting plays: races between a forward and a defenseman to get to the puck and either get or wash out the icing.  (It’s a big moment for the linesmen too, since they have to hustle down with the players to be in position to see who touches first.)

But touch icing is exciting in another way: the player making the touch-up often ends up in a vulnerable position, and “pays” for the play with a crunching body check.  So for safety reasons, USA Hockey has a “no-touch” icing rule where the play is blown dead as soon as the puck crosses the goal line, even if an attacking player could have gotten to it first.  I like the rule because it discourages players from just dumping the puck and makes them pass it up-ice instead.

But the NHL wants to cut down on injury-potential situations while maintaining the speed of the game, so their rule now gives the front linesman discretion to blow the whistle as soon as the puck crosses the line if it’s evident that one player will win the race to the puck.  If the race is even, it continues all the way to the puck, and hopefully both players are focused on the puck instead of on the hit.  So it’s a hybrid of touch- and no-touch icing.  The NCAA has used it successfully for several years, and I think it will be good for the NHL.

The puzzle lineup for the weekend includes “High Frequency,” a mostly-easy variety cryptic by Hex, with an unusual way to get to the final theme answer (groaner warning).  Despite all the stuff going on in the grid, all the entries are solved and entered normally, so I don’t see much of an opportunity for or need for any hints.  If you’re having problems with any of the clues, the solvers on the comments tab of the WSJ puzzle blog will be very glad to help you.

If you got through the Hex as fast as I did, let’s catch up with Ucaoimhu and his MIT Mystery Hunt puzzle from earlier this year: “If At First You Succeed.”  That ought to be enough of a challenge for anyone.

No new Harper’s puzzle this week (probably next week), but I’m happy to report Erica is back, and she has the September puzzle annotated for you at Tacky Harper’s Cryptic Clues.

The regular Hex cryptic is published in the National Post, getting political but ecumenical.  Falcon solves and blogs it for you.

Nathan Curtis tried something new for a “puzzle potluck” (what a great idea) he attended: a conventional crossword, Sunday size, themed.   It’s called “Rule 34: Crossover Slash.”  Try it out and let him know what you think.  The grid is on the simple side: not as many long entries as a Times puzzle, but the cluing is excellent, especially for some of the words that are often found in crosswords.  And we learn that Nathan is also a Cliff Johnson fan!

The New York Times puzzle (behind the paywall) is a Hex acrostic.  The monthly bonus for subscribers is “Italian Heritage Month” by Fred Piscop.