Tag Archives: Announcements

Written on Apr, 01, 2016 by in | 1 Comment.

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Devil Cross Meta You Can Say That Again

Devil Cross is back from the dead for a day! Life is keeping me pretty busy at the Washington Post, and I’m enjoying it, but I’ve been meaning to break my hiatus here for a while. I’ve got some information about accessing the Post puzzles at the end of the post which you may or may not know already, but I figure it can’t hurt to put it down here.

And this weekend is the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament! I will be there, so make sure you come say hi to me.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this puzzle, and it’s a meta too! I’m proud of how it turned out; it’s a tough one and I worked especially hard on it over the past week.

The answer to this metapuzzle is a “Game of Thrones” character. If you don’t watch the show or haven’t read the books, this handy Wiki list might help you figure out the answer. E-mail me your answer at devilcrosswords@gmail.com for a chance to win a fun prize!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, happy April, and all that. Now that that’s out of the way, this link and this link will explain everything.

As for the Washington Post: since I last posted in December, I’ve been having a good time there, but there’ve been some updates for getting a hold of my Post Magazine puzzles:

  1. The puzzles are still available for free for solving on your browser on the Post’s website here. But if you prefer Across Lite, you can get .puz files at Diary of a Crossword Fiend via the Today’s Puzzle page. New puzzles are posted on Saturdays at 6 pm ET. For both formats, only the last four weeks’ worth of puzzles are available at a time, so make sure you solve them before they disappear.
  2. If you are a browser solver (as in, online but not in Across Lite): at some point in the near future, the Post will be switching over to an HTML5 setup, and with that will come some new features for solving. First, you’ll get a bright new shiny PDF. It will look like the puzzle as it appears in the print magazine. Second, there will supposedly be a way to enter multiple letters into a single box for rebus puzzles. I’ve been inching to create some of these. I don’t know exactly when this HTML5 changeover will happen, but I’m told it’s in testing now; hopefully it won’t be too long.
  3. For all solvers: I blog about my Post puzzles here. It provides not only the solution to each puzzle, but a little bit of my thought process on the themes, answers, clues, etc. For another blog take, Jenni Levy has been doing some fine write-ups over at Crossword Fiend.

That’s all for now. Hope to see you at the ACPT!

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Written on Dec, 06, 2015 by in , | Comments Off on An Update on the Washington Post and Devil Cross

Hi solvers,

It’s been a busy month since I wrote my last post, but I have a few updates I wanted to share. Let’s get right to them:

1. First, my inaugural Sunday crossword for the Washington Post Magazine has been published! It’s called “Heroes Welcome.” That puzzle, along with all new Post puzzles going forward, will be posted at this link each Sunday. And, of course, they’re free to solve. That being said……

2. Only the previous four Washington Post puzzles will be publicly available as time goes on. So don’t fall behind, or at least make sure you print out a copy each week to ensure that you have it for your records.

3. Currently, there are no .PUZ files available for my Post puzzles at this time. I do apologize for that, but it’s an issue that’s beyond my control right now. That may change at a later date, and if so, I’ll let you know. For now, you can either solve online on the Post’s browser widget, or you can click on the widget’s “Print” option and get a hard copy.

4. I have taken puzzles #62-68 off of Devil Cross. Why would I remove them? Well, if you had a chance to solve them earlier, you’ll recall that they were 21×21 grids. There’s a distinct possibility that they may become Washington Post Magazine puzzles sometime down the line. Maybe not for several months or even years. But even so, I still want to preserve the surprise of those puzzles for newer Post solvers. I apologize for that inconvenience as well; but on the bright side, there are still 62 other puzzles available for free solving.

5. Because I’ve been swamped with my Post-related puzzle duties, I haven’t been able to write my 70th puzzle for Devil Cross. That will have to wait until my schedule frees up, unfortunately. I am also putting together an easy-to-navigate archive of my past Devil Cross puzzles so that you can access all of them on a single page (the only exceptions being the removed puzzles #62-68).

6. Even though there will not be any regular Devil Cross puzzles for the time being, I will try to continue to use this site on occasion as a general crossword blog. Maybe I’ll have a few “behind-the-scenes” notes on specific Post puzzles. Or, maybe I’ll write about other interesting things in the puzzle world. Who knows? I certainly don’t.

7. You see those links on my sidebar for other independent crossword writers? Solve their puzzles.

Finally, a couple of social media notes. My Twitter handle has now changed to @evanbirnholz. I’d recommend following me there for all Post-related updates since my participation on this site will be pretty sporadic for the most part. I’ve also created a public Facebook page for myself and my new position at the Post — if you Like that page, you can post comments there directly.

I think that’s all for now. I’ll see you around and I hope you enjoy the Post’s new crosswords!

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