Christmas Symbols Printable Crosswords

While doing some research on homeschooling, I came across a printable crosswords with the theme being 'Christmas Symbols' over on about.com.

There are ten words to find and should keep you busy for a few minutes at least. As usual, it's in PDF format and can easily be reproduced.

You can download this printable crosswords directly from this link.

BeeKeepers #21 - 'High Hopes' Printable Crosswords

The BeeKeeper has done it again! This time he brings us printable crosswords puzzle #21, 'High Hopes'.

Well, it’s Wednesday again, and like that rubber tree, we’re bouncing back with another free crossword puzzle. Our team of ace reviewers has rated this one as having a Tuesday/Wednesday difficulty level, so it should be accessible to most casual solvers as well as the seasoned veterans in the audience.

I can't wait to get started on this one during lunch today! Thanks, BeeKeeper, for another great printable crosswords!

Merv Griffin's Crosswords(TM) Online Game in 2008

The creators of hit shows such as Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, the William Morris Agency, has licensed Oberon Media to create an online version of the game in early 2008.

"Merv loved new technologies," said Ron Ward, Vice Chairman of MGE and The Griffin Group of Companies. "He had great appreciation for the financial potential in expanding Crosswords online and was eager to participate in creating the downloadable product."

"An extremely addictive game on television, Crosswords is an ideal vehicle for online play," said Josh Raphaelson of Program Partners. "Oberon was our partner of choice to bring the game to life online."

If your a fan of the hit television show, you will surely enjoy a computer version that you can play at your leisure!

You can read more in the press release.

Polar Express Printable Crosswords

Well, we still haven't finished off all the left-over turkey and ham yet, but I'm seeing Christmas lights in the neighbor's windows, I heard three different renditions of Jingle Bells while grocery shopping, and my daughter made a Christmas tree out of construction paper at school yesterday.

So to try and get myself (and maybe you) in to the holiday spirit, here is a Christmas printable crosswords for you to do titled Polar Express. It's an easy one that you can probably get done fairly quickly, or would be good to keep the kids occupied for a few minutes. It's in PDF format and can easily be printed. Enjoy!

The Polar Express Printable Crosswords Puzzle

Crosswords Addiction

I just ran across a great short-film on YouTube. It's called Crossword Addiction and was created by Mark Hill and was created as a submission to Showdown in Chinatown in April 2007. Can you relate? I know several people that can!

Christmas Word Search

Being the crossword-doing-word-search-finding-blogger that I am, I have started another blog specifically for Christmas word searches. I have a huge collection of free printable Christmas word searches that I'll be sharing with you all on a daily basis.

These will be an excellent resource for teachers to use over the next few weeks before the Christmas holidays begin. It will also be an excellent resource for parents who will be home with their children for up to two weeks, and need to keep them out of their hair!

However we won't be catering to just teachers, parents, and children. I'll also be posting some more difficult Christmas word search puzzles for the adults to do in their spare time as well.

Please visit Christmas Word Search today! You could also subscribe to the site's RSS feed to have new Christmas word searches delivered to you every day!

Merry Christmas!

Create Printable Crosswords On Your Website For Free

Fellow unix geek and word search enthusiast Phil Paradis has written a Perl program that will allow you to create printable crosswords!

This is great news if you run your own web site. Using Phil's script, you can easily automatically generate printable crosswords on your own web site, based upon input from the user. For example, the webmaster could build a form to allow it's users to input a combination of words and hints, and have your web site create and display the word search for the user to immediately use. Pretty cool!

This UNIX Perl console application generates crossword puzzles from a list of words and clues. It's intended to serve as a backend to programs which gather input data from users, then format the resulting puzzle into a human-readable format.

Hopefully we'll be able to implement this on this site, and start sharing and trading your original printable crosswords!

You an find Phil's scripts here.

Crossword Puzzles Are Still As Popular As Ever

I'm a crossword puzzle junkie, descended from a long line of family members with the same addiction. My parents would spend Sunday mornings, doing ones in various newspapers and my dad bought me my first crossword puzzle book when I was in the first grade.

Recently, some buddies and I decided to take a trip to Miami, Florida. Our intentions were to get some sun and hopefully attract the attention of beautiful women lying on the beach. As we boarded the plane, some of my companions had bought their laptops, while others had bought music to listen to. I was armed with a bunch of crossword puzzle books. As we settled into our seats, one of my friends started looking decidedly nervous. I asked him what was wrong and he confessed that he had a fear of flying. Naturally some of our friends suggested drinking heavily. I told him that this was a bad idea, since a nervous attitude can equal a nervous stomach. The last thing he needed to worsen the situation was lots of alcohol.

To take his mind off of worrying, I handed him one of my crossword puzzle books. Our buddies sitting across from us laughed at that idea, but I told them that the only reason they were chuckling is because they lacked the vocabulary to do them. I then issued a challenge that I would give $20 to whoever could complete the most crossword puzzles by the time we landed. I also included the requirement that they had to pay for all of my drinks, if I was the winner. Few men can resist a challenge and since I didn't have enough books to hand out, I divided them in half and gave one to each of my friends.

We all began working on our crossword puzzles and my friends began asking each other for advice on word choices. I started to protest, but decided that since they were beginners, I would let it slide. By the time we landed, they were still desperately scrawling out their answers.

We got out of the plane and went to retrieve our bags. Two of my friends kept working on the puzzles while they were walking. I had completed my half and used the time to take in the surroundings and admire the ladies who had dressed for warm weather. I was asked to extend the contest to the end of the trip to the hotel. I agreed and we piled into the shuttle. They kept working while I took in the palm trees and colorful buildings. When we reached the hotel, I was surprised at how many puzzles they had completed. Still, I was the winner and would now be able to spend my money on souvenirs instead of the drinks they were forced to pay for.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as puzzle gifts at www.puzzleandgamegifts.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gregg_Hall

New Beekeeper Printable Crosswords Has Been Posted!

Here's a printable crosswords to take with you over the holidays. This week, The BeeKeeper brings us "Stop. Pay Troll."

“And what”, you might ask, “do you have for us this week?” Well, we’re glad that you asked. What we’ve got is 36 black squares, 189 white squares, and 76 clues — all artfully arranged in such a way as to maximize your solving pleasure. “But you just described an ordinary crossword puzzle, right?” Well, perhaps, but I could just as easily be describing a most excellent crossword puzzle. You get to decide for yourself which one this is. Once you figure it out, feel free to let us know. The comment section is always open.

I hadn't had a chance to work on this one yet, but I'm sure it will be good as all the rest of them are!

Christmas Crosswords Ornament Gift Idea

My wife just sent me this link to this great Christmas Crosswords Ornament! Think I should take that as a hint??

The ornament features a woman sitting in a chair, crosswords puzzle in her lap, pondering what her next answer is going to be. Behind the chair is a white placard with a crossword puzzle on it, off to the left side. The right side, however, can be custom tailored with you loved-one's name, or other message that will fit in the given space.

I just ordered three of them for the three crossword addicted females in my family. Hopefully they'll love their Christmas crosswords ornaments!

Naughty Printable Crosswords

I guess it's true: Anything you could possible imagine is on the Internet, somewhere! It's estimated that more than 70% of the Internet's traffic is either porn or spam e-mails, or a combination of the two. So there is obviously a high demand for adult-related material, and why should printable crosswords be any different?

Back in 2006, Jorge Stafford who writes over at Nerve.com, had published a series of naughty printable crosswords. Maybe you could print out one of these to pack in your husband's lunch to get him ready for a night of passion. Or maybe your just a pervert who likes printable crosswords. Whatever your reason or desire, Mr. Stafford has some fun for you!

You can see the list of all ten naughty crosswords here. Clicking on each one will take you to a page where you can play online. You can, however, find printable versions by clicking on the little printer icon on the puzzles upper right corner. But to simplify things for you, here are direct links to the naughty printable crosswords:

• Nice Figure -- Stay in shape for this one
  
• The Licoln Bedroom -- It's all about the make-up sex
• Easy to Swallow -- Drinks that go down smooth
• Cue Ball -- Your quim will quiver
• Looking For Love -- Even fictional characters do it
• Head Games -- Let's visit the smallest room of the house
• Sin City -- Putting the "X" in Exhibition
• Well, I Never -- For guys who apparently didn't
• Porn Stars -- The men who made it all happen

So go grab a copy of these, you never know when they might come in handy! Bachelorette parties, getting your crosswords addict spouse in the mood, or maybe to do together over a dimly light dinner one night. I'm sure you can find a way to put some naughty printable crosswords to good use!

A True Printable Crosswords Junkie

The BBC has a television show called How Clean Is Your House? This seems similar to TLC's Clean Sweep shown here in America. The idea behind the show is simple: Find some of the raunchiest places you can find where people are knee-deep in filth, and help them clean it. For some reason, there is an audience for this, so people are willing to sit and watch these shows, which makes advertisers happy. Voila! You have a hit TV show.

Recently How Clean Is Your House? featured The Crosswords Lady. Rosie Lovelady is a printable crosswords fanatic. Her flat hasn't been cleaned in twenty-four years. Yes, you read that right, twenty-four years! The show is posted up on YouTube in three parts. It is truly amazing to me how people can let some things become such an obsession that they let everything else in their life go. Watch these videos, and maybe you won't feel so bad the next time you let the dirty dishes stack up on Sunday while you work on your printable crosswords for that day!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Printable Crosswords Help Prevent Brain Drain

One of my favorite web sites is Lifehacker, a web site dedicated to personal productivity and making your life a little bit easier. I ran across an article called "Mind Hacks: Ten Ways to Defeat Brain Drain", and was surprised to find that one of the ten ways is to do printable crosswords!

Play a game Halo 3 players rejoice! Playing a game that gets you away from your draining thoughts is an excellent way to get past the sluggishness. You might prefer crossword puzzles or sudokus if you don't like video games. Either way, playing a game lets you know life doesn't always have to be so serious and focused. Make time for play too!

So there you have it! Not only are you making yourself smarter, increasing your vocabulary, and getting personal satisfaction, you're also helping to keep you mind alert and focused. Another good reason to be addicted to printable crosswords!

Heros Printable Crosswords

LiveJournal user heroes_geek has created a Hero's themed printable crosswords for us all to enjoy! If you are not only a crossword addict but also a Hero's fan, here's a good one for you!

Printable Crosswords Marriage Proposal

I found an interesting blurb in the entertainment section of the Wisconsin State Journal this morning that I thought some of you might find humorous (or sweet, for the females):

" In Boston, a 29-year-old convinced the creators of the Boston Globe Sunday crossword to include a wedding proposal in it so that when his crossword-infatuated girlfriend did the day's puzzle and got to 111 across ("Generic proposal" (Jen, Eric proposal), she suddenly discovered the puzzle read, "Will you marry me?"

The good thing is, Eric knows up front of her crossword addiction. When he's left to mill around the house looking for something to do while she's curled up on the couch with her favorite printable crossword, he'll have no one to blame but himself! :)

Wordplay: The Movie

Last night I had some free time and sat down to watch the movie Wordplay by Patrick Creadon and Christine O'Malley. If you're a hardcore printable crosswords enthusiast, you will enjoy this documentary on the crosswords cult that exists in our society.

Witness the inner workings of Will Shortz, NY Times Editor and NPR Puzzle Master, and his brilliant, entertaining and often hilarious contributors as well as surprising celebrity fans. Wordplay takes us through the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament where almost five hundred competitors battled it out for the title "Crossword Champ" and showed their true colors along the way.

This documentary is not about the casual crosswords puzzler who occasionally does one while waiting in the doctor's waiting room. Oh no. This is about the hard-core, die-hard, live-to-solve puzzlers. There are individual interviews with different people from across America who share an obsession with printable crosswords. Some of the people interviewed include Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, Ken Burns, and The Indigo Girls.

You also learn a bit of history behind the NYT puzzles, how they come up with ideas, how they construct them, how puzzles are made to be more difficult, the rules of puzzle making, and the effects of certain types of puzzles on it's solvers.

They also cover the World Crossword Puzzle Championship that takes place each March in Stamford, Connecticut. The viewer is taken through how the tournament is organized and operates, how players are ranked and scored, and finally taken to the final, where the top three finalists all compete against time and each other to solve their crosswords on large easels setup on a stage, while the crowd stares on.

Even if you only have a light interest in printable crosswords as a hobby, this documentary will be well received and will open your eyes to an entire almost underground-cult that exists around printable crosswords.

So check out the documentary Wordplay, I promise you won't be disappointed! If you enjoy the documentary, there is also the Wordplay Official Companion Book by renowned crosswords maker Will Shortz. I haven't had a chance to checkout the companion book yet, but from some of the reviews I've read, it's a great extension to what's covered in the movie. And a little secret, you can save a few bucks by buying them both together. Check out this page on Amazon.com, scroll down to the "Better Together" section to get your discount.

San Diego State University Printable Crosswords

I just stumbled across the SDSU Geological Science Department's blog and noticed they had posted a printable crosswords for November with the theme being seismology. Upon further digging, they have an entire set of printable crosswords in their puzzles section! Topics include Mineralogy, Geologic Time, Volcanology, and Paleontology.

The other great thing about their site is the fact that you can either play the crosswords online, or if you choose, you an download the printable crosswords in PDF format and play them on-the-go! The printable crosswords also sport a stylish grid with graphics, instead of just your standard black and white squares. Check it out!

Beekeeper Printable Crosswords

I found a new blog you all will surely be interested in. It's called Beekeeper Crosswords, and has a great selection of free printable crosswords for you to do! Every Wednesday, the BeeKeeper posts up a new original crosswords for you to do, on a variety of topics.

This week's puzzle, The Work of the Weavers, was built to honor the BeeKeeper's local knitting shop, Natural Stitches. What a great, and unique I might add, way to honor and promote a new business!

There are currently 19 free printable crosswords over at Beekeepers, with new crosswords added each week. This is surely one site you'll want to keep tabs on!

Free Solving Aide for Printable Crosswords

Still holding on to that crossword puzzle that you've kept coming back to for days, but just can't figure out the last few words you need? I found an online site called More Words that can help!

Here's how it works. Say you have a three-letter word ending in 'r', but for the life of you can't come up with the answer. Enter '--r' in to More Words, and it will return a list of words all containing three letters ending in 'r'. Or maybe you have 'pu--le'; You'll get back puddle, pungle, purfle, purple, and puzzle! Or maybe you want to know every word that contains the letters 'sswo' in the middle. You would enter '*sswo*', and get back that list of words. There are even more complex searches you can do, outlined on their examples page.

The only problem with this solution is that you'll have to have a computer, or access to one, and it will have to have Internet access. This probably isn't going to be a viable solution as you sit on the train during your morning commute. There is always the Franklin CWP-206 Pocket Crossword Solver. Twenty-five dollars might be a small investment in your sanity!

Pretty cool, huh? Of course you could use this site for a lot more than just solving printable crosswords, but it sure does come in handy! Cheating? Maybe! Satisfaction of finally finishing that damn puzzle, definitely!

Amateur Radio Printable Crosswords

In addition to being a printable crosswords fan, I'm also an Amateur Radio operator. For those of you who might be fellow hams, you should check out the ARRL's Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler! New puzzles are constantly being added, and are of course, amateur radio themed. They provide a PDF copy that you can easily print out, and best of all, they're free. At this point in our solar cycle and the way the HF bands have been behaving lately, it's nice to have some printable crosswords to do, and still keep it hobby related. 73!