Testing, 1, 2, 3 (Sunday brunch: July 12, 2015)

[Apologies for the late post: I got called for a fill-in referee job.]

The codes for each step of this ice dance
tell you what edge to be skating on:
LFO is left skate, forwards, outside edge

Congratulations to Bangle, who passed two figure skating tests yesterday.  When she resumed skating after her concussion last winter, she wasn’t cleared to do jumps and spins until well after she was fully recovered.  So instead, she worked on ice dance, which requires precise and strong skating skills more than the speed and power for jumps and spins.

Competition is one way of proving your skills, but skating also has a series of tests, where you aren’t competing against other skaters: you’re trying to skate well enough to earn a passing score from the judges.  The tests come in a series of levels: from pre-preliminary to senior for freestyle, and from pre-bronze to gold for ice dance (which for testing purposes does not have to be skated with a partner).  Each successive level has harder and harder required elements, and a higher standard of skating needed to pass.  In order to skate in competition at a particular level, you have to pass the corresponding test.

Since Bangle hadn’t done much dance before this season, she started with the beginning-level tests a couple of months ago, and has been racking up nice comments from the judges along the way.  On the right is the pattern for one of the bronze-level dances: the Fiesta Tango.  The lines show the pattern that should be traced on the ice, and numbered steps detail how each step should be skated.  Skate the pattern twice, and would be right back where you started: two times around and the dance is finished.  

Now test your mind against the weekend’s new puzzles.

Stickler is back from his winter R&R (it’s midwinter Down Under) and has two new puzzles: numbers 85 and 86.  Glad to see them!

Other weekly block cryptics are in the National Post and the Globe and Mail, as usual.  Falcon is getting his R&R (I think he’s in the lake country of Ontario, but he’s blogged the National Post for us.

Meanwhile, it’s time for a couple of periodic variety cryptics by Sondheim-inspired constructors: the Tom Toce puzzle in Contingencies and the Mark Halpin puzzle unveiled at a special event at the Arden Theater Company here in Philadelphia recognizing Sondheim.

The Wall Street Journal variety puzzle is Changing Directions by Patrick Berry.  Another one of those ones where getting a toehold is the hardest part, so I have a hint grid up for you as well as the solution.

The New York Times variety puzzle is a Hex acrostic, blogged (with spoilers) by Deb at Wordplay.

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)

Wall Street Journal hints (April 18, 2015)

Great variety cryptic by Hex in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal!  All the words have to be altered before entry, according to a formula provided in a superfluous word added to the respective clue.  Not too hard, not too easy—a perfect introduction to variety cryptics.

Below the fold is a set of hints in case you need them.  Click and drag over the respective box to see what the superfluous word is in each clue and how to interpret it.

Wall Street Journal hints (January 24, 2015)

This weekend’s Wall Street Journal puzzle is a variety cryptic by Hex called “Guidelines.”  Since none of the answers are numbered, it’s up to you the solver to figure out where they go.  Hex have shaded three rows and three columns as “guidelines” and given you a subset of clues for those rows and those guidelines, but you still have to work out which go where.

To figure out the guidelines, note the third, seventh, and eleventh letters in each pair of guideline answers.  A couple of them are uncommon letters: there’ll be only one place in the grid where each can go, and that will give you the respective guidelines.

As you fill in the rest of the answers, be aware of two things:

1. Not all letters are checked: each square will have a letter in it, but some will be filled only by an across or only by a down.
2. The puzzle has regular crossword symmetry except for the center (guideline) row and column.

Below the fold are some hints to get you started.  I’ve provided the row or column in which each answer goes.  As usual, click and drag to see the hint.

Wall Street Journal solution (January 24, 2015)

Below the fold is the solution to this weekend’s Wall Street Journal puzzle: “Guidelines,” a variety cryptic by Hex.

Under the weather (Sunday brunch: December 28, 2014)

I’m down with a cold today: let’s get straight to the links.

Māyā sends us a couple of Boxing Day gifts from New Zealand: one with a Dr. Who theme.  She also posted another cryptic earlier in the week.  From the Aussie side of the Tasman (Sydney, to be precise) comes the weekly Stickler.

North of the border, Hex make a topical reference in their National Post cryptic.   There’s also the weekly Globe and Mail puzzle.  

Hex also set a variety cryptic for the Wall Street Journal, continuing editor Mike Shenk’s trend towards slightly harder puzzles.  The puzzle is called Twenty-Six Out, since one letter of the alphabet has been taken away from  each row and column.  Solution and hints are posted elsewhere on the blog.  And the regular Hex acrostic is in the New York Times: Deb Amlen at Wordplay (spoiler warning) enjoyed the new words in it.

You might want to get ready for the new year by signing up for one of the subscription puzzle series My favorite is the biweekly Rows Garden by Andrew Ries.  He’s thoughtful enough to set each puzzle up with four levels of difficulty (withholding enumerations and cluing the blooms in random order).

I usually leave the straight crosswords to other bloggers, but I’ll make an exception for this puzzle by Andy Kravis with audio clues.  

Wall Street Journal hints: December 27, 2014

Below the fold are some hints for this weekend’s Wall Street Journal puzzle: a variety cryptic by Hex called “Twenty-Six Out.”  In it, one letter of the alphabet has been omitted from the answers in each row and column.  Some solvers who posted comments noted their difficulty in getting a toehold because they don’t know which letter to omit.  If you need one of those letters, click and drag on the appropriate square below to see it,

Wall Street Journal solution: December 27, 2014

Below the fold is the solution to this weekend’s Wall Street Journal puzzle, a variety cryptic by Hex called “Twenty-Six Out.”

The letters omitted from each row and column are shown at the end of those rows and columns.

Play in the steering (Sunday brunch: December 14, 2014)

I don’t think I’ve commented here about skates much, but they came to my attention yesterday, when I was dressing for my game  The screw holding the front of one of my skate blades came just a little bit loose, so the blade had a little wobble.  I’ve got a lot of stuff in my whistle bag, but not a screwdriver, so I tightened the blade as best as I could with my fingers and hoped for the best.

Fortunately, the screw and the blade stayed on through the game, but a couple of times, I noticed the skate not gliding quite straight; and my C-cuts and turns weren’t quite as sharp as usual, like a car with some play in the steering.

While the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both have acrostics this week, there are still plenty of new cryptics to keep you busy.  You can start by catching up with Māyā, who’s previously appeared in this blog as Xanthippe and LizR.  She has three new puzzles: be warned they’re difficult, but the themework is top-quality.

Another new variety cryptic from Kevin Wald: Let There Be Lightness.  More regular straight cryptics: Stickler, Hex, and the Globe and Mail syndicated (caution: Britishism in 10a).

A couple of year-end posts from BEQ are worth checking out: 701 is an interesting theme, and 698 is his holiday gift guide for puzzlers.

Automatics (Sunday brunch: Dec. 7, 2014)

In our last episode, we learned why refs shouldn’t have rabbit ears.  Today we find out that most refs have one thing or another that will instantly draw a penalty if said to them.  If you have one of the growing number of female referees working your game (Hi, Kate!), you’d better not say anything about her gender, or anything sexual in nature.  Every lady partner I’ve had makes that an automatic.

Me, it’s my glasses.  During my playing days and early in my refereeing career, I wore contact lenses.  But as I got older, I found they dried my eyes out uncomfortably.  More importantly, my astigmatism has grown significantly worse, and the contacts didn’t correct for that.  So I got a pair of Rec-Specs, which  are special glasses made with an elastic strap that fits under a helmet. They had the added bonus of protecting my eyes from stray sticks and pucks in the days before they made us all wear visors.

They’re very effective, but they’re also quite obvious (and ugly, I’ll admit).  So inevitably, some wag who thinks he’s being original makes a remark about my glasses being fogged up or something like that when a call goes against his team.  That’s my automatic: two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.  I don’t care what the score is or whether you’ve been a perfect angel the rest of the game. Then once you’re in the penalty box, I’ll explain: “a referee who wears glasses is a referee who gets his eyes checked every season.”

Put on your solving glasses and have a go at this great variety of puzzles.  The New York Times has a diagramless by Paula Gamache (blogged by Deb Amlen–spoiler warning), while the Wall Street Journal has Patrick Berry’s Cigar Boxes.  Hints for both have been posted elsewhere on the blog.

Variety cryptics?  Two of those, and believe it or not, the one by Kevin Wald is easier.  Tom Toce created another of his three-dimensional puzzles.

Straight cryptics?  A pair of them too.  Hex in the National Post (as blogged by Falcon) and the regular syndicated puzzle from the Globe and Mail.

And variety solvers might enjoy Thursday's New York Times straight crossword (Wordplay link)–it’s not so straight after all.  

So with all that puzzling going on, it’s a good week for Stickler to take a week off and celebrate his daughter’s wedding.  We wish them many blissful years together.  

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.

Warm spot (Sunday brunch: Nov. 9, 2014)

The rink where I had a came a couple of Sundays ago is one of the nicer places I skate.  The ice is kept in good condition (they have a well-regarded figure skating club), the referees’s dressing room is spacious and even has a hot shower (so I can be presentable when I get to church), and the place is well-lit.  I also like it because there’s an area near the blue line on the far boards where the ventilation system blows warm air.  It must be misadjusted, because the warm air is supposed to be aimed at the bleachers, but I’m not going to complain.

The rink is not that cold otherwise (the one up north from me is very cold), but the warm spot still is a very comfortable place.  It’s calming in a tense game, but it can also get my attention as I skate through and keep me alert in an easy game.

We haven’t had a new Kevin Wald puzzle in a while, so maybe it’s a good thing that the grid of “Many a Day” is pretty easy to fill (by standards of Uc’s puzzles, which are pretty darn hard).

The WSJ variety puzzle is a new type (right?) by Mike Shenk.  It’s called “Alternation” and it reminded me of a Nathan Curtis puzzle.  It’s probably easier to construct than a straight crossword, and quicker if not easier to solve.  With that in mind, I posted a challenge grid as well as the usual solution and hints.

The New York Times has a cryptic this week: it’s by Richard Silvestri. Among the spoilers (read her post after you solve) Deb Amlen has a good description of the attraction of cryptics: “The reshaping of our train of thought is what makes cryptic crosswords so much fun.”  She also informs us that the Times is preparing to make some of their cryptics available in their mobile app.

Regular weekly straight cryptics are found at the Stickler, the National Post, and the Globe and Mail. The Stickler was hard: I haven’t had time to solve the others yet since I need to be Mr. Mom this weekend (more precisely, to do figure skating and orchestra taxi service).  

A Great Game (Sunday brunch: November 2, 2014)

Seeing as how Election Day is this Tuesday, I figured I should read one of the new books by a prominent politician.  No, not one of the people angling for the 2016 presidential nomination.  The author isn’t even American: it’s Stephen J. Harper, Prime Minister of Canada.

Though his degree is in economics, Harper has long had an interest in history.  Being a native of the Toronto area, he’s an avid Maple Leafs fan.  When the Society for International Hockey Research was formed, it inspired Harper to pursue that avocation.  He says the research and writing for the project, which began in 2004, was a pleasant release from the stress of politics and work in Parliament.  He had assistance in researching the book’s contents, but the writing is all Harper’s.

A Great Game: the Forgotten Leafs and the Rise of Professional Hockey is centered on the emergence of professional hockey in Toronto, from the beginnings of the Ontario Hockey Association around the turn of the century to the first Stanley Cup for Toronto, won by the Blue Shirts in 1914.  Much centers on the tension between the ideals of amateurism in sport and the rise of professional sport as popular entertainment.  This story, which played out in other sports too, like golf and football, was driven by rising prosperity and the emergence of a middle class.  The upper class no longer had a monopoly on sport or other leisure-time activities.

In the manner of the best popular history books, A Great Game is both scholarly and accessible. There are plenty of anecdotes to illustrate the ways of life before the Great War, and intriguing bits of hockey history like the introduction of goal nets and the practice of dropping the puck in a face-off instead of laying it on the ice (which is how face-offs are conducted in lacrosse, which was an equally big sport in Canada at the time).  Harper also does a nice job fleshing out the main characters: not just the players, but the association presidents and promoters too.

Quotes from newspaper stories of the time knock down the myth that society’s preoccupation with sports is a modern thing: only fans gathered around newspaper and telegraph offices for play by play instead of around a television screen.  The parade welcoming a returning Stanley Cup challenger, even in defeat, was just as much of an event then as it is now.  That points to the only shortcoming of A Great Game: though it is well-illustrated, I would have liked to see more photographs of games and of the surrounding hoopla.

Amateur or professional, try solving these crosswords...

The highlight of the weekend is Hex’s variety cryptic in the Wall Street Journal: Spoonermania.  I don’t think I need to say any more other than some of the clue types will be obvious.  But a few aren’t so much, and in case those give you trouble, I have hints posted.  The solution is also up  Hex also have their usual straight cryptic in the National Post (blogged by Falcon).  More moderate difficulty than easy, but a smooth solve.   If you remember Hex’s fondness for second definitions, you’ll do well.

More straight cryptics are found in the Globe and Mail, and Down Under courtesy of the Stickler.  I found the latter to be a tough one, but I got through it.

BEQ posted a new Marching Bands he brought to Crosswords LA as a bonus for the entrants.  Small (11 x 11 instead of the usual 13 x 13) but creative as BEQ’s work always is.  The other puzzles from that tournament (all straight crosswords, I think) are available for just five bucks, proceeds going to charity.

The New York Times variety puzzle is an acrostic, blogged (with spoilers) by Deb Amlen at Wordplay.

Wall Street Journal hint: November 1, 2014

Need a hint for this weekend’s Wall Street Journal variety puzzle?  In this puzzle, 12 entries have a Spoonerism in their clues, 12 others have their answers Spoonerized before entry, and the rest are normal.

Below the fold, I've posted a table of which entries have altered clues, which have altered answers, and which are normal.  If you want to find out which group a particular entry is, click and drag over the box next to its location.

Wall Street Journal solution: November 1, 2014

Below the fold is the solution to this weekend’s Wall Street Journal puzzle: Spoonermania, a variety cryptic by Hex.

Did you solve the Richard Maltby variety cryptic from Harper’s?  It’s linked in the latest edition of Sunday brunch.

Shore or inland? (Sunday brunch: August 24, 2014)

Quick trip back to New England today, so I was definitely in the mood for Kevin Wald’s three-part NPL convention cryptic series: NH, VT, and ME.  Like him, I’m traveling by train (though I’m driving back with The Other Doctor Mitchell), and also like him, I was in Cape Cod, so the geographic and train references were a snap.

A train trip always poses the question of which side of the train to sit on (by contrast to my daily commute, where I usually take the same seat every day). Going between New York and Boston, the right side offers views of the shoreline, thought the sun glare can be a bother if you’re riding in the morning.  I opted for scenery, and hit the jackpot, spotting two herons perched on a bridge piling in New York and an osprey standing at its nest in in the salt marshes between Branford and Guilford, Connecticut (near milepost 84).  UPDATE: several more herons and ospreys in Rocky Neck, around MP 114

Two acrostics this weekend in the big papers: Hex in the New York Times (puzzle behind the paywall, comments and spoilers at Wordplay) and Mike Shenk in the Wall Street Journal.  In the latter, I found myself virtually erasing some of the clue answers because of conflicts in the grid, only to find I was right all along.

I got about three quarters of the way through the Globe and Mail cryptic before having to resort to the computer.  30a took a while to get: “Won’t livestock be sold by it?”  Both HEAD WEIGHT and DEAD WEIGHT fit, and it wasn’t until I recognized the contrast with LIVEstock that I was sure which was right.  The Hex cryptic in the National Post was considerably smoother.

There’s a fun package of themed crosswords with little twists that’s been posted by Eric Berlin.  It’s a salute to Mad Magazine and all its great contributors.  Eric makes lots of references to the little details of the magazine: the things that rewarded your second or third reading of each issue.

The happiest dump in the world (Sunday brunch: August 17, 2014)

Take It Or Leave It

Back in ‘Sconset for another short vacation. One of the activities last time we were here was helping to clean out my parents’ garage and haul some scrap wood, cardboard, leftover paint and other things to the dump. Sabers went along to assist, and I promised him his choice of three books in return for his help.

He gave me a puzzled look, and we drove off. He didn’t know about an island tradition called Take It Or Leave It: a shack next to the main trash and recycling trailers where all kinds of people drop off unwanted stuff and collect wanted stuff.  The tradition of Yankee thrift is so ingrained that people from all walks of life come to the dump and pick up someone else’s unwanted items.  They brag about their finds to nobody in particular and go on about how tastes have changed.

There are enough books there to stock a small library, jigsaw puzzles for rainy days, old clothes and various linens, unmatched linens, and much more.  I brought a couple of pair of very old cross-country skis and some touch-up paint for a Toyota, which were gone by the time we came out from hunting for books.  We didn’t take anything besides a few books, since we already had a carload of stuff to take back home with us from my parents’.  Furthermore, we already had stuff like martini glasses from the church rummage sale, which is just like Take It Or Leave It, except that we make a donation to some very good causes in exchange for the stuff others brought.

No junk here: just fine new puzzles.

The Wall Street Journal puzzle is a Seven Sages by Patrick Berry.  Aside from one mistake which I quickly noticed (but didn’t rectify as quickly), I found it easier than the last one of these he set, but it’s still a challenge which requires logic and adjoining answers in order to get a toehold.  Some may find these more frustrating than other variety crosswords, since you can lose momentum quickly even after you get the first few answers in.  You might also like the Friday straight crossword, which is on a Woodstock theme for the 45th anniversary of that concert.

The New York Times variety puzzle (behind the paywall) is a Puns and Anagrams by Mel Taub.  Carrying on with the recycling theme, it re-uses the same grid from the April P&A.  Deb gives it the staredown (and spoilers) at Wordplay.

The new Harper’s is out, with a Richard Maltby variety cryptic called One Upmanship.

Kevin Wald’s latest variety cryptic is his Lollapuzzoola puzzle called “Fearful Symmetry.”  Since it was set for in-person tournament solving, it’s not as intricate as some of his other cryptics, and will take less time to solve. Still just as good.

The Hex cryptic in the National Post (blogged by Falcon) has an interesting (but not very connected) grid.  The syndicated cryptic in the Globe and Mail is pretty hard.

BEQ has a wrap-up of Lollapuzzoola, and reminds us you can still purchase the puzzles (six of them, by top-flight constructors) at bemoresmarter.com.  And while we’re on the subject of BEQ, he’s sounding out interest in a possible subscription series (bi-weekly) of Marching Bands.  See here for a sample.  Like good variety crosswords?  Send him an e-mail of encouragement.

Garden (Sunday brunch: August 10, 2014)

It’s been a mild summer: the garden has done more relaxing than working, but we finally have some cukes and green peppers this week, along with a big batch of tomatoes.

Great weekend for cryptic solvers: if you’re about to go on vacation there’ll be lots of puzzles for your relaxation.  There are the regular straight cryptics from the National Post and the Globe and Mail.  I managed to complete the entire Globe and Mail puzzle this time (though needing a lookup of one answer), which is a rare feat.  LizR has a new one for us too (I haven’t started it so someone can tell us in the comments if it’s themed or not and how hard it is).

Variety cryptics start with “Target Range” by Hex in the Wall Street Journal.  Some of the regular solvers who comment at the WSJ site took one look and shied away because the grid doesn’t have any bars and the clues were in random order, but Hex are fair to their solvers and they made sure to leave a good starting point.  I have a hint post up to talk you through it, with increasing levels of help if you need it.

If you get through that, try Kevin Wald’s cryptic for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament: Supreme Cohort.  It’s an impressive 12 x 13 size with 58 clues, which will keep you busy for a while.

And it’s time for the quarterly Mark Halpin puzzle, titled “On the Steps of the Palace.”  A Cinderella theme—has Mark finally run out of Sondheim-related cryptic ideas?  No!  It’s a song from “Into the Woods,” a fairy tale mashup that was written before anyone had the idea of a mashup.  Meanwhile, Mark will be launching his Labor Day Extravaganza later this month: watch for details.

The Times has a Hex acrostic that Deb Amlen describes as “unpredictable.”  Deb gives honorable mention to Elizabeth Gorski’s Sunday straight crossword, which is on a doggie theme.  The puzzles themselves are behind the NYT paywall.

Wall Street Journal hints: August 9, 2014

[When you’re through with this puzzle, join us every weekend for Sunday brunch]

Some of the commenters on the Wall Street Journal puzzle blog expressed more frustration than usual with this puzzle, where not only are the clues in random order, you also have to figure out where each answer starts and ends.

It’s not as hard as it looks, and I'll give you some tactical advice here.  If that doesn’t help, there are some more specific hints in hidden text, and finally a full hint grid with the bars filled in below the fold. Don’t go for the hint grid until you try the other tips.

The first thing to know is that except for the center square, this puzzle has normal crossword symmetry. That means that if you rotate the grid 180 degrees, it will look the same.  That will help a lot with the first two rings.  Each of them has pairs of acrosses and downs that add up to 11 letters.  That means all the rows and columns are complete, and consist of one 7 and one 4 for Ring 1, and one 6 and one 5 for Ring 2.

Since the first four clues in each set are acrosses and the last four are downs, there’s only eight ways to fill each row or column if you were to go by trial and error. But you don’t have to: there’s a logical way to get started.  There’s an uncommon letter shared by an across and a down (don’t get trapped by the uncommon letter shared by two downs. Chances are good that that uncommon letter is going to be shared by those two answers, because Hex are kind constructors and want you to succeed with your logic.  Now which corner would it have to be?

Once you have that, you can use the crossword symmetry to place the bars in the opposite row and column.  You now know where another 7 and another 4 have to go, since you crossed off one across of one length and one down of the other length when you placed the words with the uncommon letter.

Now do the same thing with Ring 2.  See, it’s already easier because you have the letters from Ring 1! The remaining rings are going to be harder because the words don’t fill the entire row and column, but you have enough from the first two rings to make smart guesses.  Be willing to guess, remember the symmetry, and you will triumph!

Next hint (bigger):  click and drag in the table below if you really want to know the order of answers in the first two rings. They are presented in clockwise order, so the first letter in the table corresponds to the first across in the top row, and the last letter in the table corresponds to the first down in the left column.

Clockwise	Across		Down		Across		Down
Ring 1	c	d	e	g	a	b	h	f
Ring 2	d	b	e	g	a	c	h	f

And for emergency use only, there is a hint grid below the fold.