Mirthwright Puzzles & Games

Happy Friday! This week would have been my mother's birthday. So this puzzle is in her honor, and specifically 22-Down who seeded the grid, as one of her favorite poets. She and her father both did crosswords every day as long as I can remember, and are the ones who introduced me to them. My crosswording mentors. My grandfather, pictured above, insisted on being referred to by his first name by all of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. No "Grandpa" or any such thing for him, as even at 90-plus he didn't want to seem old. Also in honor of my mom, here's the song that my dad spent many a tearful night with after we lost her to cancer four years ago. And here's the puzzle.

Good afternoon! At least where I am, it's afternoon. You might've expected me to save that image for a Thoreau-back Thursday but I didn't. I'm feeling a bit nostalgic with today's song. Brings me back to high school.

Happy Friday! We have a new President here in the ol' US of A That's him. I was lucky enough to see Tom Petty in concert on the last tour before he passed away, and he brings you today's constructing and solving song.

Good morning! It's a Monday Mini with die-roll dimensions. (1d10+2 for the minis) Dr. King is not in this puzzle, but that doesn't mean we'll ignore him today. 14-Across is a word I've come across occasionally but isn't quite as cromulent as it probably ought to be. But I think most of you will be able to get it. The theme song of constructing this puzzle is Scalliwag by Gaelic Storm. Enjoy!

Does that song make anyone else think of My So Called Life ? Or am I dating myself? The dedicated SF fans among us will know what this Paul French book is doing here, after completing the puzzle. Thanks to Steve Mossberg for his feedback, even if I ignored some of it. Especially for encouraging me to play with grid design late in the process, which made me feel ok about the coule of cheater squares that are in this one. Today's song is Like Real People Do by Hozier. Enjoy.

Happy Monday! I hope you had a relaxing weekend and look forward to a productive week at work. I do, even if I'm not super optimistic about that. For today's puzzle I decided to use a random number generator for dimensions and then build from there. I may keep that up for Monday minis. Today's song is La Terre de Mon Grandpere by the incomparable BeauSoleil.

I'm going to establish some alliterative order to this blog. Mini Mondays. Fifteen Fridays. More stuff as I add puzzles. So happy Monday, and enjoy a mini. It's pretty quick. I would've put 7-A as the link image because she's amazing but that would be a spoiler. PUZ | PDF | PDF Solution

Enjoy this quick mini puzzle and have a thought about springtime. PUZ | PDF Solution

Avast! And welcome aboard! Although I don't intend this blog to consist solely of crossword puzzles, those will make up the majority. They were my first puzzling infatuation, learned at the elbow of my grandfather who insisted on doing them all in pen despite his poor spelling. I want to thank Steve Mossberg for testing the first version of this and for his words of advice and encouragement. Thanks, Steve! Enjoy! Y'arr! Or download it here. PDF | .PUZ | PDF Solution