Section Eight (WSJ) 05/26)

[Bird Lives]

Neat puzzle, but it requires a certain precision. I was one space off in the fourth circle and when I realized it, I had to write very heavily over nearly a half-circle of letters.

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

Having done a ton of these variety puzzles -- also when Patrick Berry guest-produces the weekly Meta -- I think he is the most talented constructor out there. His clueing is outstanding! Shenk is a close second.

[Richard B.]

Amazing construction. Thought at first I would work from the outside in, but when that didn’t work, I switched to every which way — outside in, inside out, middle in and middle out. Very well done, Mr. Berry!

[Richard B.]

Neat puzzle, but it requires a certain precision. I was one space off in the fourth circle and when I realized it, I had to write very heavily over nearly a half-circle of letters.

No way I was solving this without an eraser!

[Bird Lives]

Having done a ton of these variety puzzles -- also when Patrick Berry guest-produces the weekly Meta -- I think he is the most talented constructor out there. His clueing is outstanding! Shenk is a close second.

Did you do his Middle of the Road?
https://aframegames.com/puzzles/MiddleOfTheRoad.pdf

[ReB]

That was enjoyable, needed lots of deduction to complete the rings. I worked both inward (mostly) and outward, including some mostly skipped rings that I filled in later working in both directions. Head slap on Ring 8, which I blanked out on until the very end.

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

Having done a ton of these variety puzzles -- also when Patrick Berry guest-produces the weekly Meta -- I think he is the most talented constructor out there. His clueing is outstanding! Shenk is a close second.

Did you do his Middle of the Road?
https://aframegames.com/puzzles/MiddleOfTheRoad.pdf

No have to try that one!

[Barney]

Unusually difficult

Having done others in the past

Unfortunately don’t have time to spend this weekend

[iggystan]

I was able to work this from the outside in, an uncommon thing. A good PB puzzle.

[DebbieC]

Excellent puzzle. Another in a long line of amazing Patrick Berry contributions to the art. Well worth the effort.

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

Having done a ton of these variety puzzles -- also when Patrick Berry guest-produces the weekly Meta -- I think he is the most talented constructor out there. His clueing is outstanding! Shenk is a close second.

Did you do his Middle of the Road?
https://aframegames.com/puzzles/MiddleOfTheRoad.pdf

OMG. Just spent 30 minutes looking at it and I can barely understand the instructions! I see where he is going but hoo boy! I am really not very good at cryptic crosswords and this strikes me as similar. Will give it a go though. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Wendy Walker]

Really fun and challenging. At the beginning I had that familiar "completely lost" feeling -- How are we supposed to do this?! The starting points for each entry aren't given and we don't even know if it's clockwise or the reverse! But I got most of the outer ring, which allowed me to get the innermost two rings (fortunately the clues were straightforward), and from then on I made steady progress. Patrick Berry is a master!

[Meg]

Finally!! I picked it up for the 5th time and decided to just (unlike Wendy) use my pencil and plow in. Only had to erase a few times. Mercifully, it gets easier as you move inward. Thanks, PB.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Got to this one late (we were visiting), and like others here, I needed to do lots of erasing. But the feeling of accomplishment is quite nice.