In real life, I'm Henri Picciotto. Check out my home page.
Sphinx, courtesy of Manx

Hot's Puzzle Page

As Hot, I'm a member of the National Puzzlers' League.
It's more than a hobby: it's something to do!

With Trazom, I have edited hundreds of cryptic crosswords for the NPL's
monthly magazine The Enigma. Some of the best among those puzzles are in the book National Puzzlers' League Cryptic Crosswords (edited by Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto; Random House, November 2005 -- now available for free on the NPL Web site.)

cryptics book

NPL members who would like to construct cryptics for The Enigma should heed these guidelines.

In 1999, I made a presentation on cryptic crosswords to the joint meeting of the 58th National Congress of Classical Puzzling and the 20th Convention of the Italian Rebus Association, in Verona, Italy:
I cruciverba enigmistici
(English translation by Serendipity -- a good introduction for beginners)
Soon afterwards, I made a presentation to the NPL on Italian puzzling. The latter helped bring Italian-style picture puzzles to The Enigma.
I have constructed dozens of cryptic crosswords with Arachne.
A few samples:
Election (1997)
San Diego! (1992)
Alack! (1992)
Pangram (1992)
From the Guide to the Enigma, read:
Trazom on solving cryptic crosswords
Sibyl on constructing cryptic crosswords for The Enigma
me on Sharing the Fun
The best part of my (somewhat dated) 1992 thoughts on cryptic crosswords was excerpted here.

How to upload nom photos to the NPL site.

big P icon

Search this site:
Send me e-mail .