Pun of a Kind

PDF / PUZ Hello hello! What a difference a couple of weeks make - the Cubbies are in a brutal stretch right now, after getting swept by the brutal Milwaukee Brewers (who I'm not a fan of - but they completely trounced us at Wrigley, so I'll tip my cap). Let's see if we can turn it around soon! --- Puzzle #176 answer: NEW YORK LIBERTY Correct entries: 67 Shortest explanation: Five current WNBA players' surnames start each of the themers, minus a letter. (Happy to find ONES CUP OF TEA for Ionescu!). The missing letters spell ELLIE, the effervescent mascot to the NEW YORK LIBERTY , the answer to the meta. --- Posting a day early to avoid a MGWCC double-post. This is a solid Level 3 , and your time to beat is 6 minutes (if you want to beat Jangler, that is!). Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful! Mikey G The answer to the meta is a 4-letter word.  

PDF  /  PUZ Hello hello! The Cubs are rocking it now, and I'm trying to bottle up all these good feelings inside when we face some tough stretches later in the season. Something incredible is happening on the North Side, and I will always root for the South Siders as well (except against us!), so I'm glad the White Sox are in the mix once again (being at nearly .500 after a historically cataclysmic season is  an accomplishment). --- Puzzle #175 answer:  ELLA FITZGERALD Correct entries:  64 Shortest explanation: There were a bevy of clues, 15 of them!, which involved only the letters A - G of the alphabet (see graphic), which are the typical notes in the musical alphabet. The initial letters of these clues' entries spell FIRST LADY OF SONG, the well-deserved accolade given to Ella Fitzgerald, whose birthday was on the Saturday of this puzzle's release! --- This one is a bit of a vanity project, but I think it's solveable. The late, great Bob Lodge of GAMES  ...

PDF  /  PUZ  /  Full-Screen Hello hello! Yep, it's me again - and here for themeless #2 for my blog. Working on fill and stacks - I like the one in the middle - would've liked another mini-triple in NW and SE, but that single black square always seems to help with quality of fill a bit. Have fun, and may all your solves be beautiful! Mikey G

PDF  /  PUZ Hello hello! Since my last meta, the Cubs game back against the Pirates, got knocked down by the Phillies, but came back to a 9-game winning streak, their first since 2016! (Against the struggling Mets and Phillies but still). Real test occurs tonight as we head out west. Posting a day early to avoid MGWCC conflict. --- Puzzle #174 answer:  ACPT Correct entries:  64 Shortest explanation: There are eight entries whose letters are in alphabetical order (including a couple of two-letter ones, had to do it!). This constitutes 22 letters of the alphabet; the remaining four, in alphabetical order, form ACPT , in honor of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament held that weekend! --- I like this one and committed myself to a symmetrical grid, which led to a bit of strain in fill. I'm thinking a solid Level 3 , even so. Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful! Mikey G The answer to the meta is a well-known 20th-century American.  

PDF  /  PUZ  /  Full-Screen Hello hello! Welcome to my first full-sized themeless puzzle for my blog. I'm numbering these as "MT1" for "Mikey Themeless" moving forward. (A normal number points to a meta.) The themeless bug bit me last year - and while I'm still going to be posting a bunch of my metas along the way (hopefully to hit 200 this year!), I will sporadically plan themelesses for every other Monday  going forward. (And my mini-themelesses can also be found on Crosshare ). Thanks for being here! Happy puzzling, and may all your solves be beautiful! Mikey G

PDF  /  PUZ Hello hello! Cubs' offense is as mercurial as ever, sometimes scoring a bundle of runs and other times squandering a great quality start by the opening pitcher. It's a long season, folks. --- Puzzle #173 answer:  EQUINOX Correct entries: 70 Shortest explanation: Take the word immediately before the animal, concatenating and reparsing with spaces as needed to form a new phrase. Find an alternate for that in the grid and, in animal order, you'll get EQUIN. Append the 2-letter animal "OX" to get EQUINOX , the apropos answer to our meta! --- I really do think this is a Level 2. We will see what happens? We always do, haha. Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful! Mikey G The answer to the meta is a 4-letter string in alphabetical order.  

PDF  /  PUZ Hello hello! Baseball is back - and PCA and Nico Hoerner just got great extensions for my beloved Cubbies! Play on! (We'll ignore the fact we lost our opener 10-4 to the Nationals.) --- Puzzle #172 answer: IRRATIONAL Correct entries:  65 Shortest explanation: A piece of pi, anyone? My verbose self is unnaturally terse on the across entry with all those 3-word clues - and then note the last clue for WORDS. The title indicates pi is probably involved, and it certainly is! Find the entries whose clues' words' lengths start enumerating pi. For the pi lovers in you, we have 3.14159265358979323846264338327 (to 29 digits), which is what we'll need here. 3.14 = "Not. a clue!" (I even included the point, awww) for IDUNNO, 159 = "A great contender" for RIVAL, 265 = "To sprint ahead" for RUN, and so forth. You'll spell out IRRATIONAL , what I hope neither this puzzle nor the 3rd Winter Solvestice ended up being! --- Hello hello! We fin...

PDF  /  PUZ Hello hello! World Baseball Classic has been fun to see - Dominican Republic has an absolutely stacked lineup, so I foresee them and Japan in the finals, but you never know! --- Puzzle #171 answer:  SLINKY Correct entries: 48 Shortest explanation: Take the six across words starting with the letters in the word "SPRING" and "spring forward" these letters one in the alphabet. SEAL --> TEAL PVC --> QVC ROLO --> SOLO IAMB --> JAMB NAT --> OAT GULL --> HULL Play alternates with these in the grid. In grid order: SOY (Milk type) LOCK (Door component) IKEA (Where to buy home decor) NAVY (Shade of blue) KEEL (Part of a ship) YODA ("Star Wars" character) Get SLINKY , another type of spring! (But now I have to bounce!) --- This is the last puzzle of the Winter Solvestice , so we'll go every other week until the summer, if I still have plenty of ideas in my brain for metas, haha. This one will be, oh, about a Level 3.14.  Thanks to al...

PDF  /  PUZ Hello hello! Spring training has been meh for the Cubs - but they did go 11-19 in 2016, and we all know what happened that year! --- Puzzle #170 answer: UPSET Correct entries:  60 Shortest explanation: The letters in MARCH are scrambled throughout all five entries, surrounding one different letter. These different letters spell UPSET , the answer to the meta. --- I didn't plan to have another challenging one, and this one might not go that way, but we do have a random Level 4  for this week. Check Crosshare for nudges, three instantly given. Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful! Mikey G The answer to the meta is a 6-letter word.  

PDF  /  PUZ Hello hello! Cubs finally had a solid spring training game yesterday after almost blowing yet another  lead. Of course, March Madness is coming up again soon, which also keeps me plenty busy! --- Puzzle #169 answer:  FAIR AND SQUARE Correct entries: 76 Shortest explanation: There are seven squares of 2-by-2 like letters in the puzzle - the only  instance of any repeat letters anywhere, in fact! They give us FAIR AND and, since they're in a square shape, that gives us FAIR AND SQUARE , the apropos meta answer to #169! --- The antepenultimate puzzle of Summer of Solves! Another Level 2.5  or so, I'm thinking. Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful! Mikey G The answer to the meta is what you won't be if you solve it.  

PDF  /  PUZ Hello hello! Amazing action at the Winter Olympics, with a wonderful gold-medal performance by Alysa Liu! Baseball also started, and we lost our opening spring training game to the White Sox (season's over). --- Puzzle #168 answer:  SUPERIOR VENA CAVA VEIN Correct entries:  60 Shortest explanation: I didn't have any nudges this week, which did maybe lead us to a solid Level 3. Basically, use the literal DOWNRIGHT and go, alternatingly, down from the "S" in MEANS and right, down, right, one square after the other, until you end up at the "N" in NEXUS. You'll spell SUPERIOR VENA CAVA VEIN (redundant, as I should have left off "vein"!), the answer to the meta. --- I had a Level 2 last week that ended up as a Level 3. I'll see if this one hews more closely to Level 2 . Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful! Mikey G The 3-word, 13-letter answer to the meta is what I hope you find this puzzle.  

PDF  /  PUZ Hello hello! Watched the Winter Olympics every day, pretty much all day, all week long. And baseball, if only spring training, starts this week! Let's go! --- Puzzle #167 answer:  JOE NAMATH Correct entries: 59 Shortest explanation: I underestimated the difficulty here. Another back-to-back Roman numeral puzzle. Take the four themers and extract Roman numerals, in left-to-right order: LABEQUINOX = LIX AXELORIGIN = XLII EXPERTHIVE = XIV XEROXFIXER = XXIX Take the MVPs of those Super Bowls: Jalen Hurts Eli Manning Terry Bradshaw Steve Young Their initial names spell JETS, signaling the MVP of the only Super Bowl the Jets have won to this day: JOE NAMATH . (Jets, after Super Bowl III: "We're going to be pretty good at this Super Bowl thing!") --- This one should (really) be a Level 2. Trying to make February a bit less chaotic overall. Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful! Mikey G The 4-word answer to the meta is the way to my heart.  

PDF  /  PUZ Hello hello! Love the Winter Olympics and can't wait to engage with them for the next couple of weeks! Images will be forthcoming below, though I have a busy day ahead (read: watching the Winter Olympics). --- 1.  Puzzle #165 answer:  ROOT (BEER) Correct entries: 66 Shortest explanation: The word "BEER" can surround the four starred entries to form four new entries, whose alternates are in the grid:  WILD --> BEWILDER --> R ATTLE HOLD --> BEHOLDER --> O NLOOKER GINN --> BEGINNER --> O RIENTEE LIEV --> BELIEVER --> T RAIN And my favorite beer is, of course, ROOT  BEER! Hope you gave this puzzle an A(&W). --- 2.  Puzzle #166 answer:  FORUM Correct entries:  49 Shortest explanation: A toughie, for sure. The first word of each of the five themers have a word with a single Roman numeral in it. Exactly one other Roman numeral could replace that lone Roman numeral to form another new word: COUNT --> MOUNT (...