2025 ORCAS Ballot |

Crosswords and Clues

BEST EASY CROSSWORD OF 2024

“Girl Dinner,” by Emily Carroll (USA Today, January 21) commentary This puzzle riffs on a fresh, modern phrase under a tough constraint - three dishes that end in common female names - PASTA ALLA NORMA, STEAK DIANE, and CREPES SUZETTE (for dessert) makes for a delicious solve, and GAL PALS in the grid adds an extra callback to the theme.

Untitled, by Peter Gordon (NYT, February 13) commentary Each entry consists of two singular names of teams in a particular sport: BROWN BEAR (NFL), BLUE FLAME (NHL), GUARDIAN ANGEL (MLB), SUN KING (NBA), with the reveal of TEAM PLAYERS; it's unusual to see an easy puzzle with such density of theme content that also has so much strong fill, like SHIATSU, FAIR GAME, DUMDUMS, and NETIZEN.

“Look Up!,” by Alex Eaton-Salners (WSJ, April 8) puzzle This is a date-specific puzzle at its best - the clue in the revealer, ECLIPSE GLASSES, tells solvers to “safely observe” the first word in each theme entry: CRESCENT WRENCH, SLIVER OF HOPE, and CORONA EXTRAS; MOONSHOT and FROG LEGS are fun bonuses.

"Rocky Start" by Tarun Krishnamurthy (Universal, Monday, May 27) commentary Each theme entry starts with a word that sounds like a letter from "rocky": ARE WE ALONE, EAU DE PARFUM, SEE ME AFTER CLASS, KAY JEWELERS, and WHY ON EARTH; there’s some nice fill too, including OPERAGOER and HARD AGREE.

Untitled, by Barbara Lin (LAT, Tuesday, May 28) commentary Per the revealer HOLD IT, each theme answer is a thing that can be "held": PLANK POSITION, STAFF MEETING, ELEVATOR DOOR, and MASTERS DEGREE; there’s good long fill in the down entries including MOUTH GUARD, FALSE START, BIT PLAYER, SCOOPED UP, and COP OUT.

Untitled, by Brad Wiegmann (NYT, June 19) commentary Very clever transformations of meaning occur in this puzzle with STOP WATCH [Wait + see], HAND HOLD [Give + take], SMACK TALK [Kiss + tell], SLAP DASH [Hit + run], and CHOPSTICK [Cut + paste]; SEA SERPENTS, MATCHMAKERS, and FANDUEL also jazz up the solve.

Untitled, by Kelly Richardson (NYT, July 16) commentary An impressive feat in a Tuesday puzzle with three teas – PEACH, PEKOE, and ASSAM – stacked in a “cup” of black squares in the middle of this mirror-symmetric grid; complementing this striking visual are two punny revealers - SOME LIKE IT HOT and NOT MY CUP OF TEA – and some evocative bonuses like NO CONTEST, THAT’S THAT, and HOUSE CAT.

“Body Art,” by Kareem Ayas (USA Today, October 4) commentary True to its title, this puzzle features a clever [body part] + [art form] constraint: THROAT SINGING, HANDWRITING, BELLY DANCING, and FINGER PAINTING; this, along with great clean fill for new solvers, add up to a real magnum opus.

“Happy Halloween!,” by Katie Byl (Universal, October 31) puzzle This puzzle does a wonderful job introducing first-time solvers to Schrödinger themes as the center of the puzzle [One part of a Halloween question] can be either TRICK or TREAT which creates three Schrödinger squares: an [Article of clothing that might be graphic] TIE or TEE, [What radio DJs may have played in the ‘90s] CDS or ADS, and [Doing the one-legged goddess pose, say] SKILL or STILL; in a pinwheel formation around the sides of the puzzle, are two treats (BANANA SPLIT and DOG BISCUIT) and two tricks (LEVITATION and BULLET CATCH).

Untitled, by Elliot Caroll (NYT, Monday, December 9) commentary The first word of each theme answer is something one might call “AL” (ALABAMA SLAMER, ALUMINUM FOIL, ALBERT BROOKS) as indicated by the revealer, the Paul Simon song YOU CAN CALL ME AL; very fun theme with lively entries and cluing throughout.

BEST THEMED CROSSWORD OF 2024

"Highway to Hell" by Spencer Leach (Fireball, January 3, 2024) commentary This puzzle includes answers written upwards on the right side of the grid and dual reveals of TWO WAY STREET and WOLLEY ELBUOD (double yellow); the double yellow lines are represented in two central columns with entries fitting the pattern “yellow __ ,“ yet only the second half of entries are included in the grid (like BELLIED, CARD, and FIN).

"Don't Trust Me," by Rafael Musa (The Modern Crossword, January 27)
Devious theme where the long entries seem to be simple cross references, but one needs to read the word "see" as part of the clues to make sense of them.

Untitled, by Teddy Katz and Rich Katz (NYT, February 15) commentary The revealer DOUBLE OR NOTHING hints at five pairs of crossing entries clued such that the answers work both with or without their double letters (BLO(SS)OM crossing CU(SS)ED).

"You’re Projecting," by Elise Corbin (Cruciverbology, March 4) puzzle Mind-blowing puzzle that reproduces the Mercator projection in a crossword grid, stretching the upper sections to more than double their size and compressing the lower half of the grid into just three rows.

Untitled, by Joseph Gangi (NYT, April 17) commentary As Amy said on Fiend, this is "one part classics, one part stunt puzzle" - the themers are POLYPHEMUS, THE CYCLOPS, ODYSSEY, and ONE EYE; the grid is very clean despite the constraint that the entire puzzle, grid and clues, has only one I, which fittingly appears at the beginning of I CANT SEE.

"Taking on Debt," by Gary Larson and Amy Ensz (Universal, June 14) commentary IOUS is added to the middle of familiar words and wackiness ensues: CUR(IOUS)RANT, FUR(IOUS)ROW, DUB(IOUS)AI, IMP(IOUS)ACT, SER(IOUS)VICE; the grid is clean and includes with some fun fill, including MALL RAT and SPY SWAP.

"Last Name," by Jessica Bloom-Foster and Larry Snyder (Universal, July 25) puzzle Words are reparsed as an adjective followed by a name: NONCOMPETE (NONCOM + PETE), FLORIDIAN (FLORID + IAN), COACHELLA (COACH + ELLA), and DEEPSEATED (DEEPSEA + TED), with fun clues throughout.

"What the...?," by Ryan Judge (AVCX, July 31) puzzle An OLIVER TWIST revealer indicating that OLIVER is anagrammed in RUE DE RIVOLI and SAVILE ROW, locations in the two cities from A TALE OF/TWO CITIES.

Untitled, by Sala Wanetick and Emily Biegas (LAT, September 9) commentary Each themer is two words which can precede "park," as indicated by the revealer DOUBLE PARK: CAR BATTERY, OFFICE DOG, SOUTH CENTRAL, and BALL STATE; lots of interesting fill (OPEN FACE, VIRTUOSO, CATAPULT, PHENOM, CANT BE) and clues make this one really fun.

Untitled, by Hanh Huynh (NYT, October 16) commentary Words are reparsed as a word you might hear in BEGINNGER SPANISH + an English word (e.g., TRESPASSES = TRES + PASSES) - Sussing out the theme answers in this clever theme is a joy and there was generally solid fill throughout.

BEST THEMELESS CROSSWORD OF 2024

Untitled, by Zhouqin Burnikel (NYT, February 10) commentary Timely long answers in this grid published on the Lunar New Year (YEAR OF THE DRAGON, GONG XI FA CAI) highlight a grid full of interesting phrases and strong medium-length fill.

Untitled, by Patrick Berry (The New Yorker, March 6) commentary A super smooth themeless with only two three-letter words and the spanners SILENCE IS GOLDEN, SEE ME AFTER CLASS, THAT DOG WONT HUNT, and CONTINUITY ERROR.

"Tough As Nails #111," by Stella Zawistowski (Tough As Nails, April 17) puzzle Stella loves to make hard themelesses and this was a tough-but-fair workout with paired 10-letter entries in each corner (LUCHA LIBRE, LIBERATION, BE RATIONAL, IVORY TRADE) and a variety of trivia angles.

"themeless no. 32," by crosstina aquafina and Erik Agard (Crosstina Aquafina, May 16) puzzle A cluing voice that's fun-loving but sacrifices no quality or fairness is layered on a damn impressive triple stack (of 16s!) in the middle (TRUE CRIME PODCAST, WECLOME TO THE CLUB, ASKING FOR A FRIEND).

Untitled, by Lance Enfinger and Bob Weisz (Los Angeles Times, June 1) commentary This themeless puzzle is so packed with clever misdirection it prompts second-guessing on even the most straightforward of clues when solving for entries like SNAKE EYES, SEXPERT, TWEENAGERS, and NOTHING PERSONAL.

“Crossword #1696: Themeless Monday,” by Brendan Emmett Quigley (Brendan Emmett Quigley, July 15) puzzle Brendan’s puzzle odometer is far into four digits but he is still going strong as evidenced by this puzzle with LIQUID SOAP, SNOWBALLED, DOUBLE SOLITAIRE, RUNS THE ALPHABET [Checks a letter while solving a crossword], and TAILGATE PARTIES.

Untitled, by Kameron Austin Collins (The New Yorker, July 22) puzzle This difficult themeless relies on terse clues to make a grid that’s hard to break into, but satisfying to fill – with entries such as BREWSKI, READY TO ROCK, APPARATCHIK, OVERDOING IT, and COTTAGE CORE.

"Themeless 85," by Malaika Handa (The Modern Crossword, October 13)
Interlocking stairstacks with notable entries (COUPLE GOALS, PLEASE LEAVE) in a medium-difficulty grid is combined with the type of fill throughout that made the now-shuttered Modern puzzle distinctive.

Untitled, by Patrick Berry (The New Yorker, December 2) commentary The words flow around curvaceous grid lines with entries such as TELLING THE TRUTH, THE REAL MCCOYS, SHOW OF HANDS, WOULDNT YOU AGREE, and DOG TIRED.

"Out of Office," by Evan Mulvihill (Defector, December 30)
A colorful, varied grid with some impressive interlocking longer stuff (WORK LIFE BALANCE, BETTER YET, MAKEUP SEX) that in a single puzzle gives a great indication of who Evan — a newer face on the scene — is.

BEST SUNDAY-SIZED CROSSWORD OF 2024

“Treasure Map,” by Olivia Mitra Framke (Puzzles for Palestine, January 4) puzzle pack This puzzle turns a 21x grid into a map—and just when it appears to be done, there’s a little extra something.

"Is There An Echo in Here?," by Sid Sivakumar (LAT, June 2) commentary Sid elegantly lays down seven phrases where the last two words are homophones, and are clued with just a few simple examples -- "Gold, silver, or bronze?" for OLYMPIC MEDAL METAL, "Erratum, appendix, or reader testimonial?" for SECOND EDITION ADDITION; others are HONEYMOON SUITE SWEET, COUNTY FAIR FARE, WINDOW PANE PAIN, ELECTRONIC CASH CACHE, and BUILDING SITE SIGHT - plus a lot of tasty fill like SICHUAN, PETIT FOUR, and cluing ([Granita bits] for ICE).

“Backing Musicians,” by Aaron Rosenberg (Universal, June 9) commentary Aaron comes up with ten playful twists on well-known phrases that involve coming to the rescue of musicians – such as WORK OUT THE KINKS, RACE FOR THE CURE, TAKE HEART, HOUSE TRAIN, LIGHT CREAM, DRAG QUEEN, and OPEN UP THE DOORS - all brought together with the revealer BAND-AID SOLUTION; fun bonus fill includes MARMADUKE, CHICKEN DANCE, ON CLOUD NINE, KEY TO SUCCESS, and USE THE FORCE.

"Layered Up," by Will Nediger (Bewilderingly, September 2) puzzle The revealer in this innovative puzzle is IT WORKS ON SO MANY LEVELS, and in this puzzle, it really does - THE GREAT GLASS ELEVATOR, MISE EN ABYME, GAME CONSOLE - EUREKA (a synonym for IT WORKS) is placed ON an entry representing different LEVELS, clued as [Tier list letters] SABCDEF; topping it all off, the center of the grid has five answers across and four answers down with the letters IT circled - examples of “IT" working ON SO MANY LEVELS.

“Teacher’s Marks,” by John Kugelman (NYT, October 6) commentary Clues are excerpts from student essays each marked with a correction explained by its answer (the errors are bracketed by ** in these excerpts): [scratch them *your self* girls] is PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER; [I *loooooove* lottery tickets] is ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE; and [what happened to *“me”* this summer] is DONT QUOTE ME ON THIS.

"Dark Matter," by Desirée Penner and Jeff Sinnock, (AVCX, November 13) puzzle Each color-themed answer - CHARLIE BROWN, MIDNIGHT BLUE, THIN RED LINE, PINK ELEPHANT, GREEN LANTERN - is transformed by the last color entry, the Rolling Stones lyric I WANT THEM TO TURN BLACK, in order to make the rest of the grid make sense; a refreshing expression of a constructor expanding past black and white into color, and then returning to black.

“Art Heist,” by David Kwong (NYT, December 15) commentary In a tour de force, Kwong created TEN phrases including the names of famous artists – like EAST(ERN ST)ANDARD TIME, (GO YA)NKEES, HOO(KAH LO)UNGE; FRO(M ONE T)O TEN; SM(OKE EFFE)CTS; REGISTERED DIE(TITIAN); MARY HA(D A LI)TTLE LAMB; he then "stole" the artists' names from the resulting entries (locating them elsewhere in the grid) and replaced them with single letters spelling out a meta answer.

BEST CLUE OF 2024

[Able is he and he is Elba] for IDRIS, in Untitled, by Victor Barocas (ed. Will Shortz) (NYT, February 6)

[Common spot for a screw] for BED, in “Happy Hearts, Happy Parts,” by Olivia Mitra Framke (Lil AVC X, February 13)

[Rapper on "Law & Order: SVU"] for GAVEL in "Round Figures," by Will Nediger (Bewilderingly, February 19)

[Needle on a thread?] for TROLL, in Untitled, by Jackson Matz (ed. Will Shortz) (NYT, March 8)

[Unthreaded bolt] for STREAK, in "Find Him!" by Freddie Cheng (Fireball, April 25)

[Black-and-white treat that oftentimes contains an Oreo] for CROSSWORD in "It's All Fun and Games Until You Have to Pay Rent," by Philip Chow (April 26, Crosshare)

[Makes more gorgeous??] for ERODES, in "Inkblot's Inferno," by Ben Tolkin (Nautilus Puzzles, April 28)

[What might prompt you to flip the bird?] for OVEN TIMER, in Untitled, by Jacob McDermott (ed. Joel Fagliano) (NYT, July 19)

[The mating game?] for CHESS, in “Rocky Start,” by Tarun Krishnamurthy (Universal, May 27)

[Golden retriever who ends up with a chocolate lab?] for CHARLIE BUCKET, in Untitled, by Spencer Leach McDermott (ed. Joel Fagliano) (NYT, November 1)

Tournaments and Contests

BEST TOURNAMENT CROSSWORD OF 2024

"Puzzle #2," by Jess Rucks (Boswords Spring Themeless League, March 11)
A lovely mix of trivia, tricky wordplay, and colorful conversational entries (GOD I HOPE NOT, THE GIGGLES, BELL HOOKS), all combine with a great grid spanner dropping through the middle.

"Puzzle #8 – LAST WORDS," by Sid Sivakumar (ACPT, April 7) solution Squeaky clean themeless teeming with HIGH NOTES like DREAM CAR, DNA CHIP, SO NOT OK, HAD IT ALL, NOT BY A MILE, with fantastic cluing at all three levels.

"Going a Little Overboard," by Adam Wagner (Westwords, June 23) commentary This cleverly camouflaged theme required seeing that HANG TEN referred to T-E-N dropping in a perfectly straight line down from clues to make correct entries on this surf-board-shaped grid – a tricky challenge for solvers at the inaugural Westwords tournament.

"Returning for Seconds," by Garrett Chalfin & Andrew Kingsley (Boswords, July 21)
A challenging theme in both mechanism and clues – DOUBLE BACK refers to needing to reverse clues and double them: [*Rum] for “murmur,” [*Hoop] for “pooh pooh,” [*Mud] for “dum dum” – contains open corners and interesting fill throughout.

"Upon Further Reflection Distortion," by Hoang-Kim Vu (Lollapuzzoola, August 24)
The easy-to-spot revealer (FUN HOUSE MIRROR) is deceptive, the puzzle is still a heck of a workout even after cracking the theme – with clues on the left adding a letter and clues symmetrically-located on the right missing that – a masterpiece in cluing flexibility.

"Sinking Sensation," by Adam Aaronson and Alina Abide (Lollapuzzoola, August 24)
A clever idea pulled off smoothly – columns of AAAAAAA bridge entries and evoke screams that not only fit the tournament’s “Theme Park” theme but was also cleverly synergistic to the constructors’ own initials.

"Puzzle #5," by Andy Kravis (Boswords Fall Themeless League, November 4)
This puzzle simply doesn’t waste an opportunity, with great fill in every nook and cranny (REAL MATURE, RUMOR MILL, LAS CULTURISTAS), and a range of interesting and clever clues.

BEST CONTEST CROSSWORD OF 2024

"Keep it Simple," by Matt Gaffney (MGWCC, January 27) commentary Matt toys with the concept of free will by attempting to coerce his solvers into taking a particular route through the grid as they solve -- a path delineated by the difficulty of the clues – that ultimately spells the phrase PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE with the first letters of the intended "easy" entries.

"World Wide Web," by Evan Birnholz (Washington Post, March 31) commentary This "double" meta features two solutions: the first (SITE MAP) is obtained by replacing each of the DOT rebus squares - which are parts of imaginary web addresses - with alternative letters to create well-known phrases; the second is particularly creative - the letters that appear after the DOT squares correspond to country-specific domain codes for countries which can be found elsewhere in the clues; the first letters of their original entries spell out HOTSPOT.

“You In or Out,” by Matt Gaffney (MGWCC, April 23) commentary Although the top-rated puzzles on Fiend are dominated by Matt’s clever metas, this one floated to the top; the search for an eight-letter word describing most meta-solvers required solvers to realize: seven words in the puzzle have an added “U” in Britian (FLAVOuR); which if added to the puz create new crossing words (LONG E, becomes “lounge”); which would be suitable answers to other clues in the puzzle ([Room in the board game Clue] STUDY…but also “lounge”); whose first letters in order spell STUDIOS – add in one more ”U” for STUDIOUS.

“Word Find,” by Matt Gaffney (MGWCC, June 4) commentary To find “a famous person with a 6-letter surname” solvers must notice clues that reference part of initialisms ([Part of TLDR] READ) then notice a proper name in the full phrase (tOO LONG, didnt read), which is a suitable entry for another clue ([Tea type] SPICED) – the letters in order spell out SHORTZ.

“By The Numbers,” by Patrick Berry (Fireball, June 19) commentary Four grid-spanning theme entries contain five words (each consisting of words with one, two, three, four, and five letters) such that the grid numbers for each entry can index the component words (e.g., OFF TO A GOOD START is indexed by the number 15, which points to the first letter of the word with *one* letter, A, and the first letter of the word with *five* letters, START) which taken together yields the answer ASTERISK - a fitting answer because of its placement next to a number on most keyboards.

"Family Meeting," by Mike Shenk (WSJ, August 16) commentary The reveal MOM AND POP hints at the intersection of seven pairs of clues that start with the letters M-O-M ([Mount Olympus matriarch] HERA) and P-O-P ([Puts on pounds] GETS FAT) which taken together reveals the meta NURTURE.

“Press Play,” by Pete Muller, Mack Meller, and Andrew White (Muller Monthly Music Meta, September 3) puzzle This oversized grid is in the shape of a piano keyboard, with the rebus NOTE appearing 7 times, on the keys C-C-B-G-A-B-C (from top to bottom) - these are the opening notes of the meta answer "Somewhere Over the Rainbow”; the grid also includes some stellar fill including GIN AND TONIC, IF THE SHOE FITS, and WAIT A SECOND.

“United Nations,” by Mike Shenk (WSJ, December 6) commentary Five long theme entries (like UP IN THE AIR) plus ten clues with countries mentioned (like [Pal, in Haiti] [Bygone resident in Peru]) requires solvers to see that long theme entries are anagrams of two “united” nations, with an extra letter remaining (UP In THE AIR for HAITI/PERU), which taken in order spells NIGER.

Variety and Midi Crosswords

BEST VARIETY CROSSWORD OF 2024

“Both Sides Now,” by Joon Pahk (Outside the Box, January 29)
Two crosswords with the same grid and a sneaky theme take full advantage of the format.

“Wrap Party,” by Nathan Curtis (Patreon, March 29)
The hard version provides a good exercise for vocabulary and logic skills.

“Orb Weaver,” by Joon Pahk (Outside The Box, April 8)
A devious little contest is woven into this Spell Weaving puzzle with an enjoyable meta.

“Diagramless” by Alex Eaton-Salners, (NYT, August 18) puzzle Alex created a corker of a diagramless here.

"Oh, dang it!," by Alex Boisvert (Crossword Nexus, November 8) puzzle Alex's puzzles always boast interesting fill and fresh-feeling cluing angles; this is no different, with (among others) a new take on PABST BLUE RIBBON.

BEST MIDI CROSSWORD OF 2024

“Letters Home,” by Will Nediger (Puzzles for Palestine, January 4) puzzle pack This puzzle, one of the 22 puzzles in the Puzzles for Palestine charity pack, centers around PALESTINE, using only those letters for all of the rest of the entries, such as PIT [Throwaway when making the apricot drink qamar al-din], ILAN PAPPÉ [Historian who wrote “The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge”], and PALE [“___ Blue Dot” (iconic photograph of Earth)] - this all comes together beautifully in a 9x9 midi.

“Happy Hearts, Happy Parts,” by Olivia Mitra Framke (Lil AVC X, February 13) puzzle This midi celebrates love through heart grid art, love-related entries, and sexy clueing; from ROSES ARE RED, to CANOODLE, to SEX TOYS, and finally the climax clue of [Common spot for a screw] for BED — what’s not to love?

“Happy Pi Day!,” by Adam Aaronson (Puzzmo, March 14) puzzle Adam brilliantly pulls off the opening sequence of pi in a 10x10 midi with three theme entries: THREE-POINT, ONE-FOR-ONE, and FIVE-NINE - a nice aha moment while celebrating with pie.

“First Words,” by Brooke Husic (Puzzmo, April 1)
A fun April Fools’ Day challenge as only Brooke can do: solving the puzzle with only one word from each clue.

Untitled, by Andrew J. Ries (Vox, May 3) puzzle Super smooth midi with a fun pair of clues - who doesn't love the Stanley Cup? No, not *that* Stanley cup.

"Couldn't Do Vanilla or Coffee, Unfortunately," by Kareem Ayas (Lil AVC X, May 14) puzzle A simple concept (PODS) reveals itself in all the different types: TIDE, PEA, ORCA (appropriately enough!) with bonus POD types in the title - a fun concept executed brilliantly.

<polar bear emoji>, by Zinna (Zinnabun, June 6) puzzle A beautiful puzzle with a relaxing vibe takes the art of construction to a new level – there might not be a prettier puzzle out there.

“Dance, Dance Revolution,” by Nate Cardin (Lil AVCX, September 3) puzzle Great example of how a midi puzzle can bring an idea to life - this features GINGER ROGERS backwards in the grid, with theme entries clued for their answers hidden backwards in different types of shoes; the grid also resembles someone dancing.

"The Player 456 Puzzle," by Stella Zawistowski (Vulture, December 26) puzzle This puzzle is as fun as the show it features, but much less deadly: theme entries RED LIGHT and GREEN LIGHT are paired as [kid's game that turns terrifying in "Squid Game"] in a puzzle that packs a lot of other fun pop culture clues into a midi-size puzzle.

Constructor of the Year

2024 CONSTRUCTOR OF THE YEAR

Daniel Bodily

Jeff Chen

Alex Eaton-Salners

Christina Iverson

Matthew Stock

2025 ORCAS Ballot

Search

Blogroll

Recent Comments

Archives

Tags

Meta