Monday, December 26, 2022

Puzzle #196: Rock Pile

It's been a while since I've posted a puzzle with stacked theme entries, so it feels like a good time for this 67-word, horizontally symmetrical grid (pdf, puz, pdf solution). Happy solving!

Monday, December 19, 2022

Puzzle #195: Split Screen

Puzzle time (pdf, puz, pdf solution)! I've also got the Universal crossword today (with Nancy Stark), and on Saturday I had a crossword in the Puzzle Society's new feature. Happy solving!
 

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Puzzle #194: Viral Contest

Yeah, I know it's Tuesday and I just dropped a puzzle yesterday, but I just whipped this one (pdf, puz, pdf solution) up and it's gonna have a short shelf life, so I'm posting it right now. If you don't know that 46-Across refers to, this link will (sort of) make everything clear.

Monday, December 12, 2022

Puzzle #193: That's Weird, I Ended Up Back Where I Started

I took a couple weeks off, but I'm back with a new puz (pdf, puz, pdf solution)! Should have another one next Monday too, if all goes well.


Thursday, December 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: November 2022

It's a hectic time for me, so a short post this month!

November 2: The Anti Puzzle (Malaika Handa, Vulture)

November 15: Freestyle 763 (Tim Croce, club72)

November 17: Strip Poker (Quiara Vasquez, QVXwordz)

November 28: Untitled (Kate Chin Park and Chandi Deitmer, Boswords)

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The Anti Puzzle (Malaika Handa)

As always, I love the ability of Vulture puzzles to stuff in tons of pop culture references while still remaining largely accessible: [Focal points of that one Kumail Nanjiani photo] for ABS, [Press Ctrl while playing "Fortnite"] for CROUCH, ["___, Please" (video game where the player is an immigration officer)] for PAPERS, etc. But of course, the star of this puzzle is the clue-of-the-year contender [Get a load of this guy?] for SPERM DONOR.

Freestyle 763 (Tim Croce)

The 763rd(!!) themeless on club72 is a classic Croce grid: three fresh in-the-language phrases stacked in the center (A LIFETIME AGO, WORD TRAVELS FAST, WHAT'S ONE MORE). I'm amazed at Tim's seemingly endless ability to pick up on these phrases; it's a constant reminder of how much of our everyday language is still relatively untapped by crosswords and wordlists. Elsewhere, he always manages to squeeze in creative stuff into the short fill, too - like WWJD and BIEBS.

Strip Poker (Quiara Vasquez)

Entries with the letters BAR in them have the BAR raised vertically above them - e.g. WEREWOLF BAR MITZVAH is written as WEREWOLF MITZVAH, with BARFING crossing the F in the center. The other themers are BAROQUE POP, BARBIECORE, and BARITE squeezed in the corner. The grid design is really smart here: Quiara's split the revealer, RAISING THE BAR, across three entries in the same row to avoid having to deal with an awkward 13-length revealer. And there's a remarkable quartet of long downs that span most of the grid: BICULTURAL, KEEBLER ELVES, RACHEL ZEGLER, and HAVANA CUBA. The kind of construction I've come to expect from Quiara, where the theme is cool but the grid is also laid out to maximize the non-theme coolness.

Untitled (Kate Chin Park and Chandi Deitmer)

The Boswords fall themeless leagues are always top-notch, but they were really firing on all cylinders this time, as evidenced by the fact that this is the third puzzle from the league to feature in my roundups. The grid is a stunner, with fabulous long entries like BERGY BITS, WOWIE ZOWIE, DID I DO THAT, EXSQUEEZE ME, UP AND COMER, DATE SPOTS, and OVER TO YOU. And, as befits the championship puzzle, there are a ton of devious misdirects in the cluing: [Hike the interest rate of?] for SEX UP, [Wrestling with a lack of humanity] for ROBOT SUMO, [Small gas giant] for QATAR, and [Image problem?] for REBUS.

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Puzzle #192: Parade Float (with Hayley Gold)

A puzzle on a day that's not a Monday (pdf, jpzpdf solution)? I know, I know, but today is Thanksgiving south of the border, so Hayley Gold and I are bringing you a special variety cryptic. You might know Hayley as the author of Letters to Margaret or as the host of my monthly variety cryptic streams, but this is the first cryptic she's written! Many thanks to Bob Stigger, Steve Mossberg, Al Sanders, Tyler Hinman, and Sean Molley for the last-minute test-solves.

Monday, November 7, 2022

Puzzle #191: The Fault in Our Stars

Ever-so-slightly asymmetrical themer placement in this one (pdf, puz, pdf solution). I just had to squeeze in as much theme material as humanly possible!

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: October 2022

October 3: Getting in Shape (Brian Thomas, Puzzles That Need a Home)

October 12: Untitled (Adesina O. Koiki, Vox)

October 12: themeless no. 19 (crosstina aquafina ft. erik agard, crosstina aquafina)

October 17: Untitled (Malaika Handa, Boswords)

October 27: themeless xxvii ("ghost type") (Brooke Husic, xwords by a ladee)

October 31: Untitled (Kelsey Dixon, Boswords)

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Getting in Shape (Brian Thomas)

Two themes in one! This puzzle is inspired by Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, with the revealer THE MISSING PIECE indicating that the main theme entries (MAKING A BIG SLASH, CHAR PERSON, BACH HEADS, STEP DANES, and COD TALKERS) are missing the letters P, I, E, C, and E, respectively. But then there's also the revealer THE BIG O, indicating that, if you connect all the occurrences of the letter O in the puzzle, they form a big O shape. An absolutely jaw-dropping feat of construction: seven regular theme entries, plus a structural theme that affects the entire grid - and THE BIG O intersects not only THE MISSING PIECE but also two other themers.

Untitled (Adesina O. Koiki)

There's an art to coming up with mini-themes for midi crosswords, and Ade's a pro - he's got a whole book of them. There's just something immensely satisfying about a perfectly matched pair of theme entries - in this case, DAWG POUND and KAT GRAHAM, which both sound like a type of pet plus a unit of weight. Exactly what I'm looking for in a 9x9 grid.

themeless no. 19 (crosstina aquafina ft. erik agard)

I remain extremely jealous of these constructors' ability to squeeze incredible clues out of even the most mundane of entries. ARR clued as [piracy notice?]. GRE clued as [academic test that kinda sorta rhymes with "theory"], setting up the punchline of SAT clued as [academic test that kinda sorta rhymes with "the undergraduate admissions racket exacerbates existing social inequalities"]. TAT clued as ["best font for PING PONG knuckle ___" (will shortz google search)]. CHEWED UP clued as [ground for da vores?]!!! Also the grid looks like an evil panda whose forehead is the excellent stack of MOOD BOARD ([felt collage]), LEAVE ON READ ([send a message to by not sending a message to]), and CHARACTER FLAW (["they care too much" or "he can't turn down a challenge" or "she's an anxious people pleaser who can't stop buying cursed amulets"]).

Untitled (Malaika Handa)

One of the most impressive themeless grids I've seen in a while, cascading with fun long answers everywhere you look: FINAL BOSSES, SHE RATES DOGS, GELATO BAR, TRUFFLE HOG, DEMISEXUAL, WHOOPIE PIES, LABRADOODLES, HOT TODDIES, BARBER POLE, WORLD TOUR... there's barely a wasted slot.

themeless xxvii ("ghost type") (Brooke Husic)

A stunner of a triple-stack: FRIENDSHIP GOALS, EMANCIPATION DAY, RESERVATION DOGS. Getting a triple-stack where all three entries are assets is tricky enough, but this stack also includes two stunning clues: [Platonic ideal?] for the top entry and [Series that was just OK in its first season?] for the bottom. There's lots of other great stuff, too, including the clue [They might drop bomb shells] for TAQUERIAS.

Untitled (Kelsey Dixon)

Another beautiful Boswords grid! It's anchored by the stagger-stack of KRABBY PATTY/MILLE BORNES/SCREAM QUEEN, intersecting the long downs of ALWAYS BE MY BABY and BLESS YOUR HEART, all excellent. I like all the interesting consonant combinations in this grid; it's not often that the central 3 crossing a stagger-stack is the likes of BBQ, and elsewhere we have things like MCNUGGET and SXSW crossing YORKSHIRE.

Monday, October 31, 2022

Puzzle #190: Autofilled

Because I never plan ahead for these things, today's puzzle (pdf, puz, pdf solution) has nothing to do with Halloween. But hopefully you still think it's scary good!

Monday, October 24, 2022

Puzzle #189: Sound Asleep

Sometimes I like to post a silly little puzzle with nothing particularly fancy going on, and now is one of those times (pdf, puz, pdf solution). Happy solving!

Monday, October 17, 2022

Puzzle #188: May I Cut In?

This week's puzzle was inspired by a couple of works by the fabulous artist Kay Rosen. If you like crosswords (and I'm guessing that you do), I suspect you'll love her work as much as I do.

(pdf, puz, pdf solution)


Monday, October 10, 2022

Puzzle #187: In a Bad Way (by Christina Iverson and Juliana Tringali Golden)

This week's puzzle (pdf, puz, pdf solution) is a guest contribution from Christina Iverson and Juliana Tringali Golden! They sent me the puzzle with a note that it seemed perfect for an indie blog, with which I heartly agree, so it's here for your solving pleasure. 

Saturday, October 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: September 2022

September 8: dunk on the wackula (themeless) (Ada Nicolle, luckystreak+)

September 15: themeless 20: difficult women (Malaika Handa and Brooke Husic, girlbosswords)

September 18: Power Grid (Ross Trudeau, Rossword Puzzles)

September 18: Remedial Chaos Theory (Paolo Pasco, Grids These Days)

September 18: State of Limbo Vibes (Lyle Broughton, Jack of All Squares)

September 18: Five by Five #9 (Quiara Vasquez, QVXwordz)

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dunk on the wackula (themeless) (Ada Nicolle)

Triple-stacks can often feel phoned in or show clear signs of desperation, but this puzzle has two of 'em and all six entries are assets: THAT WAS YOUR PLAN/HATERS GONNA HATE/I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT and UNICORN OF THE SEA/POKEMON TRAINERS/SMALL BUSINESSES. A really rare feat, and the best triple-stack themeless I can recall solving in a long time. I also like the bonus tie-in of FIFTEENS, clued as [There are six in this puzzle].

themeless 20: difficult woman (Malaika Handa and Brooke Husic)

A very aesthetically pleasing grid shape of the sort that Malaika's used before. The nice thing about this pattern is that it flows well and yet is segmented enough that the stacks of 8s in the corners aren't too constrained by the rest of the grid, allowing for fun stuff like DEEP CUTS/AMBROSIA/BIBIMBAP and POLKA DOT/SHEEPISH/PHONE SEX. I also love the quasi-linked clues [Standing question] for IS THIS SEAT TAKEN and [Clarifying statement?] for COMPUTER ENHANCE. And it's nice to see Malaika and Brooke's combined cluing voice, including details like [How both of us bought Avril Lavigne's "Let Go" (2003)] for ON CD.

Power Grid (Ross Trudeau)

Ross often uses intersecting theme answers, but they usually aren't this intersecting. Of course, the theme concept (in which terms for superpowers are arranged in a grid) requires it, but the actual implementation here is quite a feat, with an extremely intricate interlock. And of course, though the title is perfect by itself so the puzzle doesn't really need a revealer, there's also a perfect revealer in NETWORKING ABILITIES.

Remedial Chaos Theory (Paolo Pasco)

Paolo hinted that he was going to do something special for puzzle #100 on his blog, and boy, did he deliver. The premise is that he wrote six puzzles and rolled a die to decide which one to post, but in fact what he's given us is a suite of six metapuzzles that lead the solver to a further set of puzzles that tie together with the six meta answers to generate the final answer. Inspired by the classic Community episode "Remedial Chaos Theory," the puzzles weave together various topics related to multiverses, combinatorics, etc. This is not to be missed; it's one of the most enjoyable and rewarding puzzle-solving experiences I've had in ages.

State of Limbo Vibes (Lyle Broughton)

A tried-and-true stagger-stack themeless, anchored by the very fun trio of ROCKET SURGERY/LIMINAL SPACES/DAMAGE CONTROL. But what I really love about this puzzle is a trio of great clues in the corners [They'll keep you up at night?] for TOP BUNKS, [Guide that's about a few pages?] for SITE MAP, and the very subtle [One following an urgent demand, maybe] for TYPO (think "!!!!!1!"). What I love about the TYPO clue in particular is that Lyle avoided the low-hanging fruit of cluing it as something like [Toys for Tots, maybe] - nothing wrong with that approach, but I appreciate the creativity of doing something completely different.

Five by Five #9 (Quiara Vasquez)

September 18 was a good day for crosswords, it seems! My last pick from the day is rather unassuming, at only 5x5, but Quiara manages to make even her 5x5 grids sparkle with personality. This one achieves the rare feat of making me happy to see a five-letter Roman numeral in the grid, because it has a mini-theme with the clue [411] for DEETS followed immediately by [412] for CDXII. Bonus points for cluing ALEXA as a real person instead of a virtual assistant.

Monday, September 19, 2022

Puzzle #186: Throwing Spanners in the Works

Solution to last week's meta below, but first, today's puzzle (pdf, puz, pdf solution), for which it might help you to know that a spanner, in crossword lingo, is an entry that's long enough to span the whole grid.


The instructions for last week's meta told you that the Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant and needed to find its way home via a series of wormholes, with the exit points of the wormholes spelling out the location of some worm holes. Here's the grid:


Starting with VOYAGER, you can make a right turn to travel down the word REAR. But then you're blocked by a black square. Fortunately, the clue for REAR, [Butt], applies just as well to the phrase REAR END, so instead of stopping at the R you can take a wormhole across the grid to continue with END. Then you can make another turn to travel through DISASTER, and take another wormhole across the grid to spell out DISASTER AREA, which also fits the clue, [Scene of chaos]. The pattern continues with ACID RAIN ([Low-pH substance]), NATURE TRAIL ([Place for an outdoorsy type]), and finally LETTER HOME ([Dispatch from camp, say]). The exit points of the five wormholes spell out EARTH, which is the location of some worm holes and, appropriately, is the home to which Voyager has returned.

Monday, September 12, 2022

Puzzle #185: The Long Voyage Home (meta)

The Voyager is stranded in the Delta Quadrant! But with the help of a series of conveniently placed wormholes, it will be able to make its way home. The exit points of the wormholes will spell out the location of some worm holes.

Answer will be up next week. As always, feel free to email me with your solution or if you want a nudge. Thanks to Frisco for the test-solve!

(pdf, puz, pdf solution)

Monday, September 5, 2022

Puzzle #184: The Real Revealer Was the Friends We Made Along the Way

Today's puzzle (pdf, puz, pdf solution) doesn't have a revealer, but after all, isn't the real revealer the friends we made along the way? And remember, you can't spell "friends" without "ends."
 

Thursday, September 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: August 2022

August 10: Bridge Over Troubled Water (Dob Olino, Crossweird Independent Puzzles)

August 10: Candid Camera (Max Carpenter, 99 Movie Crosswords)

August 16: an ode to blahaj (themeless) (Ada Nicolle, luckystreak xwords+)

August 23: fight! win! (carter, Crosshare)

August 25: Time for Dessert (Victor Barocas, Crucinova)

August 27: Happy New Year! (Ella Dershowitz, Lollapuzzoola)

August 27: The Five Boroughs (Kate Chin Park, Kelsey Dixon, Shannon Rapp, Carly Schuna, and Sid Sivakumar, Lollapuzzoola)

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Bridge Over Troubled Water (Dob Olino)

A delightfully original theme: the theme entries are all bridges (ROYAL GORGE, GOLDEN GATE, BROOKLYN, and MACKINAC) that are placed directly over words for bodies of water that have to be anagrammed before being placed in the grid (OCEAN becomes CANOE, LAKE becomes LEAK, MOAT becomes ATOM, and STRAIT becomes ARTIST). It's quite elegant that all the bodies of water anagram to everyday words, too. Despite the originality of the theme, it's still a breezy solve, which is helped by the fact that the title hints at the theme very straightforwardly. A good example of how relatively complex and architecturally tricky themes don't have to be tricky solves!

Candid Camera (Max Carpenter)

This puzzle from A24's new crossword book is inspired by CINEMA/VERITE and the idea of the documentary filmmaker as a FLY ON THE/WALL. The grid literally has a fly on the wall, with JEFF/GOLDBLUM spanning the leftmost column. I'm amused by the imagery it conjures up of The Fly as a cinema verite documentary, and I love the simple elegance of the theme; it's a lovely coincidence that JEFF GOLDBLUM and FLY ON THE WALL can be split up symmetrically. Max is a hardcore cinephile and professional film person, so the clues are also packed with references to filmmakers like Alexander Dovzhenko, Raul Ruiz, and Les Blank, much to my delight.

an ode to blahaj (themeless) (Ada Nicolle)

A lovely grid packed with criss-crossing long entries, all of which are assets: YOU WOULDN'T GET IT, CONSCIOUS RAP, CRYSTAL PEPSI, HELL NO WE WON'T GO, NOSEBLEED SEATS, K-POP STANS, BUTTDIALS, SILK SONIC, etc. Of course, there's still some creative short fill, including Y'ALL'S and AND I clued as [Words famously belted by Whitney Houston]. With respect to the latter, I appreciate the self-reflexive clue for ERRS: [___ on the side of "green paint" (follows my seed entry philosophy)].

fight! win! (carter)

A fantastic 11x11 anchored by a pair of stacks that are about as good as it gets with a grid of this size: BOSS BATTLES/E.T. PHONE HOME/STRUGGLEBUS and ADA LOVELACE/VINE-RIPENED/ADDRESS BARS, linked by the vertical ANGELA DAVIS running down the center. And all the crossing words are pristinely clean!

Time for Dessert (Victor Barocas)

A simple yet conceptually elegant puzzle which must have been extremely challenging to construct. It's a crossword whose completed grid doubles as a word search: once you finish the grid, you're taken to a word search that hides sixteen desserts, as hinted at by the entry SWEET SIXTEEN in the crossword. In other words, there are an astonishing sixteen entire words' worth of letters that are triple-checked in a 17x17 grid. A very impressive puzzle that takes great advantage of the freedom that Crucinova and the PuzzleMe platform allow.

Happy New Year! (Ella Dershowitz)

Ella's puzzle for Lolla was based on the Times Square BALL DROP, with four Across entries in the grid containing the string "ball" that drops vertically to become part of a Down entry. ABSENTEE BALLOT becomes ABSENTEE BOT with the "ball" in RUM BALL, and similarly with THE BALLAD OF SWEENEY TODD and CRYSTAL BALL, BALLET FLATS and DRYER BALL, and HANNIBAL LECTER and POKE BALL. This sort of theme is tough to pull of because of the intersecting theme entries, but Ella does it with aplomb and still manages to squeeze in lots of fun long fill, including SOFT-BLOCKED, STAYCATION, TRUST NO ONE, and HANDS-FREE.

The Five Boroughs (Kate Chin Park, Kelsey Dixon, Shannon Rapp, Carly Schuna, and Sid Sivakumar)

An absolutely stunning demonstration of the grid-art capabilities of the PuzzleMe platform, courtesy of Sid, who has created a grid divided into five sections representing NYC's boroughs, separated by rivers and connected by bridges. The five constructors each filled one of the boroughs to create a meta suite; when you've solved the puzzle, you'll find that the 11 bridges are each flanked by a pair of identical letters, and those letters spell out the meta answer, CONNECTIONS. A simple but elegant meta, and a beautiful aesthetic experience.

Monday, August 15, 2022

Puzzle #183: Ghost Forest (with Brooke Husic)

This week I've got a collab with my frequent partner-in-crime, Brooke Husic (pdf, puz, pdf solution). Keep an eye out later this week for an even bigger puzzle with our byline! And if you want to solve more puzzles by me and Brooke but not ones that we made together, you should come to Lollapuzzoola on the 27th.

Monday, August 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: July 2022

July 8: We Back (Themeless) (Ricky Cruz, Cruzzles)

July 17: focus on the details (themeless) (Ada Nicolle, luckystreak xwords)

July 19: Come Together (Emet Ozar, Crosswords Club)

July 19: invisible string (Lila Goldenberg and Rose Sloan, Crafty Crosswords)

July 25: Color Code (Alina Abidi, Lil AVC X)

July 26: You Complete Me (Jack Murtagh, Lil AVC X)

July 27: Turtle Island (Dob Olino and Kate Chin Park, crosswords schmosswords)

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We Back (Themeless) (Ricky Cruz)

Since he posts so infrequently these days, every Ricky Cruz puzzle is a special treat, packed with both creative fill (CHRONONAUT, FALL DAMAGE, WHAAM) and ingenious clues ([Harmonic motion] for CHECKMATE, [Made a top ten hit???] for HIGH-FIVED, [Comes down with something during a cold season?] for SLEDS, [Poetic units making up this clue] for IAMBI, [Maestro's area] for ESCUELA). In this puzzle, I particularly like the evocative conversational clues for common words, including ["We are buying this"] for NEED and [Correction to a statement that no longer holds true] for WAS.

focus on the details (themeless) (Ada Nicolle)

In the notes for this puzzle, Ada says that she's practicing her hard-puzzle skills, and indeed this is a style of wide-open grid with chunky corners that I'm not used to seeing from Ada. With the assistance of some asymmetry, though, she pulls it off with aplomb. The NW corner is the wild stack of BROWNIES/TOY POODLE/UNDERTALE/BEER MILER/STRAINERS. Elsewhere, there's the creative fill that I expect from Ada, including PHOTO SET, San FRANSOKYO, and LMK.  

Come Together (Emet Ozar)

I was idly thinking the other day that MAKE ENDS MEET would be a good revealer, but I couldn't think of a good way of implementing it. Then came along this puzzle, which cleverly uses diagonal symmetry to create four pairs of entries where the words ENDS meet at the end: THE BENDS/BARTENDS, PAY DIVIDENDS/FALSE FRIENDS, URBAN LEGENDS/MARKET TRENDS, and MAKE ENDS MEET/LONG WEEKENDS. In the last pair, they don't actually meet at the end, because otherwise the revealer would work, but this only makes the construction more impressive, since it requires two pairs of long overlapping entries in the SE corner. Both clever and architecturally intricate.

invisible string (Lila Goldenberg and Rose Sloan)

A lovely little 11x11 puzzle with a very entertaining cluing voice. Indie puzzles with long clues can sometimes drag over the span of a 15x15 solve, but this one's just the right size to be perfectly enjoyable. Clue highlights: [Create a cool hacking device that disables passcodes and laser grids, e.g.] for ABET, [Accessory that might be placed on an ear to denote a female teddy bear and a neck to denote a male teddy bear, because apparently even teddy bears are subject to the gender binary] for BOW, [It goes up to 11, in what is widely considered to be the worst "Star Trek" episode] for WARP SPEED, [What, according to the NYT, keeps a watch on you, proving them to be pocket watch haters] for STRAP, and many more. I also really enjoyed seeing RAVELRY and VEVO in the fill.

Color Code (Alina Abidi)

This is about the Platonic ideal of a themed midi, for me. It's got an original, tightly executed theme, plus great fill and cluing throughout. As the title hints at, the theme answers are phrases that are a programming language plus a color, with the clues being the syntax for how you'd print that color in the language. For example, RUBY RED is clued as [print "Sweet grapefruit variety";]. Aesthetically, I love the fact that all the theme entries (the others are GO GREEN and BASIC BLACK) are alliterative. The use of an asymmetrical grid allows Alina to maximize the amount of colorful fill, which includes BOUNCY BALL, CARBOLOADED, STYLE ICONS, and BAD KNEE.

You Complete Me (Jack Murtagh)

Lil AVC X is on a roll! This puzzle is only available as a PDF, which tends to annoy me as someone who doesn't currently have a printer hooked up. But on the other hand, PDF-only puzzles often have gimmicks that make it worthwhile, and this one is a prime example. The crossword resembles a JIGSAW/PUZZLE; various chunks have been removed from the rectangular grid and are clued separately as miniature puzzles. For example, the NW corner starts with ENDASH and NOODLE stacked on each other, but the END and second O have been removed, forming a mini-puzzle consisting of the words END and NO crossed. Finally, a big chunk has been removed from the middle of the grid, but is not clued separately - that chunk, aptly, consists of the words MISSING/PIECE. A beautifully creative use of the medium.

Turtle Island (Dob Olino and Kate Chin Park)

A lovely puzzle that includes the names of a couple dozen indigenous groups from North America in geographically appropriate locations within a grid shaped like North America. Both an architectural feat and a very thoughtful puzzle, particularly when it comes to the theme clues, which are varied, respectful, and interesting. This puzzle also includes the best-ever clue for UTERI: [Get ova here!].

Puzzle #182: Biased Opinion

Back to diagonal symmetry with this week's puzzle (pdf, puz, pdf solution). Happy solving!

Monday, July 25, 2022

Puzzle #181: You Are Here

Back with a new puzzle (pdf, puz, pdf solution) that is quasi-themed? Quasi-themeless? Not sure, but the important thing is that it has exactly 69 words.

Monday, July 18, 2022

Puzzle #180: Clashing Colors

It's been a few weeks since my last puzzle, so here's a new one (pdf, jpz, pdf solution)! No .puz file this time, so there's a .jpz instead (and the PDFs are less pretty because I couldn't use Nam Jin Yoon's beautiful PDF generator).

Friday, July 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: June 2022

June 2: THE MINION PUZZLE (meatdaddy69420, crosstina aquafina, and kate schmate, crosstina aquafina)

June 4: Colorado (Patrick Blindauer, Vox)

June 5: An Escalating Challenge (Ryan Patrick Smith, Real Puzzling Stuff)

June 17: Chasm No 12 (Themeless) (Ryan McCarty, McGrids)

June 27: themeless xxiii ("summer breeze #2") (Brooke Husic, xwords by a ladee)

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THE MINION PUZZLE (meatdaddy69420, crosstina aquafina, and kate schmate)

I, a 32-year-old man, unironically love the Minions, so a puzzle shaped like a Minion is a shoo-in for my writeups. But this puzzle happens to be very entertaining to boot, as you'd expect when it's created by a Triforce consisting of three of crossworld's most chaotic and funniest clue-writers. I can't even quote some of the clues here because the formatting is too zany (check out the clues for WALLS OF TEXT and ATE, for two examples).

Colorado (Patrick Blindauer)

It's not often that you come across a totally original theme that's nonetheless simple and elegant, but this is such a theme. As the title hints, you have to color the letters A, D, and O when they appear in the grid, and if you do so, you'll get a rectangle in the shape of the state of Colorado. Naturally, this involves two grid spanners that consist entirely of those letters - the Rolling Stones song DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO and DAD DAD DAD DAD DAD, clued as [Repetitive cry to a male parent]. That latter one might be faintly ridiculous, but of course it's needed to make the theme work, and as a dad myself, it's a cry I've heard many a time.

The really impressive thing about this puzzle is that by necessity it avoids A, D, and O in the rest of the grid. It's hard to enough to avoid a single vowel outside of the theme entries, so avoiding two vowels must have been exceptionally difficult.

An Escalating Challenge (Ryan Patrick Smith)

An auspicious start to Ryan's new blog! This one's got a wide-open grid, the kind of grid where there's nowhere for the constructor to hide, and yet it's both extremely smooth and packed with good stuff. I like the stack of CAPTCHA/SAMESIES/GURU NANAK intersecting CINEPHILE, but there's interesting stuff in every section, even the little 5x5 corners (SAHEL, T-POSE). It might be the stair-stacks of 6s that are hardest to pull off - it's easy to rely heavily on suffixes like -S and -ED when making those, and much harder to work in more varied fill like MEDLEY, FIDDLY, and HOT TIP.

Chasm No 12 (Themeless) (Ryan McCarty)

Another classic wide-open center from Ryan, with colorful stuff like ZAZIE BEETZ, LOCAVORE, CHATBOTS, FANFESTS, and TINDER DATE. Though Ryan's chasm grids are always impressive, the cluing in this one is equally impressive: [Word often seen before art in old manuscripts] is a clever way of cluing THOU, and I also love [Cannes cans] for DERRIERES, [Where you may meet your match?] for TINDER DATE, [Crypt keeper?] for URN, and [Takes a lighter course load?] for DIETS.

themeless xxiii ("summer breeze #2") (Brooke Husic)

For the summer, Brooke is taking a vacation from experimental clues, so we get a relatively breezy themeless this month. But her easy puzzles show just as care as her ultra-hard ones. There's very little wasted space here, with lots of great long entries like BEYCHELLA, IS IT THOUGH, FLAMING COCKTAIL, PARASOCIAL, ARE WE CLEAR, NOTES APP, and WHO IS SHE. And even though there are few super hard clues, there are plenty of excellent clues, including [Vibrator in bed, maybe] for PHONE ALARM and [Phrase that's legally concerning?] for IN RE.

Monday, June 27, 2022

Puzzle #179: Bearing the Cross

(pdf, puz, pdf solution)

One night I dreamed that I was walking along the beach with God, and scenes from my crossword-solving life flashed across the sky. For each square, there were two clues to help me: one Across clue, and one Down clue.

But looking back at the scenes, I noticed that sometimes, during the most difficult parts of my solves, there was only one clue. I asked God, "Why, during the most obscure and polysyllabic words, did you abandon me?" He replied "When you saw only one clue, it was then that I carried you."


Monday, June 20, 2022

Puzzle #178: Break It Up

Gilbert Sorrentino's metafictional masterpiece, Mulligan Stew, includes the following blurb for a fictional book called Harewell M. Dovely by James Patton:

"Historians have traced the crossword puzzle back to the time of the Pharaohs, but never has this most fascinating time-passer been examined so lovingly as in this exhaustive critical biography of the world's greatest puzzle champion and analyst, Harewell M. Dovely. Mr. Patton, who describes himself as 'a great fan but only a duffer,' has, in this mesmerizing life of the nonpareil word genius, deftly incorporated irrestisible historical anecdote into the story of Dovely's career. You will read:

  • how Marie Antoinette worked a crossword puzzle in the tumbril that carried her to her death
  • how Pablo Picasso hit upon the idea for Cubism while doing a crossword puzzle in the Revue des Deux Mondes
  • why The New York Times was responsible for cutting short the brilliant career of Clint Hartung
  • what role the crossword puzzle played at Gettysburgh
And there are literally hundreds of other unknown anecdotes, many of them unearthed from Dovely's journals and notebooks, to which Mr. Patton had complete access.

Included is an appendix which reproduces the dozen greatest puzzles of all time (with their solutions): from the diagramless 'killer' that Socrates worried in his prison cell to the little stumper from Boys' Life that soothed President Hoover just after the Great Crash of '29."

Your intrepid constructor has laboriously tracked down and translated the crossword that inspired Picasso's unprecedented technique of breaking objects up into parts and presenting them from different angles (pdf, puz, pdf solution). In this puzzle, 14 entries are too long for their slots and have to be split into two parts, the second of which will be found elsewhere in the grid. In each case, both parts will be valid crossword entries: for example, CONESTOGA might be split into CONES and TOGA. The first letters of those 14 entries, in grid order, will spell out a phrase that would be a good title for this puzzle (if it wasn't already taken).

Monday, June 6, 2022

Puzzle #177: Verse Jumping

Today's puzzle is inspired by Everything Everywhere All at Once, a movie that I didn't particularly like (*ducks to avoid being pelted by fruit*) but which provides excellent crossword fodder. In the movie, the smallest decision can end up completely altering the trajectory of the universe, and that's just what happens in this puzzle. Depending on the choices you make at the beginning, you'll be presented with one of four different crosswords, each inspired by a different universe from the movie. (You don't have to have seen the movie to enjoy the puzzles, I think, though if you haven't the themes will probably seem bizarrely random.)

No puz, pdf, or embedded solve this time, but thanks to the wizardry of Alex Boisvert, you can give it a solve over at https://crosswordnexus.com/puzzles/verse-jumping/. And speaking of Alex, he's raising money for pediatric cancer research, and has written five custom crosswords that he'll give to anyone who donates here. Check it out!

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: May 2022

May 2: l.o.r.d. far quads (themeless) (ada nicolle, luckystreak xwords)

May 9: Crossword.puz (May Huang, Lil AVC X)

May 19: Four Square (Joe Deeney, Crucinova)

May 22: Hit the Low Notes (Jessie Bullock and Ross Trudeau, Rossword Puzzles)

May 22: Stereo (Ben Tolkin, Nautilus Puzzles)

May 24: The Terminal Puzzle (Malaika Handa, Vulture)

May 26: spring kiss (zinna mon, zinna mon)

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l.o.r.d. far quads (Ada Nicolle)

The problem with Ada is that not only is she ridiculously prolific, her puzzles are also consistently good, so it's hard to know which ones to highlight. But she made it easy for me specifically this month, since I love a puzzle that's entirely based on an extremely silly pun title. As the title indicates, the unusually tall grid features quad stacks that are very far away from each other, each of which starts with L, O, R, and D: LAB ANIMAL, OTAMATONE, ROBINSONS, and DIAGNOSES at the top, and LEFT SHARK, OPERA ARIA, RESILIENT, and DESPERADO. On their own merits, they're certainly not the most exciting stacks that Ada's ever put together, but in the context of the title, they delight me.

Crossword.puz (May Huang)

It'll be interesting to see how Lil AVC X develops over time. The midi format can be constraining; the 9x9s I write for Vox usually have mini-themes, but rarely have anything similar to a theme you'd find in a 15x15, just because of their size. But Lil AVC X doesn't have such a specific size constraint, which allows for a lot of variety: purely themeless midis, puzzles with mini-themes, and puzzles with more ambitious themes. I always appreciate when a constructor can fit something like a standard theme into a midi grid, and May does just that here. The theme entries are phrases that have been truncated so they look like file names: CHESS.MOV clued as [File description: "Sicilian Defense tutorial clip"], WEDDING.GIF clued as [File description: "Dancing down the aisle meme"], and TIDAL.WAV clued as [File description: "Soothing ocean sounds"].

Four Square (Joe Deeney)

This is the second Tetris-related puzzle featured on Crucinova, but it doesn't feel like a retread of the first. The gimmick here is that all the possible TETROMINO shapes are found in the grid, spelled out using the letters used to describe those shapes. For example, the T-shaped tetromino is spelled out with the T's from PITT THE YOUNGER crossing HUTT. The fact that this theme is even possible is somewhat of a wild coincidence, since most letters aren't amenable to doubling or tripling. I like that Joe had to reach for some rarely seen entries, including J. J. JOHNSON and I'M HENRY VIII I AM, to pull off the theme.

Hit the Low Notes (Jessie Bullock and Ross Trudeau)

I've often praised Ross's mind for perfect theme revealers, so it's notable that, according to Ross's notes accompanying this puzzle, it was Jessie who hit upon the revealer for this puzzle: BASS SAX, which homophonically indicates that each theme entry has a homophone for "sax" at its base (PAPER SACKS, GOLDMAN SACHS, AMNIOTIC SACS, ANDREW SAKS). That revealer elevates what would otherwise be a pretty standard theme - though it's also nice that "sax" is a word that you wouldn't expect to have four distinct homophones that can all be incorporated into crossworthy entries.

Stereo (Ben Tolkin)

I'm a sucker for puzzles where the revealer is itself a theme entry. I actually once submitted a puzzle with this theme concept to the NYT, and I think it got lost in the mail, but it's all for the best, because Ben's execution here is much better than mine was. The theme is SURROUND SOUND, and all the theme entries, including the revealer, are surrounded by the letters SOUND - SOUVENIR STAND, SOLID GROUND, and SOUTH ISLAND. Most constructors would be satisfied with that, but Ben puts the puzzle itself in surround sound by including the letters AMP in all four corners (in the entries AMPS, CHAMP, AMPLE, and DAMP). That's the kind of extra-mile concept that I really appreciate.

The Terminal Puzzle (Malaika Handa)

This is my first time highlighting the relatively new Vulture puzzle, but they're consistently enjoyable. They're themeless or lightly themed 10x10s, packed with pop culture content; what sets them apart from most similar venues is the editors' encouragement of opinionated clues. Malaika also sometimes goes for ambitious grid patterns, which tend to be the ones that stand out to me. I love the delicious bottom stack in this one (COCONUT OIL, ORANGE SEED, MANGO LASSI), and the top stack is quite nice too (LINED PAPER, CHE GUEVARA, DEWGARITAS).

spring kiss (zinna mon)

This puzzle is really a complete aesthetic experience, a breath of fresh air in every respect. In PuzzleMe, the grid is decked out in calming pastel colors and the black squares are depicted as flowers and branches, plus a little sun at the top. And the clues are just generally full of soothing good vibes: [flower with floppy bunny ear petals] for IRIS, [a time for peach blossom decor in hanoi] for TET, ["if you ever need a shoulder to cry on, ___"] for I'M HERE, [___ hour (when the sun blesses selfies)] for GOLDEN, and [simple act of charity in islam] for SMILE are some examples.

Monday, May 16, 2022

Puzzle #176: Freestyle 17

It's been a little while since I've posted a classic themeless, so here's one (pdf, puz, pdf solution) - happy solving!


Monday, May 9, 2022

Puzzle #175: Early March

With this week's puzzle, I've gone to the dark side and constructed an asymmetrical themed puzzle (pdf, puz, pdf solution). Which is weird, because it's a totally basic theme with hundreds of possible theme entries, which doesn't seem like a good reason to break symmetry at all...

In other news, this Wednesday I'll be hosting a variety cryptic Twitch stream with Letters to Margaret author Hayley Gold and some special guests - tune into https://www.twitch.tv/bewilderingly at 9:00 PM Eastern! If you want to print the cryptic out to solve yourself, there's a pdf here.

Monday, May 2, 2022

Puzzle #174: I Get Knocked Down, But I Get Up Again

No .puz or applet for this week's puzzle (pdf, jpz, pdf solution), but there's a PDF as usual, plus a .jpz, which you can solve online using the Crossword Nexus solver. Happy solving!

There are two themelesses published last week that I'm really proud of: the Wednesday New Yorker and the AVCX+. If you haven't solved them, I'd love if you checked them out.

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: April 2022

April 1: "April Fools!" (Et Tu, Etui?, AVCX+)

April 14: Wet Ass Puzzle (Malaika Handa, AVCX+)

April 14: themeless no. 13 (crosstina aquafina, crosstina aquafina)

April 15: Rosanna (Alex Boisvert and Quiara Vasquez, Crossword Nexus)

April 28: to whom tf it may concern (kate chin park, crosswords schmosswords)

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"April Fools!" (Et Tu, Etui?)

I didn't realize how much I missed Et Tu's work until I solved this April Fools' Day puzzle that's like a vowelless crossword on steroids. Every answer is stripped of all of its letters except E, T, U, and I, which allows for a ludicrously wide-open grid. More importantly, like a vowelless crossword but even more so, it allows for a crossword where practically all the fill is fun long stuff, with nary a bit of crosswordese in sight: IS MAYONNAISE AN INSTRUMENT, IT'S MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK, CURSE YOU PERRY THE PLATYPUS, NEED SOME ICE FOR THAT BURN, NO ONE OUTPIZZAS THE HUT, WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY, UNLIMITED TALK AND TEXT, and so much more. A delightful from start to finish, especially because of Et Tu's inimitable cluing style. Plus, the whole thing doubles as a loss meme.

Wet Ass Puzzle (Malaika Handa)

It's not easy to make a triple-stack where all three 15s are seed-worthy, but Malaika does just that with REAL HOT GIRL SHIT/MALE ENHANCEMENT/AND MAKE IT SNAPPY. But even if you do, the pressures of the central stack can radiate outward through the grid, leaving little room for other goodness. Admirably, Malaika manages to create a grid pattern that's both aesthetically pleasing and not focused merely on the triple-stack - it also features a pair of stacks of 10s, including fun entries like WHALE RIDER and I DON'T WANNA.

themeless no. 13 (crosstina aquafina)

The key to humor is specificity, and this puzzle demonstrates that in spades. I mean, there are a million ways to clue ESSAY, but who else would come up with [at 8ft 2in tall, with traits of an apex predator (eyes on the front of his head, e.g.) and "the mind of a 6 year-old" we frankly do not know what big bird is capable of. in this ___ i will]? Or [drawn out cries of grief, or anger, or both if you're the ghost that came with my c. 1886 apartment] for WAILS? Or [lit. fiction conceits that boldly ask "what if batman and catwoman had actually met at a starbucks?" or "suppose [redacted memphis grizzlies center] and crosstina were secret agents who accidentally fell in love"] for AUS? This puzzle is just a rollicking good time.

Rosanna (Alex Boisvert and Quiara Vasquez)

This is the final entry in Alex's Yacht Rock series, featuring one puzzle inspired by each of the 12 episodes in the Yacht Rock series on YouTube. The series as a whole is an excellent illustration of the benefits of working under constraints; Alex shows that pretty much any phrase can be the inspiration for an entertaining theme. This one, a collaboration with Quiara Vasquez, has the revealer GHOST NOTES, clued as [Feature of Jeff Porcaro's "Rosanna Shuffle", and also of this puzzle]. Each of the theme entries contains the names of two solfege notes that, when removed, produce another word or phrase: FREELANCER becomes FENCER, TENDONITIS becomes TENNIS, SKI RESORTS becomes SKIRTS, and - my personal favorite find - DOLORES DEL RIO becomes LOS DEL RIO. I appreciate that Alex and Quiara went the extra mile by using pairs of notes, when a more basic version of the theme would have worked just as well.

to whom tf it may concern (Kate Chin Park)

Kate's blog post describes this puzzle as having been written in a fugue state, which makes sense; it has a totally chaotic energy, with several things that would probably annoy me in a vacuum but which work in the context of many more delightfully zany things. A pun clue with 13 question marks, a bunch of wildly specific and long clues, some crassword clues ([Cumming on stage and screen] for ALAN), plus, of course, some straight-up genius wordplay clues ([Touch the heart] for PRESS LIKE and [Periodic backups?] for LINERS). As always, I appreciate Kate's angry political consciousness, exemplified in clues like [Legal theft by landlords] for RENT MONEY.

Monday, April 18, 2022

Puzzle #173: Let's Get Physical (variety cryptic)

In a change of pace, this week's puzzle is a variety cryptic (pdf, ipuz, pdf solution)! Instead of a .puz, there's an .ipuz, which can be opened on sites like the Crossword Nexus solver and squares.io.

Don't be intimated by the complicated-looking instructions - I've tried to make this an accessible solve for people who are new to variety cryptics. Most clues use only one wordplay mechanism, and for theme-related reasons almost all of the entries are fully-checked. Plus, unlike in most variety cryptics, all the answers are entered in the grid normally, with no manipulation necessary until after you're done solving.

Thanks to Will Heisenberg - I mean Eisenberg - for giving this a test-solve.

Instructions:

Tired of the proliferation of "Schrödinger puzzles" when "Heisenberg puzzles" are nowhere to be found, a mad scientist who subscribes to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics has cursed this puzzle so that its clues and answers exist in a state of superposition until it is observed. When you opened this file, you collapsed that superposition into one of two possible states. Eleven squares are affected, but luckily, the clues to the eleven affected entries have also changed correspondingly, so the answers to all the clues can still be entered normally.

There's no way to directly observe the other possible state of the grid, but armed with the knowledge that every entry is a regular, uncapitalized English word or phrase, you should be able to figure it out. If you do so, you'll reveal the name of the culprit.


Monday, April 4, 2022

Puzzle #171: Liquidation (with meatdaddy)

This week's puzzle is a collab with fellow linguistics person meatdaddy (pdf, puz, pdf solution)! Predictably, it's got a linguistics-inspired theme. I had a blast writing some meatdaddy-style clues for this one.


Friday, April 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: March 2022

March 3: Making Headlines (Patrick Berry, A-Frame Games)

March 4: Real Firecracker (Ryan McCarty and Brooke Husic, AVCX+)

March 7: Mother Tongues (meatdaddy69420 and crosstina aquafina, The Deli Counter)

March 14: guess who's back! (themeless) (Ada Nicolle, luckystreak xwords)

March 16: explosion (Kate Chin Park and John Lieb, crosswords schmosswords)

March 30: Tabula Rasa (meatdaddy69420 and friends, The Deli Counter)

March 30: In Memoriam (Ann Shan and Brooke Husic, Washington Post)

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Making Headlines (Patrick Berry)

It's a Patrick Berry meta suite, so there are a number of beautifully constructed puzzles I could have chosen, but I'm sticking with one. Each theme answer in this puzzle is a phrase whose initials spell out a word: WHO AM I TO SAY (WAITS), HAVE A NICE DAY (HAND), BREAKS INTO A SMILE (BIAS), CAME OUT ON TOP (COOT), and PIE IN THE SKY (PITS). As it happens, all those words also appear in the grid, and taking the initials of their clues, in order, gives you the meta answer, CLASS PHOTOS. A really simple but elegant concept, and Patrick fits five long theme entries plus five extra words in the grid without breaking a sweat. (Not only that, the suite contains a meta-meta that involves material from all the previous puzzles, so in fact there's even more thematic material in the grid, but you wouldn't know it from how clean the fill is.)

Real Firecracker (Ryan McCarty and Brooke Husic)

A stunner of a grid with a layout that you rarely see, featuring intersecting triple-stacks of 11s enabled by diagonal symmetry: SWISS FRANCS/CRACKLEWARE/AIN'T I WOMAN crosses NAMING NAMES/CRAZY IN LOVE/SENATE AIDES. As you'd expect from the byline, the grid is packet with excellent fill (ZITKALA-SA, ALT TEXT, EXTRA LIFE) and clues ([Shifts out of neutral?] for TAKES SIDES, [Come again?] for RECUR), and covers a lot of different cultural ground.

Mother Tongues (meatdaddy69420 and crosstina aquafina)

As an indie constructor, I'm always happy when I can come up with a fun, irreverent angle for a common fill entry. Then I solve a puzzle like this one that has a fun, irreverent angle for pretty much every entry: [oh, you spent $600 on a camera? should we call everyone? should we have a party? should we invite bella hadid?] for SLR, [___ flings, tide pod competitors for a more discerning palate...soapy forward, but i detect a 'moonlight breeze' undertone] for GAIN, ["no cops at our ___" *sponsored by wells fargo*] for PRIDE PARADE... I could go on, but I won't, because I'm too lazy to quote literally every clue in the puzzle. Oh and some of the answers are in Furbish, I guess that's an important detail, though I solved it without understanding them at all and still had a great time.

guess who's back! (themeless) (Ada Nicolle)

An oversized and slightly asymmetrical grid, all to enable a fantastic triple-stack in the center. ["Guess who's back, baby!"] for PEEKABOO I SEE YOU is one of the best clue-answer pairings I've seen in ages, and the stack is rounded out by ONCE-LER ASK BLOGS (I'll have to take Ada's word for it that those are a thing, but I'm delighted by the entry anyway) and TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT. As usual with Ada's puzzles, there's lots of ultra-fresh internet stuff in the shorter fill, including IAMAGIF SET and SMP (clued as Dream SMP, the Minecraft server), plus plenty of fun long stuff, including KEEBLER ELVES, REWARDS CARD, and MIITOPIA.

explosion (Kate Chin Park and John Lieb)

It's a testament to the quality of the grid that I genuinely have no idea what the seeds were or even how many there were: the long answers are JUDGY PANTS, SUNDAY SCARIES, I HAVE RECEIPTS, AND I MEAN IT, FAN THEORIES, BIORE STRIP, NAOMI OSAKA, and BLANK STARES, pretty much all of which are potential candidates (and the mid-length entries EA SPORTS and LOVE TAPS are fun, too). The grid pattern is chosen to maximize the impact of those long entries; there are nine separate sections consisting largely of 4s and 5s, allowing for flexibility in the short fill that lets the long fill shine.

Tabula Rasa (meatdaddy69420 and friends)

A project the likes of which I've never seen before: meatdaddy made a grid and send it to a bunch of their friends to write clues for as a way of showcasing the variety of cluing voices out there. Many of the aforementioned friends are among the best cluers now working, and the grid lends itself to fun cluing with entries like TINDER DATE, LOVE LETTER, FACE REVEAL, CROSSPOSTS, MICRODOSES, CRISS ANGEL, and UPDOG. I'm not going to run down the best clues here because, well, it's a treasure trove which you should just explore yourself.

In Memoriam (Ann Shan and Brooke Husic)

For Women's History Month, Patti Varol curated a set of puzzles for the Washington Post, one per Wednesday for the month of March. I particularly enjoyed this tribute to some women who we've recently lost: Lani Guinier (author of THE MINER'S CANARY), bell hooks (author of TALKING BACK), and Yolanda Lopez (artist of the GUADALUPE SERIES). There are only three theme entries (plus the bonus SARAH Weddington, allowing for the fill to really shine (LOVE THAT, BIG ASK, YES YOU, KUKUI NUT, and LABNEH were highlights). There are lots of other women featured in the fill and clues, too, including Margie JOSEPH, the ALOHA 'OE writer Lili'uokalani, and SNCC field secretary Fannie Lou Hamer.

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: February 2022

February 2: "It's-a Meal!" (Steve Mossberg and Mike Lieberman, Square Pursuit)

February 6: Graduation Exercises (Adesina O. Koiki, Boswords)

February 10: themeless 17: swoops (Mollie Cowger and Malaika Handa, girlbosswords)

February 13: happy valentine's day from crosstina aquafina (crosstina aquafina, crosstina aquafina)

February 15: hey, how about a nice hawaiian punch? (Christopher Adams, arctan(x)words)

February 27: themeless xix ("holes in the house") (Brooke Husic, xwords by a ladee)

February 27: Too Soon (Brooke Husic, Just Gridding)

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"It's-a Meal!" (Steve Mossberg and Mike Lieberman)

A delightfully specific, and perfectly titled, theme: phrases beginning "X of" have their first two words replaced with a soundalike food item ending in "-a" (DOSA REALITYTAPA THE NINTHPIZZA MY HEART, and CHALLAH FAME). Super fun theme and super fun fill to go along with it, including BOYZ II MENPLANKTONCLIP SHOW, and HAYSTACK.

Graduation Exercises (Adesina O. Koiki)

The trickiest themed puzzle from this year's Boswords Winter Wondersolve was this one, inspired the phrase "sliding scales." The theme entries contain types of scales which literally slide down the grid diagonally. For example, BATHROOM HUMOR has to be entered as B HUMOR, with with word BATHROOM sliding seven rows down from the B. Amazingly, there are five of those in a 19x15 grid, which is a remarkable feat of construction - all the letters in the scale words are used in three words, instead of just two.

themeless 17: swoops (Mollie Cowger and Malaika Handa)

As delightful as you'd expect from the byline. The title refers to the very aesthetically pleasing layout, with swooping trails of black squares that divide the grid into three chunks. The cluing really shines: [Place of honor for a sitting president] is a subtly clever clue for LINCOLN MEMORIAL, as is [Purchase made in anticipation of getting A's] for TRAINING BRA. I also adore the cute ["Hey you! Look over here, but be a little sneaky about it"] for PSST.

happy valentine's day from crosstina aquafina (crosstina aquafina)

Kelsey Dixon, aka crosstina aquafina, gives us a beautiful heart-shaped grid filled with Valentine's-adjacent entries. Crosstina is the funniest cluer in the game right now, bar none, managing to add verve to pretty much any clue. Just look at 1-Across: DRAG, clued as ["we're all born naked and the rest is ___" - ru paul, known fracker]. Other great clues include [email suffix that will get you a free premium membership to seekingarrangement.com, in case you were wondering] for EDU, [like a salt or battery?] for ALKALINE, [engaged in detail-oriented yardwork, there is no other possible definition for this, don't look at me like that] for EDGED, and many more. The fill also includes my favorite 100 gecs song, STUPID HORSE, which means automatic inclusion in my roundup.

hey, how about a nice hawaiian punch? (Christopher Adams)

I love a two-part theme, and this is a great one: inspired by the Elton John/Dua Lipa song COLD HEART/PNAU REMIX, it's got theme entries that (a) have C in the exact center and (b) have an anagram of PNAU hidden in them. We've got UNPACKING, PAUNCHIER, JUAN PONCE DE LEON, UP AND COMING, and SINGLE-OCCUPANCY. The 19x15 grid is very dense with theme, but Christopher manages to fit in plenty of good stuff, including MINT JULEP next to TOP SURGERY, and HEADCANON, for which Ricky Cruz provided the excellent clue [Take for oneself?].

themeless xix ("holes in the house") (Brooke Husic)

My favorite Brooke themeless in a while, mainly because of the sheer density of genius clues: we start out with a bang at 1-Across with [Bloody good time] for PERIOD SEX, and we also have [Third party, say] for BASE RUNNER, [Vaporware?] for E-CIGARETTE, [Conversation you can't stand to have] for PILLOW TALK, [Helpful inits. when you want to focus on a particular subject] for SLR, and [Guess not?] for ASK. The fill is also a delightful, starting with the NW stack of the aforementioned PERIOD SEX, LEMON JUICE, and DOMINATRIX, and also including FLOW STATE and TRIP SITTER.

Too Soon (Brooke Husic)

Is this the first roundup to feature two puzzles from the same constructor and the same date? Quite possibly, but there's no way I could cut either of these puzzles. This one makes it for the brilliant simplicity of its concept: Brooke clued a puzzle, then made a version where only 15% of each clue is available (since a six-week abortion ban works out to about 15% of the way through pregnancy); of course, it's completely unsolvable. Then she made a version where 67.5% of each clue is available, corresponding to the start of the third trimester. It's not trivial to solve, but it's doable. A very striking way of making a point!

Monday, February 28, 2022

Puzzle #169: Is the Puzzle Half Empty or Half Full?

In case you missed it, I added a little email signup to the sidebar of the blog. If you drop your address there, you'll get a monthly email linking to all my published puzzles from the last month, with some details and my personal recommendations for my faves.

Anyway, about the puzzle: personally, I think it's half full, but you be the judge (pdf, puz, pdf solution).

Monday, February 21, 2022

Puzzle #168: Forging Links

Sunday-sized joint this week (pdf, puz, pdf solution). Say what you will about Sundays, but they do allow for the only good answer to the clue [Playground retort].


Monday, February 7, 2022

Puzzle #167: Wait for It

If you can't figure out the theme of this week's puzzle (pdf, puz, pdf solution), just wait until you get to the revealer, which will surely explain everything.


Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Indie puzzle highlights: January 2022

January 2: Mini Pangram (Joah, Crosshare)

January 11: a wee little puzzle (Kate Chin Park and Brian Thomas, crosswords schmosswords)

January 16: my breakfast (Zaneb, zinna mon)

January 16: A Well Built Crossword (Katherine Baicker and Ross Trudeau, Rossword Puzzles)

January 17: Chasm No 8 (Themeless) (Ryan McCarty, McGrids)

January 19: Free Association 56 (Trent Evans, Grid Therapy)

January 20: (Sweet Goodbyes): Exit West (Parker Higgins, QVXwordz)

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Mini Pangram (Joah)

A 5x5 pangram? It's impossible to do without including two letters in one square, which would seem to be a fatally inelegant flaw - but here, the rebus square is elegantly motivated conceptually, not just there out of necessity. In the upper left, we have ABC, with a corresponding XYZ in the lower right. And in the middle, we have the rebus TO in the middle of FUTONS, so that the circled squares along the main diagonal spell out A TO Z. An exceptionally clever execution.

a wee little puzzle (Kate Chin Park and Brian Thomas)

The title refers not to the puzzle's size, which is the standard 15x15, but to the paired entries of PISS CHRIST (clued as [#1 museum piece?]) and POTTY TRAIN (clued as [Get going?]). Kate and Brian are both excellent cluers, so of course the highlights don't stop there. My favorite is the absolutely genius [See one's way out?] for POPEMOBILE, but other great ones include [Fight of fancy?] for LOVE TRIANGLE, [Stand-up guy?] for PENIS, [Breaking point?] for CUE, [Portland-to-Portland direction] for EAST, [By each other's side til the end] for PARALLEL, [Minnie skirt pattern] for POLKA DOTS, and [Tearing sound] for SNIFFLE.

my breakfast (Zaneb)

Does what it says on the tin - the theme entries are everything the constructor had for breakfast that morning (MOCHA, SHAKSHOUKA, an EGG TART, and some BABKA). Zaneb's site is one of several relatively new crossword sites that expertly foreground fun, typically with all-lowercase clues written in a conversational style (crosstina aquafina also does this extremely well). I frankly love the idea of turning your breakfast into a crossword, and the cluing is delightful: [cutesy shortening of "babies"] for BBS, [psychologist whose last name contains his first name so i'm not gonna give it to you] for ERIK, and a clue for IPA that's actually written in IPA are highlights. It's also great to see ISA [___ ibn maryam (aka jesus)] in the grid.

A Well Built Puzzle (Katherine Baicker and Ross Trudeau)

Puzzles on Rossword Puzzles typically have uncannily tight themes, and this is a perfect example: the revealer is MUSCLE-BOUND, indicating that the theme entries both start and end with names/nicknames of muscles: (LAT)INA AR(ABS), (BI)CYCLE S(QUAD), and (TRIP)LE W(HAMMY). I'd never have imagined that such a theme set was possible, but Katherine and Ross managed to make it work. The cluing is also fun and creative - I'm especially fond of [It'll run you out of Beantown on a rail] for the old staple ACELA.

Chasm No 8 (Themeless) (Ryan McCarty)

Nobody does a wide-open center like Ryan. Very often, his chasms feature intersecting stacks of five 9s in the center, and there's nary a stretch in the bunch. In this one, we've got TELESCOPE/BRIDE-TO-BE/BEAT 'EM UPS/DUNCE CAPS/FIRE EMOJI intersecting NOT A TRACE/LINE ITEMS/CALDECOTT/LEE MAJORS/STUPIDITY. Most impressively, everything flows smoothly into the corners of the grid too; there are only four black squares aside from the ones that are necessary to act as scaffolding for the center - and Ryan still managed to fit good stuff like FLEXJOBS, ANTIFA, and BURKINIS into those corners.

Free Association 56 (Trent Evans)

If I don't highlight Trent's work as much as I should, it's because his puzzles aren't flashy or hyper-difficult, but they are reliably smooth and bouncy. This one is a great example of what he excels at: Weintraubian grids filled with conversational phrases. Impressively, there are three such 15-letter across entries (DON'T GET ANY IDEAS, I MUST BE DREAMING, and YOU HAD TO BE THERE), and two conversational long downs that intersect with all three of them (GLAD TO HEAR IT, SPOILER ALERT). Throw in some more fun stuff like BUNNY EARS and MAN OH MAN, with no sacrifices in the short fill, and you've got yourself an excellent puzzle.

(Sweet Goodbyes): Exit West (Parker Higgins)

I love an architecturally complex theme, and this one definitely qualifies. It's inspired by the Steely Dan lyric CALIFORNIA/TUMBLES/INTO THE SEA, which is stacked in the center of the grid. The theme entries all have the letters CA on their left side (i.e. their west coast), but those letters have been "swallowed up" by the intersecting down entry, which is the name of a sea. For example, [Chemically corrosive] is a clue for CAUSTIC, but you have to enter it into the grid as RUSTIC, since the CA has been swallowed up by the R of NORTH. There are four such theme answers, and fitting them all plus a triple-stacked revealer in the center is no mean feat.

Monday, January 31, 2022

Puzzle #166: Well Kept Secrets (by Rose Sloan and Norah Sharpe)

This week's puzzle (pdf, puz) is a guest joint by Rose Sloan and Norah Sharpe. Rose and Norah say: "We're so happy that Will agreed to host our third collaboration. The theme for this one was birthed in a Twitch stream - thanks to momes for the inspiration! ;)" More spoiler-y thoughts from Rose below the puz.


 

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Rose says: "It was delightful to get to work with a grid and a theme that are more technically complicated. The first thing I did when making this grid was write simple Python scripts to create two word lists: one consisting only of long entries that had no vowels other than E, the other consisting of all entries not containing E. I played around with the theme set and grid until I was able to get a grid that had all the Es in the theme entries crossed and that was otherwise fillable using the "no Es" list, and we went from there. It definitely took a few tries to come to a filled grid that we really liked, but we're super happy with the end result, and hope you are too!"

Monday, January 24, 2022

Puzzle #165: Duet Freestyle (with Brooke Husic)

This week's puzzle is a duet with the one and only Brooke Husic (pdf, puz, pdf solution). It's a challenging one - a good warmup for the very challenging experimental puzzle that Brooke will drop in a few days.