| October 27, 2025 
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As an adult living in New York City, I often find it funny how “serious” Halloween still feels. I guess I thought as a child that I would grow out of Halloween at some point. Whether it’s because I’m living in a city full of “theater kids” or fun-loving people in general, it is always fun to see people dressing up for the holiday well into their adult lives. Even though trick-or-treating has its charms in adult life, going with kids and giving them candy at my door remain the best parts of the holiday for me. Alongside the jack-o’-lanterns, ghosts and witches that are standard Halloween fare, we’ve started to see a new crop of costumes pop up over the past couple of years: New York Times Games Halloween costumes. Suddenly, among the vampires and zombies, we’re seeing WordleBots, Wordles, Connections boards and Spelling Bees. Last week, we put out a call to see your New York Times Games Halloween costumes, and the photos you submitted brought joy to my inbox. We hope to feature some costumes here in our newsletter and on social media, providing inspiration ahead of the holiday on Friday. (Last-minute costume makers still have time to whip one up.) I wasn’t sure what we were going to receive, but I’m pleased to say I have yet another reason to be impressed by the passion and excitement of our community. You’ve come up with your own pangrams and letter sets, and used Post-its of different colors to create playable, wearable Wordles. We heard from a couple who created matching shiny, metallic WordleBot headpieces — one of the most inventive costumes I’ve seen. We saw a lawyer in a Wordle costume spelling COURT, a high school teacher wearing a Spelling Bee letter set and even a baby WordleBot. Follow @nytgames on Instagram, where we will soon be posting more photos of the incredible costumes we’ve seen from our community.  |
- Most themeless puzzles begin with a seed entry or a fun clue, but that wasn’t the case in this puzzle. After a little trial and error in the top part of the grid, I stumbled on the FERRIS WHEEL / TREASURE MAP stack and thought the friendly letter combination seemed promising. Those two answers are ideal themeless fodder since they are extremely well-known, conjure up fun memories, and, perhaps most importantly, can get fun clues. TREASURE MAP was begging for some wordplay with the letter “X” in the clue, so I was pleased with [Where you might solve for “X”?], leaning into the math misdirect. To complement the trickier TREASURE MAP clue, I added a little bit of trivia in the FERRIS WHEEL clue.
- In the FERRIS WHEEL / TREASURE MAP stack, ??WR is the most restrictive crossing letter combination since only Bryn MAWR, ROWR or RAWR fit. Because I live very close to Bryn Mawr, Pa., I’m predisposed to like it, but it’s hard if you’ve never heard of it, and equally challenging to spell. So, RAWR went into the grid, and I filled the grid around it.
- The hardest editorial decision was how to clue HOGAN. Cluing possibilities include the Navajo dwelling, the actor Paul Hogan of “Crocodile Dundee,” the old golfer Ben Hogan and the late wrestler Hulk Hogan. I eliminated the Navajo dwelling and Paul angles because they seemed too hard. Hulk is the most famous HOGAN, and therefore the “easiest” answer, but he also has a pretty unsavory background. A puzzle doesn’t need to omit every figure with a checkered past, as that would rule out many historical figures. But with Ben HOGAN, a nine-time golf major champion, sitting there, I opted for a little sports trivia over the easier, but unsettling Hulk Hogan clue.
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Cryptogram |
