Last year Aaron and I participated in our first Lollapuzzoola. Unfortunately for us, this year the live tournament took place when Aaron had backpacking permits. So we got the puzzles and did them offline!

We missed hearing the intros of the constructors. That was something we really liked about doing it live last year.

Comparing our times from last year to this year, it was pretty clear that paper solving was much slower than using Across Lite. We were also slower as a large group. We weren’t as focused on solving for speed and jumped around the puzzle a lot to accommodate people wanting to see different clues. In a way, it was more enjoyable to solve together on the TV than as a pair going for speed. It was a lively environment with Aaron getting up to point at the TV to explain the wordplay theme in Puzzle 4. Those that aren’t crossword regulars also had fun participating with their own specialized knowledge.

Puzzle 1 – I’m Walking Here

Pao Roy

Aaron and Dad raced on paper. Avery finished on the computer on Monday morning.

56A – Avery’s two errors were here: BELL[E]OFTHE[F]EAST

65A – I’m more familiar with the phrase “LOTSA love” than “LOTSA luck”.

12D – Never heard of futch before!

19D – What is a rotary phone? Ha ha just kidding, we are barely old enough to know what this is 😉

Time: Aaron: 10:08, 1 error

Dad: 21:45, a hint or two

Avery: Forgot to start the timer, 2 errors

Time Limit: 20 mins

Puzzle 2 – Happy New Year!

Ella Dershowitz

On Saturday we got together to make pizza in the Ooni oven at Avery and Morgan’s house. We did puzzles 2-5 together on the TV. Avery entered the answers and Aaron, Emily, Karissa, and Morgan chimed in with answers.

• 

4A – We inconveniently missed the word film and were confused about what streaming service could fit there.

25A – We filled out 25A as ABSENTEEBOX and corrected it to ABSENTEEBOT with 15D. We didn’t get the theme until 87A which we all knew should be HANNIBAL LECTOR even though it didn’t fit. Then we figured it out. Aaron was a bit bummed because he had a similar idea for a crossword puzzle theme (although his idea had involved dropping the ball from the clue instead of the answer).

40A – Karissa knew this one

49A – Morgan hates it when Avery gives this answer when he wants to know what she wants to eat.

53A – Avery and Aaron should really get up to date on their Sondheim. Luckily Karissa knew this one was about SWEENYTODD.

61A – We don’t know what the Senegal flag looks like, but Aaron guessed confidently it was RED based on the amount of boxes we needed to fill out.

13D – We haven’t heard of this drink before!

36D – We had two family Wordle tournaments before it was acquired by the NYT. Aaron was the champ with 1 tied win (with Avery) and one undisputed win.

75D – Avery’s college major!

Time: 14:22

Time Limit: 30 mins

Puzzle 3 Eye-Opening Stuff

Paolo Pasco

25A – Emily corrected our error on 13D with this clue

50A- Avery and Aaron were both primed to think about Will Shortz in this clue – luckily Karissa wasn’t fooled

58A – SIN or SON? We were finally able to figure it out after correcting 65A from RANT to BAIT.

7D- Avery wrote in POOP – everyone thought this was funny and that there was no way it could be the actual answer… until it was confirmed by the crosses.

34D- We liked this clue

67D- Emily knew this one

76D – Morgan comes up with the Spanish we needed! Morgan, Emily, and Karissa all took Spanish in school. Aaron had Japanese and Avery had French.

84D- Muzzles can be on FEET?

87D: Despite seeing this movie multiple times, Avery and Morgan didn’t know this one. Avery guessed correctly on the first try though.

Time: 21:10

Time Limit: 30 mins

Puzzle 4 – Times Square

Francis Heaney

This was the best theme yet! Aaron and Emily were getting nervous we might not finish this one in time! It was our closest call yet with less than 6 mins to spare. We didn’t understand the product placement note. Dr Pibb maybe? Subaru? Aaron figured it out in an epiphany right before bed – product as in multiplication!!

16A – Tricky clue, Emily got this one for us.

27A – Karissa knew this one

82A – We learned this answer from last year’s Lollapuzzoola. It was explained to us in a post-tournament email from Brian (Cimmet?).

6D – Aaron knew that the answer for this should be 36 Chambers. Together with getting enough crosses for the FIVE of 73A, we were able to figure out how the theme answers worked.

35D – We’ve never heard of this musical, but the clue was descriptive enough to work it out.

41D – We knew what this symbol looked like, but not what it was called! We got it on the crosses eventually.

55D – Collegiate band member Karissa helped us out getting this one.

Time: 34:38

Time Limit: 40 mins

Puzzle 5 – You’ll Be In My Heart

Will Nediger

We thought this puzzle was pretty easy and straightforward. The theme was cute.

72A – Avery knew this one – Julia Morgan did a lot of architecture on the Berkeley campus.

97A – Avery’s obsession with RuPaul’s Drag race pays off

99D – Dad always does the NYT crossword IN PEN (But he also needs White-out – called “The Dooter” in our family from the days when it came in liquid pen form. Now we use the tape kind).

Time: 21:05

Time Limit: 40 mins

Puzzle 6 – Local Final

Brooke Husic

We did this puzzle on paper as a race at our parents house on Sunday. Team Aaron/Emily was the clear favorite as Aaron is our family’s best and fastest solver and Emily is a NYT Crossword regular (Mondays in 5 mins!). Morgan generally doesn’t do crosswords, but agreed to be Avery’s teammate anyway. Dad said he didn’t need a teammate, but during the solve, suggested that he should get double the time since he was a solo player. Then he said he should get an old age handicap. Aaron refused to give him any hints until he was over double Team Aaron/Emily’s solve time.

With last year’s Brooke puzzle still haunting us, we were nervous to get started. We didn’t need to worry though- no one ended up in the fetal position on the floor this year. Even though none of us finished in the allotted 15 mins, no one was mentally destroyed by the theme answers.

1A – We all got this one on the downs, but it’s a cute clue and we got a chuckle after the fact.

15A, 17A, 59A, 60A, 41D, 42D – Morgan got all these correct for Team Avery/Morgan. Much needed fill!

50A: We think the clue should have been more like the Express finals clue that gave a hint that it wasn’t English.

58A – Aaron filled this one in correctly, but didn’t get it until 36 mins later when Dad finally filled it in and explained what a relief is in the ART world

23D/29A: This was Dad’s only error on the P of OPI. Mom said she would have known this one. OPI send her a Porsche Red nail polish sample.

39D: Avery got her first PATENT this year. Dad has boxes of them at home and Mom has several as well.

50D: We learned something new! We love TERIyaki, but never knew what it meant.

Aaron/Emily: OT 17:56

Avery/Morgan: OT 21:30

Dad: OT 36:51, 1 error, several hints

Time Limit: 15 mins

The Meta!

One of our favorite parts of the tournament. We spent the week after the tournament doing this last year on an extensive Google Doc and if I remember correctly, couldn’t quite finish it without looking up some of the answers… Anyway, this year we took it over to our parents house on Sunday and worked on it in person.

King Kong

We were able to get K_N_HENR__ from the clues. We were then able to fill in the shaded squares and extrapolate the last answers. Interestingly, we had thought of the last two answers, but hadn’t realized where they went.

Wolf of Wallstreet

Avery and Morgan started this on Sunday and Aaron finished it at midnight on Monday.

Cloverfield

Dad figured out how this one works. He, Aaron, and Emily worked on it and got the answer for the front page.

Jason Takes Manhattan

Aaron figured out that we were looking for musical titles. Avery said that the 1980 one could be Les Mis because there is a prisoner in that musical. Aaron looked up Les Mis and confirmed it premiered in 1980. Avery then realized that the numbers referred to the number of letters in the name- so LES MISERABLES is 3 10. We finished the puzzle pretty quickly after that.

A Quiet Place

We got the answer for this relatively quickly, but none of us have ever heard of the NIYAMA. Morgan looked it up and it’s a yoga term, so it’s got to be right.

C.H.U.D.

Aaron and Emily did this meta. Aaron said this was the easiest meta.

A Vampire in Brooklyn

Avery and Morgan finished this meta. Morgan found the first and second coffins – NEW YORK STAKE and FANG HEAVEN… It felt like mushroom hunting when he finds all the morel patches! Avery found BAT MASTERSON who everyone thought was fake, but turned out to be a real guy. We found all the coffins, except 1 and were able to deduce from the “dirt” that the last “dirt” needed to be AES. Aaron then proposed maybe CAPE HASRAS as the North Carolina location. We couldn’t figure out which state Dracula would prefer and Avery had to call it a night (we were going on ~3 hours of puzzling).

Rosemary’s Baby

Aaron finished the pictures of this meta late Monday night. We never figured out the grid.

On Location in New York

Avery and Aaron were sure that we should take the letters in between N and Y in each clue. Aaron said maybe M.G. BRIWSO was a person ala Bat Masterson. Avery said it didn’t make sense for us to rearrange the letters. Why would the puzzle masters have put them in the wrong order? She was wrong, they were out of order. It turns out that people of the Big Apple are scared of BIG WORMS.