Beekeeper Crosswords Themed Puzzles from Beekeeper Labs

It’s vacation time here at Beekeeper Labs, and that means that we’ve had other things on our minds than crossword puzzles.  (We find it hard to believe too, but apparently there *are* other things out there besides puzzles.  Who knew?)  This means that you *will* still get this week’s puzzle, but it will likely be a couple of days late.  Thanks in advance for your patience.

This puzzle was great fun to create. It’s another one of those where a constructor starts by saying “I’d probably never be able to find 5 entries like …”, and then goes on to prove himself wrong. Luckily, these sorts of puzzles usually end up being great fun to solve, even if they start out as nothing but an academic exercise. Try it for yourself and see if you agree. As usual, we provide you with two different sets of clues: the hard version, and the still-pretty-hard-but-not-quite-as-nasty version. (Sorry — there were just too many fun clue possibilities to go for the truly easy experience.) Let us know what you think and which version you preferred. We always like to see comments.

Title: Make Mine a Double
Difficulty (hard): Saturday
Download (hard): Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)
Difficulty (easy): Thursday
Download (easy): Across Lite or printable PNG

Here it is: April 15th. If you haven’t filed your taxes, go ahead and do that now. The puzzle will wait. Back with us? Good. You’ll be glad to know that while this puzzle may tax your brain and leave you strapped for answers, it is not a puzzle about taxes. We figure that, by now, you’re glad to leave that all behind.

As promised, we’re back to giving you puzzles in two different levels of difficulty. If you want the easier one, go to the bottom of this message and choose “Download: easy”. Otherwise, you can use any of the many other puzzle links to get to the harder version. Either way, we hope you enjoy your puzzle.

Title: Pink Slip
Difficulty (hard): Friday
Download (hard): Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)
Difficulty (easy): Wednesday
Download (easy): Across Lite or printable PNG

A crossword constructor’s life is unpredictable. Sometimes a theme and puzzle will just jump out at you, and you can turn it into a solid fill in no time flat. Sometimes, you spend days trying to come up with the perfect inspiration, or you get the perfect inspiration, but the letters just don’t want to fit themselves into the grid. You find yourself tempted to accept UNAU or ELHI as a fill word just so that you can get that last corner to work. (But, of course, you don’t. You have your pride.)

This puzzle was one of the latter sort, but I think you’ll find it worth the trouble. The grid finally came through in style, and the clues provide a pretty fashionable counterpoint. However, after all of this, there just wasn’t any energy left to further tweak it so as to provide two different difficulty levels. This means that the serious mavens may find the puzzle a tiny bit easier than usual, and the casual solvers should be prepared to stretch themselves for a bit of a challenge. (If you try it within an interactive solving application, don’t be afraid to ask for solutions on a few critical clues. Hopefully, just a few hints will be enough to get you out of the woods.)

We should be back to providing split-level (hard/easy) puzzles next week.

Title: Round the World
Difficulty: Friday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

We’re running late this week, so we haven’t much clever to say — we saved the cleverness for the puzzle itself. As usual, you get your choice of hard or easy clues, and you get the same fully-themed solving experience either way. So choose your difficulty, and enjoy the puzzle.

Update: Based upon user feedback, 29 down has been changed to a more correct clue. Electronic publishing means never having to shout “Stop the presses!”.

Title: In the Stars
Difficulty (hard): Friday
Download (hard): Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)
Difficulty (easy): Wednesday
Download (easy): Across Lite or printable PNG

Are you ready for another over-the-top challenge? Are you eager? Well, this week’s challenge is Hot to Trot, and it should give you a pretty good run for your money. We’re continuing our experiment by offering the puzzle at two different difficulty levels, so you can choose your pace: do you want an exhausting sprint or a brisk jog. Either way, one of these puzzles should give you the workout you need.

Thus far responses, both in comments and private e-mail, are favoring higher difficult so if we ever have to cut back to one version, it’ll probably be the hard one. Do you agree or disagree? Is the hard puzzle still too easy, or the easy puzzle still too hard? We’d love for you to tell us what you think.

Title: Hot to Trot
Difficulty (hard): Saturday?
Download (hard): Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)
Difficulty (easy): Wednesday
Download (easy): Across Lite or printable PNG

We’re posting this puzzle an hour early so that it will still by ST PAT’s day. But that’s not the only thing special about this puzzle. Put away your green beer and get out your four-leaf clovers, ’cause you may need all the luck you can get for this one. In response to audience demand, we’ve changed things up and made this puzzle annoyingly hard. Then again, in response to *other* audience demand, we’ve kept it just like it’s always been. The net result is that there are two versions of the puzzle: the hard one, which you’ll find in the applet above (unless you are in a non-java-capable browser or RSS reader) will hopefully annoy you; the easy one, which you can get by downloading the across lite puzzle or the PNG image, should be exciting yet comfortable. You can pick one or the other, or you can print out the easy version and use it to help you over the humps as you work the hard version on-line.

We’d love to hear whether you prefer the easy version, the hard version, or both. If you don’t want to comment for the whole world to see, you can always mail us.

In yet more exciting news, Beekeeper Labs is pleased to announce that it has just release version 1.1 of the CrossFire crossword maker. Amongst other new features, this release makes it much easier to create puzzles like this one, and gives customers access to the on-line solving applet that is used above. If this sounds exciting, you can download a trial version at the above link.

Title: Emerald Isle
Difficulty (hard): You tell us
Download (hard): Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)
Difficulty (easy): Tuesday
Download (easy): Across Lite or printable PNG

Can you feel it, love is waiting there
When you feel it, I’ll be waiting there
— Scorpions (James Kottak & Klaus Meine)

“When I bite into a Beekeeper crossword, I get the sensation of a….” No, that’s not right. “Sometimes you feel like a Beekeeper crossword; sometimes you don’t.” No, not that either. Maybe we’ll just give up on the slogans, and let you enjoy the feel of a smooth, refreshing crossword in whatever manner you prefer.

One quick reminder for you: Although we still have the printable PNG image below, the best way to print out your crossword may be to simply hit the “Print” icon in the handy new applet (available in most browsers and some RSS readers). Because it talks directly to your printer (and its built-in fonts), it can give a much cleaner print-out than before.

Title: Can You Feel It?
Difficulty: Wednesday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

As you’ve likely noticed, we’re trying something new with this post. We’re including the puzzle in all it’s classic forms, but we’re also trying to embed it in interactive form using a new Java applet. If all goes well, you’ll see the puzzle above, and be able to solve it, print it, or merely marvel at its abstract beauty. If things don’t go quite so well, don’t worry: you can still click on the links below and all should be well. Those of you who are reading this from within an RSS reader may or may not see the applet. If not, see above concerning fall-back options.

Please let us know what you think of this format. Did it work for you? Did your monitor explode? Did you just not like the colors? Inquiring minds want to know.

Title: Stealth Jet
Difficulty: Wednesday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
— Andrew Marvell

Enjoy the above couplet.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the puzzle, but it’s fine poetry.  As for the puzzle itself, it’s a bit different this week.  Just remember that all is not as it appears, and you should win through to success.

Title: A Perfect Place
Difficulty: Thursday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)