Outside the Blocks: A Puzzle Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Emma and Adam return to close out the discussion they started last July on the 2024 Muller Monthly Music Meta puzzles! Spoilers for the MMMM puzzles from August-December 2024 as well as the mega meta and the red herring.

Links of interest:
Muller Monthly Music Meta: https://pmxwords.com/
Full list of the 2024 MMMM Puzzles: https://pmxwords.com/2024-puzzles/
Ariadne's Crossword Library: https://ariadnescrosswordlibrary.com/

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Want to get in touch with us? We would love to hear from you! You can reach Emma at damefoxwords@gmail.com, and you can reach Will at pandorasblockswmc@gmail.com. We may read your letter on a future episode!

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Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Emma and Mike talk about two of Mike's "Pun of a Kind" metas! If you've ever found yourself thinking, "I would like crosswords more if 30% of clues were puns," then oh boy have we got some puzzles for you!

Links of interest:
Pun of a Kind on XWord Muggles Forum: https://xword-muggles.com/viewforum.php?f=48
Pun of a Kind Blogspot: https://punofakind.blogspot.com/
Mikey G's Crosshare page: https://crosshare.org/mikeyg

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Want to get in touch with us? We would love to hear from you! You can reach Emma at damefoxwords@gmail.com, and you can reach Will at pandorasblockswmc@gmail.com. We may read your letter on a future episode!

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Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Emma and Will do some flower arranging outside a filling station! Wait... hang on a sec... *checks notes* ... Emma and Will fill in the blanks outside a flower shop? No, that doesn't sound right either... *checks notes again* who wrote these notes?? Okay, well, probably Emma and Will talk about three Pandora's Blocks puzzles. Let's go with that, that sounds right. Spoilers for "Floral Arrangement," "Fill-Ins," and "Outside In, Inside Out."

Links of interest:
 Pandora's Blocks: https://pandorasblocks.org/
"Floral Arrangement": https://crosshare.org/crosswords/7oUgthLxw13ThgUeVncI/floral-arrangement
"Fill-Ins": https://crosshare.org/crosswords/ReX8ojqNM5MCeryMXHRt/fill-ins
"Outside In, Inside Out": https://crosshare.org/crosswords/IoRv2qdPH3dDkxaDDocU/outside-in-inside-out

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Want to get in touch with us? We would love to hear from you! You can reach Emma at damefoxwords@gmail.com, and you can reach Will at pandorasblockswmc@gmail.com. We may read your letter on a future episode!

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Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Emma and Will talk about three more Pandora's Blocks puzzles! Spoilers for "Duplication Prohibited," "Get to Gettin'," and "Cold Opens."

Links of interest:
Pandora's Blocks: https://pandorasblocks.org/
"Duplication Prohibited": https://crosshare.org/crosswords/fSBx4rBy7GlqgdgF4XcX/duplication-prohibited
OneLook: https://onelook.com/
Wordlisted: https://aaronson.org/wordlisted/
"Get to Gettin'": https://crosshare.org/crosswords/vux4xWIxKnoZKtuuwrC8/get-to-gettin
Open Source Shakespeare: https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/
"Cold Opens": https://crosshare.org/crosswords/HIbGCbdrdplw3PGJ3WrZ/cold-opens
Pandora's Blocks discussion boards: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewforum.php?f=43

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Want to get in touch with us? We would love to hear from you! You can reach Emma at damefoxwords@gmail.com, and you can reach Will at pandorasblockswmc@gmail.com. We may read your letter on a future episode!

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Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Emma and Will are joined by speed solver extraordinaire, Adam Doctoroff, for a crash course in speed-solving and a discussion on the Muller Monthly Music Metas from 2023! Spoilers for 2023's MMMM puzzles ("Triple Up" and "Hope Springs Eternal" in particular), so go solve those first if you haven't already!

Links of interest:
Muller Monthly Music Meta: https://pmxwords.com/
2023 Mega Meta solution (this page also includes an explanation of the red herring and solution grids for all of the 2023 puzzles): https://pmxwords.com/2023-mega-meta-back-to-the-beginning-solution/
2023 Puzzles (puzzles and solutions for all 12 monthly puzzles are available from this page): https://pmxwords.com/2023-puzzles/

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Want to get in touch with us? We would love to hear from you! You can reach Emma at damefoxwords@gmail.com, and you can reach Will at pandorasblockswmc@gmail.com. We may read your letter on a future episode!

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Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Pandora's Blocks is back for one more season! Emma and Will talk about the first two puzzles of season six. Spoilers for "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and "Through the Five Hole" as well as for an older meta from over on the Muggles Forum, "Not a Creature Was Stirring..."

Thanks to @Bird Lives (and Rodney Dangerfield) for inspiring the title of this episode.

Links of interest:
Pandora's Blocks: https://pandorasblocks.org/
"Do You Hear What I Hear?": https://crosshare.org/crosswords/70J4tioNcRblgAKnLTBG/do-you-hear-what-i-hear
"Not a Creature Was Stirring...": https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?t=1358
Silent letter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter#English
"Through the Five Hole": https://crosshare.org/crosswords/Xddr5kluMQBstfL25Roa/through-the-five-hole
Five-hole: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-hole
Pandora's Blocks Weekly Meta Crossword discussion boards: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewforum.php?f=43

Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC): crosswordsforcancer.com
TO GET ACCESS TO THE PUZZLE PACK:
1. Make a donation (suggested amount $13) to a cancer-related charity.
2. Email a copy of your receipt to crosswordsforcancer@gmail.com.
3. Receive puzzle pack! OR, provide the email of a friend who you would like to gift this puzzle pack to, in which case they receive the puzzle pack!
4 (optional but encouraged). Tell other people to do steps 1-3. 

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Want to get in touch with us? We would love to hear from you! You can reach Emma at damefoxwords@gmail.com, and you can reach Will at pandorasblockswmc@gmail.com. We may read your letter on a future episode!

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Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Emma and Will take a look at some of their favorite metas from the past year! Spoilers for several metas from 2023. See below for links to solutions and other sites of interest.

Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC): crosswordsforcancer.com
TO GET ACCESS TO THE PUZZLE PACK:
1. Make a donation (suggested amount $13) to a cancer-related charity.
2. Email a copy of your receipt to crosswordsforcancer@gmail.com.
3. Receive puzzle pack! OR, provide the email of a friend who you would like to gift this puzzle pack to, in which case they receive the puzzle pack!
4 (optional but encouraged). Tell other people to do steps 1-3.

Will's Top 3 Metas:
"Second Look" by Matt Gaffney (MGWCC #768)
Crossword Fiend solution: https://crosswordfiend.com/2023/02/22/mgwcc-768/
XWord Muggles discussion page: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?t=2074
"Turn on the Radio" by Peter Gwinn (MGWCC #765)
Crossword Fiend solution: https://crosswordfiend.com/2023/02/02/mgwcc-765/
XWord Muggles discussion page: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?t=2041
"Making the Rounds" by Patrick Berry (Fireball #17)
Crossword Fiend solution: https://crosswordfiend.com/2023/04/23/fireball-contest-april-19-2023/
Xword Muggles discussion page: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?t=2171

Emma's Top 2 Metas:
"Table Setting" by Evan Birnholz (from the CCCC puzzle pack)
XWord Muggles discussion page: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?t=2186
"Forest Sight" by Pete Muller and Mack Meller (MMMM Sept 2023)
MMMM solution page: https://pmxwords.com/2023-puzzle-9-forest-sight-solution/
XWord Muggles discussion page: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?t=2410

Will's Honorable Mentions:
"It's Integral to the Clue" by Matt Gaffney (MGWCC #777)
Crossword Fiend solution: https://crosswordfiend.com/2023/04/27/mgwcc-777/
"They Turn Into Superheroes" by Quiara Vasquez (MGWCC #784)
Crossword Fiend solution: https://crosswordfiend.com/2023/06/13/mgwcc-784/
"Meeting Place" by Peter A. Collins (Fireball #25)
Crossword Fiend solution: https://crosswordfiend.com/2023/06/18/fireball-contest-june-14-2023/

Other links of interest:
WWDTM April 10, 2021, Limericks: https://www.npr.org/2021/04/10/986082859/limericks
Crosshare donation page: https://crosshare.org/donate
Fireball Newsflash Crosswords Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petergordonpuzzler/2024-fireball-news

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Want to get in touch with us? We would love to hear from you! You can reach Emma at damefoxwords@gmail.com, and you can reach Will at pandorasblockswmc@gmail.com. We may read your letter on a future episode!

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Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Emma and Will solve a mini cryptic!

Links of interest:
Crosswords and Trivia by Stella Zawistowski: https://toughasnails.net/
Oneth of the Month Mini Cryptic #18: https://toughasnails.net/2023/10/01/oneth-of-the-month-mini-cryptic-18/
All #cryptic content at Tough as Nails: https://toughasnails.net/tag/cryptic/
B-t-Z Vwllss Crsswrds Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petergordonpuzzler/b-t-z-vwllss-crsswrds
Fireball Newsflash Crosswords Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petergordonpuzzler/2024-fireball-newsflash-crosswords
Antiwordle: https://www.antiwordle.com/

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Want to get in touch with us? We would love to hear from you! You can reach Emma at damefoxwords@gmail.com, and you can reach Will at pandorasblockswmc@gmail.com. We may read your letter on a future episode!

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Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Will and Emma play Wordle and do mostly okay with geography!

If you listened to our last episode, then we're sorry to say this is not the episode you want it to be - we do have a very exciting guest to talk to, but we had to postpone the recording.

Links of interest (in the order they're mentioned in the episode):
Wordle: https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html
Dordle: https://dordle.io/ (there are many sites where you can play this)
Quordle: https://www.merriam-webster.com/games/quordle/#/ (there are many sites where you can play this too)
Worldle: https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/
Absurdle: https://qntm.org/files/absurdle/absurdle.html (shockingly, there are many sites where you can play this too)
#crosswordle Puzzles on Crosshare: https://crosshare.org/tags/crosswordle
Wordle Answer Finder https://word.tips/wordle/#

BONUS (not mentioned in the episode, but we know you want it):
Taylor Swift themed Wordle: https://taylordle.org/

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Want to get in touch with us? We would love to hear from you! You can reach Emma at damefoxwords@gmail.com, and you can reach Will at pandorasblockswmc@gmail.com. We may read your letter on a future episode!

Podcast hosting by Buzzsprout
Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Emma and Will explore a haunted house! Wait, that doesn't ... huh ...  *checks notes* ... oh hey that's basically right! Spoilers for Evan Birnholz's "The Haunted House" puzzle suite from Oct. 31, 2021.

We're sorry to say we can't provide you with a link to go solve "The Haunted House" at this point. If anyone knows of an easily accessible link where the puzzle can be solved or the PDF can be downloaded, please let us know and we'll add the link to this description.

Links to solution write-ups for "The Haunted House":
Solution to Evan Birnholz’s Oct. 31 Post Magazine crossword, “The Haunted House”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/10/31/solution-evan-birnholzs-oct-31-post-magazine-crossword-haunted-house/
Evan Birnholz’s Mini Puzzle Meta Suite: “The Haunted House” October 31, 2021: https://crosswordfiend.com/2021/10/31/evan-birnholzs-mini-puzzle-meta-suite-the-haunted-house-october-31-2021/
Solution PDF from Amuse Labs: https://amuselabs.com/pm-media/wapo/ebirnholz_211031_All_Puzzles_solution.pdf

Other links of interest:
Play Sunday Crosswords by Evan Birnholz: https://www.washingtonpost.com/crossword-puzzles/sunday-evan-birnholz/

Happy Spooky Season!

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Want to get in touch with us? We would love to hear from you! You can reach Emma at damefoxwords@gmail.com, and you can reach Will at pandorasblockswmc@gmail.com. We may read your letter on a future episode!

Podcast hosting by Buzzsprout
Music by FASSounds from Pixabay