Happy 40th Anniversary, Labyrinth!

The other weekend my sister and I went to see Labyrinth at the Revue, a screening of the 4K remastered re-release for its 40th anniversary. It was a sold-out show filled with the expected nostalgic adults but also a fair number of kids seeing it for the first time, including four or five directly behind us. (The person introducing the show asked newbies to identify themselves with a show of hands.)

It's a deeply puzzly movie, with a liar puzzle, hidden pictures (many instances of David Bowie's face hidden in the scenery), and of course the Labyrinth itself. It's also about growing up and entering into the terrifying maze of adulthood, and how you don't have to let all the magic of childhood go as you do. I first saw the film as a pre-teen, and it felt like it had been made for me--a bookish, fantasy-loving, maze-obsessed girl just starting to feel the bewildering/exciting effects of puberty.

Maybe that's why my tears instantly welled up as the opening credits began, with the 80s vibes of "Underground" and the swooping digital owl immediately bringing back a flood of memories from that time. I did manage to get over myself, though, and grinned like an idiot through the rest of the screening. In this age of AI slop, the beautiful human talent and care and craftsmanship and intention that floods your senses from every frame of this movie is nothing short of a balm to the soul.

I was a little concerned that the younger audience members would be bored by the slower pace of a 40-year-old film. I shouldn't have worried. The group behind us sat in rapt silence the entire time (yes, I peeked), aside from the odd gasp and a whispered "yessss!" from one when Ludo calls the rocks in Goblin City--not to mention laughter at the farting sounds from the Bog of Eternal Stench. Jim Henson's magic endures.

Catch a screening if you can! And if it puts you in the mood, you could check out my Labyrinth tribute, a Puzzled Pint set from September 2018. It's eight years old now but I'm still proud of it. I think we do our best work when it comes from a place of love.

AVCX 15 x 15

Francis Heaney writes AVCX's difficulty ratings and they are always a hoot. I think this one might be a reference to my witch puzzle in the WSJ? Or maybe they were just in a Wicked mood! Anyway, this is my third puzzle for the wonderful people at AVCX, including Nate Cardin, who is a dream to work with. A classic 15 x 15, straight up, no gimmicks, free to subscribers and just $1 to buy. 

Here's a taste: Phony writing, right to the end (5)

Spooky Season 2025 #2: Missing Tombstones

 

My fifth Hallowe'en-themed cryptic for The Browser was published this past weekend. It's bittersweet because The Browser, which for many years has been one of the few venues for excellent North American cryptics, is wrapping up its crosswords at the end of this year.

I'm so grateful to Uri Braum (publisher) and Dan Feyer (editor) for the opportunity to grow as a constructor in the early days of the crossword, when I was writing four or so a year for them, honing my skills and trying new things.

Some personal highlights in addition to the Hallowe'en puzzles:

• co-constructing a puzzle with my long-time testsolver and good friend Diane Heaton
• co-constructing a puzzle with A.J. Jacobs
• co-editing my friend Jess Shulman's cryptic
• co-editing my friend and mentee Colin Tivol's first published cryptic

You can get access to the hundreds of excellent cryptics in The Browser's archive by subscribing here.

You can also buy the collected puzzles in book form.

Steve Mossberg wrote a wonderful tribute puzzle to the Browser, and you can find his post on Square Pursuit (and the puzzle itself) here.

Spooky Season 2025 #1: Cauldron

I have a witchy puzzle called Cauldron in the WSJ today! I used qxw to make the grid. I find this program a little trickier to use than Crossword Compiler, but it has a lot more flexibility when it comes to grid shapes. Didn't Mike Shenk do a beautiful job on the design?

Download it here!

DASH 12

Last weekend I spent the day volunteering for DASH 12. DASH stands for Different Area, Same Hunt. On the same day, in cities all over the world, teams solve puzzles that lead them through a story as they navigate from location to location. The puzzles are centrally developed, but the route (of course) is different in every city. This year, DASH also stood for Delightful Animal Sanctuary Holiday, because the puzzles had a safari theme.

I wrote the puzzle "Ears" for DASH 11, which ran in 2019, and was thrilled to be asked back for the next iteration. You can find my puzzle, "True Stripes", on the DASH 12 page. I wanted to make a puzzle that required some physical manipulation to take advantage of the in-person nature of the hunt, but did get some feedback from other cities that managing strips of paper in windy conditions was not an ideal solving experience. This wasn't a problem in Toronto, where the smaller number of teams allowed for mainly indoor sites, but other locations had too many teams to make this possible. Live and learn!

The teams in Toronto seemed to be having a fantastic time, and from what I've heard this was in general a hugely successful re-launch of DASH after its six year hiatus. As in 2019, I was so impressed with everyone involved in the development and organizing of the event. So many rounds of playtesting, so many logistics to manage, so much planning for the individual cities. And so much creativity from my fellow constructors. I'm very grateful to have been part of it!

Me (right) and my partner in crime for the day, the hilarious Becca, manager of Bakka-Phoenix Books, Canada's oldest science fiction and fantasy bookstore.

The iconic Toronto Reference Library: stop three on the route.

Becca and I also staffed the seventh stop, which was outside at Queen's Park. It rained a little, but that meant I got to use my on-theme umbrella.

Interview with Tonda Ros

I've been obsessed with the puzzle book MAZE by Christopher Manson for years and was thrilled to be able to interview fellow mazehead Tonda Ros about his addictive and hugely successful indie game Blue Prince. Read the interview here:

https://www.mazecast.com/2025/04/interview-with-tonda-ros.html

New Blog Smell

Puzzles! I know how to use Blogger and it's free so this seemed as good a way as any to gather my puzzle stuff in one place. Here it is:

• Cryptic Crosswords
• Other Puzzles
• About Me

I plan to blog about puzzles occasionally, when time permits and the mood hits!