Midi Puzzle

 

Excited to be back with my first midi puzzle in a little while. Trying to keep the ball rolling over here! I hope this adds some joy to the start of your week! :)

PS: um, brooke...do we need to have a conversation?

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Trivial Pursuit #2

 

Excited to be able to come back so quickly with another Trivial Pursuit puzzle --  the bite-sized nature of these really make them easy to fit into my schedule! I really appreciated all of your kind words after the first one, and I hope this one is just as fun for you. Big thanks to Brooke for test solving so this little guy could be as fun as possible. Enjoy!

Amanda

Demi Themeless by Brooke Husic & Amanda Rafkin

 

Brooke and I love making puzzles together. This sure as hell was no exception! 

PS: the clue for 6D was inspired by Nate's tweet (spoilers)

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Trivial Pursuit #1

It's been a little while since I've been able to post anything over here, which makes me sad, so I'm extremely happy to be able to pop in today with a new type of puzzle I'm calling Trivial Pursuit (sorry Hasbro) because 1) it's all trivia, and 2) it's a mini puzzle so it really is a fairly trivial pursuit for you as a solver. Normally, I tend to eschew trivia-heavy puzzles, but one of my favorite parts of the puzzle making process is the element of clue writing that involves research. Through the process of cluing, I've come across so many strange, unique, and interesting facts that I thought it could be fun to explore a puzzle based entirely around that premise, but on small scale. It also doesn't hurt that so many puzzle people happen to be big trivia buffs! I hope you find this bite-sized bit of trivia/puzzling fun to be interesting and entertaining. Back with more puzzles soon, I hope!

Amanda

Variety Puzzle: Get The Picture?

 

Back again with a "Get The Picture?" variety puzzle, which is a crossword devoid of any language-based clues. Instead, each entry is represented by a picture that either directly or in essence describes the word in the grid. I've done one of these before and they're sort of a unique challenge to make in that all of the entries in the puzzle have to be something that can be described pictorially. For instance, entries like "EAT AT" or "I THINK SO" are basically a no-go since they would be too hard to clue with only a photo. I ran one of these back in September as well, so if you like it and you missed the first one, feel free to dive into the archive and dig that one up too. Maybe next time I can try for an even larger grid size. I hope you find this to be a fun and bite-sized addition to your solving rotation today!

Amanda

Guest Themeless by Brooke Husic & Rachel Fabi

 

What a huge honor and delight to have the opportunity to feature the work of the brilliant Brooke Husic and Rachel Fabi here today! I've been pretty preoccupied in the puzzleverse lately, and I couldn't be happier to have the first puzzle on Brain Candy in a while be the work of these two lovely humans. I really adore and respect them both as people and as puzzle makers, and getting to publish their stuff here at any time is really the best. Their bylines are all over the place these days (and Brooke has her own crossword site xwords by a ladee with some delightfully tough puzzles), so I know it won't be long before you see more from both of them. And what more could we ask for on this Super Bowl Sunday than a collab from these two? Enjoy! (And if Tom Brady wins one more Super Bowl I swear to god...go KC!)

Here's Brooke & Rachel: A lot of love went into this puzzle, especially its grid design, and we are so excited (and grateful to Amanda!) to have it on Brain Candy.

It is not acceptable to rely on the relatively small number of Black puzzlemakers in the community to center Black content in puzzles. For this month and every month, ask yourself what you can do to actively make the crossword community a positive and welcoming place for Black solvers, constructors, and editors, both future and current.

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Midi Puzzle

 

If we're Twitter buddies, then yesterday you may have seen me ask about a midi puzzle that went slightly awry. This is that puzzle. Spatial awareness isn't exactly my forte, and those of you who also construct puzzles know that in CrossFire, the only symmetry that has automatic support built in is rotational symmetry. So if you want to do mirror, diagonal, or any other type of symmetry you're basically on your own in terms of making sure it's actually symmetrical. Well, suffice it to say that mistakes were made and this one has a slight imperfection. The photo for today's post captures my expression upon making this discovery. But the lovely folks of Twitter showed some incredible support for this special little guy and so, straight from the Island of Misfit Crosswords, I present to you this not-quite-diagonally-symmetrical puzzle. I hope you enjoy it! 

Amanda

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