Mission San Juan Kubo
Fall is around the corner, and with it comes a bunch of juicy puzzle events. Mark Halpin publishes his annual Labor Day puzzle set on Saturday, Sep 5th. They’re always a brilliant, difficult set of puzzles that keep me occupied for days or weeks. Then there’s Puzzle Boat 7, launching October 10th. A wide range of word and logic puzzles by Foggy Brume, PB can be a weeks-long endeavor, even for a big team.
The Puzzler below was also featured on the Sunday Puzzle on NPR.
Puzzler
Think of a place on earth with a four-word name. Take the third word. Advance three of its letters to the next letter of the alphabet (so A would become B, B would be come C, etc.). You’ll get the fourth word in the name. What place is this?
The Crossword Revolution Is Upon Us
Katy Steinmetz
A long-overdue profile on USA Today crossword editor and prolific puzzle constructor Erik Agard, who is working to break the feedback loop of white-, male- and Euro-centric crossword fills. I love Erik’s grids, which always have a feeling of freshness to them. I also love, as this profile shows, that he sees crosswords as a place to introduce new concepts, not just reaffirm the things you already know.
Send a Damned Message
A fun, pattern-matching, interactive puzzle game that escalates in difficulty as you clear each level.
The Curious Correspondence Club
A new mail-based escape game from the some of the makers of the Mysterious Package Company. $20/month.
COCOA - the Conundrum Cognitive Assessment test
Bruce Leban has a fun take on that cognitive test that you may have heard about in the news.