puzzle 74: "statesmen"

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pretty straightforward theme today. it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what the seed entry for this theme was, but it's kinda fortuitous that the lengths and letters worked out enough for the intersections here. otherwise, had some fun making this, especially with some of the clues. as always, hope you enjoy!

  

puzzle 73: "remember (freestyle 36)"

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thank you to everybody who solved last week's meta puzzle! thirty-three people emailed me with the correct answer, which will be spoiled at the end of this post. of those, jesse lansner, who you may remember from this collaboration, was the lucky recipient of will nediger's suite sixteen, which you can (and should) get if you haven't already.

anyway, this was fun, and i'm looking forward to doing it again. fingers crossed that i can finish off a suite of my own in the near future so i can make that the prize. in the meantime, though, freestyle this week, and i've nothing to say except that the below image is lovingly stolen from andy kravis.

<spoilers> there were five long across entries in last week's puzzle, all of which were two words where one word contained -ei- and the other contained -cie-. which is to say that all five of these answers broke the rule "i before e, except after c" in both possible ways, and which means that weird science is your meta answer. </end spoilers>

puzzle 72: "repeat offenders (meta)"

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meta puzzle this week! the meta answer is a movie from the 1980s that would have made a good theme answer for this puzzle. submit your answers to me via email by next wednesday at noon central time (five pm utc) for a chance to win will nediger's wonderful suite sixteen collection. and if you've already bought that, no worries--you can still enter, and we'll work something out if you're the one lucky solver.

also, very exciting news on a personal front: i have begun working as a crossword editor for spyscape, an interactive museum headquartered in nyc. if you're at all interested in contributing, email me at this address for a full spec sheet, etc. i especially encourage you to do so if you are a newer and/or traditionally underrepresented constructor.

puzzle 71: "america (freestyle 70)"

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freestyle this week, followed by a contest meta next week, then some more puzzles, and stuff like that. surprised how nice, generally speaking, this one turned out, given the five (!) seed entries, all interlocking, and four of them grid-spanning. stretches a bit in places, but overall, it still works.