Easiest Version (with enumerations):
Harder Version (without enumerations):
Insane Version (with vowelless clues):
This weekend is the time of MIT Mystery Hunt, a competition featuring what are surely some of the toughest puzzles in the world to crack. So in that vein, I’m offering something pretty challenging myself: a vowelless crossword. If you’re new to this, it’s a crossword where the answers have had their vowels removed. Thus, if you have the answer BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, you would enter it as BRCSPRNGSTN in the grid. Helpful hint: I’ve also removed Y as well. All 20 other consonants, however, are fair game. If you like vowelless puzzles, Peter Broda and Frank Longo have made a bunch of these which you can check out at the respective links.
I’m giving you three solving options today. One is the easiest version with enumerations for answer lengths, spaces, and hyphens indicated in the clues — for instance, the answer BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN would be enumerated in a clue as (5,11), and FULL-TIME JOB would be enumerated as (4-4,3). This version is also the one provided in the solving widget for this post. The second version is tougher: it’s the same puzzle but with no enumerations. Both of these two versions will be difficult no matter what, but again, the one with enumerations is the easier of the two. If, however, you are craving an extreme challenge, then feast your eyes on version three: it’s the same puzzle but the vowels have been removed from the clues as well. Feel free to try that one, but I expect that it’s insanely difficult, like a 5 or a 6 on my four-spice rating scale. In fact, I’m now debuting a new Devil Cross spice rating: Inferno! Don’t say that I didn’t warn you.
For those of you attempting the Insane version, here’s something else to keep in mind: there are some common words out there that have only vowels, like a, I, and you. But I wanted to retain the same number of words in the clues in all versions. Hence, if you run across an @ symbol, that’s an indication that there’s a vowel-only word in the clue at that particular spot.
Enjoy the puzzle. There will be a new one on January 24.
Is “Bruce Springstein” the Boss’s Jewish cousin?
Evidently Dr. Plotkin was able to complete the Insane version, so I’ll have to give that a try…
Apparently BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN would be the perfect entry for me in a vowelless, because I can get the wrong vowels in his name and it’d still be right in the grid. Blast it all. Thanks for the catch — I’ve edited it in all versions. That was one of those “oh I know his name and I don’t need to look it up” screw-ups on my part. Just as long as I don’t spell him wrong in grid form.
Phew! I just did the insane version in one sitting and my brain is tired! I didn’t time it but I estimate about 30-35 minutes. Quite a challenge, and there’s still a couple of crossing clue/entries I haven’t figured out, despite getting their crosses.
This was a definite risk in that I wasn’t sure if the Insane version was even solvable. I had hoped that there’d be enough long words in each clue to give solvers at least a hint of what was going on, though some clues (like that for 9D and 41D) are probably little help in that regard.
I also realized just now that I left a few stray Y’s and I’s in a few clues, and have since removed them.
At least a couple of solvers have told me that they were able to finish it, so that’s good. And I’m glad you finished it too despite the struggle. But this probably highlights the importance of getting a test solver or two before trying something that tricky again.
I honestly do believe that it’s totally solvable, if given the effort and thought necessary. I know I don’t quite represent the average solver (although I feel pretty average) but I really enjoyed the thorough puzzling I needed to complete it.
Also, big props for the first puzzle I’ve ever seen that had both vowelless clues and answers. Genuinely, I think there were maybe only a couple of clue/entry combos that were really difficult to figure out even after filling in the grid.
Thanks. I’m hoping it catches on…..
Unless your mind has a knack for this kind of format, crossing letters, with a few exceptions, really don’t help the solve. As such, the puzzle’s really not a crossword but more a word game with each answer done in isolation. I’ve done a puzzle or two like this before and find them toil, entirely unfun. I’m sure construction is a feat so kudos to you.
Can you tell me the answers to 27 and 50 down? Even with the letters filled I don’t see it now (or maybe know it) and I really don’t want to sit with this puzzle any longer. Email me if you don’t want to divulge the answers.
Thanks.
Forget the answers. Being I just asked for help, I, of course, just saw them. Someone needs to study why this happens.
Thanks.
Should say I solved the Harder version.
A vowelless is certainly not the easiest type of puzzle to solve, especially if one isn’t used to it. I’m awful at cryptic crosswords, but it’s something I’ve gotten a little better at with some practice. But I wouldn’t say a vowelless puzzle is “not a crossword” — it’s just a different type of crossword challenge where the crossings may help you reasonably predict which consonants might show up. Like, if you do an enumerated version and see that you have a seven-letter entry in the grid for a real word that has eight letters, then you can make inferences based on the fact that the word has seven consonants and one vowel, so maybe it’ll be a word like STRENGTH.
Don’t worry, though; I don’t plan on posting vowelless puzzles that often.
Yes, it’s a crossword, but it didn’t play like one for me because the crosses really didn’t help. I suppose if I did these daily my brain would begin to reorganize and crosses would begin to matter, but I rarely do them so they’re quite difficult. I don’t mean to dissuade you from trying new things because I think you should; I was just giving feedback. I also really like your constructions due to the clever cluing and often offbeat content.
Hey Evan, in the Insane version, I think 3D clue has a typo (at least in the .puz version). Should be “Hsk” not “Hk”. Puzzle was great fun, bravo!
Thanks. Both my PUZ and PDF versions show Hšk, with the accented s. Does yours not show up?
Not in Puzzazz on my iPad, no. Sorry, should have realized might be an app issue
Fun puzzle!
One note: I misinterpreted your clear statement about Y to mean what I’m used to seeing in vowelless puzzles: that Y words were avoided in the first place. That definitely added to the challenge…
Yeah, that was something that, until I interviewed Peter, I didn’t even know was a common guideline for vowelless grids. I could have avoided the Y in some answers (26A, 41A, 51D), but not others (13A, 35A). In retrospect I should have been more careful to say that Y should be treated like a vowel, so it can be part of the complete answer but will not appear in the grid.