Advertise here with Carbon Ads

This site is made possible by member support. ❤️

Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.

When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!

kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.

🍔  💀  📸  😭  🕳️  🤠  🎬  🥔

XKCD: A Crossword Puzzle

A Crossword Puzzle

Although I am slightly disappointed this isn’t a “real” crossword puzzle, I do admire Randall Munroe’s commitment to the bit. And then there’s the gray letters…

Discussion  7 comments

Jason KottkeMOD

This suggests the existence of B Crossword Puzzle…

Andy Baio

Have you figured out what the gray letters mean yet? I'm stumped.

Andy Baio

Ahhh, it’s just a visualization explaining how to count “every third letter” or “every other letter” in those two clues.

Jason KottkeMOD

Yeah, I don't think there's any meaning beyond that. Not that I didn't try to find one...

David Pacey Edited

nvmnd

Reply in this thread

Jason KottkeMOD

In case you're stumped, Explain XKCD, uh, explains the puzzle.

JRB

Somewhat reminiscent of the April Fools puzzle from the 2023 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament: https://www.reddit.com/r/crossword/comments/128ty59/puzzle_1_from_the_acpt_its_worth_a_quick_look/

Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.

Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.

Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!