The first thing this grizzled newsman likes to do in the morning is brew a coffee, crack open my laptop and … do a puzzle.

That’s not just a pastime; it’s a ritual that gets my mind engaged and gives me a sense of accomplishment to start the day.

I know I’m not the only one – I’ve been in the business a long time and every survey tells us that our readers like diversions such as puzzles, comics and advice columns. So I’m happy to tell you that MLive has beefed up its offerings of puzzles and games on a daily basis.

We recently added six new puzzles and games. Three are free – readers can enjoy these seven days a week with no obstacles.

Crossword. Still our most popular puzzle by a fair margin.
Sudoku. We’ve got three levels — Easy, Medium and Hard.
Word Flower. Test your knowledge of words and their spellings.

Three of the new puzzles are exclusively for digital subscribers. These also are fresh seven days a week:

Mini-crosswords: This is a quick brain-waker.
Word Search: A classic hidden-words grid.
WordroW: Our variation on the Wordle phenom.

These are in addition to the scores of time-tested classic puzzles and games we already offer via Puzzle Society and Tribune Puzzles. You can find them at www.mlive.com/puzzles, at the bottom of the page. These popular features remain free to all readers.

I encourage you to try out the new games – they’re challenging and include some nice interactive features. There’s an “assist” menu if you want to check your answers; you can toggle an error-checker or timer off and on; you can switch to “dark mode” if that’s easier on your eyes.

There are fun social components, too. You can invite a friend to play along with you; just look for the prompt at the top of any puzzle. You also can share results with friends on social media.

There’s a two-week archive for all games, so you can play catch-up if you miss a day or two. Choose “All Games” under the little hamburger menu in the upper-left corner of any puzzle.

We expect to be adding more games – some free, some more for subscribers only – in the next few months. In the meantime, give the new offerings a try or explore some of the classics, and tell me what you think.

If you’re not yet a subscriber but want to give the premium games a spin, check out MLive’s latest subscription offerings at this link.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my morning routine. And I could use some help from my friends: What’s a five-letter word for “tropical creeper?”

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