Consonant Companions

Tomorrow, Puzzlesnacks subscribers will get to try a brand new puzzle type: “Consonant Companions!” It’s a neat two-grid format — consonants go in the shaded squares, and vowels in the white squares. The trick is, the same consonants are used in the same order across both grids. So if you get stuck in one grid, the other grid will give you some letters to help you out. It’s fun to see how a string of consonants in one grid gets revowelized to become something wildly different.

I’d be happy enough just having a new puzzle form in the Puzzlesnacks mix, but in fact I am even happier than that, because this coming Sunday, Consonant Companions will make its debut in the New York Times as the featured variety puzzle! Look for it!