Pun of a Kind

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.