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Showing posts from October, 2019

Puzzle 6 - Themeless #4

My son Austin turns one today! He's a rockstar :)


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52-Down is a cover. Had no idea til now.

  • Another pretty grid today. I don't really aim for an aesthetically pleasing block layout, but it's nice when it happens naturally.
  • ABBY Caddabby of Sesame Street deserves a clue somewhere - almost every ABBY clue is some form of [Dear ___].
  • Couple of songs I remember from growing up get clues today. I've grown out of most of the angsty nu-metal stuff I was into around 14, but will always love Hybrid Theory and Meteora.
  • Come back next time - the next two lined up are also themeless!

Puzzle 5 - High Pitched

You probably already have, but if not, go get Queer Qrosswords 2! Haven't done them all yet, so far they're fantastic, money goes to a good cause, just go do them.

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10/20/19 - updated clue for 51-Across to make it not theme-related.

This puzzle is, say, 3/5 difficulty-wise. I made it a year ago, dropped it off in the mail, and the next Thursday, the NYT ran a puzzle with the same revealer. Then, a couple weeks later, so did the WSJ. Wasn't too surprised a few months later when I got the rejection email, even though it is a different take on the general idea.


  • Still can't quite believe how nicely the last themer & revealer fit together. Extremely serendipitous & it allowed me to space things out and let the middle of the grid breathe a bit.
  • Make sure you vote in your local elections! Local elections matter & your voice goes a lot further on a local level!
  • In purply-indigo-ish Spokane, our mayoral race is between a 2 term city councilman, who used to direct a nonprofit helping low income folks in schools, pushes alternative modes of transportation, and prioritizes dense, infill, urban development. His opponent has zero political experience, was a local TV personality, denies climate change, and is running a campaign solely around adding suburban sprawl and criminalizing poverty. Fun stuff. I'd love to be more optimistic but am very nervous for Election Night.
  • In happier events, I'm DMing a D&D game tonight! This is my...3rd session running things so far - it's wonderfully exhausting & we haven't screwed things up too badly. The party's taking their level 3 characters into the Underdark, so...uh...we'll see how they do.
  • Come back on the 28th for another themeless!

Puzzle 4 - Themeless #3

Another themeless on the menu this week. I need to find a way to mess with the website theme so that it doesn't mess up the link formatting unless I type here.

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  • I think this one will be...3.5/5 for difficulty? Tough to say.
  • 33-Across, the seed entry, is ludicrously catchy. It came on one day while painting and has been stuck in my head for the past month.
  • I learned a lot of science & biology writing clues. 40-Across and 13-Down were fun to research, and I got sucked into Wikipedia for a good hour reading about wolves for 33-Down.
  • This Saturday's Universal puzzle is mine, it's good, go check it out in a few days!
  • I leave you with a gorgeous picture of Spokane. I quite like it here :)