NEW! ARCHIVED PUZZLES NOW AVAILABLE!
We are now posting puzzles that have been previously posted!
All six-month subscribers now have access to more than 350 puzzles previously published on the site, with new puzzles posting to the archive daily!
Catch up on all the puzzles you’ve missed!
Monthly subscribers can upgrade to six-month memberships to access this archive.
Current six-month subscribers can access the archive immediately!
Want a fresh challenge every day?
Answer the clue questions.
Fill in the words of the quote grid.
Work back and forth until the grid is complete.
The answer is a brief joke, and the initial letters of the clue answers spell out the name of the comic!
Come back every day for a laugh!
Want a few more fresh challenges every day ?
Subscribers to the Solve and Smile will enjoy special benefits!
Subscriber Perks
New puzzles!
In addition to the free puzzles, subscribers will have a new daily puzzle that has never been published! Two new puzzles daily!
More puzzles
Subscribers will have access to the last seven puzzles published, both free and new. 14 puzzles available at all times!
Never miss a puzzle!
If you skip a day or two, you never have to worry about missing a puzzle. Just sign on as little as once a week and never miss a puzzle.
Our Story
From 2011-2012, John L. Weil wrote the Solve and Smile Acrostic puzzles, published daily in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
John had a new approach to the acrostic puzzle; his puzzles produced a one- or two-line joke, about half the traditional length of an Acrostic puzzle, with the initials of the clue answers revealing the name of the comic who told the joke – a shorter puzzle, easier to solve, shorter path to the laugh.
This puzzle cultivated a following during the year and a half it was published, but then one day, The Plain Dealer pulled their space, never publishing another Solve and Smile. John tried to find other outlets for his puzzle, but he found none, and eventually abandoned the project.
John passed away last May, after a difficult fight with cancer. With the partnership of his widow, I have been working since then to revive the puzzle online.
For an all-too brief period, this puzzle brought a growing daily audience a lot of joy, and we want to continue that tradition now.
This site is dedicated to John’s memory.
