PUZZLE 56 (feat. Brooke Husic): FOR STARTERS... (themeless)

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Solving Music: Frankie Cosmos - Sappho

Another collab today! Brooke Husic reached out to me after the reveal trailer for the new Pokémon games dropped recently, asking if I wanted to collab on a demi seeded with 17-Across; she sent me a half-filled grid and I obviously had to help out with the rest. Brooke's ability to write ridiculously good tough clues is always amazing to me, and I think some of that energy spread into my own clues for this grid; this was a hella fun collab, and hopefully we can make some more puzzles for y'all in the future. Hope you guys enjoy!

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PUZZLE 49 (w/ Ricky Billingsgate): YOU WOULDN'T GET THIS FROM ANY OTHER GUYS (+ Meta Contest Results!)

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Solving Music: Masta Ace - Born To Roll

Hey guys; today's a collab with Ricky Billingsgate, because this was kind of an inevitable co-construction if we're being honest. This one's been in the works for a while, so it's really nice to finally have it out there. Hopefully the title doesn't give too much away :)

Go check out Ricky's puzzle blog, and follow him over on Twitter!

And of course, it's time to share the results of the "X Games" meta contest! Results and solution are below the break.

PUZZLE 30 (w/ Christopher Adams): PIZZA TIME (themeless)

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Solving Music: LoveLeo - HEAD OVER HEELS

(video's weird but the song is a bop just trust me)

Collab! Most of this grid is actually Chris's fill; I did the 9-stacks in the corners, and when I told Chris I was using 1-Across in the puzzle (since he had told me about his personal take on it recently), he was eager to help with it and got me out of trying to fit long entries in the center that were never gonna work. Big kudos to him for getting some nice fill in the NE/SW, as well as for his really great clues (8, 32, and 51-Down are all him).

If you haven't already seen it, Amanda Rafkin hosted a guest puzzle from yours truly over on Brain Candy last week; go give it a try (and definitely check out Amanda's puzzles too, she posts pretty often)! Also, I just got word today that I have an upcoming New York Times puzzle two weeks from now (Tuesday the 29th), so be on the lookout for that. I'll definitely share it when it gets closer to then.

Thanks again to Chris for getting this one to where it is; enjoy the puzzle!

SOLUTION:

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