I received 4 entries to Part I and 2 entries to Part II of
The Joy Of Puzzling: Codewords. Those are low numbers. Maybe people didn't want to win a book of Penny Press Codewords puzzles? Remind me to offer better prizes next time. Here are the results!
Here's the solution grid to Part I of the contest:
The shaded letters spell the final answer
ZEALOTRY, which was gotten by 4 people. The winner of Part I of the contest, chosen by random.org from among the entrants who didn't win a prize below, is
Stephen Potter, who wins a book of Penny Press Codewords puzzles!
If you want to watch me make this puzzle, the video is at
https://tinyurl.com/TJOP-zealotry.
The first-place entry out of 2 in Part II of the contest is this one by
Kevin Orfield, which (major spoiler)
has SEVENTEEN and QUEUE in the thirteenth column, and 17 is a Q. Kevin and his test-solver,
his mother (name unknown), win a book of Penny Press Codewords puzzles! You might want
a PDF version of the puzzle to print and solve.
As per the rules of the contest, the runner-up was to be selected by two friends of mine. Well, only two entries were sent, so they have no choice in the matter, but I'll send them the puzzles anyway for the heck of it. The runner-up entry is this one by
Sam Levitin, which I thought had interesting words in it, but no interesting combinations of words or themes that I could see. Sam wins a book of Penny Press Codewords puzzles! You might want
a PDF version of the puzzle to print and solve.
Congrats to the winners!
Here are three bonus puzzles for you to solve.
Number one has (major spoiler!)
the names of three Broadway musicals reading across as its theme, and
number two has (minor spoiler!)
a pair of eight-letter anagrams (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 and 1-2-6-5-8-4-7-3). These are themes similar to what I was hoping to see from my creative readers in this contest.
Number three has no theme. It just exists.
