Take the Hidden Mandolin Players crossword challenge!
Created by yours truly with inspiration, encouragement and editing by fellow crossword fanatic, Joe. K. Walsh.
Instructions, because there will be folks with varying degrees of experience with these:
This puzzle will make the most sense to U.S. based players. Hadn't considered other locations in my answers and clues until I was done. In case I decide to do another I'll pay attention to that.
Within the puzzle is repeated a common hidden theme four times, and those clues are denoted with an asterisk ( * ). Many crossword puzzle creators use a theme and "hide" common words, phrases or names inside of longer strings as part of the experience. No surprise, this one contains four embedded, very well known mandolin players hidden inside of longer strings or letters and phrases.
By example, if the puzzle had a mandolin builders theme and a clue stated "well known wine growing region near San Francisco," the answer would be: NAPAVALLEY, which contains PAVA. Sometimes the answer might end or start a string, so if the subject matter was the names of mandolin players and the clue was "An African coastal country known for pristine beaches" an answer could be SIERRALEONE, which of course contains SIERRA. OK, you get it.
But wait, there's more! Along with the hidden answers are plenty of other references only mandolin players will get. You've been warned. No groaning... aloud or allowed.
Puzzle attached below as PDF. I'll post the full answers this time tomorrow.
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