Pun of a Kind

PDF  /  PUZ Little to say here today, except I'm off to watch the Cubs in the London baseball classic! (And catch up on a bunch of other metas.) --- 1.  Puzzle #58 answer:  SOLSTICE Correct entries:  47 Gridmaster coming in hot! Shortest explanation: Five clues contain "summer," and those five clues also start with a musical note. Append the musical note to the answer (i.e., Do + UGH = DOUGH), and find an alternate clue to define the new word (i.e. "Moolah"). Note the new answer to that (i.e., CASH). Take those five initial letters in grid order to get STICE, and then append one piece of the metanism again: the only 3-letter musical note "sol" to give us SOLSTICE , the 8-letter meta answer. --- 2.  Leaderboard (through five weeks): --- 3.  This puzzle is a Week 4 in the month, but it will likelier trend a bit downward to  Week 3.5 . Thanks to Jay, Peter, Tamara, and Tom once again for their puzzle-solving insights! Keep on puzzling, and may all your so

PDF  /  PUZ Summer's around the corner! Three summery things from my end: I've been planting out in the garden with my mom, trying to keep those pesky squirrels away from the sunflowers. I get to see some of my amazing students graduate and look forward to attending their graduation parties, mostly to eat the food. (They know this, haha.) Cubbies have turned a corner?? As of writing this, they've won 6 of their last 7. They still need to keep it up to avoid being sellers at the deadline. --- 1.  Puzzle #57 answer: HEINZ Correct entries: 70 ! I was going to make the grid, but I figured I should leave it to the professionals. Thanks, Gridmaster! Shortest explanation: The five silly themers each conceal a band name, whose initial letters spell HEINZ , the meta answer. Probably a Level 1, honestly! Note CAT and SUP across the middle also. --- 2.  Leaderboard (through the first three weeks): --- 3.  This puzzle is a Week 3 in the month, but it will likelier trend a bit upward to

  PDF  /  PUZ Time to go to the store today! (I actually do - Ginger Cat wants more crunchies!). Also time to console myself since the Cubbies might still be sellers at the tradeline for the third year in a row (I miss April, haha). And that's all from my end. Now onward to the meta! --- 1.  Puzzle #56 answer:  LEAVE IT TO BEAVER Correct entries:  52 Tamara does it once again! Shortest explanation: Four entries in the grid (FAST EDDIE , WALLY LAMB, THEODORE , and WARD ROBE) allude to characters from the 1950s TV show, which is definitely "associated with June" (the mother's name was June Cleaver). Note also the clues at the first- and last-across entries, also pointing in the direction of LEAVE and BEAVER. Maybe more like a Level 2, since you did have to get those references, which can be hit-or-miss sometimes (I actually had a mini-themeless on Crosshare earlier this year with the spanner of LEAVEITTOBEAVER clued the same way). --- 2. Leaderboard (through the first t

PDF  /  PUZ So, I never did get around to posting the write-up last week, likely frustrated with my beloved Cubbies (who somehow got swept by the Reds - but almost swept the Rays?? Baseball is wild sometimes). So two write-ups below! --- 1.  Puzzle #54 answer: MAYHEM (for May, of course!) Correct entries: 46 . Shortest explanation: Six entries can anagram to words that also satisfy the same clue (such as LEMON = "Fruit with seeds" = MELON). The initial letters of these new words spell MAYHEM , the answer to the meta. --- 2. Puzzle #55 answer: STAYCATION  (my kind of vacation). Correct entries: 44 Shortest explanation: Ten entries' clues have the word "STOP" hidden within them, sometimes spanning punctuation and/or spacing. (The two most overt were at the anchor positions of the first and last across entries.) The initial letters of these clues spell STAYCATION . All the clues for completists: 1-A: " Stop , for one" = S IGN 18-A: Ca st op ening? = T ELE