Puzzle #111 - Get Outta Here (with Norah Sharpe)

Howdy! Back again with another collab with the wonderful Norah! And a big thank you to Will for testing and reminding us to y'know actually finish our clues :P

Norah says: "Brian dropped this excellent themeset on me fully formed; how can I say no to that?? I had such a good time with the gridwork and cluing on this one and I think it's super fun! My favorite clues of his are 5D and 23D, and I'm so glad I finally found a home for the entry at 26A. 😘"

Brian says: "I needed some help making sure this themeset worked, and then at that point you might as well go all-in with the collab :). Love Norah's clues all over the place, but especially at 13A, 61A, and 40D."

I had my first published Sunday puzzle last weekend - a collab with Brooke for the LA Times titled "Opposite Day" - don't miss it! (or do, if you're following the title)

Both Norah and I also contributed to Grids for Kids - a charity puzzle pack stuffed to the brim with wonderfulness - don't miss it!

PUZ - PDF - Solution

Puzzle #110 (secret snowflake)

Howdy there! Last month, a bunch of folks participated in a "Secret Snowflake" crossword exchange, organized on the Crosscord Discord channel. It was a blast, and I'm (a little belatedly) throwing up the puzzle I made for Lyle Broughton of Jack of all Squares. The goal was to create a little more personalized crossword for your recipient - it took a little bit, but I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. Lyle is pretty well-known for some other things, and I knew I wanted to lean into that area ... anyways that's enough vaguely spoilerish yapping, go solve the puz :)

Holiday season + work has been pretty busy (but in a good satisfying way) means this blog has been a little quieter lately. I do have another halfway clued themed puzzle, you should see that in the next week or so. And I also will be making my published Sunday debut in a couple weeks, a collab on January 29th which I am extraordinarily excited for - don't miss it!

Cheers!

PUZ - PDF - Solution

Puzzle 109 - Themeless #80 (can't touch this)

Have a jumbo 21x themeless for you to close out the year! I'd love to say there was a 21 letter long seed or something like that, but the truth is I just couldn't make the seed stack work in a normal sized grid (really, this is like version 15 of the grid). So you get more puzzly goodness! Big thanks to Kelsey for testing, and to you for coming here all year!

PUZ - PDF - Solution

Puzzle 108 - Themeless #79 (chicken tender)

Got a very kind "no thanks" on this puzzle...and I've been debating between sending it elsewhere or blogging it. Blogging won. All about that sweet sweet dopamine hit of watching the page views trickle upward.

PUZ - PDF - Solution