152. 2012 Calendar

Download the PDF of your choice, complete with mice, notable dates and an election-year theme:

• handy compact size (2 per page)
• no-microscope-needed size

Preview the calendar by clicking on the 2012 drawing to the right.

151. Happy Holidays

© Patrick Merrell

150. Thai Kwon Do

Synopsis: Autistic girl who’s a martial arts prodigy puts every bad guy in Thailand in the hospital. And no stunt double for the actress Yanin Vismitananda! Next film, she teams up with Lisbeth Salander.

A clip from Chocolate (2008).

149. Merrell Books

Out Now:
PEOPLE CELEBRITY PUZZLER HOLIDAY SUPERBOOK! A holiday section, plus TV detectives, celebrity chefs, movie cars, chick flicks, Bradley, Cee Lo and Soffffia.

JUMBO WORD SEARCH CELEBRATION
240 pages and 6 types of puzzles, with crossword champ Dan Feyer pitching in.

Coming in 2012 (for kids):
KID•TOPIA • Bob the plunger and Rollo the toilet paper roll host a book packed with unusual trivia, gross recipes and over 80 pages of fun and funny puzzles. Color illustrations throughout.

CHICKEN GAMES & PUZZLES • 144 pages with illustrations throughout. Co-written by Helene Hovanec.

HAUNTED HALLOWEEN MAZES: A Maze Adventure • For beginning solvers. Zombie mice, walking eyeballs and a floor-eating furball.

HAPPY HOLIDAY MAZES: A Maze Adventure • For beginning solvers. When Santa’s away, the elves will play.

PUZZLED PENGUINS • For beginning solvers, starring Herbert and Martha Penguin. Scholastic book club reprint, early 2012.

148. Bob the Capybara

A capybara, the world’s largest rodent, is performing in this year’s Big Apple Circus! His name is Bob and one of his talents is riding in a car (another appears to be eating microphones).

Accompanying him in this year’s show is an African porcupine named Percy. Percy was temporarily sidelined with a case of low blood sugar, but a local vet saved the day by rubbing honey on his gums. He’s already back in action and shooting quills at audience members.

147. Pleasantville Tourney Recap

Will Shortz’s annual fund-raising crossword tournament is history. A sizable flock of crossword fanciers ran a gantlet (or gauntlet, if you prefer) of flying Ping-Pong balls at Mr. Shortz’s newly christened hall of the white orb, with all appearing to have found refuge in a roomy, well-lit solving room specially outfitted for the night. A wall kept the fervent paddle-wielders at bay, but the threat was ever-present via soundproof windows. An imported Chinese table tennis table full of beverages and baked goods helped calm a few frayed nerves.

My contribution for the night was unplugging one of the three coffeemakers that had overloaded the wall outlets and disabled the official display clock for the first round. I then skirted the mayhem in the outer table tennis area, located the circuit breakers and restored power. Red, gleaming numbers greeted the solvers for the remainder of the night.

Solving ensued, with some familiar faces blazing through the NYT puzzles that will appear next Monday through Wednesday. Bob Mackey, Jeffrey Schwartz and Elaine Lippman posted the fastest qualifying times in 3:05, 3:05 and ~4:30 respectively. Another perennial ringer, Ken Stern, ended up just out of the running.

Solving on the oversized boards for the finals, Bob Mackey took top honors on next Thursday’s puzzle, with Mr. Schwartz nosing out Ms. Lippman by an eye wink.

A good smattering of the puzzle-sated faithful then found their way to Will Shortz’s house nearby. Awaiting them was a generous bounty of sodas, beer and wine to wash down inviting bowls of Doritos, Ruffles, carrots and white celery. Banter filled the house with merriment. Liniment was available for any who suffered Ping-Pong ball bruises.

CLICK HERE for a great video of the event.

The windows behind which we cowered are at the top right.

146. Fantastická

Mazes are cooperative when it comes to crossing borders. No translation needed for the puzzle itself. I just got word that several of my bludiště (maze) books are being released again in the Czech Republic, where the word “start” is even the same (“end” becomes “cíl”).

The latest two are subtitled “Předběhni čas!”(overtaking time) and “Cesta kolem světa” (way around the world). Sbohem.

145. Pleasantville Crossword Tournament

The 15th Annual Westchester Crossword Puzzle Tournament will be held Friday, October 21, starting at 7:30. The venue has moved a few blocks from the Episcopal church to Will Shortz’s new Ping-Pong palace.

• More info     • Directions

144. JeOpardy! cONtestant

Joon Pahk has been moonlighting on Jeopardy! this week and last. In the past several years he’s also made some appearances on the NYT crossword blog Wordplay, including an interview and a guest-solving stint. Links to those features, as well as to videos of his Jeopardy! performances (put together by Nancy Shack), can all be found on this Wordplay page.

And you can play Joon’s “Guess my word!” game by clicking HERE.

143. Dictionary Definition of the Day

Mo·a·za·gotl cloud \mōˈätsəˌgätəl\ n: one or more cloud banks formed on the lee side of a mountain under foehn conditions

142. Over 99 NYT Favorites

It’s been 10 years since Will Shortz’s first collection of favorite crosswords was published.

But crossword constructors have been busy in their puzzlemaking labs concocting all sorts of entertaining, unexpected and devilish creations since then, and a compilation of their slyest efforts are now available in 8.5-by-11 form: Will Shortz Picks His Favorite Crosswords: 101 of the Top Crosswords from The New York Times.

The big question is how many puzzles are in it. The publisher’s website claims it’s 101, while the cover says 100. Oh, the mystery! I guess we’ll all just have to run out and buy a copy to solve this conunding perplexion.

The old favorites: Will Shortz’s Favorite Crosswords.

141. Death and Opera

David Kahn of New York (why don’t we just call him DKNY) has two new crossword books out this week.

The Grid Reaper: 50 Puzzles to Die For! features 50 puzzles paying tribute to celebrities from all walks of life who just happen to be dead. There are twists and tricks galore, with puzzles of varying sizes and difficulty.

The Metropolitan Opera: Crosswords for Opera Lovers is just the thing for opera-going puzzle solvers looking to pass the time during intermission (and cheaper than a drink at the bar). It includes 40 crosswords as well as a history of the Met and other opera trivia. La la la!

140. Tour de France Coverage

I’ll be filing daily reports chronicling the progress of Spaniard Sammy Sánchez and Canadian Ryder Hesjedal in this year’s Tour de France. The posts can be found on THIS NEW BLOG, starting with the first stage on Saturday, July 2, and running through to the finish in Paris on the 24th.

139. patrickmerrell.com

My official website can now be found at www.patrickmerrell.com. For years its home has been www.patrick.merrell.org, and you can still go there, but it’s just gonna tell you to go to patrickmerrell.com, so save yourself a trip.

138. Damn, I saw I was in MAD!

Photo by The Hundreds

Ever wonder what the MAD magazine offices look like? The Hundreds (a combo clothing line and online magazine) has posted a very cool photographic tour and, well, now you can see for yourself. If you look closely, you can even see a drawing of mine on the walls.

(BTW, if you didn’t already notice, this post’s title is a palindrome.)