Beekeeper Crosswords Themed Puzzles from Beekeeper Labs

I’m flying without a safety net on this puzzle. Not only am I cheating on little details like not making the grid a proper “industry standard” 15×15, but schedule issues kept me from sending this off to be reviewed. Thus, you’re trusting in just my own taste in clues without any independent verification. Lets just hope that I didn’t reference the wrong variety of fringed Brazilian lizard or misspell an Etruscan deity in my impatience to get the puzzle published.

Title: Escapades
Difficulty: ???
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

The theme is simple, the execution is not. We continue to press our luck with a collection of annoying, esoteric, and punishing clues for both new and exotic grid fill. Hopefully it will appeal.

Title: Keeping Count
Difficulty: Thursday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

You may notice that this puzzle is harder than many we’ve published lately. (My primary tester threatened me with death 4 times, which has to be counted as a success.) Part of that is simply inspiration during the clue-writing process — once you’ve found a brilliantly sadistic clue it’s hard to pass it up — but part of it is because the grid itself was a particularly ambitious construction process. You see, in addition to the obvious themes — four long answers and one explanatory item — there are also three extra hidden items related to this week’s theme. It’s not necessary to go looking for them to enjoy the puzzle, but feel free to enjoy the extra scavenger hunt if you want a bit of extra challenge.

Title: Vegas Odds
Difficulty: Friday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

This puzzle goes out to all the misunderstood night creatures waiting impatiently for Halloween. We know it’s not easy being a ghost, ghoul, vampire, werewolf, or other monster-American minority, but remember — you got your special day long before the secretaries, left-handers, and pirates got theirs. So don’t be afraid to go out and shine (or skulk, howl, or manifest, if that’s more comfortable for your particular ethnicity).

Title: What Kind of Monster….
Difficulty: Thursday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

Sorry folks, but between long-weekend travel and a software release, this week has just been too hectic to pull together a solid crossword. I promise that everything will come together next week for a solidly horrifying — take that as you will — Halloween puzzle.

As I’ve noted before, the really difficult part of creating a good puzzle is coming up with a decent theme. Cluing requires time and a twisted mind. Building and filling the grid requires good software and persistence. A good theme requires remembering what you’ve done in the previous puzzle and what others have done in various syndicated publications in hopes of not repeating an old stand-by; coming up with something which is clever, enjoyable, and can be fit into the rather rigid constrains of a standard grid style; and making sure that it doesn’t result in a puzzle that is too hard or too easy for the target audience. In this case, you can thank -M- for listening to my original theme idea, pointing out that it was pretty lame, and suggesting a workable alternative. (Better yet, all this happened before I built the grid, so that I didn’t have to rip it all out and start anew.)

Title: Adam and Eve
Difficulty: Thursday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

Sometimes puzzles take on a life of their own. I knew the title of this one for the last week, but assumed that it meant something completely different. When I started fleshing out the theme, it fought back and insisted on adopting the form you see now. Don’t get me wrong: it’s a better theme than I expected — it just came as a surprise to me.

Title: Shifty Characters
Difficulty: Wednesday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

Crossword connoisseurs may notice that this grid is rather oddly shaped. That’s because the theme entries are a combination of lengths that no sane constructor would put into a puzzle. Luckily, sanity is not a requirement for this particular vocation, so we applied a shoehorn and some grease, sat on the words to compress them a bit, and finally got them all into the grid. The result, oddly enough, makes for a somewhat easier puzzle than usual because the important entries couldn’t be squeezed in without dividing up the rest of the squares to make shorter-than-normal entries. Don’t let that discourage you, though. We’ve still got a pretty lively fill, with some uncommon words and phrases, some annoyingly misleading clues, and a bit of general sadism thrown in for the fun of it. Happy solving!

Title: Contract Negotiations
Difficulty: Wednesday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

Sad to say, I have nothing to say about this puzzle.

Title: Sad to Say
Difficulty: Wednesday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

Ahoy, mateys. In case ye be forgettin’, September 19th be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Like always, we beekeepers bee celebratin’ with the rest of the scurvy crew, by givin’ ye a special pirate themed crossword puzzle. Now, if ye be sailin’ in from foreign ports, ye should take heed — this be no lily-livered classroom puzzle. This be a fearsome barrage of crossed words such as ye’d find in yer favorite newspaper, if’n ye weren’t using it to line yer parrot’s cage. So take a plunge in to the sea of piratical puzzling and see if ye have what it takes to swim with the sharks.

If ye be hankering to sample our other forays into these treacherous waters, chart yer course to “Talk Like a Pirate” and “The Pirate’s Revenge”.

Title: A View to a Keel: The Pirate Puzzle, Episode III
Difficulty: Wednesday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)