Halloween Crossword Puzzles

THURSDAY’S PUZZLE — Do you love puns? If not, it’s perfectly appropriate in this Halloween puzzle to shout “BOO.”

Quip crosswords, like quote crosswords, are rarely seen anymore. The success of such puzzles depends mostly on the quality of the quip or, in this case, riddle, and that’s entirely subjective. If today’s groaner is more trick than treat for you, find a child of the right age and see how much fun she has with it.

We expect great clues from David J. Kahn, and there are some dandy ones today. “Burning issue” is ASH. Even if you suspect it’s a pun, and there’s no question mark on the clue here, “issue” is a versatile word with several possibilities. If you watched TV in the 1960s, you know that a “Bottled spirit” is a GENIE. (This has nothing to do with today’s puzzle, but I fondly remember a recent Mark Diehl clue in a Los Angeles Times puzzle: “Old rubber” for ALADDIN.) We don’t need to know the names of Italian networks to get “Italian TV channel.” We just have to turn the dial to number TRE. “That issue is in the past” implies a corresponding phrase, and I’M OVER IT captures the exact same spirit.

The best clue, though, is for one of the shortest words, and it echoes the theme on Wednesday. “Club for swingers” is BAT, of course. What were you thinking?

Posted in: halloween crossword puzzle printable,halloween crossword puzzles,halloween film,halloween jokes,halloween movies,halloween word search