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If you remember we told you before that if a clue includes “e.g” it most certainly means that the item in the clue is part of a speficic category. For example in the clue “Lemon, e.g” might lead us to an answer such as LEGUMES.

Sometimes however you might want to forget all that. And remember that puzzle creators are very playful and make tricky connections. One way to imagine it is to imagine the puzzler as they climb and swing on various ideas of crossword conventions as if they were playing on monkey bars. Very few things are off-limits in terms of using or breaking a “convention” except of course if you were to push another puzzle construction off the monkey bars.

This Thursday Trenton returns with a crossword that will leave you bamboozled, unless you talk back to it or experiment with another puzzle such as WSJ Crossword which comes up several times per week.

Some clues you might find tricky

1A/14A. Kinda cute cross-referenced clue. (Yes, it is possible.) A “Creative nugget” is an IDEA,  the “Start” of which is not the letter I but a GERM.

The crossword editor of the New Tork Times since 1993 and puzzler for NPR, said that since the pandemic situation has started a change in submission policy allowed users to submit puzzles digitally to The Times. This made submissions grow like weed.

We are getting more than 200 submissions a week he said. I feel like a fire horse turned on me.

Shortz along with 2 other editors review the puzzle submissions , edit and select them.

In the case of a themed puzzle, we look for something interesting, fresh, narrowly focused and new, Shortz Said. I look for the quality of the vocabulary with as little stupid obscurity as possible. There are fun words difficult to solve, that’s interesting but if you are looking for an insect or a 40 km river in Bulgaria, that is not so valuable.

In the early days of puzzle history, i.e a few decades ago — crossword constructors built their puzzles with paper and a pencil. Modern puzzle makers work with digital tools such and programs, use online dictionaries, thesauruses and utilize other resources. There are many web tools (websites) that offer all sorts of information about clues, puzzle solutions and words and their meanings.

The Daily Times puzzles are built in a 15 by 15 squares grid, and Sunday Puzzles are 21 by 21. With a Sunday puzzle which often times has a theme, you have to figure out the theme answers first. Said Charlson. Once you come up with those set of answers you hav eto put the black boxes around them so your skeleton will look fine.
In my first published puzzle all the theme answers had 2 XX-s in a row like Redd Foxx, the actor.

Seikel a senior majoring in history and economics made a 2019 New Year’s resolution to construct a puzzle and be able to get it published in the times crossword. The had had a few puzzles rejected in the past before being finally accepted in April.

It was a relatively rough day. There was all this COVID stuff all over the news and we had to move out of our campus apartment because of an infestation she said. Then I was informed my puzzle was accepted. What a great surprise it was!

Charlson of Galloway, who has graduated in English Literature and Creative Writing from OH State University in 2018, said h e has been a word play and scrabble fan all his life. On an Editors note for a puzzle published in The Times, described Charlson’s puzzle as the 213th puzzle in the U.S and fifth in Ohio bu the North American Scrabble Players Association. Even when I was in grade school, I was creating these puzzles and trying to solve them with my family. He had a passion for puzzles that used only one vowel and did it himself in 2019.

The more puzzles a constructor has been able to get published on The Times the better the reward. A daily puzzle submission can earn up to 500. In case you have had more then 3 or 4 puzzles published, the reward can bump up to 750. A Sunday puzzle instead can begin at 1.5k and go up to 2.3k after the first two have been published.

The Times has the biggest circulation and since it is the most prestigious newspaper we pay the best.

The money is nice, but puzzle-makers do it for other rewards, as well. The puzzle makers do it for the satisfaction not only the money, although the reward is nice.

There is satisfaction when you create a puzzle. Having the idea of a theme and having to realize it is always a satisfaction to see it in paper and have people talk about it on the internet.

Seikel who has had her 2nd puzzle accepted by the times and has four others pending said she will keep going as she enjoys it so much, especially now that most people have to stay home most of the time.

The day it is actually published I love thinking about people with their coffe working on my puzzle Abel said. It is just so much fun.

For most people like you and me, if the possible list of answers becomes too difficult or the right word escapes our mind altogether we put down the incomplete puzzle for good. This is not the case for the dedicated cruciverbalist, whom upon encountering a blank he sees a challenge and puts his will to crack it.

That is the mindset that the Chair of the Finger Lakes Annual XWord Competition mr Gary Weissbrot followed to adress covid-caused postponement that delayed this year’s 8th Annual competition date from March to Sept.

The Tournament is a fundraised which donates all of it’s collected money to Tompkins Learning Partners and consists of people or teams of people competing at 3 different levels of puzzle difficulty to complete crossword puzzles.The event gathered over 350 participants last year, all competing for a little winner glory. The competition is supported by businesses and organizations which include the Ithaca Times as well participants fees which are optional and depends on how much they like contribute.

Like nearly everyone, Weissbot assumed that the pandemic would be over by summer, he said, but as Summer came and the rate continued to increase, in many cases spiking in July, he knew they would never be able to meet in person. He was left with two options: officially cancel the event or find another way to get people their crosswords.

Option 1.: Cancel the event officially.
Option 2: Find a different way to get people their crosswords.

Refunds were offered even why we planned to reschedule the event to a later date, -said Weissbrot. He was astonished by the number of people that refused the refund and opted for rescheduling it in a later date regardless of when/where.
Weissbrot told that only 2 registrants requested a refund while everyone else either said We will join in September or to Keep the ticket money as they judged it a decent/worthy organisation and would love to see it launch an event next year
The two participants were Cornell Graduates who were going home in May he said.

This way Weissbrot decided to relocate the event from the Crowded Boynton Middle School to the kitchen tables, park benches and living rooms or local parks  of this year’s players in the Competitions first-ever “Honor” tournament.

We found a way to keep the tradition alive by doing it Online instead of cancelling this event. On your own schedule we will all participate in the 8th Annual Honor Event – the website states.

Being an “Honor Competition”, each participant will be held responsible for cheating and has the responsibility of reporting their own times cirectly to Weissbrot. A mark of a decicated cruciberbalist is the commitment of completing the crossword puzzle without external help or cheating.

Mr Myles Mellor has published more than 16 thousand xwords puzzles including those of the weekly puzzle on the Peninsula Pulse.

Puzzle maker and creator Mellor did not set out to craft a new type of career when he first sketched a crossword puzzle  about 20 years ago. He was only trying to cheer up his dad back in his homeland England.

When my mom died, my father was quite devastated by her death and I was trying to think ways I could cheer him up and make life better for him said Myles M, who was born and raised in Oxford,UK.

Mellor’s father loved doing puzzles, so he started sending them to him. After receiving several, his father suggested he get them published. Mellor send a few dozen queries who resulted unsuccessful until he got some assistance from David Hoyt, one of the world’s most renowned puzzle creators.

David Hoyt’s first piece of advice was to stop hand-writing them start using puzzle-creation software.

“I didn’t even know that they even existed,” Mellor said.

Not long after that, he eventually sold his first puzzle to 911 Magazine, an industry publication for the emergency comm and response industry. Now he has published more than 16 thousand crossword puzzles, including the weekly puzzle in the Peninsula Pulse, the puzzles of which are relatively more difficult compared to the other puzzles he creates.

It can take him anywhere from one hour to half a day for Mellor to complete writing a puzzle. The difficulties mostly come from both the size and the clue phrasing.

It is all about the level of Difficulty you want to Have really – he said. You can make a puzzle easy by just using the definition of a word, or you can make it more difficult by using a reference or something more subtle that relates to the word. I try to include some easier one so it’s solvable and not a nightmare. I think about who the people that are going to try to solve this are, and adjust the difficulty based on that.

Mellor Still loves the knowledge , learning and the discovery that comes with puzzles and he said there has been greater demand since the pandemic Covid-19.

It is a peaceful challenge at a time when the world is anything but calm – he said.
If you are there with a crossword puzzle and a cup of coffee, it is beautifully peaceful.

You can learn more about Myles Mellor on the “Door County Pulse Podcast” on the episode called “How Myles Mellor Made Crosswords His Career.”

People have been challenging and testing their brains capacity since 3000 years BCE, when ancient Sumerians carved puzzles into stone tablets.(Like this one, for example:
“There is a house. One enters it blind and comes out seeing. What is it?”).

Over time, we’ve created puzzles that test a variety of abilities—and we improved  up the most popular structures to make them even more difficult. However as the trouble of brainteasers has evolved, so too has our desire to tap them for sweet rest from the ordinary.
Enjoy a little free time and escape to see how many of these you can break.

Players feel a little teen rush when the solution found. Studies also says that pleasure probably won’t be the main advantage to crosswords: Regular playing may help slow down memory loss and other signs of cerebral ageing.

107 years ago when a brand new newspaper in NEW York City published first crossword the readers weren’t so interested. But in time the audience got bigger and now involves hundreds of thousands of fans who play and try to solve the puzzle every day.

Maze
Three-dimensional labyrinths can cause us to feel as though there’s no way out. Even in 2D, a distracting point represents a special test to our navigational abilities.

If the  road is quite circular even on paper, our hippocampus, which manages learning and memory, starts in overload to give meaning to the environment.
It uses visible signs – say a familiar familiar return – to help us clear the way from one end to the other.

Sudoku
You can give the answer to almost anything as long as there is a minimum of 17 numbers filled in at the beginning.Unlike crossword puzzles, these numerical networks require zero vocabulary skills as you only have to deal with numbers. While doing one day by day probably won’t transform you into an arithmetic marvel, a few studies have suggested that these sort of tasks can help keep  your brain in shape.

Logic
For over 1100 years, rationale puzzles have revealed how well we can reason. Despite the fact that solving them can demand some tricky calculations, they involve once in a while some traditional arithmetics.
They also test less concrete skills like imagination and memory.

Alumuddhin who serves the first half of the day, is full of gossip jokes and kind of noisy. Although sudden flashes of anger are not uncommon, they however dissipate within seconds. Sirajuddhin, his younger brother is by contrast much quieter and calm and he communicates though his gentle smile, almost as if he is secretly delighted at the ways of the busy city life.

It is like a crossword puzzle. Sirajuddhin tea stall is one of the most fascinating street side chai stops in the city. It is unique. On a shelf clamped into the wall ther is a wooden slab running from top to bottom and left to right. This divites the shelf into a stack of square shaped spaces, thus making it look like a sort of crossword puzzle that you often encounter in newspapers.

Of course instead of the alphabet letters the little boxes are usually congested with tea things. One box might have ginger sprigs and pink mugs. Another might have a kettle whose chipped texture is so evocative of the everyday chai civilisation that a history fan might feel tempted to steal it and display on his room. A close=by box is filled with China cups, tea glasses and the box below is packed with tiny metal trunks, or possibly a cash box. On the top row a box is over-stuffed with rusting metallic tea carriers that hold several chai glasses together.

Everything about this chai stall place was set up by the senior of two brothers. Including the wooden shelves according to Alimuddhin. The brothers house is just a few meters away.

The place has a couple of small steps beside it and one does not see the customers crowding up, enjoying their chai while watching the flood of traffic of dogs, mules, people, motorcycles go on with their daily routine on the lively street.

The VIP seating however is just across the lane, under a beautiful tree beside an uknown’s person marble grave. The tea shop regulars sit there all day long, chatting over the cups of Sirajuddhin’s chai with milk. The regular snacks are also served: fen and biskuts. The place starts serving daily from 5Am to 10PM,alghouth it used to stay open till late night during the pre-pandemic days.

On the day this place WAS SHUT closed with a wooden lid, the sight was haunting. It was such a rare afternoon as it seemed like the corner had lost an iconic part of it.

The Room 2
If you want to test yourself with puzzles and interactive mysteries that are difficult to solve, this is the game you need to download. Explore the room you are in, browse through the objects and put all the clues together to get to the solution and move on to the next room. Breathtaking graphics will accompany you on this mysterious journey and an urgent soundtrack will transport you to realistic 3D environments.

We cannot lie to you, it is a paid game, of which a previous and a later version has also been made. The Room 2 costs 1.49 euros and is worth all of them, but if you really are not convinced, you can try it by purchasing it and requesting a refund within two hours of downloading.

Monument Valley 2
I’m sure you already know Monument Valley, a game we talked about and talked about again, but if, due to some strange astral conjuncture, it hasn’t happened to you yet, it’s time to immerse yourself in its fantastic world and that of his sequel!

Guide the princess Ida through enchanting settings of the most diverse architectural styles, venture among the mysterious monuments and secret passages, overcoming the riddles of the crow people. An original design, 3D graphics and optical illusions to get lost for hours, all available on the Play Store for a few euros.

Limbo
Are you looking for mystical atmospheres and mysterious settings? Limbo will transform you into a particularly elastic child who tends to die in the most absurd and grotesque ways. Your task is to guide him through a world shrouded in fog and darkness to find his lost sister. Of course the only way to move forward is to solve complex puzzles.

Game graphics and soundtracks are amazing, often macabre, and puzzles become more difficult as you move on to the next level. To enjoy the game experience to the full, we recommend playing in the evening in bed, once you have switched off the light in the room. Unfortunately, even in this case you will have to spend a good 5.34 euros.

Kiwanuka
Unique of its kind Kiwanuka remotely remembers the famous Lemmings. Lead a group of travelers, the people of Kiwanuka, through dangerous places and break yourself. It will be up to you, with your decisions, to bring the people to freedom: initially you will have to guide the group simply at the end of each stage, but as the game progresses you will discover different ways to cross the enormous canyons and avoid the fatal fluorescent pink mountains.

Oriental music is really suggestive, especially when you complete a level, and offer a touch of originality that other games (in this list) do not offer. Overall a special and fun game, even in its simplicity.

Puzzlerama

All’interno di Puzzlerama trovate raccolti più di 3500 puzzle divisi nelle categorie più amate: Linee, Tangram, Tubi, Blocchi, Punti, Laser, Shikaku e molti altri. È l’applicazione definitiva per gli amanti dei puzzle, con livelli praticamente infiniti con cui rilassarsi e affinare le proprie abilità logiche. Attenzione ai cloni: Puzzlerama è la versione originale!

I creatori affermano di essere al lavoro per l’introduzione di puzzle e categorie sempre nuovi. Mantenete quindi l’applicazione aggiornata se non volete perdervi parte del divertimento!

Uncharted Fortune Hunter

If you are a fan of the Japanese console you cannot not know Uncharted. The exclusive video game series from Sony has landed on the Google Play Store with a puzzle game featuring neat graphics and intriguing puzzles.
In the game you’ll play nothing less than Nathan Drake and you’ll have to find a way to get him to the treasures in the various maps by avoiding all kinds of deadly traps. You can also connect to the Play Station Network to receive exclusive rewards for Uncharted 4: the end of a thief.

MechBox 2

Take a nice cup of chamomile and sit down before you download this game, it might get on your nerves. The creators of the game pride themselves on having created the most difficult puzzle game ever and I must admit that if it’s not true, they are very close.
In this game you have to use all the elements around you to open the MechBox and move on to the next puzzle. Will you be able to complete this game for another completely free?