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Week 11, so I will now bat for the cycle again with a new set of 5 puzzles.

Last week was a meta, so to explain the meta:

We are looking for a traditional Thanksgiving food which is represented in this puzzle.

The theme answers were:

20A: Breakfast cereal with the mascot “I vant to eat your cereal!” [Start at 6] = COUNT CHOCULA
31A: Discussed [Start at 4] = TALKED ABOUT
47A: Celebrity whose filmography on Wikipedia actually lists her sex tape [Start at 3] = PARIS HILTON
55A: Company who sent their last telegram in 2006 [Start at 1] = WESTERN UNION

Using the title “Five Course Meals”, the number indicated in the clues was a signal to start at that letter of each answer, and take the five letters starting with the letter indicated.

This leaves CHOCU, KEDAB, RISHI, and WESTE. Wordplay people should pick up on that those four phrases are anagrams for words that proceed “potato”.

CHOCU = COUCH
KEDAB = BAKED
RISHI = IRISH
WESTE = SWEET

Since words for potato have been anagrammed, or cryptically “mashed”, the traditional Thanksgiving food in question was MASHED POTATOES. Those who said just “potatoes” were emailed about giving a better answer, and all those who did indeed came up with the better answer.

Six correct answers came in for the second meta, and John L. Wilson was the randomly selected winner. He will join Jon Delfin in a future section of the site. Stay tuned.

And for this week’s, something hopefully a little easier than the meta puzzle from last week.

Enjoy!

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Week 10 everyone! Since 10 is divisible by 5, time for a meta!

And since my second-favorite holiday is coming up this week, time to get in the season. I’m looking for a traditional Thanksgiving food which is represented in this puzzle. When you think you have it, email me at cking.gow(at)gmail.com with your answer. I’ll accept answers all the way to noon ET on Saturday.

Also, I’d like to highlight another fellow South Carolinian, Ben Ingram. As you may know, Ben recently won the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions. I’m a game show nut (see Puzzle #2 for evidence), and I’ve been following the ToC religiously for the last couple of weeks. I watched all three of the finalists in their original runs, and I cheered on Arthur and Julia SO MUCH during their original runs, and I wanted both of them to make the finals, but I really wanted Ben to take it all.

Why? Because as a Gamecock/math major/South Carolinian, it’s hard not to pull for the Gamecock/math major/South Carolinian. Ben is from Florence, SC, which is about an hour south of where I live in South Carolina (it’s a little more rural than Florence. Florence is where we go to get mall shopping done or to watch movies). And as a South Carolinian, it makes me extremely proud that Ben represented the state in such a gracious and appreciative way. South Carolina gets a certain “reputation” when it comes to our intelligence, which is why I state that these puzzles are made in SC right on the home page. Ben highlighted South Carolina in the best way possible, and we’re all mighty proud of him.

And let the record note that I knew the “Shakespearean Geography” Final Jeopardy which was a Triple Stumper for the contestants, and ended up being the only Final Jeopardy that Ben ever missed on all 13 appearances he was on. After thinking “Timon of Athens” and then “The Two Gentleman of Verona”, I landed on “Pericles, Prince of Tyre”. And then I realized, where the hell is Tyre exactly? Turns out it’s in Lebanon, so I’d like to think I would have written that answer down.

Enjoy!

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Welcome to Week 9!

This puzzle was inspired after watching quite possibly the most absurd thing ever put on TV. I like to think that this puzzle makes more sense than that video ever will.

Week 10 is the meta, and it should be straight-forward enough. That is unless you get the turkey coma.

Enjoy!

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[SPOILER ALERT: The following text refers to a specific clue in the puzzle]

So, while writing clues for this puzzle, the Internet led me to what is currently 10-Down.

“Cereal that in 1959 advertised in Life magazine with a crossword puzzle”

I think that clue is good enough. One could guess the cereal from context clues alone, but that’s not the fun part.

A little bit of researching has led to this discovery, a scan from Life magazine that features a full page ad that’s a crossword for the cereal.

As far as I know, this is one of the few cereal crosswords out there. And I know you love crosswords, so why not try to solve one of the finest (by default) cereal crosswords ever?

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As you can imagine, the transfer from Life magazine ad to Across Lite was a little tricky. The numbering for the PUZ and PDF files are different than those used in the magazine, but that’s because my crossword software won’t let me clue 1-letter words, so you guys will just have to overlook that. Before solving the PUZ or PDF versions, be sure to look at the actual magazine clipping, just so you know what to look for.

Enjoy!

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Welcome back, and welcome to Week 8.

The biggest development in the cross world (that wasn’t about French-American actresses) is the release of the Indie 500 guest constructor requirements. So it appears I have about two months to write a puzzle for the chance at a glorious $500 (!). I’ve had a puzzle idea in my back pocket for a couple of months now, and this might be the venue for it. And speaking of the Indie 500, will I be able to schedule another puzzle trip in for 2015? I’m already heading to Boston on MLK weekend for one pretty high-scale puzzle tournament, so can I do another? ACPT will be right in the middle of my spring semester, but this one will be taking a place about a month after I graduate, so the chance is still alive!

Damn, I’m going to graduate in less than a year.

Enjoy the puzzle!

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Halloween is come and gone, but I might have the last Halloween crossword of the season. It is November 2nd after all.

Speaking of Halloween crosswords of this season, Evan Birnholz. In his most recent post on Devil Cross, he released a new puzzle which was definitely one of the funnest puzzles I’ve solved in a while. And for those who followed his link to my site, then welcome to Chris Words!

Enjoy!