Section Eight #2 - Harder (PDF) | Easier (PDF) | Solution (PDF)
Back this month with another Section Eight puzzle! These Patrick Berry inventions are a sort of current obsession of mine, and what's frustrating about that is that this format is relatively rare, even among Berry creations. I've exhausted the archive of the Berry Section Eights that ran in the Wall Street Journal since they launched their variety puzzle offerings in 2010, but even that well was already fairly dry - there were only five or six total puzzles included in that archive, including a period of eight (!) years where no Section Eight puzzle ran at all in the Journal. Joon Pahk has run a few of these for his variety service (he dubs them "Eight Tracks"), but other than that...I got nothin'. If anyone can point me to some unknown-to-me treasure trove of Section Eight puzzles - please, hit me up; interesting trades considered.
From a constructing side of things, as I mentioned last year when I first ran a Section Eight puzzle, these are at the top of the list when it comes to "satisfyingly challenging" puzzle-writing experiences. Perhaps to fill the void of being unable to solve more of these puzzles, I've taken to binge-writing them for a new side project, which [hint-hint] you might hear details about soon. So stay tuned.
These are by nature a *hard* puzzle type, so be warned. There are two difficulty levels offered. The Harder version is the version that is offered in the WSJ - only the outermost Ring answers have known placements and letter counts; for all other Rings you must determine the placement and direction of the answers on your own. The Easier version discloses the direction and length of all answers. Still, I imagine the Easier version would play harder than even a Hardest-level Rows Garden, so don't feel like you're cheating by trying the Easier version, especially if this is your introduction to the format. Either version you try, hope you enjoy the challenge!
Speaking of Rows Gardens, there's one more Tuesday in July so stop by next week when the Monthly Bundles will be updated. 8/1/2024 UPDATE: The July monthly bundle is now available! Subscriptions are always open if you don't want to wait for the Monthly Bundles.
Happy solving!