Every once in a while, I present a puzzle on Facebook in the form of a series of status messages. Today’s puzzle has only been solved by two people so far — obviously a little harder than I intended — so I thought I would put it out there for the WHOLE INTERNET to solve. Here are my status messages, in the order they were presented:
BYE (9)
DANCE (4,6)
ICE (1)
BAD (1,2)
LIAR (4)
HUNGRY (1,2)
TRY (5)
PETER (5,6,7)
DUCK (1)
Can you figure out my intended answer?
Because the counter protests are so awesome.
…the brain is an educational toy.
(Via Jon Delfin. I challenge you to watch the full twenty minutes without gasping.)
Never! And that’s good, because Shawn Kennedy is reviving his Puzzlement Web site this week. Keep an eye on it.
1) I’ll have a Going Too Far in this Sunday’s New York Times. Update: Hey, look, it’s online!
2) I’ll have the main Sunday crossword a few weeks from now, my first since last April.
3) I have an Idea. One of those blessed, cursed ideas that’s really good and therefore must be dealt with. So with any luck I’ll have a small puzzle suite ready for the NPL con in Seattle — maybe I’ll run it as a late-night game. We shall see how it develops.
I have actual puzzle-related news!
You already know that Mike Shenk edits the Wall Street Journal’s excellent weekly crossword. Mike wrote me this evening with the following press release from the Journal. Prepare yourself for an onrush of happiness:
On January 16, The Wall Street Journal launches the Saturday Puzzle, the new home for America’s most elegant, adventurous, and addictive crosswords. If you’re a crossword fan and enjoy our weekly offering in the Friday Weekend section, you’ll love moving on to our new Saturday line-up, brought to you by a murderer’s row of the best constructors in puzzledom:
- Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon, until recently the creators of the brilliant and devious Puzzler in the Atlantic, contribute a cryptic crossword every four weeks. (Fans who are new to cryptics, which rely on cleverness and wordplay, can consult a guide to solvers on wsj.com.)
– Patrick Berry, author of the “Puzzle Masterpieces” collection, and Mike Shenk, the WSJ’s crossword editor, offer a novelty word puzzle every two weeks that explodes the usual across-and-down grid and replaces it with snakes, snowflakes, honeycombs, and other mind- bending shapes.
– Mike also offers an acrostic every four weeks, in which a solver fills in answers to clues, and transfers the letters to a grid that spell out a secret quotation.
While other publications are cutting back on their crosswords, the Wall Street Journal is expanding and bringing you the cream of the crossword crop. We hope you’ll join us every Friday and Saturday.
The first puzzle up will be Henry and Emily’s first published variety cryptic since they left The Atlantic. (Or, more accurately, since The Atlantic left them.) Mike didn’t know if the puzzles would be available online, or would be behind the subscriber’s wall. I certainly hope the WSJ considers some kind of puzzlers-only subscription — I’d be all over that.
Oh, wait, they mean to protect people with allergies to nuts. Pecans and cashews and the like. Never mind.
100 beautiful cupcakes dedicated to various games. How many can you eat name?
Alma, a wonderful and creepy little animated short. And not from Pixar!
Turnabout is fair play
Here’s a fun new puzzle game, for some reason called Gold Mine. It’s a nice little variation on Rush Hour.