PUZZLE 12 - HEWWO! (themeless)

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Solving Music: Bridal Party - Fruitless

Putting a title on this one was considerably difficult since for once in my life I decided to not do a themeless with any big entries in the center. I ended up referencing one of my favorite entries in this puzzle, even if it is a short one. I really wish that entry was viable in mainstream crosswords, but editors would never allow it. Cowards.

The seeds for this one were 44 and 47-Across; 44 in particular was one I really wanted to include. I will always associate it with this bit from Snapcube's Real-Time Fandub of the PS4 Spider-Man game (spoilers for PS4 Spider-Man and obviously this puzzle at that link). All of the Real-Time Fandubs are fantastic, and I highly recommend them.

Enjoy the puzzle!

SOLUTION:

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VARIETY PUZZLE 2 - SNAKE PIT #1

[PDF]

Solving Music: Professor Kliq - Mouth Money

Apologies for the lack of puzzles lately; I've been jumping around making a few puzzles for submitting, and a large chunk of my time recently went toward preparing a group cosplay to wear to the Sonic movie (movie was pretty dang good, btw). I've been kinda burned out on crosswords the past week or so, but I wanted to make sure this hiatus didn't last forever, so I worked up a new style of variety puzzle.

I hope the rules aren't too confusing on this one; the concept is pretty simple, but very hard to put into words. While the solve is probably a pretty fast one, this is definitely a format I want to explore more; lots of fun phrases can be used as snakes, and the missing-letters phrase ties things together pretty well. Hope you enjoy it!

SOLUTION:

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PUZZLE 11 - WHAT'S THE POINT

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Solving Music: Quok - Atariwave

Not a long break between puzzles this time; I had the idea for this one this morning and pretty much spent my day constructing. This was a relatively simple construction, though the theme created really interesting challenges that introduced some rare letter combos.

The theme itself may be a bit weird (at least, half of it might), but hopefully writing it as it appears in the answer will be satisfying enough. Enjoy it (or don't, I guess; it's a free country I think).

SOLUTION:

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PUZZLE 10 - OOOOOOOOOOH! (themeless)

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Solving Music: Amherst - Pop Rocks

If this puzzle looks like it was made the same way the last themeless was, it's because this puzzle was made the same way the last themeless was. This time, all three entries in the stair-stack were pulled from my personal list of themeless seeds, so I'm pretty happy with that stack as a whole. This format seems to be working fairly decently while still allowing for colorful answers elsewhere in the puzzle.

I'm looking to maybe get this blog on a consistent upload schedule (once a week, probably) sometime soon, but I'll need to figure out the best time to post. I'll probably do something like get everything written up and scheduled the night before, and then manually do all my social media sharing when I wake up (I get up extremely late :P). We'll see. Enjoy the puzzle!
(also let's forget about the four-letter word crossing itself in two entries I'd like to forget I did that thank you)

SOLUTION:

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VARIETY PUZZLE 1 [NOW YOU SEE IT] - GO FOR IT!

[PDF]

Solving Music: WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA - Shakushain

VARIETY PUZZLE! I'm not sure how often these will be coming around, but I hope you guys enjoy them as a departure from the usual.

This puzzle is called Now You See It, named after the bygone game show of the same name (I recommend it; it's pretty entertaining. I think they had a reboot of it recently? Not sure how well that one did; hopefully well). It's all explained in the puzzle page, but the rules are simple; find the answer words (all reading left-to-right) in the grid. I added the leftover letters element to give it the depth it didn't need as a game show, but needs as a puzzle.

The fun of this format construction-wise is in finding words with unique overlaps (BACARDI/CARDINAL, e.g.), and words containing other words (the Norse god in Grid 2 being where it is, e.g.). It's already giving me some ideas for crossword themes.

As always, let me know what you think in the comments. Also, come join the crossword Discord server for solvers and constructors! (Probably gonna start plugging this in each post now, in lieu of a YouTube channel to ask you to like, comment, and subscribe to :/ )

SOLUTION:

PUZZLE 9 - SITTING AROUND

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SOLVING MUSIC: Savant - Starfish

This puzzle was in the works for a while; I stopped working on it after I ran into a roadblock with the fill, and I got back to it a few days ago looking through my unfinished puzzle files. I had started making it with the intention of submitting it to the NYT, but I figured 55-Across was probably too niche, so I decided to just make it for the blog. I also went easier than usual on the cluing, since this is pretty much an NYT Tuesday theme, and also because I'd like to even out the hard-to-easy ratio on the blog a little. Hope y'all enjoy.

SOLUTION:

PUZZLE 8 - I'M JUST PLAYING GAMES (themeless)

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SOLVING MUSIC: Tobacco - Father Sister Berzerker

We're back to themelesses; this one was seeded with a couple of 11-letter words from my personal wordlist (30- and 32-Across). There was a good amount of time where I thought this grid was going nowhere, but with the help of a really kickass SW corner that worked itself out and some admittedly bleh words in the north, I pulled this together in a couple nights. I think it's my favorite of the themelesses I've done to this point.

This is another one where I really got to indulge myself in lots of gaming references, and I took a few opportunities to get silly with my cluing. I think "silly" is probably the direction I'm going with my cluing voice; I'm also finding more and more with themelesses that my favorite entries and seeds are childish, and I'm definitely gonna keep running with it.

Enjoy the puzzle, y'all.

SOLUTION: