Water, Water, Everywhere: Dive In!
Welcome, new solvers. For the last few years, our extended family has gathered for a few days after Christmas in a rented getaway house to loll about, play endless games, and enjoy the NYT’s annual Puzzle Mania insert. We tape the giant crossword to the wall; at any time of day, someone can be heard uttering delighted noises as they fill in a corner of the puzzle. This tradition inspired our idea to create an “all-ages” acrostic for the insert this year. Why not make solving an acrostic a project for the whole family?
Turning to our shelf of books from our childhoods, we seized on the beloved classic “The Phantom Tollbooth,” in part because of its own extravagant use of wordplay. We succeeded – after some dead ends – in finding a fun quote of the appropriate length that actually contained the elusive letter “J” (as in Juster). To brainstorm topics of likely interest to the tween and teen set, we consulted young family friends. We figured that references to Pokémon, Harry Potter, Taylor Swift, Santa, and “Frozen” might tap into the expertise of junior solvers.
We enjoy sprinkling thematic clues and answers into our puzzles; here, bodies of water – and water generally – seemed like a good place to start. By our count, 14 of the clue/answer pairs involve water (or a form of water) in some way. How many can you and yours find? Have we succeeded in hooking any new acrostics enthusiasts?
That was still pretty tricky. Nice Acrostic.