April 3, 2008
…about the People Puzzler Book: Jumbo Edition — on newsstands April 14th! It’s got Harry Potter, Dirty Harry, Prince Harry, When Harry Met Sally, Deborah Harry, Harri-son Ford, and the Donald’s hair. Twenty “puzzlers” (13×13 crosswords) and twenty “jumbos” (17×17 crosswords) in the book are mine — but don’t let that stop you! The book has another 20 jumbos and 14 classic puzzlers from the past, plus profiles on Brad, Katie, Zac, Ben, Julia, Rihanna, Oprah, Catherine, Carrie, and George!
Have you read every issue of People and don’t know what to do with all that knowledge? Here’s the answer!
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Puzzling Thoughts |
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Posted by Patrick Merrell
April 2, 2008
…about turnaround time. Today marks two contrasting crossword records for me: the longest and shortest waits between submission and publication.
Wednesday’s New York Times crossword was carefully aged for 3 years (3 years, 1 month, 2 days to be exact) while a March Madness crossword I created for Sports Illustrated is appearing only 3 days after being handed in (5 if you count from when it was assigned).
For all you solvers who can’t get enough sports clues in your crosswords, the Sports Illustrated puzzle is in the April 7th Final Four issue. It should be on newsstands today or tomorrow.
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Puzzling Thoughts |
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Posted by Patrick Merrell
September 26, 2007
…about my first MAD magazine submission, which I made at the age of 14 (see below). It included a cover letter with a snappy “sell” line that my father suggested (top right). As you can see, it inspired an even snappier response from the MAD Editors.
My next submission came 20 years later. Unfortunately I had it delivered by messenger on the same day that someone tried to break into their offices. I got a phone call from the art director the next day (on speaker phone, with others listening) to question me as a suspect in the case!
I managed to elude capture and finally made my first sale six years later — a page of celebrity anagrams. I’ve included six of them below, which you can try your luck at deciphering (keep in mind they’re from the year 2000). Answers in the comments.

1. TRASH WONDER _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _
2. HAD ANTICS IN BRA _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
3. THE GLORIFIED FAKE _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4. ODD IN MANNERS _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _
5. LO-FAT CHICK/L.A. STAR _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
6. ERROR MADE—PLANS HALT [it's not a person]
_ _ _ . _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _
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Posted by Patrick Merrell
September 13, 2007
…about The Partridge Family. It turns out I’m not the first person in my family to have a published crossword puzzle. My wife, Mary Dee, beat me out by about 25 years with this creation.

Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Patrick Merrell
September 5, 2007
…about favorite clues. A couple of recent posts here got me thinking about my favorite crossword clue that I’ve written. Not the best or funniest or cleverest, just my favorite. This is the clue: Extinct Namibian shrub genus: Var.
Pretty bad, isn’t it? But there’s a reason for that. There are also a few interesting incidents surrounding the puzzle in which it appeared (NYT, January 15, 2004). You can try the puzzle if you’d like [CLICK HERE for a PDF] or just read on. Sorry, Across Lite won’t work for it. Read the rest of this entry »
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Crosswords, Puzzling Thoughts |
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Posted by Patrick Merrell
August 30, 2007
…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… Read the rest of this entry »
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Books, Notices, Puzzling Thoughts |
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Posted by Patrick Merrell