Puzzles
I am happy to say I am now a published crossword puzzle writer. I’ve had 1 puzzle in the New York Times (1/2/23)! And also: 3 in the LA Times (see below), 2 in Universal Crossword (6/19/22, 1/22/23), 1 in the Wall Street Journal (8/16/23), and 1 in the Modern Crossword (9/9/23).
Here are some blogs about my New York Times crossword debut puzzle: XwordInfo, WordPlay and Rex Parker.
In January 2024, 10 years after helping to run the 2014 MIT Mystery Hunt (see below), I was recruited to write a dozen puzzles for the 2024 one. I’m very proud of these, and you can check them out, here:
Peak TV — This is a cute easy puzzle for TV fans!
Do I Hear a Waltz? — This is half Sondheim identification, half cryptic clues.
Julia and Friends — This puzzle is quite Muppety!
Meet Me in St. Louis — This puzzle deals with movies and songs.
Spacing Out — This is a good puzzle for Trekkies.
At the Late Night Picture Show — This is a great puzzle for movie fans.
Proof It! — This is a standard crossword puzzle with a hidden twist.
Rhyme Thyme — This puzzle rhymes as it chimes!
Shalom — This is an easy puzzle.
It’s Easy Cutie — This is another easy puzzle.
Safe Mode — This easy puzzle deals with modes.
Boosted — Finally, this is a cute puzzle with wordplay that I co-authored.
In January 2014, I had the ultimate pleasure of being on the writing team for the 2014 MIT Mystery Hunt after being on the winning team in 2013. Here are links to the entire hunt and individual links to puzzles I wrote and am featured in!
Everything — This page includes highlight reel and statistics!
All Puzzles — This page links directly to all the puzzles!
Event Puzzles — I was in charge of the events! In particular, I co-wrote the Auditions and Wonderwang. Click on those solutions to see how they worked. Here is a review of the events from a participant: “Almost as impressive, however, and perhaps more unique, is the following: they got event puzzles right, which I’m not sure any other Mystery Hunt has accomplished since event puzzles really became a thing. The one I went to (the singing event) was fun, got everyone involved, had a meaningful role in Hunt structure, and didn’t run too long, and from the reactions of my teammates it seems that the same was true for all the other events as well. Having seen many failed events both from the Hunt-writing side and from the solving side, I feel safe saying this is no mean feat and future teams could learn a thing or two from how events worked this year.”
Here are the 4 puzzles *I* wrote. Do NOT look at the solutions if you would like to solve them. I am happy to give you as many hints as you need to complete them on your own without cheating!!!!!!
Intersecting Personalities — This puzzle is for people who like TV.
Now Let’s Create Some Melodies — This puzzle is for people who like Muppets; I HIGHLY recommend watching the 30 parody videos that Staci Rosen, Ryan Roe and I did b/c they are AWESOME.
Compose Yourself — This puzzle is for musical theatre fans.
Filed Erector — This is a really clever word puzzle with a twist I won’t reveal in case anyone wants to try it.
I am also featured in these puzzles:
Stalk Us Maybe
A Mad Cocktail Party
Finally, here is the episode of my web series, Every Day a Little Seth that I did about the hunt:
The 2014 MIT Mystery Hunt has been called the best hunt ever by multiple people on facebook, twitter and blogs. Here is a great write up my friend did about being on the writing team.
I am very proud to have been a part of the writing team of Alice Shrugged. Here is a limerick I wrote the team:
After many hours of sugary food and coffee containers chugged,
It was time to depart: hands were shaken, people were hugged.
The weekend was surreal, magical and splendid.
It, undeniably, could not have more perfectly ended.
Here’s to the remarkable team that created Alice Shrugged!
