The Christmas Crostic Challenge

Link now public - sorry for the confusion!!

PDF

You can get this introduction on the first page of the PDF.

Hello, puzzlers! ‘Tis the season to be solving…another conundrum by yours truly! If you feel like decking the halls with a wild enigmatic ride, then read on!

This year’s challenge is a crostic (sometimes called an anacrostic), which you can see depicted on the following several pages. If you know all about crostics, fine, skip all of this – but if you want some guidance on how they work, the premise is simple (the premise, not the puzzle itself!): there are a series of [CLUES] that you will answer (similar to those of a crossword). When you answer a clue, place one letter in each of the appropriate spaces in the [ANSWERS] region (thus, you know the length of all of the 30 answers already). Then, you will transfer these letters to the corresponding spaces in the [GRID] (note that the spaces in the grid are both numbered and also labeled with the letter corresponding to the clue to make cross-referencing your work simpler). When you have finished, the final question, instruction, or directive will be spelled out in the grid. Its answer is this year’s solution.

If you are new to crostics, there are several things to note:

1. As you solve the clues, you might find that you can decipher some of the words in the grid and might want to fill those out, transferring your new letters back to the answers of the clues. That’s good! Part of the strategy in solving a crostic is working back and forth between the grid and the clues.

2. In the [GRID] region, only black spaces (and NOT line breaks) separate words. For example, in this one, spaces 64 through 67 in the grid correspond to one single four-letter word, since no black square follows 64 (even though a line break does). Other parts of the crostic behave accordingly.

3. In a typical crostic (this is where the name comes from), the first letters of each of the answers to the clues – in order from first to last – will spell out the source and the origin of the quotation used in the grid. For this crostic, I am the source, so instead, what will be spelled out is a quip. Knowing this is an additional clue to help you in solving.

And even if you are NOT new to crostics, there are still several things to note about this one:

1. Many of the 30 clues (“A” through “DD”) that correspond to this crostic require a lot of outside information to solve. Obviously, you should use the Internet and other resources liberally if you attempt to crack this conundrum!

2. Many of the clues cross-reference each other; each time a clue is cross-referenced in an additional clue, it will be typeset like this: [Clue A]

3. Also scattered throughout the clues are eight numeric variables, defined as [A] through [H], that are the same value every time they appear. (Once you ascertain what the value of, say, [A] is, you can substitute that every time you see it referenced.)

When you think you have the answer, you may e-mail me at mrgraczyk at gmail dot com OR use the form at tinyurl.com/crostic2021. Winners will be rewarded via a gift card and a donation made to a charity of their choice; there will also be a grand prize and a runner-up drawing this year, so stay tuned for that! The deadline is Monday, March 7, 2022, when visiting the same link will give the answer and solution guide. (I know, I still need to write up last year’s!!)

If you have any questions or clarifications, feel free to reach out via e-mail, and I will do my best to give you some slight guidance without sacrificing the essence of the solving experience.

Best of luck, and warm wishes for a happy holiday season!

Mike