Crosswords! Mostly themeless, no set schedule
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Huh, that's strange. I had a puzzle all lined up and ready to go today, but it looks like it's been replaced with a Steve Mossberg one. Not quite sure how that happened. Oddly enough, we also happen to play each other in LearnedLeague today. His puzzle is quite delightful (unsurprisingly) so I'm more than happy to host it here. Happy solving, and I'd be sure to check out Square Pursuit when you're done!
For the past month, both our munchkins (4 & 2) have called each other, us, the dog, or the tiniest inconvenience 37-Across approximately 28 times per day. It's honestly pretty adorable...most of the time.
Before I get to the next part - big thanks to Brooke Husic for test-solving & cleaning up a few things!
I would really appreciate it, if once you're done with the puzzle, you'd scroll down and read my thoughts (unrelated to this puzzle).
Content warning for everything below: child sexual assault
One thing I've been meaning to write about for a while and haven't really got around to - constructors and editors should stop referencing Michael Jackson in crossword puzzles. Entries, clues, themes, anything.
There is a lot of room between "acceptable in a crossword puzzle" and "convicted of a crime". I do not want to start a debate about whether Michael Jackson was a child molester or not. I don't definitively know, and neither do you.
I went to a small Catholic K-8 school. I was an altar boy for much of that time. I want to be very clear - I, or anyone that I knew, was never abused, touched inappropriately, or anything of that sort. Our priest & deacon at the time are wonderful, kind people that I still keep in touch with. However, in about 7th grade, stories came out about priests sexually abusing children from a generation ago. At my school. In rooms that I had spent a lot of time in. Many of the victims' last names were familiar. Grown adults committed suicide, decades after they were abused. The rampant sexual abuse (and it wasn't just at my childhood church) was denied & covered up until the early 2000s when I was in middle school.
To this day, the Catholic Church has painted themselves as the victim.
It was really easy for me to identify with the abused children. "That could have been me" ran through my head quite a bit. There are a couple of incredible articles really detailing the heinous crimes that I go back and reread every couple of years. The disclosure of these abuses is very much a traumatic, formative memory of mine - and again, neither I nor anyone that I knew was abused or involved in any sort of capacity.
Whenever I see a Michael Jackson clue, a little part of my heart sinks. I cannot begin to imagine what that would feel like for someone who was sexually abused as a child (or a parent) - to be blindsided with trauma while doing what should be a fun, entertaining diversion.
One in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault at the hands of an adult (source: RAINN). That's a lot of solvers. I'd really like constructors and editors to think of them when they're working on a puzzle.Finally got around to setting things up with Amuse Labs & PuzzleMe! Woohoo! Don't worry, links below for those that prefer PDF/PUZ files.
This puzzle was seeded from a Twitch chat with Chris Piuma - he streams crosswords/spelling bee/other word games every day at 8 AM Pacific time - come hang out! Chris also has his own site with plenty of fun puzzles!
GUEST PUZ GUEST PUZ GUEST PUZ GUEST PUZ GUEST PUZ GUEST PUZ
Notes from Matthew & Brooke:
We're really proud of this puzzle! When discussing it this past week,
we both thought about how we appreciate each other for challenging
crossword conventions. We're both super grateful to Brian for the guest
spot. His puzzles are consistently spectacular!
Look for more from our byline in some familiar places soon!
*blushes*
As y'all probably know, I adore both Matthew and Brooke and think pretty much everything they do is brilliant. Absolutely honored to be hosting this puzzle - just look at those gorgeous interlocking stack corners! Going to brag (sorta, I'm not a speed solver by any stretch of the imagination) here and say I was able to finish it just under 15 minutes.
If you liked this, go check out their own blogs - Brooke, Matthew
If you didn't like this, what's wrong with you?
This puzzle is special to me - once you're done with it come back here, scroll down, and read about why!
25 years ago today, I was a baseball-obsessed four year old down in Boise, Idaho. I had no idea that the Mariners had sucked for almost two decades straight, no context for just how miraculous their regular season comeback was, and no idea that there was a decent chance they'd leave Seattle. All I knew was that they were the baseball team on TV every night, therefore, I adored the Mariners. I don't know how often I got to stay up late and watch the first few innings, but it was often enough to vaguely stick in my mind. I loved baseball and I loved the Mariners.
In my opinion. the 1995 ALDS is one of the most bonkers postseason series baseball has seen. I believe it still holds the record today for most home runs in a series, and it was only a 5-game set. The M's dropped the first two games to the Yankees, but bounced back in games 3 and 4 to set up a winner-take-all Game 5 at the Kingdome. I was lucky enough to experience it with the wide-eyed wonder that only an innocent child can have.
I honestly couldn't tell you if four-year-old-me stayed up late enough to watch Edgar's iconic double. I do know that over the course of the next few years, I relived that moment over and over and over again, whether watching the 1995 season highlight video I got for Christmas, or replaying if over endless games of backyard wiffleball. "The Double" will always remain my favorite sports moment, and I only hope that after another 20 years of futility, the Mariners can recapture some of that 1995 magic.
So, tonight at 4:09, I am going to sit down with my own four year old, pull open YouTube, and watch Game 5 for the umpteenth time. There's a good chance that a few hours later (okay lets be real I have two young kids, some skipping ahead will probably be in store) I'll get to watch him jump and shout for joy and odds are good that a tear or two will trickle down my own cheek. Very excited for it.
If you'd like to watch the entire game, you can do so here. When the game gets into the bottom of the 11th, I highly recommend switching to Dave Niehaus's call. "My Oh My", the 1995 highlight video, can be seen here.
Today marks one year since I started Puzzles That Need A Home. When I started, I didn't really know how it would turn out. I had 3 or 4 puzzles that I wanted to share somewhere, and hoped to make it a year. I absolutely love having my own tiny little corner of crosswordland. Let's go for another year and see where things are then!
This is a free site, and will almost certainly always be free. The handful of puzzles I sell each year are more than enough for me - to have a hobby that makes money instead of the other way around. That said, I don't feel bad occasionally asking for charitable donations. I love my hometown of Spokane, but it's not without its problems. My ZIP code is the poorest in the entire state of Washington, and we have more than a few white supremacist groups in the area. If you've enjoyed PTNAH throughout the past year, and are able & willing to donate to one of the following organizations, I'd appreciate it. No pressure, no screenshots/receipts necessary.
Our Place Spokane - food, clothing, laundry services for the poor in my neighborhood
Spokane Community Against Racism - advocates to city leaders, organizes protests & activities w/ other groups in the area
Spokane Bail Project - pays bail funds (I think you have to put "Spokane" in the comments of the donation)
On to today's puzzle!
We've made it through a year! I can't really believe it - really wasn't sure if I would make it this long, but I'm really enjoying having my own little corner of crosswordland. Thanks to everyone who has been swinging by and here's to another year (we'll at least make it through the end of 2020, since I've got enough grids in the hopper to go that long)!
PS - keep an eye out in the NYT next week - I get to follow one of my very favorite constructors :)
PSS - I think this one will play pretty hard - should be worth it though!
Guest puzzle coming your way today by the wonderfully talented duo of Brooke & Sid! They are two of my absolute favorite constructors out there and I'm honored to get to host a collab between the two of them! Go check out sidsgrids.com for more spiffy puzzles! (there just might be a new puzzle there right now too!)
Sid: I was trying to find interesting grid patterns with 90°-rotational symmetry, and this one stood out as visually striking while offering a lot of long bonus slots (20 in this grid!) at 66 words. Brooke elevated this grid with her masterful clue-writing -- I love the angles for 18A, 7D, and 10D, and her commitment to representation is inspiring. Cheers!
Brooke: When Sid asks me to clue one of his grids it feels like my birthday. He filled this one in a matter of hours, which no one should be surprised about at this point. I love how even the short stuff is really fun - both for me as the clue writer and for solvers. Excited to see what he's got in store for us at Boswords this weekend.
July 18th's puzzle will be released on Monday, July 20th. Apologies for the delay, but hopefully a bonus guest puzzle later in the week makes up for it!
- The seed for this puzzle (14-Down) is a fantastic kid's book with a nice message about the power of labor taking collective action. Highly recommend for parents of littles.
- One pass at the southwest corner had better long fill, but also AMIN and TASE. A year or two ago, I wouldn't have blinked twice about this - and ["I ___!" (you can count on me)] is a decent enough workaround for AMIN. Thanks to those numerous voices speaking out regarding commonly accepted fill that really shouldn't be.
Black Lives Matter. It's a big fucking deal, and it's the responsibility of everyone to work toward a more just world. Pretty simple. Don't have much more to add that hasn't already been written already. Here's a good list of what you can do if you're white - many of them require nothing more than an open mind and setting aside some time for self-reflection.
If you are able to set aside the time and/or money, please back up your convictions with tangible action.
Crossword-wise, really haven't been up for crosswording the past couple of weeks :/ - I do like this puz though :)
Howdy! There's a lot of nifty stuff after the puzzle so be sure to scroll down! If this is your first time here, I post puzzles 3 times a month - on the 8th, 18th, and 28th. Mostly themelesses, and you can click the Past Puzzles link to get to all of them. Feel free to say hi below, and I hope you stick around! For the regulars, I have the Saturday NYT (you should do it, it's pretty good imo) and threw a link to here up in the constructor notes. Anyways...
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- You can watch the entire grid-building process for this puzzle on Twitch! I live-streamed making it (and got a bit of help a few times) - go check it out here. Takes about 15 minutes before we actually get into constructing, so you might want to skip ahead. No idea how entertaining it actually is, because I'm too self-conscious to go back and watch myself blabber on for a couple hours.
- Sometime in the next few weeks, I'm going to do that again - when it does, swing by!
- Speaking of Twitch, I have really enjoyed watching folks streaming their crossword solving. Aaron Paulsen streams most weekday afternoons, and Chris Adams does a bunch of indies Saturday nights. Great entertainment always, but especially when we're all quarantined.
- If you want to play a nifty game of hexagonal battle Boggle, check out Hexicon! Feel free to add & challenge me in game (briant).
- Have a great week! See y'all in June!
I can't quite believe how quickly the grid came together for this. Had the seed Friday, spent Friday trying to come up with a theme around it, but couldn't. So, Saturday while we were watching Sleeping Beauty, I knocked out the grid. Real happy with how it turned out - hope y'all are too!
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- If you read one article today, make it this NYT article about lessons from 15-Down and today.
- Speaking of Sleeping Beauty, the three Good Fairies are named Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather - def will be using that as a cluing angle sometime.
- I love Sleeping Beauty. It has this weird unpolished (in a good way) feeling that just hits me right. The humor still holds up too - would absolutely watch a spinoff of the Fairies just existing.
- Also Maleficent is awesome. No messing around. "Oh, you didn't invite me to the party? Your daughter will die when she turns 16." Prisoner escapes? Immediately surround the castle with giant thorns and turn into a dragon to defend it.
- The final fight scene takes 3 minutes instead of 30, which is absolutely a win in my book.
- Anyways, you should look up footage of the seed entry sometime. Absolutely awe-inspiring. And if you're ever in the area, it's well worth a trip.
- This NYT from 2014 is a nifty take on this idea, and is way cooler than any theme I dreamt up.
- This puzzle's coming out 32 minutes late, because the 40th anniversary is precisely at 8:32 AM PDT.
One of the nice things about an indie site is not having to worry about the awkwardness of 14 letter seeds - I can just make the grid 14x16, like today!
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- I made a silly midi called "Cheeky lil puz" - you can find it here.
- Running late cause I stayed up last night playing poker online w/ my coworkers instead of finishing cluing. Oh well! Have a good weekend!
Been under the weather the past couple days (just headachey prob not Covid) so not really up for blabbering away. I did move all published puzzles to one Google Drive folder, you can get to it from the Past Puzzles link (current one won't always be moved right away).
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