Crossword 058: Accentuate the Positive

 
Edward Frederick Brewtnall, The Princess and the Frog Prince

Edward Frederick Brewtnall,
The Princess and the Frog Prince

 

“Oh goodness infinite, goodness immense!,/That all this good of evil shall produce,/And evil turn to good!” you will exclaim, “replete with joy and wonder,” after you finish this puzzle.  (See John Milton, Paradise Lost, XII.468-71)

We owe 32 Across to my test-solver, proofreader, and sometime editor “Bob Kerfuffle,” who has also spared me the embarrassment and you the annoyance of many errors of all kinds.  He will not permit me to use his real name, preferring to “do good by stealth.” (See Alexander Pope, Epilogue to the Satires of Horace, Dialogue I, l.136)

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058-Accentuate-the-Positive.puz

058-Accentuate-the-Positive.pdf

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058 Accentuate the Positive

Crossword 056: Di-Graphic Language

 
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Une Vocation

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Une Vocation

 

That’s this week’s crossword she’s got there.  Judging from the position of her pen and the expression on her face, she’s at 52 Across, and trying desperately to remember what exactly a “ratite” is.  She’s seen the word before, maybe in another crossword—but what does it mean?  It’s nothing to do with rodents, or rodent-followers, but it is some kind of animal, isn’t it?  A “gnu” maybe?  

If you attended last August’s Lollapuzzoola tournament, you may have picked up a promotional copy of this very puzzle, which was distributed there on my behalf by my test-solver, editor, and promoter, the inexplicably generous “Bob Kerfuffle.” I was not myself in attendance, as I prefer to cultivate an air of reclusive genius—in the hope of being revered as the J.D. Salinger, the Emily Dickinson of crosswords. Do please try to play along with me in this.

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056-Di-Graphic-Language.puz

056-Di-Graphic-Language.pdf

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056 Di-Graphic Language

 

Crossword 053: Carved Turkey

 
Hearty Thanksgiving Greeting.jpg
 

Hearty Thanksgiving Greeting

Thursday was Thanksgiving.  I was thankful for you; and you, I’m willing to suppose, were thankful for me.  But now we have these turkey parts all over the place. Like so many of my puzzles, this week’s holds a mirror up to nature, showing the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.

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053-Carved-Turkey.puz

053-Carved-Turkey.pdf

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053 Carved Turkey

Pointing Hand.png

A puzzle of mine will appear next Thursday, November 29, in The Wall Street Journal.

 

Crossword 051: Sole Patches

 
John Collier - The Beggar Man .jpg
 

John Collier, The Beggar Man

I’ve now given you fifty 15 x 15 crossword puzzles.  Because I love you and want you to be happy, I will conclude my website’s first year by giving you two extra-large 21 x 21 puzzles.  Are you wondering what to do with the overflowing sense of gratitude you can’t help but feel in response to all this?  Wonder no longer—because now you can donate money to this site!  Just click the button below and follow instructions.  Donate $12, and I'll send you either another 21 x 21 puzzle, or a 15 x 15 Victorian crossword puzzle (that is, a puzzle that uses only words and phrases current in the Victorian era)!  Donate $15 and I’ll send you both!  

And that’s not all!  I have a special bonus for the first person who donates $10,000,000 or more: not only will I send you both puzzles, but also I’ll rename this website in your honor!  So if your name is, say, Bill Gates, after your donation the website will be known as "Bill Gates Presents David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Victorian Novel Recommender."  But act fast—because, again, only the first donor at the $10,000,000 level will be eligible for this bonus.

Donate

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051-Sole-Patches.puz

051-Sole-Patches.pdf

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051 Sole Patches

Crossword 045: No Matter How You Slice It

 
Helen Allingham, Baking Bread

Helen Allingham, Baking Bread

 

I once made a cd for a friend with 24 distinct recorded versions of the song on which this puzzle is based.  He hasn’t spoken to me in years.  Do you think there’s a connection?

The original title of this puzzle—which almost no one understood—was “Put on the Skillet! Put on the Lid!” The final, much superior, title was the inspiration of Ralph Bunker, who, along with a man who prefers to be called “Bob Kerfuffle,” has been test-solving my puzzles for months.  I’ll take this occasion to express my profound gratitude to both.  Would you also like to test-solve my puzzles?  Send me an email!  The qualifications are minimal:  an unerring sense of which Roman numerals correspond to which Arabic numerals would do (I find myself surprisingly shaky on this subject).  The compensation, however, is even more minimal:  nothing whatsoever!

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045-No-Matter-How-You-Slice-It.puz

045-No-Matter-How-You-Slice-It.pdf

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045 No Matter How You Slice It

A puzzle of mine appears today, and another will appear Thursday, October 4, in The Wall Street Journal.

 

Crossword 043: Get the L Out

 
Lord Frederic Leighton, The Return of Persephone

Lord Frederic Leighton, The Return of Persephone

 

Wait!  Come back!  Not you!—the “L.”  Everybody’s welcome here at David Alfred Bywaters’s Weekly Crossword Cavalcade—even you.  As so often before, we at “The Cavalcade” have taken something unpleasant, a phrase that may perhaps evoke bitter memories, and made it—fun! (By “we” I mean, of course, “I.”)

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043-Get-the-L-Out.puz

043-Get-the-L-Out.pdf

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043 Get the L Out

A puzzle of mine appears today in The Wall Street Journal.

Crossword 041: In Absentia

 
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, Dignity and Impudence

Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, Dignity and Impudence

 

In is out!  That's the kind of upside-down, through-the-looking-glass sort of a wonderland world this bold new puzzle creates.  And just so you don’t get too comfortable, at least one in . . . is still in!  You won’t find that feature in many other puzzles.

The above painting refers to a subtheme, daringly embedded in baffling cross-references.

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041-In-Absentia.puz

041-In-Absentia.pdf

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041 In Absentia