The Final StearsWords Post

It's time for a change. As of this year, I've been constructing crossword puzzles for twenty years.

I've loved every minute of it. I've loved thinking up interesting themes, creating the grids, and I've especially loved seeing my name in print...on all those lovely checks.

But now, it's time for a change.

I started writing because it was easy for me, and I was good at it. But secretly, I've always loved math. Numbers are the musical notes with which the Universe writes symphonies, and math is the language the Universe speaks.

It's no surprise that I started constructing crosswords, that rare combination of linguistics and mathematics.

To me, mathematics is the greatest puzzle of all. It's the original massively multiplayer game, and it's a game that anyone can play.

And so, I'm going back to college to learn how to teach people the rules of the most incredible game of all time. 

Happy solving,

Robin

Bert's Jobs in "Mary Poppins"

This week’s StearsWords crossword puzzle is dedicated to my nephew, Jon. As a child, he loved “Mary Poppins,” and this week, StearsWords pays tribute to the 50^th anniversary of “Mary Poppins.”

Mary Poppins scares me a little, as Christopher Rule pointed out in his recut trailer for YouTube.

Within the grid are the four jobs that Bert performed in the movie, in the order in which he performs them. Bert seems to be a nice guy. So, take this week’s puzzle with “A Spoonful of Sugar,” and “Stay Awake” long enough for a “Jolly Holiday” of solving! (“I Love to Laugh,” don’t you?)

• Click here to solve interactively.

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Click here to see the answer grid. *Check back on Friday, August 29 for the answer grid.

"TV Emoji 101" Answers

TV Emoji 101

Back by popular demand! This week's StearsWords puzzle is another emoji quiz with a crossword grid. The theme of this puzzle is "TV Emoji 101."

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• Click here to see the answer grid. *Check back on Friday, August 22 for the answer grid.

"Ampersand" Answers

The answers to "&" are here.

Robin Williams Tribute

Robin Williams said, "When in doubt, go with a dick joke." Getting over his death will be...long and hard.

I hope you enjoy this tribute to Robin Williams' amazing life. It's too big to be interactive, but a .pdf version is here:

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• Click here to see the answer grid.

Ampersand

The word ampersand is a corruption of the phrase "and per se and." It's also a hint to this week's puzzle theme. As promised, one of my favorite entertainers is featured, with a bit of one of her songs.

No more hints...you'll figure it out.

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• Click here to see the answer grid.*Check back on Friday, August 15 for the answer grid.

Movie Emoji 101 Answers

You'll also find a link to a .pdf on my website: https://sites.google.com/site/stearswords224/home/free-crosswords/movie-emoji-101

Movie Emoji 101

And now for something completely different...emoji! Those little smiley faces and other pictures got their start in Japan, but people are communicating with them all over the world now, and on June 16, the Unicode consortium announced the addition of over 270 new emoji. Emoji are a fun way to express yourself, or recreate famous paintings, like Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam.

Depending on your operating system, the pictures I've used may look slightly different from the ones on your phone. If you need a little help, iEmoji.com has a handy look-up guide.

This week's StearsWords puzzle, "Movie Emoji 101," can't be solved interactively, because my software doesn't support Unicode, but I've provided a .pdf with full-color pictures. Guess the movie title represented by the images, and fill in the grid, which is on the last page all by itself.

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• Click here to see the answer grid. *Check back on Friday, August 8 for the answer grid.

"The Asylum" Answers

The answers to last week's StearsWords crossword puzzle:

StearsWords Volume 4 is on sale now!

This digital collection of 50 original, never-before-published themed crossword puzzles is a .zip folder containing 25 15x15 and 15 21x21 crossword puzzles, ready for you to solve interactively on your mobile device or print to solve later.
As usual, StearsWords crossword puzzles are not copyrighted, so share them with your friends.

https://sites.google.com/site/stearswords224/home/buy-stearswords-crossword-puzzle-books

The Asylum

This week, “Sharknado 2: The Second One” premiers on the Syfy channel, apparently because there were so many unanswered questions from “Sharknado.”
Did you know that The Asylum, creators of such mockbusters as “Sharknado,” “Age of Tomorrow,” and “Nazis at the Center of the Earth” have never lost money on a movie?
Filmmakers David Michael Latt, David Rimawi, and Sherri Strain founded The Asylum, and since 1997, have been producing straight-to-video low-budget films. The similarities between their titles and those of major studios are not very subtle, which means this week’s StearsWords puzzle has one of the easiest themes to parse. Seriously, don’t over-think it.
 Happy solving!

• Click here to solve interactively.

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• Click here to see the answer grid.  *Check back on Friday, August 1 for the answer grid, or join Team StearsWords.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" Answers

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

Can you believe it's already been seven years since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published? And if that doesn't make you feel old, how about this: The first book in the Harry Potter series was published seventeen years ago.

When the first book came out, I started reading it to my daughter, who was in elementary school at the time. By the time the final book in the series came out, she was reading them by herself and no longer asking me "What does this word mean?" We even went to a Harry Potter party in honor of the Deathly Hallows, and she was delighted to be permitted to stay up until midnight--she even dressed up like Professor Sybill Trelawney!

This week's StearsWords puzzle pays tribute to the final book in the Harry Potter series, with a Trivia 101 crossword. The puzzle features 101 trivia questions related to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I hope you'll share it with your Potterhead friends; that's why my puzzles are always copyright-free.

Happy solving!

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• Click here to see the answer grid.  *Check back on Friday, July 25 for the answer grid, or join Team StearsWords.

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" answers

Here's the answer grid. Yes, I know, the puns were terrible. Thank you to everyone who pointed that out.

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"

I loved the old “Planet of the Apes” movie series, and I’m loving the new series just as much. Clearly not playing second banana to its predecessor, it’s chimply awesome! Gun-toting, horseback-riding chimps and gorilla warfare…it’s a great ape movie.

If you think those puns were bad, wait until you solve this week's puzzle.

And would somebody please give Andy Serkis an Oscar already?!


Happy solving!

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• Click here to see the answer grid.  *Check back on Friday, July 18 for the answer grid, or join Team StearsWords.

"Transformers"

Much like corduroy pillows, Transformers are making headlines this weekend! "Transformers: Age of Extinction" opened last Friday, and StearsWords pays tribute with a crossword puzzle. And because I really like Transformers, it's an extra-large puzzle.

But it's not a trivia puzzle. Just something for fun. I hope you enjoy my sense of humor as much as I do.

Happy solving!

• Click here to solve interactively.

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• Click here to see the answer grid.  *Check back on Friday, July 4, or join Team Stearswords to get the answers.

"It's a Contest!" Answers

What do PLAYING CARDS, SPIRAL NOTEBOOK, DIGITAL CAMERA, CAN OPENER, COMPUTER MOUSE, PAIR OF SCISSORS, and BALLPOINT PEN have in common?

These are all things that drive left-handed people crazy.

Nobody won the contest, so I'm going out for coffee by myself. :)

Everybody’s a Winner, or Why I’m Giving Away a Crossword Collection

This June marks a very special anniversary for me. Twenty years ago, I constructed and submitted my very first crossword puzzle—about a year later, I actually got paid for one.

It all started in August 1991, when my daughter was born, and I decided I wanted to be home to take care of her. My husband and I left our home in New Hampshire, and moved to Ohio to be near my family, and for about two years, I was a moderately happy stay-at-home mommy.

But I could feel my brain turning to cottage cheese. I’d always been active, and I’d been working a steady job of one kind or another since I was 14 years old.  I needed something to do to fill the naptime/preschool hours, and I turned to solving crossword puzzles. I filled up dozens of crossword puzzle books, and my mother suggested that I try to construct a puzzle.

Armed with a stack of dictionaries, graph paper, pencils, and erasers, I finally managed to construct a reasonably interesting 15x15 puzzle in about a week. I typed it on a typewriter and filled in the black spaces with a Sharpie marker, and mailed it. Then, I set to work on the next one. I’d spend hours at the library, researching and looking things up. Eventually, I got pretty good, and it only took me a few days to make a 15x15 puzzle; but it still took more than a week to make a 21x21.

I saved up the checks I received, and bought a computer. The first thing I did was create a clue database. The second thing I did was create a template for the grids. And then I started making more puzzles.

These days, thanks to Crossword Compiler and the Internet, I can whip together a reasonably interesting 21x21 puzzle in less than an hour. I’ve long since given up the stacks of dictionaries in favor of The Free Dictionary and Wikipedia.

So, that’s why I’m giving away this collection of crosswords to anyone who enters my contest this week. It’s an anniversary present, from me to crossword lovers.

It's a Contest!

This week's StearsWords puzzle has a mystery theme. The seven theme entries all have something in common. Figure out what it is, and send me an email.
Your email should contain a few words explaining the theme, not a completed grid. Emails that contain picture files or have picture files attached will not be eligible to win.
Everyone who enters will receive StearsWords: Volume 4, a digital collection of 50 original crossword puzzles.
A randomly selected winner will receive Starbucks® gift card.
Answers must be received by Thursday, June 26, 2014, 11:59 pm (EDT). Answers will be posted on Friday, June 27, 2014.
Happy solving!

• Click here to solve interactively.

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• Click here to see the answer grid.  *Check back on Friday, June 27, or join Team Stearswords to get the answers.