Sunday, October 21, 2018

puzzle 77: "bare necessities (freestyle 80)"

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first things first, an announcement from laura braunstein + tracy bennett. they're launching the inkubator: crossword puzzles by women. among many other things, the goal is to publish more women, and they plan on being an ongoing twice-monthly subscription service. the kickstarter just went live today, and you should back it as soon as you can.

in other news, erik agard was on jeopardy! friday; if you missed his show (or want to watch it again), here's a link.

also, the tip jar is still open; as always, thanks to those who've donated so far (and received two bonus puzzles).

as for this puzzle: the two seed entries (both ten letters) have been on my list for awhile; the grid itself was built both for aesthetics but also for flexibility, giving multiple spots to put the seeds. it turns out putting them vertically in the middle worked best; my hunch is that the middle would have been hard to fill in anyway, given the number of long entries going into it. soseeding on the top and bottom, or down the sides, meant that i would have had to build around two seeds *and* get those to work, while seeding down the middle allowed me to fill around that and spill into the corners without as much difficulty.

anyways, i think it came out pretty well; here's hoping you enjoy it too.