125. MAD and Fowl

I have now achieved the highest honor of my career by having my latest book, Fowl Play, offered as a giveaway to those whose letters appear in MAD’s January issue (available now — Cheap!). Boy, will they be disappointed when they discover there’s not one mention of Octomom, Sarah Palin or Bernard Madoff inside the book’s covers.

123. Time for Puzzles

Available in October: Two new puzzle books from Time Inc. Home Entertainment. Sports Illustrated’s Most Valuable Puzzles includes regular and jumbo-sized crosswords (Patrick Merrell), “what’s different?” picture puzzles (SI staff), a benchful of cross stats (sports statistics stumpers by Mike Baranack) and sports star profiles (SI). People’s Celebrity Puzzler: Holiday Special! includes a festive 20-page “Happy Holidays” puzzle section and over 100 pages of other celebrity puzzles (six types of puzzles by Patrick Merrell; picture puzzles, celebrity profiles and trivia puzzles by People’s crack staff; ten “classic” crosswords by a quintet of puzzling legends). $7.91 each at Amazon — cheap!

120. Created from Scratch

Wait no longer. FOWL PLAY is now available to fulfill your chicken puzzling needs with 101 crosswords, brainteasers, Ask the Chicken, anagrams, math posers, visual puzzles, cockadoku, and other word puzzles — plus poultry trivia, quotes, art, and an answer to the age-old question, Which came first, the chicken or the egg? [More on Amazon]

“Patrick Merrell joins Frank Perdue and Colonel Sanders in the great pantheon of men who know chicken.” — John Ficarra Editor, MAD Magazine

……………..
ALSO: It’s still not too late to order Eric Berlin’s original and entertaining Game Night suite of crosswords. Cheap!

118. Chicken Puzzles

Have you been longing for a book with a wide-ranging and humorous assortment of poultry-themed puzzles suitable for all ages? Your wish is about to be fulfilled. FOWL PLAY is coming in November September!, just in time for the holidays fall harvest.

What’s in it? 144 pages of crosswords (some with illustrated clues), trivia, logic puzzles, anagrams, jokes, math puzzles, cockadoku, cryptograms, chicken lore, word searches, acrostics, mazes, criss-crosses, drop quotes, posers, visual puzzles, and an entertaining mix of other original word puzzles. Guaranteed to blow the lid off the poultry-themed puzzle book market!

107. Reviews!

Although I’ve created a fair number of books, the amount of feedback from them has been rather paltry. A gratifying and, frankly, startling exception is my recent release, Bird Brainteasers, which has garnered 50 mostly glowing reviews on Amazon.com. I mention this in the hopes that you might consider it as a present for an upcoming holiday or in the year to come. It’s suitable for adults who like fun, not-too-tough puzzles and teens. And not to be overlooked, about 3/5 of its 324 pages is a wide-ranging mix of trivia, lore, art, quotes and info.

99. Cheep Thrills

Click on the end of this post to view six spreads from my new book, Bird Brainteasers, a 324-page book of avian trivia, quotes, and breezy puzzles. Click HERE to find out more about it on Amazon.

Full of whimsical facts, pithy quotes and meaty puzzles, Bird Brainteasers will keep you so engrossed you might not even notice that you’re not just having fun — you’re also learning more about birds.
— Scott Weidensaul, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Living on the Wind

This isn’t just another bird book or brainteaser book. It has something for everyone: quotes, quips, fascinating historical snippets, humor, and of course, the compelling artwork and clever puzzles that are Patrick Merrell trademarks. There’s a smile or more on every page. And I’m still smiling.
— Rich Norris, Los Angeles Times crossword editor

98. Count Gravy

Count Gravy’s Horror Hall of Fun, a 64-page book of ghoulish puzzles, activities, games, riddles, tongue twisters, stories, and jokes for ages 7-11, is now available. CLICK HERE to download a pdf of a crossword from it or CLICK HERE to find out more on Amazon. Personally, I’d recommend that you do neither — it’s all rather scary.

97. Fall Books (for grown-ups)

Bird Brainteasers: An entertaining and enlightening mix of puzzles, trivia, lore, and quotes — all related to birds. (Puzzles, text, design, and illustration by Patrick Merrell — cover illustration by Leigh Wells) Storey Publishing/324 pages/4×6/$9.95
Fabulous Fun with Puzzles: A merging of Joseph Leeming’s two classic puzzle books of the ’40s, updated and refined. (Edited, designed, and illustrated by Patrick Merrell) Time Inc. Home Entertainment/400 puzzles/224 pages/8×10/$13.95
The People Celebrity Puzzler EXTRA!: Regular and jumbo-size crosswords plus acrostics, word searches, sudoku, arrow-words, and criss-cross puzzles. (Puzzles by Patrick Merrell) Time Inc. Home Entertainment/144 pages/8×10/$10.99

64. Gadzooks! Coffee

I’ve just gotten word there’s a short clip from a coffee game show pilot! on YouTube. The production values are a bit iffy, but I must admit I like the sponsor mentioned at the end.

63. Puzzles for the Kids

Here are 3 good puzzle books for the kids (and only one is mine):

1. Picture Clue Crosswords by Patrick Merrell
(ages 4-8 • $3.95 • 64 pages • 8×10)
click here for a mini-sized sample puzzle
Puzzles set up like adult crosswords, except with pictures for clues.
2. Clever Crosswords for Kids by Trip Payne
(ages 9-12 • $5.95 • 96 pages • 5×8)
These are well-made, fun puzzles. There’s a whole series; my daughter loved this one several years ago at the age of 12.
3. The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin
(ages 9-12 • $16.99 or less • 224 pages • hardcover)
An intriguing, page-turning mystery with a nice variety of puzzles woven into the story.

60. Ambigrams

Speaking of ambigrams (well, Ken Jennings was on his blog), here’s one I created for Coffee Time. It reads the same when rotated 180 degrees.

And a couple of others I made several years ago:

All images © copyright 2007 Patrick Merrell

57. More Schulz

Jeannie Schulz, widow of Charles Schulz, has weighed in with a comment on post #48, the one concerning the Schulz and Peanuts biography. Her comment is long, but that’s because it includes three supporting statements that further call into question what biographer David Michaelis has put together in his book.
[HER COMMENT (scroll down to the 3rd response)]

48. Charles M. Schulz

Updated 11/12: After the glow of reading this book wore off, and I looked into things a bit more, I’m of the opinion that this portrait of Charles Schulz is flawed in a fundamental way. His son Monte is quoted as calling the book “preposterous.” His daughter Amy declared that “the whole thing is completely wrong.” His wife, Jeannie, said that it’s “not a full portrait. Sparky was so much more. Most of the time he loved to laugh.”

While one could discount these statements as protective or overly biased, I think now that they are absolutely true. Although I came away from the book still thinking highly of Charles Schulz, and the author claims that the biography “comes out very strongly (that) this was a great artist,” it ultimately presents a lopsided and then condensed portrait of a sad man. Unfortunately, since the book is so well written and researched, that is the total picture many reviewers and readers are coming away with.

While I’d prefer to just delete it, I’m leaving most of my original review up…

46. Coffee Cam

Click on the image to enlarge it.
This entry has been brought to you by COFFEE TIME,
a palm-size, 320-page book of coffee puzzles and trivia.

44. Beginning Crosswords

You’re never too young to start solving crosswords. That’s the premise behind Picture Clue Crosswords (8×10, $3.95, new today). The puzzles are for beginning solvers, but they’re set up just like adult crosswords with consistent grid sizes, themes, and picture clues in Across and Down columns.

The book’s 20 puzzles include some twists: 5 have a what doesn’t belong feature; 2 have full-page clue scenes; and 2 have mystery themes. [CLICK HERE] for more info. Click on the mini-size puzzle sample below to download it.