93. For the Kids

A couple of kid’s puzzle books coming in the near future:

• Count Gravy’s Horror Hall of Fun: 64 pages of ghoulish fun for ages 8-12 — puzzles, illustration and book design by Patrick Merrell (release: Sept. 2)
• Pony Play Games & Puzzles: 144 pages for all your equestrian pals ages 6-10 — puzzles by Patrick Merrell and Helene Hovanec, illustration and book design by Patrick Merrell (release: June 25)

Click on the HORROR HALL cover to see the TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Click on PONY PLAY cover to go to Amazon.

80. Hasta La Vista, SCI-DOKU

The last Scientific American SCI-DOKU will run Tuesday, March 4th, ending the puzzle’s 15 month run. It will then “march forth” no more.

67. 2008 Mouse Calendar

Click to download a pdf of my 2008 “mouse”
calendar in both compact and AARP sizes:

41. Pleasantville Wrap-up

A sizeable flock of contestants braved the clammy weather Friday night to test their wits at the 11th annual crossword tournament in Will Shortz’s hometown of Pleasantville, NY. The room was filled with both individual and doubles team competitors, puzzlemaker types who hovered as judges, and enough baked goods to feed the town’s middle school. Next week’s Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday NY Times puzzles winnowed the field down to three finalists — Nancy Taubenslag, “Jeffurry” Schwartz, and the eventual champ at solving Thursday’s puzzle on the big easels, Bob Mackey!

Afterward, a small parade of the crossword faithful made their way over to Will’s house for more snacks. A fine spread of Doritos, Lay’s potato chips, dip, carrots, cookies, soda, and beer were laid out. I assume Will provided his traditional house and puzzle collection tour for the uninitiated, but since it’s so close to Halloween, I headed home before the witching hour. All in all, another highly successful installment of this very friendly and fun annual event, with proceeds benefiting the town’s Fund for Learning.

39. This Just In

On WordPress’s Growing Blogs page, Pat Tricks stands one spot ahead of Football Jesus Betting Consultant. However, it still trails Drug Education News and ΦΩΝΗ ΤΗΣ ΡΟΔΟΠΗΣ and lags far behind Gerbil News Network.

37. Shortz Sightings

Will Shortz’s annual crossword tournament in Pleasantville, NY, will take place Friday, October 26, 7:30-9:45. It’s a friendly, low-key event featuring the Mon-Thur puzzles that will appear in The NY Times the following week. Proceeds benefit the Pleasantville schools. [CLICK HERE] for complete info.

On Wednesday, October 24, Will Shortz and longtime puzzle figure Doug Heller will host a night of dinner, fun and games, and a showing of “Wordplay” in the Philadelphia area. This a fundraiser for Doug’s run for commissioner in Springfield, PA. [CLICK HERE] for complete info.

35. Word Evolution

Scientific American has an online article about the evolution of words [CLICK HERE].

24. Process of Elimination

Patrick Berry’s Sunday (Sept. 9) New York Times crossword, PROCESS OF ELIMINATION, involved a very novel concept that was beautifully executed. Here, after the cut, is Patrick’s explanation of how he put it together…

19. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about coffee. Coffee is the world’s second favorite drink (after water) and the beverage of choice for many puzzle solvers. So what could be better than a palm-size, 320-page puzzle and trivia book about coffee?

COFFEE TIME debuts Friday, August 31st ($8.95), and I challenge you to read the book and not find 100 interesting things about coffee that you didn’t know before. Even better, the book is filled with an entertaining and amusing array of original crosswords, sudoku, word puzzles, brainteasers, word searches, acrostics, mazes, quizzes, and cryptograms. Here’s a sneak peek inside…

13. INSIDER (every now and then)

We interrupt this blog…

…for a brief aside. I grew up hating Indian food. My mother was a great cook, but once every six months or so she would make a curried chicken dish that left everything to be desired. I could imagine Indians looking at one of her pasty, toxic-yellow concoctions and saying, “What is that?”

7. Squares INSIDER

A bonus Squares cartoon.

3. SCI-DOKU

If you’re into sudoku, you might want to try a variation that appears weekly (free) on Scientific American’s Web site called SCI-DOKU [click here]. The puzzles use letters instead of numbers and, when completed, one row or column spells out an answer to a science-related clue.

0. Start

Testing. Testing.