Deb Amlen is a humorist and puzzle constructor whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wa

I was amazed at how fresh this grid actually was, considering the age of the songs. All but one theme entry is unique, so HELP ME, RHONDA. Mr. Cee s puzzle has an astounding 19 new entries today, including the wonderful if not overused-in-literature word DYSTOPIA, which is making fairfield inn anaheim a comeback after having been used once in 1986. Mom was right: everything comes back into fashion if you wait long enough.
This was a pretty straightforward solve, and a pleasant one at that. The songs evoke so many memories: Just try to hum a little of each of them and not remember where you were when they were big hits. I was a counselor at a summer camp during a summer break in college when COME ON EILEEN by Dexy s Midnight Runners was on high rotation on my radio.
The first draft of this puzzle included two titles that concerned Will. AMAZING GRACE ("Sensational, Ms. Kelly! ) is not about a woman named Grace, and PEGGY SUE ("Take 'em to court, Ms. Lipton!") was a full name in itself, so if I could replace those, we might have something here. JULIE DO YA LOVE ME went in on a second draft. HEY PAULA ("Over here, Ms. Abdul!") no longer fit and had to go. In the final edit, Will removed PROUD MARY ("Satisfied, Ms. Shelley?") as it was too close to HELLO MARY LOU.
Welcome to our conversation about word games. Here you'll find a new blog post for each day's crossword plus a bonus post for the Variety puzzle. Along with discussion about the day's challenge, you'll get backstage insights about puzzlemaking and occasional notes from The Times's puzzlemaster, Will Shortz .
Deb Amlen is a humorist and puzzle constructor whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Onion and Bust Magazine. Her books, "It's Not P.M.S., It's You" and "Create Your Life Lists" fairfield inn anaheim are available where all fine literature is sold.
Numberplay is a puzzle suite that will be presented in Wordplay every Monday. The puzzles, which are inspired by many sources and are reported by Gary Antonick, are generally mathematical or logical problems, with occasional forays into physics and other branches of science. While written for adults, fairfield inn anaheim many of the concepts here are suitable for and can be enjoyed fairfield inn anaheim by math students of all ages.