In case you missed it, a mini reminder that the title is a clue to the phrase, and an alternate title could be: A Christmas present in July

:)

I shared with some colleagues today and they were all between 3-3:30 so a very good time indeed!

Cheers, Skull! Those are all things I’d love to nail for every single puzzle :)

That’s the way it goes sometimes! I did also give the placement of 6 letters in the scramble instead of the usual 4 so that could have contributed to the difficulty balance between the sections!

Also, you’re completely correct about the social sharing from your previous comment - it’s on the list to do! After the mobile experience is improved, I’ll begin focusing on getting the puzzles out there more and a way to share scores is a big part of that!

And I was… not kind with the title…

Hey Spiral! Yes, the title is meant to be more of a confirmation for you when you solve the anagram, and provide loose avenues to explore, but is isn’t intended to be as helpful as a typically crossword clue for sure. This is a tricky one to start with because I went a bit more obscure than usual to test some waters and see how it would be received, others do tend to be a bit kinder!

Still a good Wednesday time! I was pleased with today’s title.

I suspect this coming Friday’s puzzle will make most people groan so if you tackle that one don’t worry about missing anything obvious, but bring some tomatoes to throw at me…

That’s a very solid time for a Wednesday puzzle!! Glad the puns are appreciated because there’s going to be a lot of them… :)

Excellently done! The current flow of the website isn’t as kind when you solve the anagram first, but it’s something we’re considering for the next layout design!

So I’m very open to feedback on this, but my general idea behind construction and word choice is that I permit 1 obscure word because you don’t ultimately need to know it to solve the puzzle. In theory, you only need to know half of the clues. Issues arise when two obscure words intersect, but I do my best to avoid those.

It’s a bit of a trade-off between being able to make grids, and keeping all the words common and general knowledge. Being able to fit a specific grouping of letters into a grid is tricky, which is why I allow words to be backwards. While it’s a nice quirk to differentiate the puzzle, it’s actually very necessary for me to make grids in the first place!

However, I’m always trying to expand my dictionaries, and fine tune them so that grid solutions are fair.

In the future, I want to be able to allow people to opt in to dictionaries - so you can choose puzzles that only have general knowledge words, but, for example, if you know everything about Lord of the Rings, I can add in puzzles where I needed “Eowyn” or “Gimli” to end up creating a grid.

I’m rambling now I fear, but back to your point, I currently feel okay adding in 1 obscure word because it doesn’t ultimately block the puzzle solve, it lets me make more grids, and I think there is an element of fun learning new words - however, if the obscure word does end up ruining the experience of the puzzle overall, then perhaps a recalibration is needed on my end, at least in the interim until people can opt in to certain dictionaries! Would love your thoughts on this!

Glad to hear!! New puzzles every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!

Did any of the anagrams you found go nicely with the title? It’s rare but sometimes a puzzle does end up with more than one reasonable answer!

And glad you liked it! I like to employ the cryptic clue convention of using ? if I’m giving a pun or indirect definition

Did they all end up going through?? Apologies! Next time I get the error I’ll double check it doesn’t actually go through.

Sorry for putting puzzle in the main text today, it was not letting me submit my post with it in the URL field for some reason?

Another incredible time! Interesting, I think I need to spend more time diving into difficulty because by the way you’re all going maybe this should have been a Monday puzzle!

2:39?! Wow, things must have clicked together for you really nicely! Phenomenal time for Friday!

Excellently done!! The first of many I hope 🙂

My thought process for the title is that you shouldn’t be able to solve the puzzle directly from it, but that it makes sense in retrospect and is an attempt to create that “aha!” moment when you solve the anagram and can validate your thinking with the puzzle title. I know I don’t always knock that out of the park, but in this case you’re completely on the money.

!A salamander dropping its tail is, in my mind, a gamble that the predator will be distracted/sated with the tail so that the salamander can get away instead of being eaten, and the title itself allows for a bit of obfuscation in the sense that people can bet on coin flips or “gamble on heads or tails”.!<

Yikes! Fixed the clues, thanks for that flag! Very pleased to hear you’re enjoying them 🙂

That’s completely fair! Because there are so few clues, I tend to try and combine some easier clues with more obfuscated ones. With games like Wordle, I feel like when I solve it in 20-30 seconds it feels underwhelming, so I try to include a few clues that give pause for thought and a bit more of a sense of accomplishment when solved. I think this one was a touch heavy on the trickier clues though.

The hardest thing about making these puzzles is being so restricted by the letters I can use for each puzzle. I used to include three-letter country codes in my grids, but eventually deemed them a bit unfair for the average solver. That said, I eventually want to be able to let people opt in to obscure knowledge that they know, so I can provide puzzles I’ve only been able to create that have those obscure acronyms and terms in them!