Howdy (and welcome if you're here after our NYT) - delighted to bring you a collab with the inimitable Brooke Husic (aka A. Ladee on twitter), who also has her own blog and today's 7xw. You will have fun getting your butt kicked by her blog puzzles - make sure to check them out!
Brian: Brooke is one of my absolute favorite people to build a puzzle with. She is incredibly creative and makes sure that every single entry and every single clue sparkles. It is a joy to work with her. What I remember most about this construction was struggling to connect through the middle & left side of the grid. Brooke found 25A and the whole corner just fell open after that. She also wrote the 29A, 56A, and 26D clues (and plenty of others but those are my favorites). This definitely will not be the last time you see a collab from us!
Brooke: Without exception, it is a blast to make a crossword puzzle with Brian. I’m totally in awe of his gridwork in the themelesses he posts on his site and elsewhere (I looooved his 5/18 puzzle). For this collab, I super love how interconnected the grid is with its eight 9’s and eight 10’s! My favorite answer is at 14A, and my favorite clues are 35A, 56A*, 10D, and 11D, which I feel like were all Brian’s but probably involved a bunch of us riffing off each other!
*Editor's note: 56A was all Brooke
Crosswords! Mostly themeless, no set schedule
Fun puzzle! And very cool how there are three Down entries connecting each of the NW/SE triple stacks to a pair of staggered 9s in the middle—how did you do it?
ReplyDeleteThanks, glad you liked it! We did it with...a lot of trial and error :)
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