The Seaweed Is Always Greener In Somebody Else's Lake

Hello again and sorry about the last couple of puzzle-less months!

Getting crossworld business out of the way first: I'm thrilled to announce that my puzzle "You're Projecting" is nominated for an ORCA Award, specifically "Best Themed Crossword". Voting is open until mid-February, so vote here for your favourite puzzles of the year!

Anyway, enough about orcas. Today's puzzle is about a different sea (and land!) creature: the humble crab.

Many species have evolved into crablike creatures, and similarly, this puzzle is evolving into a puzzle about crabs. The starred entries are each one or two letters away from being different species of crab, and it's up to you to figure out which letters need to be replaced to evolve a crab! When you put all the replaced letters together (the letters you originally filled in and are discarding), from left to right and top to bottom, you'll get the title of an appropriate song to play when this puzzle is finished. 

(The song is NOT "Under the Sea", I'm not going that easy on you.)

I Feel The Earth Move

 

Me from the future here. I didn't write much about this puzzle in the original blog post. I recommended solving it on paper at the time, but looking back, I think it's perfectly solvable online. Of course, that means I have to make a new embed link since all the Crosswordr embed links are dead now. RIP Crosswordr o7

Car-dinal Sins

It's reading week, which means that I have some time on my hands, so I've made a new puzzle I'm very excited about! But first I'm going to give you all access to this Words on Fire meta puzzle from 2023, because something crazy is happening in Toronto. Some spoilers for the puzzle subject follow, so here is the puzzle. Keep reading after you're done, especially if you live or have lived in Ontario. (and an update from me from the future, lol)

Meta instructions: Two different styles of urban planning are present in this puzzle. You will need to navigate around both in search of the letters that spell out the meta answer. The letters can be read in the order they are presented in the grid (left to right, top to bottom), and clues that contain at least one meta letter are starred. The answer is a 26-letter phrase that describes why navigation is so much harder in one section of the puzzle than in another.

If you follow @cruciverbology on Twitter/X, you know that I like modes of transportation that are not cars. Unfortunately, the Ontario provincial government does not agree. In a laughable attempt to decrease traffic in Toronto, Premier Doug Ford is trying to ban new bike lanes in the city and even rip out some existing ones. This will make it impossible for many Torontonians to get around safely, and it's frankly embarrassing that Ford thinks this is a good idea in 2024.

Ontarians everywhere, please call your MPPs and tell them not to support this bill (it's called Bill 212 or the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act). Also, please sign the I Love Bike Lanes petition if you haven't already!

Update from the future: The bill passed, but Cycle Toronto successfully challenged it in court. As of 2026 the Bloor, University, and Avenue bike lanes are still up.

It's Not Easy Being Green

 

Hello again! I'm in Siena, Italy this month, but fall semester starts soon, so these are my last few days of freedom. This is a fun little midi puzzle that I initially made as a 15x15, but I decided it would be better with grid art. Everything is better with grid art.

Before we get to today's puzzle, though, here are two mini grids created by solvers from last month's challenge!

Grid 17 by Charles Montpetit

Grid 19 by Jeff Corbin

Today's puzzle:

Repeating Tile Mini Grids

 

I've been wanting to experiment with the idea of tiles in crosswords since the einstein took the popular science world by storm a couple years ago. At first I tried to make a grid shaped like an einstein tile, but after hours of trying, the grid bore no resemblance to the shape.

I gave up on the shape itself and turned to creating tiles with a regular mini crossword grid. The einstein's uniqueness comes from its nonrepeating pattern, which I obviously couldn't replicate in crossword format, but I did manage to create a series of 5x5 mini grids which, when repeated infinitely like tiles, form a coherent grid. (The idea is that the letters repeat as well as the pattern of black squares.) I call them the Repeating Tile Mini Grids; if you can think of a catchier name, please tell me.

I wrote a script to generate all possible mini grids which are fillable and follow crossword rules when repeated infinitely, and dumped them all in an Excel spreadsheet. Each sheet shows a different grid repeated four times so you get an idea of the pattern. There are 4,831 grids, some of which are more visually interesting than others. And since I can't fill them all myself, I am sharing the spreadsheet with you all. Browse the patterns, pick a favourite grid or two, and fill it yourself! Be sure to let me know (via blog or email: fcorbin567 at gmail dot com) when you make one so I can solve it. You can also use them in your bathroom tiles, or perhaps the fabric for your newest piece of crossword-themed clothing.

grids.xlsx

This example is on sheet 78. I've called it "Checkmarks" because I think the pattern looks like checkmarks.

Sample puzzle (PDF + solution)

Here are some more of my favourites that I've found so far:

Interesting-looking stairs, #91

Waves, #117

This one is a little out there, but I think it looks like feet walking on a road. #211

Happy solving, and happy making!!